When my daughter Kate started kindergarten at St. John’s way back in 1990, I would often seek the counsel of “older moms” whose families had been in the school for awhile. I found that these seasoned veterans were usually able to help me sort through my many questions and concerns about my children’s future.

Now with my graying hair and more wrinkles than I’d prefer to count, I have earned my stripes as an older mom. And while I do not profess to have any great wisdom, I do have the experience of 16 years as a St. John’s school parent. This, I suppose, qualifies me to offer a few thoughts on the impact this choice has had on the life and well-being of our family.

An Education for the Whole Family
My husband, Chris, and I moved to Washington, D.C., out of college, met here and married. In choosing to stay in this area where we both had jobs, we began our family without the support of local grandparents, aunts and uncles. Believe me, this was often very difficult for us, especially when our older kids were really small. We registered in the parish after we bought our house, and made a conscious decision to jump into parish life. Why? Because we needed “local family.” It wasn’t until our kids began to go to St. John’s school, however, that this deep need for close community really began to be fulfilled.

From the very beginning, the education our children received at St. John's
spurred a re-education for Chris and me. Since St. John’s school is a work of St. John’s parish, we began to look more carefully at the faith we had been given, and pondered the vision of life we wanted to offer our children. Gradually, we recognized that while the school was sustained by the parish, the parish was sustained by the presence of God: dwelling among us in the Person of Jesus, in the tabernacle right in our midst. God-with-us is here through all of our joys, sorrows, worries, weakness and fears! There was something here—in fact, Someone here—who was greater than our own ability to be educated and united. Through the years, as our children have been schooled in this fact about human life, so have we. And this has changed everything about the way we try to live our lives today.

Kate is now a junior at the University of Delaware. Her siblings, Libby, and Mick, are in high school, at the Academy of the Holy Cross and Gonzaga College High School. Our youngest, Patrick, is still here in third grade, surrounded by friends he has literally known all his life. We have been blessed beyond measure.

Educated within a Communion of Persons
Through our 23 years in the parish, Chris and I have served in many capacities. But this service has been much more than an expected volunteerism. For us, it has been a way to take care of people we have grown to love, to participate more fully in the lives of our friends and neighbors. So, while our children were being well-educated enough to get into some wonderful schools, they were also growing up as part of what the Church calls “a communion of persons.” Educated in a life of communion, they have watched the adults around them struggle through some real challenges and tragedies. They have seen us fight and reconcile, laugh and cry, eat, drink and rejoice! Educated in this life of communion, sustained by the presence of Christ, they have received the instruction they need to move out into the world without anxiety and fear.

This was always my hope. Now I have begun to see the proof.

Our eldest daughter often remarks about how blessed she is to have grown up in this community. Even at age 20, Kate recognizes the difference between her own childhood and that of many of her peers. She is mature enough to recognize the security about human life that she has been given, a security that was first fostered, nurtured and tended here at St. John’s. Now when she has a trouble or difficulty, Kate knows where the Blessed Sacrament resides on campus. She knows that this Presence is both the source and the fulfillment of her own desire to live in genuine companionship with her college friends and the new people she meets. She has learned that only by trusting and living faithfully in his secure Presence can her life with others become transformed into “a communion of persons” who can truly love and care for each other. Because of this, I believe that she has been extremely well-educated. As a parent, I have watched her grow in confidence and peace. She has been set on the path that will sustain her life.

“Without me, you can do nothing,” Jesus Christ has told us (John15:5). The deeper our family has recognized and experienced his living Presence among us at St. John’s—through the love and care we have received here through these people—the more joyfully we have also been able to recognize the beauty of every aspect of our lives, even in the midst of all of our sorrows and difficulties.

Back in 1990 as a “younger mom,” I could never have anticipated the grace-filled result of our school choice in the heart of parish life. Today as an “older mom” (with the wrinkles to prove it), I can see that the decision to put down deep roots here in this place has had an eternal impact on every member of our family. What an amazing gift!