May 30th, 2025

Dear friends of Chesterton,

The end of the school year approaches, and it is a good time to reflect on why we do what we do.

Every journey has a last half mile. However far we have come, that last half-mile will always be the hardest. We can never eliminate it. But we can choose how to see it. 

The last two weeks of the year are a school's "last half mile." St. Josemaria Escriva offers us a way to see it. We all dream of great acts - and we should - but, as St. Josemaria writes, "Do everything for Love. Thus there will be no little things: everything will be big. Perseverance in little things for Love is heroism." Perseverance in the little things is the big thing - rightly considered.

St. Josemaria's challenge goes to the heart of our understanding of education. Education is not merely about content-delivery. It is the proposal of an adventure - the quest to come "to maturity" in Christ (Eph. 4:13). 

Viewed correctly, every moment of our lives is a step on the quest toward our eternal destiny. As C. S. Lewis says, "There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. [...] it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors." There are no ordinary people, and no moments that don't matter. 

Viewing life as a quest gives us reason to wonder - indeed, to put wonder at the center of our lives. Quests don't happen in meaningless worlds. Middle Earth, King Arthur's Britain, Homer's Greece - all these are full of secrets, mysteries, beauties, and terrors. Quests are only possible in worlds packed with meaning.

The word "wonder" might make us think of lighthearted, offbeat delight, the spirit of someone who drifts through the daisies and has thought-provoking bumper stickers. But it is much more than that. Wonder is part of a knight's heroic virtue. It is built on three convictions:

• The world is fundamentally good - worth affirming in love.
• The world is fundamentally precious or dear to us- to take it for granted is an injustice.
• The world has inexhaustible depths of meaning - we can never grow tired of it.

As Hans Urs von Balthasar writes, "Now, the fact that the same things can surround us day after day, appear before us every morning with the same existence and essence, but not become unendurable is due to the mysteriousness of truth, which is always richer than what we have been able to apprehend so far. …the mere fact that being reveals itself at all, that it makes this movement toward us and lifts one of the veils covering its essence, is a daily renewed, perennially inexhaustible wonder."

Or, in the words of G. K. Chesterton, "The world will never starve for want of wonders - only for want of wonder."

The three convictions listed above can be challenging to uphold. Sometimes we encounter in ourselves or others the default attitude that the world is meaningless or bad, and the only choice left to us is to change it, whether through technological improvement or violent resistance. 

But these three convictions make us truly fruitful. Only through them can we accurately understand who we are, where we come from, and where we are called to go. To live according to the convictions of wonder, then, is the work of a lifetime. It requires intentional formation, authentic communities of friendship, and dispositions of sincerity, gratitude, attentiveness, humility, and courage.

In every journey, or in every race we run, we pray that the last day will be our strongest and proudest, revealing in a blaze of light all the ways we have grown toward "maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ," toward our destiny as "everlasting splendors" (Eph. 4:13). 

I pray that we all run this last half-mile -- for us at Chesterton, and for all students, faculty, and staff coming to the end of their school years --  with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, committed to encountering the world with genuine wonder. And I pray, too, that our strong finish will launch us into summer with the spirit of adventure, as we see the world differently, because we have been truly changed. 

Gratefully yours in Christ,

Robert Duffy, PhD

Headmaster

Updates

Bishop Lewandowski will Celebrate Mass June 5 @ 11:10 - Join us! 

All are welcome.

Holy Hour (6/6, 4-6pm)

Last Day of School Celebration (6/13, 1:30-3:30pm)

Bring shareable or grill-able food, lawn chairs, and friends -- all are welcome! 

Mark Your Calendars!

6/6      First Friday Holy Hour

6/13    Last Day of School Celebration

9/5      First Friday Holy Hour

9/6      Annual Wiffle Ball Tournament (Tentative)     

11/8    Gala        

12/4    Drama Production      

12/11   Lessons and Carols        

Summer Arts Week - Spots still available! 

June 6 Holy Hour - Update

June 6 we will celebrate our volleyball season with a final game and our first Friday social time. 

• 4-5pm: Holy Hour
• 5-6pm: Volleyball game in front of school
• 6-7pm: Fellowship Hour 

Virtue of the Week - Sincerity

This week, we learned about and practiced the virtue of sincerity: "Being trustful in your words and actions."

Glimpses of Chesterton

Wisdom from G.K. Chesterton

 “An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered."

Our Contact Information

Chesterton Academy Our Lady of Hope

610 Jefferson Blvd, Warwick 02886

https://www.chestertonri.org/

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