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Message from the President
DEAR COMMUNITY OF REGIS JESUIT,
There is no time like the present. As the school year ended and COVID restrictions began to lift, and I experienced environments that were much more reminiscent of 2019 than 2020-21, I admit to having a sort of out of body experience: did all that really just happen? Being able to remove masks and see the faces of people, especially their smiles, is a remarkable, joyful grace!
In the long history of Regis Jesuit High School, this school year was certainly one for the record books. Inventing and implementing several modes of school delivery, worrying about the health and safety of students and staff especially in the early months, students and teachers constantly pivoting due to forced quarantines and all within a context of exceptional social and political polarization and turmoil tested our resolve and at times our faith too. I am grateful to our Regis Jesuit community for making this journey with us and for persevering.
Years ago, I had the honor to talk with Great Raider Aldo Notarianni ’42 about his experience of being a student at then Regis High and Regis College during World War II – a time in which the college’s enrollment had dropped so low that the very survival of the institutions was imperiled. For Mr. Notarianni, being a boarder on a nearly empty campus while the country and much of the world was in calamity was an experience that shaped him with a deep wisdom and gratitude for the gifts and relationships in his life. Like Notarianni, Regis Jesuit boldly moved forward with a renewed sense of hopefulness, mission and purpose.
May this time do the same for us.
May 20, 2021 marked the beginning of the Ignatian Year for Regis Jesuit High School and every work of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) around the world. This date carries special signifi cance because it marks the 500th anniversary of when a young Ignatius of Loyola was struck by a cannonball which ultimately ignited his conversion and the dedication of his life to God and the Church. If the experiences of the last many months have been our own "cannonball moment," we now look forward to our own conversion and the invitation to see all things new in Christ, the theme we share with Ignatian communities around the world during this Ignatian year. Invitation accepted!
At Regis Jesuit, joining with our Ignatian community around the world, we renew our mission to promote reconciliation – right relationships – with God, humanity and the natural world. Relying on God’s infi nite grace, we eagerly look forward to the year ahead and the opportunities it will present to re-engage in relationship both within the Regis Jesuit community and with the broader world. We look forward to giving our students more and deeper opportunities to become creative complex problem-solvers through applied and problem-based learning and to witnessing our students’ formation as Men and Women with and for Others anew. As I said, there is no time like the present, and hope abounds. Thank you for continuing to be part of this vibrant mission.
Welcome to the 2021 edition of The Raider!
AMDG,
David Card ’87
