From Archbishop Donoghue

Mass at the Donnellan School
November 6, 1996
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My dear boys and girls,

First of all, I want you to know how happy it makes me to see you all here. One of my biggest worries is how I am going to make sure that all the children in our Church will be able to get a good education, and an education where they learn not only about things like history and math and science, but also about God and about why we are Catholic. This is so very important now-a-days, because not all the schools are able anymore to do this, and all across Georgia, there are hundreds and hundreds of children, just like you, who want to go to a good and safe school - and I want to try as hard as possible to make sure that we open as many new schools as possible, just like this one, the Donnellan School. And I want to make sure that not only you, but all boys and girls get the chance to grow up, learning everything they need to get a job and to get along in the world, but also, I want them to have the chance to hear about God, and His Son Jesus, and Mary, and all the rest of the things that make being Christian the best thing that one can be.

But to make all of this come true, I can't just rely on myself - I have to ask everyone I know to help me - and this morning I am asking you to help me too. And if you ask me why or how I could need your help, this is what I would tell you.

You know how when you get something new that has to be put together - like a model or a puzzle, or maybe something even bigger, like a bicycle or a gym-set - you have to sit down and read the instructions first. And you probably know what happens when you don't read the instructions first. Everything gets messed up, you put things together in the wrong order, and then you have to take it all apart and start all over again - and sometimes taking things apart, I'm sure you have found out, is a lot harder and takes a lot more time than putting them together right in the first place.

That's the way that Christianity works - and especially, that is the way that our own special type of Christianity, what we call Catholicism, works. WE believe that for a boy or a girl to grow up into the best man or woman that they can be, then all the instructions have to be read - all the parts have to be sorted out - and then, step-by-step we put it all together until it becomes the most beautiful thing in our lives. The things that you study here at school are what all these instructions I have been talking about rally are - learning to read and write, learning to figure out problems by using numbers and symbols, learning about the history of who we are as Americans, learning how our government works, learning about the world, its peoples, and places, and problems - all of these are what we need to learn in order to be put together right - in order to be put together so that we will be able to take care of things when it is our turn to be in charge, and maybe to make the world a better place because of what we have done.

But more important that these things - and they are very important - are the things that you are learning about God, and about His plan for the world - what you hear in the Gospels and the other parts of the Bible - the things that you are learning about the Catholic Church - about the sacraments, and how the sacraments, especially Holy Communion, give us the ability to understand so many things about how life should be lived - and how you are learning to pray - to talk to God or Jesus or Mary or the Saints, and to ask them to help you, and believing that every word you say will be heard and will be answered.

When you put these good and holy things about our religion together with all those together things that you are learning, then what we have is the greatest set of instructions for living that have ever been put together, or that ever will be.

Now, what I am asking as a favor from you, and the way that you can help me, is to promise to follow these instructions as good as you possibly can - this means doing all the work, and doing it well - it means trusting your teachers and asking them for help when you need it - and it means sharing what you are learning with your parents at home, so that they will have the chance to share with you in return. If you do these things, then the Donnellan School will be known far and wide as the right kind of school, the best kind of school, and the kind of schools that we wish all our schools cold be. And then, you see, I will be able to go places, and say to parents and people who are interested in starting schools, "Just look at that Donnellan School - why they started it, and built it, and made it grow on their own, and now it's the best school around - and if you want to do the same thing, and have a great school of your own, well, just follow their example.

And boys and girls, if you do this, you will not only be doing me a great favor - you will be making come true what Jesus said to us in this morning's Gospel:

You are like light for the whole world, a lamp on a lampstand, giving light to everyone in the house - make your light shine, so that others can see, and be brought out of the darkness and into the light.

This is what I want for you, to make your light shine so that others can see it, so that they can know how good God has been to us, and so that they can know how good He will be to them.

The last thing I want to say is to ask you all to pray for me, for I don't think God loves anything better than He loves the prayers of young boys and girls, and I know that I can't ask for anything better.

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