School Year Theme Logo

“Grace, mercy and peace”: these are three of the blessings that St. Paul often wishes to other Christians in his New Testament letters. This year, they are also blessings we are wishing for everyone who is part of the life of our Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board family.

In our Christian faith, grace means showing others patience and understanding—being people of kindness and generosity, who strive to go beyond doing the mere minimum in our relationships with each other.

Mercy is a key biblical concept that reminds us of the importance of forgiveness and compassion, allowing people the chance to start over again when we make mistakes—because we know how God never stops offering us forgiveness through Jesus.

The kind of peace God offers us (called shalom in biblical Hebrew) is much more than just not fighting: it is a kind of all-embracing wholeness and reconciliation that touches our relationship with God, with other people, with Creation—and with our own deepest selves. It is a peace that transforms everything it touches.

With COVID-19 in the rearview mirror, we do not want to simply try to re-build the ways things were in the past. Just the opposite: we are building anew, drawing upon God’s gifts to build something fresh and beautiful that has never existed before. Our eyes are eagerly focussed on the future and what it will look like, when we are gracious, merciful and peaceful toward each other, with grace, mercy and peace in our thoughts, words and actions!