Bustling ACE Summer Restores Energy? That's how the Spirit works!

ACE summers are not like "normal" summers at all. Instead of lazy days by the pool, the summer days of ACErs are bustling with activity: working, learning, sharing, planning, researching, presenting, and studying. There is remarkably little down time for the ACE faculty and staff and the teachers on campus participating in various programs and conferences. After all, ACE exists to sustain and strengthen Catholic schools. With a mission like that, how can we rest? We want always to be making progress, making change, making a difference. One observing from the outside might think that these summers could not possibly be restorative, yet somehow participants in the ACE program repeatedly leave Notre Dame's campus with fresh, smiling faces and a renewed zeal for Catholic education.

How can this be?

To find the answer to this question, we need to look beyond our work to become better educators and beyond the stellar community support offered here. The secret behind this renewal is found in the spiritual pillar of ACE, which sustains us all as individuals and as a community both in the summer and through the school year, when we are sent across the country to continue our work.

ACE has a tradition of praying with the Lord's words in Psalm 46: "Be still, and know that I am God." These words ought to comfort us, but I suspect that many of us also see them as a challenge. How can we possibly be still when there is so much to do, and only us to do it? How can we heed these words and still fulfill our call to be Christ's hands and feet on Earth?

With these words, God is not asking us to stop our work forever; indeed, we believe it is He who has called us to it in the first place. Instead, he is asking for a spiritual stillness and a rightly-ordered view of the work that we do. We are invoked to "Come, behold the works of the LORD," acknowledging that without the Lord, our efforts could never be enough, but with him, anything is possible; even stillness amid the whirlwind of an ACE summer.

As soon as I started looking for it, I realized that throughout the day, I constantly encounter this stillness around the summer's bustling campus.

There is stillness in the Grotto, which is always full of people, yet never lacking in peace.

There is stillness as ACE staff members come together in prayer as a natural part of each workday.

There is stillness as we pause together to appreciate the sunset.

There is stillness in visiting with people who truly listen and thoughtfully respond to your stories, ideas, and concerns.

There is stillness in communal meals, where friendships are formed and strengthened.

There is stillness when ACErs gather for Mass, greeting our Lord with reverence and one another with love.

There is stillness in the kind smiles that greet all who enter Carole Sandner Hall.

Although a physical stillness may not be present, these moments offer a glimpse of that inner stillness amid the commotion of summer that keeps us grounded. When we recognize that ultimately the Lord is in control, we can be still, trusting in His will for us and resting in His presence even as we go about accomplishing the many duties of each day.

This stillness is what allows us to leave this summer refreshed, with minds full of new ideas and hearts bursting with love, ready to serve the children of God.