Dear Holy Cross Academy Family,

Since I arrived at Holy Cross in 2017, I’ve found myself on more than one occasion describing the era in which we are living as a “complex and confusing time,” marked by a sense of unsettledness and uncertainty. One of the many things I have come to love about this school is the way it invites us into a life of thoughtful engagement with these challenges, while also giving us a sense of place and purpose, grounding us and centering us in an unsettled age.

I could never have imagined the events we have witnessed this spring, which have tested our resilience in unprecedented ways. All of us are now burdened with worries we did not previously know, as we try to find meaning and moments of grace in the face of a profound sense of loss in our lives. The deepest and most tragic losses, of course, are the ones counted in lives lost and livelihoods taken. But there are also the intangible losses, the ones harder to measure and difficult to voice. For our students this spring, it has been not just the game not won, or the musical not performed but the game not played or the song not sung; the lunchtime conversation not had; the class trips not travelled.

I believe the pandemic has struck a deep and solemn note in our own lives, as it has “stilled the clatter and traffic” of our 21st century life and made millions pause and look around them. A new sense of values has taken hold. Faith is too often caricatured as a kind of breezy dismissal of life’s hardships. But it takes courage to believe that something deeper may be unfolding in our lives, especially at moments and in places where that promise seems most absent.

A very good friend of mine would say that there’s a difference between hope and optimism. Optimism looks for evidence that things are going to get better. Hope, on the other hand, looks at the evidence and says: “Actually, things don’t look good at all. But we’re going to go beyond the evidence, to create new possibilities that allow people to engage in heroic actions, always against the odds, no guarantees whatsoever. That’s hope. I’m gonna die a prisoner of hope.”

Here at Holy Cross Academy, we seek each day to stay focused on our mission to become a more perfect embodiment of the ideals we profess: faith, knowledge and character, with Christ’s teachings as our guide.

Thank you for your prayers and support as we begin another year of important work together.

Sincerely,

Dr. Mark DeMareo
Principal