Dear Christ the King Family,
Happy Ascension Sunday! On this day, we remember that after our Lord’s Resurrection, in the sight of his disciples, he ascended into heaven to take his place at the Father’s right hand. But He did not leave without giving some important parting words to the nascent Church. He left us with a mission—Go …and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. He charged his followers: you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samar′ia and to the end of the earth. And finally, he promised to send the Holy Spirit as an advocate and helper, empowering us to carry out this mission. As a result, we can marvel with St. Paul at the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe!
At the time of writing this, I have been making the final preparations with Christ the King School’s 8th grade class for a 3-day service-immersion trip in Indianapolis. Many of these 8th-graders have only very recently received the gift of the Holy Spirit falling upon them and filling them at the Sacrament of Confirmation this past Fall. This service trip is designed to serve as a kind capstone of their education at Christ the King and a foray into living out Christ’s call to Mission in a concrete way, particularly through the care for the poor and needy. Indeed, one of the ways in which we can all become Jesus’s joyful witnesses ‘to the ends of the earth’ is by works of compassion and love, following His example of proclaiming glad tidings to the poor.
The preparations for this service trip began in the classroom soon after their confirmation in October. In each of their classes—from math to social studies to science to religion— I’ve been inviting the students to reflect on how that subject of study can aid in living out our mission to serve and help those in need, and we’ve been familiarizing ourselves with the broad themes present in the Church’s tradition of social teaching.
What exactly will the 8th-graders be doing on this trip? On Tuesday and Thursday, they will be spread out among several different agencies that work to provide for the basic needs of Indianapolis’s struggling poor, combatting hunger, poverty and houselessness. These include Gleaner’s Food Bank of Indiana, The Hoosier Veterans Assistance Foundation, and Wheeler Mission’s men’s shelter, women & children’s shelter, and thrift store. Students will visit and tour these facilities and volunteer in various ways. On the middle day of the trip—which I think a lot of our students are most excited for—the 8th graders will visit Holy Angels Academy, a smaller Catholic school in Indianapolis that educates up to grade 6. Each of our 8th-graders has been forming a pen pal relationship with one of the younger Holy Angels students over these past few months, and they will get to meet their pen pals in person and join them for a fun field day being organized by our Christ the King parent chaperones!
By the time you read this, the service trip will have already taken place. How did it go for our newly confirmed, Holy-Spirit-filled Christ the King 8th-graders? I don’t know yet, but I may give you a little taste of it in my homily this weekend. But better yet: I invite you to ask any of our 8th-graders about their own experience when you see them at Church or at school in the days to come!
Peace in Christ,
Fr Cameron Cortens, C.S.C.
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