St Paul wrote to the Galatians about the nine principle traits of a person or community living in accord with the Holy Spirit: “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (5:22-23) These attributes, coming from the Holy Spirit, reveal what God is like. Those who exhibit these characteristics will inherit the kingdom of God.

During the sacrament of Confirmation, we receive the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, fear of the Lord, and piety. These gifts are to be used, that they may bear fruit and usher in Christ’s reign on earth. By cooperating with the grace of the Holy Spirit, we grow in holiness and these fruits are strengthened in us.

Love: In Greek, agape or in Latin, caritas, this is the highest form of love, completely selfless in seeking the good of others and willing to sacrifice for them. It is expressed in service, giving freely and unconditionally, with neither consideration of whether the recipient is worthy, nor expectation of repayment.

As teachers, it can be tempting to treat students harshly if they annoy us in some way, but as educators of the youth, who are still maturing and being formed, we are called to demonstrate the love of Christ to our pupils, always acting for their greatest good, even if they do not seem grateful for our assistance and dedication. By treating students with love, teachers can create flow-on effects throughout their lives, as the students in turn will learn to put others first and treat them well.

Joy: Deeper than fleeting happiness, joy is a profound contentment that comes from being close to God, as well as proclaiming the truth and living an upright life.

Teaching, like every vocation, comes with challenges and stress, but we can maintain an abiding joy in the knowledge that these difficulties are transient, while our relationship with God is eternal.

Peace: This is an abiding tranquillity rooted in God. It is the harmony that comes about when justice reigns. Fr Michael Van Sloun writes: “It happens when resources are shared equitably, power is used for service, interdependence is fostered, information is shared openly and honestly, the dignity of each person is respected, legitimate differences are tolerated, the disadvantaged receive help, hurts are forgiven and the common good is upheld.”

Teachers set the tone of the classroom. Some are fierce and hold unruly students in check through fear. Others are timid and undisciplined students may run riot. But teachers who maintain a peaceful temperament can diffuse this peace throughout the classroom, creating a nurturing environment for their pupils.

Patience: Sometimes translated as “longsuffering” or “endurance”, patience is the virtue that allows you to experience disruptions or setbacks without losing your composure. Fr Van Sloun explains: “It is also the willingness to slow down for another’s benefit, to set aside one’s personal plans and concerns, to go at another’s pace, and to take whatever time is necessary to address their need.”

It can be frustrating for teachers when students are slow to grasp a concept, or misbehave in class. It may be helpful to recall that children’s brains are still in the process of developing, thus they lack the self-control of adults. Taking a deep breath and exercising patience with struggling or wayward students is vital in the vocation of a teacher.

Kindness: A kind person acts for the good of others no matter what, even if the other person seems undeserving of being treated well. Kind people respect others, and do not expect any benefits in return for serving others.

Kind teachers are an enduring example to their students, modelling how to treat others in all circumstances.

Generosity: Generous people possess a mentality rooted in abundance, not scarcity. Unlike selfish people, those who are generous are able to freely share of their time and resources.

Teaching by definition involves sharing one’s knowledge, skills and time with younger generations. Giovanni Ruffini wrote: “A teacher is like a candle that lights others by consuming itself.” Educators spend their lives in service of the youth.

Faithfulness: Those who are faithful are reliable individuals, who can be trusted to carry out their duties and fulfil their promises. They are loyal to their family and friends.

Students are expected to complete their homework, study what is required, and meet deadlines. Likewise, teachers are counted on to conduct lessons according to the syllabus, complete their marking in a timely fashion, and guide their students. Faithful teachers are role models to students of how to responsibly finish their tasks on time and to the best of their ability.

Gentleness: A gentle person is sensitive towards others, instead of being pushy or riding roughshod over their feelings. Consideration for the wellbeing of the other person is key.

Just as water softly flowing over a rock can wear a new path for a river, gentle teachers are more likely to leave an indelible mark on their students, forging new paths for them over time.

Self-control: Fr Van Sloun elucidates, “Self-control is self-mastery regardless of the circumstances, to be in control of one’s self rather than to be controlled by temptations, events or other people, especially when under pressure or in times of crisis.”

In this age of digital distractions, teachers need self-control more than ever to carry out their responsibilities, particularly those which are tedious. They also need it while disciplining students who may pose a challenge, with the tendency of youth to act out at times.

The fruit of the Holy Spirit grows in those who maintain a healthy prayer life and are sustained by a life-giving Christian community. May our schools form beautiful microcosms of the Body of Christ, as it is from being connected to Jesus our true Vine that we can mature into fruitful Christians who can successfully share the Good News of the Gospel with others, through the conduct of our lives.

As Pentecost approaches, we reflect on how the Holy Spirit empowers us to hear God’s voice and heed His promptings in our lives. The Prophet Isaiah spoke of the coming of the Messiah, who would be empowered by the Spirit of the Lord: “the Spirit of wisdom, and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel, and of fortitude, the Spirit of knowledge, and of godliness. And He shall be filled with the Spirit of the fear of the Lord.” (Is. 11:2-3)

As members of Christ’s Mystical Body, the Church, we too share in these gifts, though not to the perfect extent that Jesus embodies. They sustain the moral life of Christians, and they “complete and perfect the virtues of those who receive them” (CCC 1830-1831). We exercise the virtues with our human reason, prompted by grace, but the gifts of the Spirit operate on a spiritual level, wholly under God’s direction.

Wisdom

St Bernard wrote that the gift of Wisdom enlightens our minds and fosters an attraction to the divine. St Thomas Aquinas explained that it gives us the ability to discern and direct our daily lives according to divine truth, as well as exercising knowledge and discernment in our spiritual lives. The Dominican Fr Adolphe Tanquerey taught that Wisdom is “an experience undergone by the heart”; thus, Wisdom perfects the virtue of charity.

Teachers, as guardians of the developing minds, hearts and souls of the young, may pray for the gift of Wisdom to guide them in this crucial role, helping them to teach to the best of their ability and be a Christlike example to their students.

Understanding

The gift of Understanding helps us comprehend the truths of our faith, which relate to our salvation. It helps us appreciate Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, giving us insights through prayer, scripture and the sacraments, allowing us to see how Divine Providence is working throughout our lives. Thus, it corresponds to the virtue of faith.

Teachers may pray for the gift of Understanding so as to receive nourishment from the Word of God and share it with their students, maintaining a grateful and joyful disposition, knowing that God provides for us in every circumstance.

Counsel

The gift of Counsel enhances the virtue of prudence, enabling us to decide swiftly on the right course of action, particularly in challenging circumstances. It helps us to act in accordance with God’s will.

Teachers may pray for the gift of Counsel, that they may be able to discern wisely and promptly while carrying out their duties, administering discipline justly and providing what their students truly require of them.

Fortitude

Originating from the Latin fortis, meaning “brave” or “strong”, Fortitude is a combination of courage and endurance, or firmness of mind, to withstand or avoid evil and commit to doing what God asks of us, no matter the cost.

Teachers may seek the gift of fortitude to overcome all challenges in their profession and persevere through difficulties.

Knowledge

Pope Francis said, “The gift of knowledge puts us in tune with God’s gaze on things and on people. Through this spiritual gift, we are enabled to see every person, and the world around us, in the light of God’s loving plan.” The gift of Knowledge enables us to prioritise God above created things, being able to evaluate what is truly of everlasting value. This gift also corresponds to the virtue of faith.

As purveyors of human knowledge, which can become enticingly all-consuming and puff one up, teachers ought to pray for divine Knowledge so that they can place the eternal things of God above the passing things of man, and demonstrate this to their students.

Piety

Just as we express filial piety towards our parents, we are to have piety for God our Father, giving Him worship and due honour. Aquinas propounded that Piety perfects the virtue of religion, which is an aspect of the virtue of justice, as it accords to God what is due to Him: our recognition of His awesome majesty and our total dependence on Him.

Teachers may pray that they act as worthy recipients of the respect accorded to them by students, and be excellent role models to their students in exhibiting piety towards God, devoutly leading lives of faith and wholehearted trust in God.

Fear of the Lord

The Fear of the Lord is the sense of wonder or awe in contemplating our Creator. Pope Francis said it “doesn’t mean being afraid of God, since we know that God is our Father that always loves and forgives us. It is no servile fear, but rather a joyful awareness of God’s grandeur and a grateful realisation that only in Him do our hearts find true peace.”

This spiritual gift makes us unwilling to offend God, not because we fear punishment, but because we love Him and do not want to cause Him pain upon the cross, where Christ suffered for all sins throughout the ages. It perfects the theological virtue of hope.

Teachers may pray for the spiritual eyes to encounter God in daily life, recognising His amazing presence, which establishes an unshakeable sense of serenity throughout the travails of this earthly pilgrimage.

Pray for the Gifts

A novena is a nine-day prayer. The first novena was made by the apostles and Our Lady in the Upper Room between the Ascension of Christ and the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 1:14). During this time of year, we too can pray the Novena to the Holy Spirit for the Seven Gifts.

A beautiful hymn for this season is the Veni Sancte Spiritus (Come Holy Spirit), attributed to the Archbishop of Canterbury Stephen Langton, who painstakingly numbered every verse of the Bible. A lovely modern rendering of this hymn was composed by John Michael Talbot:

The common term for a school or university that you have graduated from is alma mater, Latin for “nourishing mother”. The oldest extant university in the world is the University of Bologna, founded in 1088 by Catholic students who hired scholars to teach them subjects including law and theology. It is also known as Alma Mater Studiorum, “nourishing mother of studies”.

The term alma mater is liturgically linked to Mother Mary, in particular with the antiphon Alma Redemptoris Mater, translated as “Sweet/Loving Mother of the Redeemer”.

Mother of God

May is traditionally dedicated to Our Lady; as Bishop Kevin Rhoades notes: “The month of May is always part of the Easter season, the fifty days we celebrate in the liturgy the Resurrection of Our Lord, a time also of awaiting the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

“The celebration of May as a Marian month fits well with the liturgical celebrations of Easter and Pentecost as we recall Mary’s great joy in her Son’s victory over death as well as her presence with the apostles in the upper room prayerfully awaiting the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.”

Mama

On the second Sunday of May, we also celebrate Mother’s Day. Catholics used to celebrate this on Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Lent, when it was the custom to return to your mother church – the parish in which you were baptised, or the closest cathedral – the mother church of all the parishes in a diocese. Thus, it was also known as “Mothering Sunday”. Domestic servants were given leave to be with their families, and often brought gifts for their mothers back home.

As Protestantism gradually shed such devotions, a vacuum was created. The Mother’s Day we celebrate was initiated by Anna Jarvis in the USA, as a way to honour her late mother. She campaigned assiduously until it became an official celebration. On 8 May 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a Joint Resolution that formally designated the second Sunday of May as Mother’s Day.

Schola

Just like Our Lady, Seat of Wisdom, taught Jesus in His humanity to be a virtuous Jewish boy, and as our mothers are meant to teach and form us to become flourishing members of society, so too do our teachers, acting in loco parentis, take on the responsibility to impart knowledge, skills and values to us so that we can live fulfilling lives contributing to our community.

Thus, our schools are truly nourishing mothers to us, being the extension of our parents’ desire to fulfil their duty of raising us. Healthy school communities can function as extended families, providing loving communities where students can learn from staff and each other to practise living virtuously.

Is your school a loving mother to you? How can you help create a nourishing environment for your school community?

Last year, the Congregation for Catholic Education released a document titled, “The Identity of the Catholic School for a Culture of Dialogue”. It focused on how in today’s globalised world with multicultural and multireligious societies, it has become more important than ever to maintain a strong Catholic identity in our educational institutions while engaging in interreligious and intercultural dialogue.

The Congregation quotes Pope Francis: “We cannot create a culture of dialogue if we do not have identity.” Indeed, the etymology of dialogue is dia (across, between) and legein (to speak). If we do not first understand our own position, it would be futile to attempt a meaningful discussion with those who do not share or understand our beliefs.

Gospel Message

The document asserts that “a strong and united action by the Church in the field of education” is needed “in an increasingly fragmented and conflict-ridden world”. The whole reason that the Church has long been involved in education is “in obedience to her mission to proclaim the Gospel by teaching all nations”.

The Congregation refers to the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on Christian Education, Gravissimum educationis, reiterating the universal right to education and the responsibility of the state to support parents in their fundamental right to select the kind of education which they prefer for their offspring.

Moreover, the Church has “the duty to educate” because of her “responsibility of announcing the way of salvation to all men, of communicating the life of Christ to those who believe, and… of assisting men to be able to come to the fullness of this life.” We see that the primary goal of Catholic education is to enable students to know, love and serve God in this life, and be forever blessed with Him in the next.

At the same time, Catholic educators are meant to promote “the complete perfection of the human person, the good of earthly society and the building of a world that is more human”. As Christ is the foremost example of what it means to be truly human, Catholic education instils Christlike virtues and values in pupils, emphasising compassion, integrity, humility, justice and mercy.

Scholastic Mission

As Pope Benedict XVI said in 2010, “A good school provides a rounded education for the whole person. And a good Catholic school, over and above this, should help all its students to become saints.”

He added, “It is only right that respect and friendship for members of other religious traditions should be among the virtues learned in a Catholic school.” Certainly, for those who are secure in their identity as Christians, it is possible to develop deep, lifelong friendships with people of various religious or non-religious backgrounds, learning from their perspectives while respectfully and joyfully sharing the faith with them.

The Congregation observes that a school is a community of learning where students of various talents and backgrounds can grow together in harmony, imbibing cultural and scientific knowledge while honing their personal skills and discerning their paths in life. On top of that, a Catholic school is to be centred on Jesus Christ: “The personal relationship with Christ enables the believer to look at the whole of reality in a radically new way,” providing “adequate responses to the fundamental questions for every woman and man”. The Catholic school must “bear witness”, enabling students to encounter God.

The document goes on to discuss the responsibilities of the school community, comprised of “students, parents, teachers, non-teaching personnel and the school management”, including how it is meant to be integrated with the wider Catholic community. It provides a cohesive blueprint for Catholic education, in a world where the Catholic identity of once-esteemed schools has been undermined by secular ideas that distort the Gospel. May the Catholic schools of Singapore continue to hold fast to Gospel values, presenting the light of Christ to all.

On the Feast of the Holy Family in 1997, the Congregation for Catholic Education released this incisive document reflecting on the challenges facing Catholic schools in the postmodern age and the continuing mission of Catholic education in a fractured world.

Buttressing the Family

The writers note that students often “lack authentic models to guide them, often even in their own families”, and educators can provide “unpretentious yet caring and sensitive help offered in those cases, more and more numerous above all in wealthy nations, of families which are ‘fragile’ or have broken up.”

Indeed, for children and youth growing up in unhappy or unstable households, school can be a haven, a place where they can flourish in comparative peace and genuine love among their teachers and friends.

At the same time, “parents have a particularly important part to play in the educating community, since it is to them that primary and natural responsibility for their children’s education belongs.” Teachers are to collaborate with parents in the education of the young, creating a “personalised approach which is needed for an educational project to be efficacious.”

Holistic Formation

The document affirms that each Catholic school “sets out to be a school for the human person and of human persons.” In modern times, there has been a “noticeable tendency to reduce education to its purely technical and practical aspects”, which fails to nurture the humanity of each pupil, “the human person in his or her integral, transcendent, historical identity.”

The Catholic school is to be “a school for all” while maintaining its “ecclesial identity”, “a genuine instrument of the Church, a place of real and specific pastoral ministry.” This can be seen particularly on Catholic Education Sunday in Singapore, where pupils, teachers and parents from our Catholic pre-schools and schools participate in the Eucharist at parishes near their educational institutions, with students serving in various roles during Holy Mass.

Growth and Maturity

The Congregation states that Catholic education “demands an atmosphere characterised by the search for truth, in which competent, convinced and coherent educators, teachers of learning and of life, may be a reflection, albeit imperfect but still vivid, of the one Teacher”, that is, Christ. They add that “in the Christian educational project all subjects collaborate, each with its own specific content, to the formation of mature personalities.”

Instead of mere cogs in the economic machine, students are seen as young ladies and gentlemen to be formed in virtue, so that they may be instruments of love within their families and communities, wherever they may go in life.

Catholic educators are meant to be “spurred on by the aim of offering to all, and especially to the poor and marginalised, the opportunity of an education, of training for a job, of human and Christian formation… (with) fervent dedication which is a manifestation of Christ’s love for the poor, the humble, the masses seeking for truth.”

Within the World

The document continues: “The school cannot be considered separately from other educational institutions and administered as an entity apart, but must be related to the world of politics, economy, culture and society as a whole.”

Catholic education cannot take place within a silo, but is situated within the context of wider society, equipping students to live out the Gospel values in their homes and future places of employment, ushering in the Kingdom of God.

Every February 15, Singapore marks Total Defence Day, on the anniversary of the day that Singapore surrendered to Japan in World War II and began to suffer under the Japanese Occupation.

Total Defence Day emphasises that every sector of society is vital to the defence of the nation. It is not just the army, navy and air force that protects our country, but also the civil defence forces and the civilian populace.

We have six pillars of Total Defence: Military, Civil, Economic, Social, Digital and Psychological Defence.

Spiritual Warfare

Likewise, in the spiritual life, we have various means of defence against the wiles of the devil and temptations of this world. St Paul wrote to the Ephesians (6:10-17):

“… be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

How do we maintain our spiritual armour? We cannot simply go to church on Sundays and neglect our spiritual life during the rest of the week – our armour will become rusty. Faith is meant to infuse every aspect of our lives, guiding us to make ethical decisions and to grow ever closer to God as we prepare during this earthly pilgrimage to someday enter Heaven.

Practical Steps

As Lent approaches, we can take up spiritual exercises and practise praying, fasting and almsgiving. In today’s modern materialistic and high-tech society, it can be all too easy to become distracted from our ultimate goal – God – and immersed in our possessions and entertainment media. Lent is an opportunity to reset our habits and polish up our spiritual armour.

We can take up spiritual reading and study apologetics to strengthen our belts of truth. The sacrament of Confession will give us the graces necessary to live righteous and upright lives, shielding our hearts like a breastplate. Frequent scripture reading – perhaps set aside 10-15 minutes each morning to contemplate the Mass readings for the day – and scriptural meditation through the Rosary will instil in us the sense of abiding peace that comes from being rooted in the Word of God.

We are never alone – our guardian angels are fighting right beside us for the good of our souls, and we are surrounded by a cloud of heavenly witnesses, the saints who have completed their earthly lives in the Church Militant and are now cheering us on as the Church Triumphant. Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith (Hebrews 12:1-2).