Weekend Wisdom, January 7th, 2023

Dear Parishioners,

I hope your New Year is off to a fantastic start and your new commitments to eating healthy and going to the gym are still intact.  One of our academic goals at Notre Dame of De Pere this year focuses on supporting student growth in literacy.  With that focus, I have added a “Word of the Day” section to our morning announcements after prayer, pledge, lunch, birthdays, and other news.  I’ve been following along with the Merriam-Website Word of the Day children’s book and it’s prompted many interesting conversations as students and staff attempt to incorporate these words into their days.  Examples include the words superfluous, landlocked, and penultimate.  Any guesses on what the designated “Word of the Day” in this secular text is for January 6th?  Epiphany!  What a pleasant surprise!  The dictionary definition shared in this text is “a sudden understanding or realization of something in a new or very clear way.”  As I imagine this definition applied to the three kings, I can see the excitement and realization as they follow a newly discovered star in search of a newborn king.

This weekend we close out the Christmas liturgical season with the celebration of the Feast of the Epiphany and the announcement of Christ’s birth to the entire world as represented by the kings and the star.  As we celebrate the Epiphany at masses this weekend, consider also bringing this celebration into your home through a special blessing.  During school masses this week, our priests blessed a basket of chalk which was then used in school and sent home with students to bless the entrances to their homes.  This traditional Epiphany blessing involves using this blessed chalk to write the letters C, M, and B plus the year above the main entrance to the home (or classroom), like this: 20 + C + M + B + 24.  The letters are the initials of the names of the three kings: Caspar, Melchoir, and Balthazar and also represent the Latin words Christus Mansionem Bendicat, which means “May Christ bless the house.”  The + represents the cross and the first the first two numbers are the first part of the year, while the last two numbers are the last part of the year.

May this new year bring many blessings to your family and find you growing ever closer to our Lord.

With heart and soul,

Molly Mares

Principal, Notre Dame of De Pere