++\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\nA lot of people don\u2019t know this, but when I was in formation, studying to become a deacon, Msgr. Ned Ryan was my spiritual director.\u00a0\u00a0 I used to meet with him every six or eight weeks to talk about the state of my soul.\u00a0 Inevitably, of course, that became boring. Our conversations would often conclude with him sharing his nostalgic memories of growing up in Forest Hills and attending Our Lady Queen of Martyrs School in the 1950s.<\/p>\n
It was a time we remember as the \u201cbrick and mortar\u201d era of the American church, when schools were being built and parishes being planned.\u00a0 Parishes were teeming with nuns and priests.\u00a0 Every child knew the Baltimore Catechism, and at least some Latin, and no girl would dare to darken the door of a church without a chapel veil attached to her hair with a bobby pin.<\/p>\n
In the middle of that, there were hundreds and hundreds of schools like Our Lady Queen of Martyrs, spread out across the country.\u00a0 The parochial school system was legendary.\u00a0 It\u2019s not an exaggeration to say that it helped make America what it is.\u00a0 It certainly had an impact here in Queens.\u00a0 Our school produced not only the two monsignors sitting here this afternoon, but also Ray Romano, David Caruso, and Captain Kangaroo.\u00a0 Our Lady Queen of Martyrs School singlehandedly helped program CBS Television.<\/p>\n
These days, people will tell you that what makes Catholic education so great is the quality of the teachers, or the discipline, or the values that it has instilled in generations of young people.\u00a0 And that is true.\u00a0 But there is something about our school that goes beyond that.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the story of how it began.<\/p>\n
Back in the 1920s, when they were planning this church, the founding families made a choice that forever shaped the character of this community, and this parish.<\/p>\n
Before they did anything else, they wanted just one thing: they wanted to have a school.<\/strong><\/p>\nThat was what mattered, above all \u2014 that the children of Forest Hills would have a Catholic school, a Catholic education.\u00a0 This magnificent church, the rectory, the convent \u2013 all that would come later.\u00a0 But the school just couldn\u2019t wait.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It was a priority.<\/p>\n
So they broke ground in January of 1928 \u2013 84 years ago this month \u2014 and opened the school nine months later with the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary from Scranton.\u00a0 And for the next 10 years what is now McLaughlin Hall was the parish church.\u00a0 That was where people gathered for Mass.\u00a0 For weddings.\u00a0 For baptisms.\u00a0 For funerals. For First Communion.\u00a0 For confession.\u00a0 It all happened there.<\/p>\n
What that means is that the school building was more than classrooms.\u00a0 It was a house of prayer \u2013 God\u2019s house.\u00a0\u00a0 It was the dwelling place for the Blessed Sacrament.\u00a0 When you go into McLaughlin Hall today, you are entering a consecrated space, where the miracle of the Eucharist was celebrated thousands of times.\u00a0 That is where the spiritual life of this community took root and flourished.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s hard not to think of that and be awed, and humbled, and grateful.\u00a0 The sacrifices people made in those four walls 80 years ago made possible everything we have today.<\/p>\n
And: at the center of it all was Jesus.<\/strong>\u00a0That school was his tabernacle, his temple, his sanctuary, his chapel, his cathedral.\u00a0 It was his first home here.\u00a0 Even now the school continues to be a place where the love of Christ lives on, and \u2013 importantly \u2014 where it is taught.<\/p>\nBy coincidence, teaching comes up twice in this Sunday\u2019s gospel \u2013 describing how Jesus \u201ctaught with authority\u201d in the synagogue.\u00a0 \u00a0We can only imagine what it must have been like to sit before Jesus and hear him teach with such power and conviction (though, perhaps Msgr. Ryan and Msgr. McGuirl experienced something like that with the IHM nuns in our school back in the 1950\u2032s.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know.)\u00a0 But I do know that what began in that synagogue in Capernaum 2,000 years ago continues, in some way, in Forest Hills today.\u00a0 The teaching tradition of the church \u2013 proclaiming the Good News \u2013 is still unfolding in this church and, especially, in our school. \u00a0The great story of our salvation continues to be told.\u00a0 And the values of our faith continue to be passed on.<\/p>\n
This school and church grew during some hard times.\u00a0 We\u2019re facing hard times again in our country, and in our church.\u00a0 A lot of people will tell you the Catholic school system that Msgr. Ryan and Msgr. McGuirl knew \u2013 and the one so many of us grew up in \u2013 is gone.\u00a0 Schools are closing in places like Philadelphia and Boston and New York and Brooklyn \u2013 people are saying it\u2019s too expensive to support, or too hard, or the demographics have changed.\u00a0 They\u2019ll give you all sorts of explanations.<\/p>\n
But Our Lady Queen of Martyrs School stands proudly, quietly, prayerfully in defiance of all that. \u00a0As we celebrate our school, and remember all that has happened since its founding, my prayer is that we will never forget where we came from, and how it all began \u2014 with a commitment to education, with faith in the future, with a belief in possibility.<\/p>\n
And with Jesus at the center of it all.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With Catholic Schools Week now at its midway point, I thought I\u2019d repost something from last year: a homily I preached at a special Mass honoring my parish\u2019s school (shown above) and its alumni. \u00a0DGK. ++\u00a0 A lot of people don\u2019t know this, but when I was in formation, studying to become a deacon, Msgr. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
For Catholic Schools Week: in praise of my parish's school<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With Catholic Schools Week now at its midway point, I thought I'd repost something from last year: a homily I preached at a special Mass honoring my\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/01\/in-praise-of-my-parishs-school\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"For Catholic Schools Week: in praise of my parish's school\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With Catholic Schools Week now at its midway point, I thought I'd repost something from last year: a homily I preached at a special Mass honoring my\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/01\/in-praise-of-my-parishs-school\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-01-30T15:59:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-09-30T21:00:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/files\/2013\/01\/school-copy-e1327894089400.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Deacon Greg Kandra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Deacon Greg Kandra\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/01\/in-praise-of-my-parishs-school\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/01\/in-praise-of-my-parishs-school\/\",\"name\":\"For Catholic Schools Week: in praise of my parish's school\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-01-30T15:59:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-09-30T21:00:47+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970\"},\"description\":\"With Catholic Schools Week now at its midway point, I thought I'd repost something from last year: a homily I preached at a special Mass honoring my\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/01\/in-praise-of-my-parishs-school\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/01\/in-praise-of-my-parishs-school\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/01\/in-praise-of-my-parishs-school\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"For Catholic Schools Week: in praise of my parish’s school\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/\",\"name\":\"The Deacon's Bench\",\"description\":\"Where a Roman Catholic deacon ponders the world\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970\",\"name\":\"Deacon Greg Kandra\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Deacon Greg Kandra\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/author\/deacon-greg-kandra\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"For Catholic Schools Week: in praise of my parish's school","description":"With Catholic Schools Week now at its midway point, I thought I'd repost something from last year: a homily I preached at a special Mass honoring my","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/01\/in-praise-of-my-parishs-school\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"For Catholic Schools Week: in praise of my parish's school","og_description":"With Catholic Schools Week now at its midway point, I thought I'd repost something from last year: a homily I preached at a special Mass honoring my","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/01\/in-praise-of-my-parishs-school\/","og_site_name":"The Deacon's Bench","article_published_time":"2013-01-30T15:59:07+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-09-30T21:00:47+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/files\/2013\/01\/school-copy-e1327894089400.jpg"}],"author":"Deacon Greg Kandra","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Deacon Greg Kandra","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/01\/in-praise-of-my-parishs-school\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/01\/in-praise-of-my-parishs-school\/","name":"For Catholic Schools Week: in praise of my parish's school","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-01-30T15:59:07+00:00","dateModified":"2016-09-30T21:00:47+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970"},"description":"With Catholic Schools Week now at its midway point, I thought I'd repost something from last year: a homily I preached at a special Mass honoring my","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/01\/in-praise-of-my-parishs-school\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/01\/in-praise-of-my-parishs-school\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/01\/in-praise-of-my-parishs-school\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"For Catholic Schools Week: in praise of my parish’s school"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/","name":"The Deacon's Bench","description":"Where a Roman Catholic deacon ponders the world","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970","name":"Deacon Greg Kandra","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Deacon Greg Kandra"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/author\/deacon-greg-kandra\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20269\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/56\/2013\/01\/school-copy-e1327894089400.jpg\" "\\"school-copy-e1327894089400\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n