Form IV students helped beautify the Cross Country trail as part of their Confirmation service project. With rakes and fresh mulch, they cared for the wooded path many of our boys run throughout the year, surrounded by bluebonnets and trees along the Trinity.
Every morning, monks and nuns — and many lay people — arise early for morning prayer. The Latin name for this prayer, “laudes,” means “praises.” Often the psalms that make up morning prayer are indeed full of expressions of praise. One has inspired in me a reflection on the liturgy.
Upper School students in Fr. Raphael’s Agriculture Elective recently donned their bee suits to inspect one of our campus hives. They found a healthy amount of honey and brood and even spotted the queen.
Best of all, no stings.
Elizabeth’s words to Mary form the bridge from the Annunciation to the Visitation in the Hail Mary prayer: “Blessed are you among women, and blest is the fruit of your womb” (Lk 1:42). After Mary’s hasty journey to her kinswoman, she, carrying Jesus in her womb-ark, receives an exuberant welcome from Elizabeth and John the Baptist. The unborn babies, Jesus and John, meet for the first time as their mothers embrace.
Form VI Spanish students explored Holy Week (Semana Santa) traditions by creating their own flower carpets.
Hawk Baseball held their annual Blessing of the Bats with Fr. Anthony this past week. One of Hawk Baseballs best traditions.
This morning, our Student Council President for the 2026–2027 school year was announced. Leadership is handed off. The torch is passed. Ardere et Lucere!
Each year, our Form III students take to the Hidden Field with Fr. Mark for one of Cistercian’s favorite traditions: the annual Rocket Launch.
We have all surely experienced how difficult it can be to engage socially and politically as Catholics. Our faith pushes us into the uncomfortable position of prophetically challenging all political parties and calling everyone to conversion. Today, it can be especially difficult to exercise this prophetic mission, simply because the situations we should critique — the basic facts of the matter and their context — can be so difficult to ascertain (and contemporary media sadly makes our task even more difficult). This is a serious difficulty, since Jesus commands us not to judge by appearances (cf. Jn 7:24).
Gabriel is not the first messenger of the LORD to greet someone with the phrase “The LORD is with you” (Lk 1:28). An anonymous angel hails Gideon, a young man from a poor and insignificant family, as the lad desperately hides his family’s wheat harvest from the marauding Midianites: “The LORD is with you, you mighty warrior!” (Jgs 6:12). Gideon then receives his commission to save Israel from the hand of its enemy and to be a judge over the 12 tribes.