July and August are summer camp time for many of our priests and religious. I would like to thank them as well as all the volunteers for the generosity they showed organizing these camps for children. They make it all possible.
Dear Faithful,
July and August are summer camp time for many of our priests and religious. I would like to thank them as well as all the volunteers for the generosity they showed organizing these camps for children. They make it all possible.
A camp is a great activity for children. It is an occasion to socialize outside the family and learn responsibility and fortitude through healthy entertainment. It is also for all of them a wonderful experience to live closer to the priests, brothers or sisters and to be encouraged by them in daily acts of virtue. And of course they have daily Mass during the camps! Let us pray Our Lady nurture the vocations that may have been made known to our children during these camps.
For the many counselors, a camp is an initiation to fatherhood or motherhood as they learn by practicing it in the daily care of children, guided by the light of the Catholic principles of education.
I would like also to thank here the parents for their trust. Year after year we are able to offer more and more camps for more and more campers. We had almost 20 camps this year and nearly 1000 campers. For most of you, dear parents, this trust is the natural continuation of the good work done in our schools. For those who do not have access to our schools, our camps offer the opportunity to take advantage of the benefits of Catholic education, recognizing that we follow the Church’s experience in this matter.
Finally, I want to thank all the benefactors of the camps and of the educational program we run in the district. Your tireless efforts, dear benefactors, allow us to maintain and increase the number of events, and hopefully also to improve them, by the grace of God. You rightly understand that the future of the youth is a preoccupation for all. How many of you will be surprised at the final judgment in realizing how much your material help contributed to produce so many fruits of holiness!
And as the schools have reopened their doors for a new school year, I take this opportunity also to thank all of their benefactors. Our schools cannot survive without your support. Parents too are making tremendous efforts and sacrifices, financially and in many other ways, for the good of the souls of the little ones. Nevertheless, it must be an effort of all of Christendom! May unceasing generous benefactors help the schools to pursue this blessed work of education.
I recommend to the Immaculate Heart of Mary the academic year of all these children, with the hope that all you parents remain faithful to your so-noble vocation, which requires knowledge, art, and grace to raise children according to the wishes of the Church in order to people Heaven with saints.
With my blessing,
Fr. Arnaud Rostand