The summer months are a time of rest and relaxation for many of us. But how do we rest well? The Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper tells us that rest is not merely inactivity, as we might think. Instead, resting well involves activities that affirm the basic goodness of reality: things like feasting, playing, worshipping, and gazing in wonder and awe at the world. At Chesterton Academy of Our Lady of Hope, we find time to rest because we know that all our work is only a response to gifts that have already received: the fundamental goodness of being and the radiance and dignity of the human person. Rest, true rest, is the attitude in which we experience everything as the sheer gift that it is.
As a wise friend once said to me, with a note of awe, “You can’t outdo God for giving.” CAOLH has been tremendously blessed this month. As we continue to fundraise operational costs for our first year, we received a generous matching gift offer from a donor who sees our mission and believes in it. We also announced the purchase of a new building for our school. Many families and friends of Chesterton gathered at the new building last week for a day of cleaning. The Knights of Columbus generously provided pizza and sandwiches for lunch as board members scrubbed floors and polished pews, students shampooed carpets and scraped moss up from cement, and parents and friends of Chesterton ripped up carpet from Overroads, the former rectory on our campus, now named after G.K. Chesterton’s home.
Many of you also have blessed us with your prayers and financial support. Please prayerfully consider what you can give, or what more you can give, to support the gift that this mission is. Help us maximize the matching gift from our generous donor. Donations help us to pay our monthly building and utility expenses, purchase the supplies necessary for the work of education, provide financial aid so that students can attend CAOLH regardless of financial need, and recruit and hire excellent teachers who are men and women of faith and virtue, all while keeping tuition costs low. We are grateful for you and all that you give, above all your offerings of prayer for our community and our work.
May God grant moments of true rest to each of us this summer, so that we may ever more deeply know God’s great love revealed in our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and rose from the dead so that we might join the whole communion of saints in the (truly restful!) dance of eternal friendship with Him.
In Christ,
Dr. Robert Duffy
