Sicut Miles Christi *

As I write this, I am sitting in the President’s Office of St. Paul’s High School in Winnipeg, MB, at the very imposing presidential desk.  I’ve been in the office for about a week, trying to get a handle on the dimensions of my new job, attending to the practicalities of establishing myself in a new setting, and meeting as many of my new co-workers (faculty, staff, board members, etc.) as I can before school officially starts after Labour Day.

So far, so good.  The people here have been extremely welcoming and encouraging.  Some of them I have known for many years because of my frequent visits to Winnipeg in various capacities.  Others are completely new to me.  All will require a good deal of attentiveness to get to know them well and to learn how they can best contribute to moving forward the mission of the school.

The official expression of that mission is this: “St Paul's High School is missioned by the Canadian Jesuits to educate students as whole persons to become men for others and so assist the Church in building the Kingdom of God.”  Everyone associated with the school as an employee or as a volunteer shares the responsibility for fulfilling this mission.  But it falls particularly to the President to ensure that this happens.  In a sense, this is my job description in a nutshell.

As I reflect on my role here at St. Paul’s, there are two things that stand out for me.  First of all, it is an extraordinary privilege to be involved in the formation of young people, and it has always brought me great consolation and joy.  Yes, there are frustrations and disappointments aplenty.  Not everyone is as enthusiastic about the mission, whether as contributor or as recipient.  That’s a constant challenge.

But when I consider the many students I have known over the years and see the sort of adults most of them have become, and the way they have assimilated and integrated into their life the values of Jesuit education, I am filled with gratitude and awe.  And I am deeply moved by the awareness that I had something to do with that.  What a gift it has been in my life!

The second powerful awareness that comes to me in this reflection is how much this mission depends on the generosity and cooperation, the commitment and collaboration of so many people.  St. Paul’s, like our other schools, is a vast community of administrators, staff, faculty, parents, alumni, students, volunteers, benefactors……, all of whom have something to offer to the school.  For the President the great challenge is to create a respectful, collaborative, engaging environment that makes it possible for each person to contribute her or his gifts to the school in the fullest measure possible, and to animate and motivate people to make that contribution willingly and eagerly.  In my opinion, this is the essential definition of leadership in any organization.

In the context of a Jesuit school, which is an institutional expression of the mission of the Society of Jesus and of the Church, it becomes the definition of apostolic leadership, informed by the values of our faith tradition, and directed by the apostolic priorities of the Society.  And that’s why I’m here.  May the Lord bless this enterprise and all who are part of it.

* The motto of St. Paul’s High School: Like a Soldier of Christ