CAS NorCal Convocation Brings Together Chesterton Students from Across Northern California

by Mr. Harrison Brehm, Headmaster

At the end of Catholic Schools Week, we were blessed to gather all four Chesterton Academies in California under one roof for a day of celebration, learning, camaraderie, and prayer.  Our school doubled in size as we welcomed students from the Chesterton Academies in Yuba City, Dixon, and Menlo Park to our Sacramento campus.  While there is so much that we could share about our time together, one of the most important facets of the day was the students seeing that they were part of something bigger.

I mean this in two ways.  First, the students saw that there were students from other Chesterton Academies, who also were doing what they were doing — putting on the uniform, participating in Mass daily, reading the classics, dancing, singing, and experiencing beauty.  Second, and even more importantly, our students got to see and be examples of the faith lived out.  They supported one another in this.  Now more than ever, we are called to be in the world but not of the world, and for young people, this can feel isolating.  Youth is a precarious stage as children seek identity and are looking around themselves to see what sort of person they wish to become.  The world does not merely fail to provide Catholic examples, but actively discourages and ridicules any piety, morality, religiosity, or even normalcy.  Therefore, our students, like the disciples in the Upper Room, support one another in their example and prayer.

This is why Chesterton Academy is here.  To set the world on fire with the love of God.  To restore joy, beauty, and truth to a weary world.  And to not be alone in that process.