ACE Advocates News

Watch their entertaining chalkboard video. If this doesn't put a kick in your ACE advocates step, nothin' will!

Dear Advocates for Catholic Schools:

As you may know, for the past 5 years, ACE has sponsored a Vocations Retreat for any current and former ACE participants - men and women - who are thinking about a call to religious life.

It's been a great joy that these retreats have been filled over the years with ACE members who are discerning this call. It has been an amazing gift to the Church and the People of God that several participants from the first 5 years are now professed, ordained, or in formation in various religious congregations throughout the United States – both Holy Cross and others.

This year, we are so grateful to be able to announce that the ACE Vocations Retreat will be a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico. In addition to our celebration of a special private mass at the Basilica of
Guadalupe, the retreat will include an exploration of and engagement with the Mexican Church and religious communities in Mexico City. There will be talks on discernment, men's and women's religious life, and the priesthood. And there will be time for one-on-one spiritual direction and individual time for reflection.

So, for those considering a religious vocation, ACE is very excited to offer our 2011 Vocations Pilgrimage to Mexico, on December 27, 2011 – January 1, 2012. All expenses will be covered by a family devoted to promoting religious vocations in ACE. Please prayerfully consider whether this pilgrimage may be for you. Space is limited.

You will need to be available to fly to Mexico City on Tuesday, December 27. You can depart early on Sunday, January 1 and be back in time for the second semester!

I will need a firm and final commitment from participants by September 15. (That is, on September 15, we will be purchasing non-refundable flights, rooms, etc.)

If you are interested in this retreat, or have any questions, please either email or call me (574-335-9126) before September 15.

God bless,

Fr. Lou csc

[3]ACE Advocates for Catholic Schools | 107 Carole Sandner Hall | Notre
Dame, IN 46556
(574) 631-3165 | fax: (574) 631-7729 |

Peace

Wherever today is finding you, consider taking this reflection to a quiet place where you can be still and encounter our God who meets us in the noise of the day and invites us experience his peace.

Read: Psalm 34:13-15: Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days...seek peace and pursue it.

Spend a few minutes in quiet reflection.

Read: John 14: 27: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.

Spend a few minutes in quiet reflection.

Read: Ephesians 6:13-15: Put on the armor of God, that you may be able to resist on the evil day and, having done everything, to hold your ground. So stand firm, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, and the breastplate of righteousness in place, and your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.

Reflect: It's interesting that in this letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul puts peace in the context of war, and that he places this bit of armor on our feet. Typically we think of peace as the opposite of war, belonging not on our feet so much as in our hearts, and suggesting stillness rather than action. But Paul gives us a different slant: peace is the thing that grounds us and readies us. The good news about peace, in other words, is that it prepares us for action

Frederick Buechner says, "Generally speaking, if you want to know who you really are, as distinct from who you like to think you are, keep an eye on where your feet take you." Buechner also says that, for Jesus, peace--shalom in Hebrew--was not so much the absence of struggle but the presence of love.

Remember Christ's armor today, don His shoes and walk forward in peace of Love.

Pray
Heavenly Father,
thank you for the gift of peace--your shalom,
a blessing of fullness and completeness,
your desire that all of creation be whole.
Help me to be an agent of your peace,
to share in word and deed the good news of shalom
and so do your will on earth as it is done in heaven.
In the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace,
Amen.

by Susan Bigelow

The ACE Advocates Summer Interns (Susan Bigelow, Christa Cloutier, and Bryan Winther, all ACE 16) recently planned and led a retreat for members of our graduating cohort. The Commencement Retreat was held July 5-7 at Lindenwood Retreat Center in Donaldson, IN. Attended by roughly fifty ACE 16 graduates, this annual event kicks off the week that culminates in Commencement.

The retreat provided soon-to-be ACE graduates a much-desired opportunity to spend time in prayer, fellowship, and reflection with members of our cohort. It was also a chance to continue conversations already begun throughout our two years in ACE about how we will continue to serve Catholic as we embark on our respective roads ahead. A remarkable number of ACE 16 graduates will be staying at their schools for a third year; many others will be teaching in Catholic schools elsewhere, engaging in service and research overseas, and pursuing graduate education. Regardless of where God has called each of us, we are, in the words of Paul in his letter to the Philippians, committed to allowing the Holy Spirit to continue the good work begun in us in service to Catholic schools.

See 12 research-proven reasons Catholic schools make a difference and idea-starters for what you can do to support them here.