Kobza's Komments

May is the month of Mary, a woman of not only grace and love, but also of patience and charity. Throughout the year, the staff has been working on changing our code of conduct to use Mary as our model.  Our goal is to have our community aim to live like Mary who followed Jesus’ teachings. First, we looked at Mary’s life and her qualities that would set a good example for our students.

Mary’s life was full of difficulties and uncertainty, but she bore them with patience and faith in God’s will.  Mary did not know what being the mother of Jesus would mean. She had to face her betrothed when she was found to be pregnant then, after Jesus was born, she fled to Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod. The fear of every mother is losing a child and Mary must have been anxious when Jesus went missing for three days and was then found in the Temple.  What must she have had to endure as she stood by the cross while Jesus was crucified?  Despite all these hardships, Mary trusted in God even when she did not understand or when things looked impossible.

Mary also listened to God, was open to His will and obeyed Him.  Even though she was unmarried and pregnant and could be stoned, she said yes to being the Mother of Jesus.  She presented Jesus in the Temple to the religious authorities. She obeyed the government and went to Bethlehem for the census even though she was heavily pregnant.  Mary was also a disciple of Jesus and told the servants at Cana to do as Jesus tells them. Mary was the first to hear that Jesus was the Savior and she lived with Him for many years and follows his example.

Mary also loved God and other people.  When Mary learned that Elizabeth was pregnant and needed help, Mary went to help her even though she was pregnant herself.  It was not an easy journey as she travelled about ninety miles on a rocky, hilly road. At the wedding feast of Cana, she saw that the family was running out of wine and went to Jesus for help and he performed his first public miracle.  Mary was an active problem solver and is someone who will intercede to Jesus on our behalf.

Second, we decided that we were going to use the OLA as a guide for Mary’s qualities. From the stories we looked at we came up with the following ideas:

O Ownership – your attitude.  Obey God.  Openness to God’s word.

L Loving.  Love like Mary.  Loves God and others.  Listen to God.  Leadership – lead with a humble heart. Lives as Jesus teaches.

A Accepting and caring for others differences.  Attitude is everything.  Assists others – selfless love to help others.  Acts on God’s word. Aware of a problem and Acts to solve it. 

Thirdly, staff worked together to look at the words and to pick words that encompass the faith, behavioural, social and academic areas of the school.  For each word, they listed gave a description of what that word meant to their group.  The chart below is a summary of the group notes:

Thirdly, staff worked together to look at the words and to pick words that encompass the faith, behavioural, social and academic areas of the school.  For each word, they listed gave a description of what that word meant to their group.  The chart below is a summary of the group notes:

Finally, this information will be going out to the school community.  It was presented to school council at the April meeting.  A survey is going to be created and sent out for parents to give their input into the words that will define our code of conduct.  Please look for the survey to come out through email this month. As we progress through May, let us start trying to imitate Mary who endured suffering with patience.  Let us bear our crosses without becoming upset or annoyed, forgive those who wrong us, follow God’s commandments, solve our conflicts peacefully and always be there to assist others.