To the Band of Brothers: August 29, 2022

With the first week of the new academic year in the books and the second one on its way today, I am happy to grace your inbox with the first Band of Brothers email of the year. After a summer hiatus, it is good to get the creative juices flowing again and pound the keyboard and allow the Spirit to guide the process. It’s funny, most of the time when I sit at the computer to write to you guys, I don’t know exactly where the email will go. But, the fact is, time and time again, the Holy Spirit guides, and I just type.

 

Trust me, if there is ever any proof of how the Spirit moves people, it is this Band of Brothers thing. I sit staring at the screen and ask the Lord to say something. If He does, I type. If he doesn’t, I don’t. It’s as simple and real as that. The key is simply to not get in the way. The dialogue between the two of us (me and the Spirit) at times is even comical. I will be moved to write something and then stare at it asking the Spirit, “Are you sure that’s what you want?” If He says yes, I click send. I confess there have been times I have gone at it on my own, not waiting for His confirmation to send. Those have been the duds. There have been a few.

 

Well, you live and learn.

 

Actually, with me sometimes, you live, but not learn as much as I should. Funny, time and time again, even though He has proven over and over again that I need to trust in His direction, I venture on my own convinced I can handle it and realize what I am typing is not very good. My pesky little ego just gets in the way. It reminds me of the times, when as a little boy sitting in the passenger side of my dad’s car, I kept insisting I wanted to drive, convinced I could do it just as well as he did. When we got close enough to the house, he would sit me on his lap and surrender the wheel. He would handle the pedals (thank God) and I would hold on to the wheel. That car would swerve from one side of the road to the other. Then, as I made our way to the neighbors tree, he would break and gently put me back in the passenger seat. We only got home safely if he was fully in control.

 

This is exactly what our lives are all about. We insist on taking the wheel. We insist we can drive just as well or even better than He can. God is so good and patient that He surrenders control for a little while until we learn the valuable lesson. Life is so much better when we just realize He needs to be at the wheel, when we simply surrender to Him. Even when it seems that we will go off the road, even when we don’t have a clue where we are going, it is so much better to let Him steer, let Him drive. Like my father, there is enough evidence He will never take us anywhere that isn’t good for us or where we need to be.

 

Take the strategic plan we just finished writing up and you and your parents got in the mail. It is the result of several people who truly love Belen who sat down and, led by the Spirit, put down on paper where we think He wants us to go. There is a lot of good stuff in that plan, some lofty goals that have been set. At every meeting, we began each session with a prayer asking the Holy Spirit of God to guide the process. We were in constant discernment, and the Spirit manifested Himself in each person who spoke and suggested and advised. One thing was very clear, if we kept focused on the ultimate end of a Belen education, the Catholic-Jesuit formation of our students, then the means to get there were revealed as clearly as crystal.

 

Here’s to a great year. I look forward to reaching these goals with all of you. Oddly enough, I also look forward to the challenges, the bumps in the road, because over the years I have realized those are the experiences from which I have learned the most. God knows they haven’t been easy, but, then again, nothing great ever does. So, buckle up and let's go. It’s going to be a great ride.

 

Auspice Maria