Page 3 - Priorities #70

Dear Priory Community,
It seems like just yesterday that I stood before the entire student body at the very first chapel and announced that they had 175 days of school ahead of them. Those 175 days have come and gone and the Class of 2018 is on their way to start the newest chapter of their lives, hopefully filled with meaning and balance. The end of the school year also brings the 60th anniversary to a partial close–we will have one more anniversary-ending Mass on Founders Day this November–as a final event of thanksgiving.
We enjoyed a special 60th anniversary year filled with events such as our Guest Speaker Forum, Founders Day Mass, a ceremony to honor our newest St. Benedict Medal recipients, and a magnificent performance by Taylor Eigsti ’02 and his jazz trio. We also opened some long-awaited facilities–the Joe Montero ‘76 Aquatic Center, the Franklin Garden Pavilion and the LaureL STREAM Center–all of which will benefit the learning and teaching environment for students and faculty. We hope you enjoyed celebrating and reading about these significant milestones as much as we did.
This school year also brought significant monastic news with the agreed commitment from Saint Anselm to assign a new Monk to the Priory. It has been 22 years since the arrival of a new Monk, so this is indeed a special event in our history. We are grateful to Abbot Mark, our Directors, and all the Monks of Saint Anselm Abbey for their commitment to our ministry of Benedictine education. We are blessed to learn that the new Monk will be Father Matthew Leavy, O.S.B. As many may know, Father Matthew has a long history and love for Priory and we are thrilled that he will soon call Priory his home. He is fluent in Hungarian and will also assist Father Maurus with some of the Masses and activities of the Hungarian Catholic Mission. The Mission goes back to the founding of the Priory in 1956 and was another ministry of our Hungarian Monks. Over the decades they have served thousands of Hungarians and their children who come here for Mass on Sunday, followed by lunch and fellowship in the dining hall. Each year two Hungarian students from the Benedictine schools in Pannonhalma spend a year at the Priory and continue the strong bond and relationship between our schools and Monastic communities.
Several members of the Priory community were recognized for their years of service to the school at our end of the year Faculty/Staff Recognition Luncheon hosted by our parents. This year we honored John Sugden, Gabe Tang, and José Arnaldo Mejia-Torres for 15 years; Mark Stogner, Todd Turner, and Joe Montero ‘76 (posthumously) for 20 years; Doug Sargent for 25 years; Paul Trudelle for 35 years; and 55 years for Father Maurus Nemeth, O.S.B. We are thankful for their lasting commitment to aid Priory in becoming the renowned establishment it is today. We also remembered our missing colleagues, Julianna Szekely and Joe Montero, and as we went to press we learned that our beloved Father Pius passed away. You will read more about him later in this issue. We ask God to hold them in the palm of his hand and may they rest in peace.
I end my letter by sharing this thought from Abbot Mark:
When we wonder at the miracle of this school and its development, we are reminded of Saint Benedict’s admonition to always trust in the Lord for “what is not possible by nature, let us ask the Lord to supply by the help of his grace.” It is that divine assistance on which we continue to rely to accomplish the good work entrusted to all those who make the Priory such a special place.
We appreciate all that you have done for Woodside Priory School and the Monastic community over the years. We flourish and blossom because of your faith and support of our school, our ministry, and our mission.
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Head of School
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HEAD OF SCHOOL