GrACE Newsletter

As we enter Advent and begin our watch for the coming of Christ, GrACE acknowledges with deep gratitude the essential service of our Catholic school trustees and educators.

Your steady leadership, faithful witness, and daily dedication carry the gift of Catholic education into every classroom and community across Alberta, the Northwest Territories, and the Yukon. You safeguard what generations before us built and ensure our children inherit schools grounded in Christ and enriched by the enduring treasures of our Catholic heritage.

Welcoming Our New Archbishop

This Advent, as the Church waits in hope for the birth of the Lord, we joyfully welcome His Grace, Archbishop Stephen Hero, newly appointed to shepherd the Archdiocese of Edmonton. His prayerfulness, pastoral wisdom, and quiet strength will serve the faithful of central Alberta with humility and conviction.

His appointment comes at a moment when Advent invites us to renewed trust in God’s providence. The arrival of a new archbishop reminds us that Christ Himself continues to guide His Church, raising up pastors who proclaim the Gospel with clarity and serve God’s people with generous hearts.

Across our schools, parishes, and families, we hold him in prayer as he embraces this sacred responsibility. May the Holy Spirit be his counsel, Our Lady his protection, and Christ his constant light as he begins this ministry.

GrACE looks forward to walking with him in our shared mission of Catholic education—rooted in the Gospel, faithful to the Church, and devoted to forming young people in truth, virtue, and hope.

A Christmas Blessing

As we draw near to the Nativity of Christ, may His peace rest upon your homes.

May He strengthen your hope, deepen your joy, and bless your vocation within Catholic education.

May His light guide every step of your work and uphold all that has been entrusted to our care.

With deep gratitude for your witness, your prayers, and your unwavering dedication,

Blessings and much love.

'Jesus, I trust in You'!

Kate

Executive Director | GrACE

We are blessed this Advent by the guidance of Most Reverend William T. McGrattan,

Bishop of Calgary and Alberta’s Liaison Bishop for Catholic Education.

In this role, Bishop McGrattan represents the collective pastoral leadership of Alberta’s bishops in their oversight of Catholic education. His ministry ensures that our schools remain firmly rooted in the teachings, identity, and mission of the Church. Catholic education is not simply a public system — it is a work of the Church herself, forming disciples in truth and love.

This season, Bishop McGrattan offers his encouragement to all who serve:

“May this holy season renew your hearts with hope as you prepare to welcome Christ. May His light guide your work in Catholic education and strengthen the mission entrusted to you.”— Most Reverend William T. McGrattan, Liaison Bishop for Catholic Education

“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.”— Isaiah 9:2

Advent reminds us that Christ comes quietly — through the humble, the prayerful, and the faithful.

In Catholic education, that same quiet faithfulness is lived out every day by the ordinary Catholics who stand behind our schools. Trustees and educators do not stand alone — the faithful walk with them.

Our Catholic trustees and educators do not carry their mission alone. They are accompanied by parishioners who pray for them, families who entrust their children to them, clergy who guide them, and countless Catholics whose quiet fidelity strengthens the whole system.

These are the people who show up at Christmas concerts, parish masses, sacraments, food drives, and classrooms — not for recognition, but out of love for Christ and hope for the next generation.

Their encouragement, their prayers, and their presence remind us that Catholic education is not simply a program.

It is a communion of believers preparing the way for Christ — together.

This Advent, we honour those faithful Catholics who walk with our trustees and educators, supporting them with the same steady hope that marks this holy season.

Advent reminds us that Christ is revealed not through argument, but through presence.

Every time a trustee leads with integrity, or a teacher forms a child in faith, Christ becomes visible.

We do not simply speak about Catholic education — we reveal Christ alive within it. Catholic education exists so that young people may encounter Christ.

• He is present in your courage.
• He is present in your compassion.
• He is present in every classroom where truth is taught with love.

Catholic education exists so that young people may encounter Christ — the One who comes quietly, faithfully, and with transforming grace.

Advent is the Church’s reminder that God works in the hidden and the humble.

Catholic education continues because ordinary Catholics choose fidelity over comfort and witness over silence.

A movement never begins in power. It begins in the heart of one person who refuses to lose hope. And when many hearts burn with that same hope, renewal begins.

Catholic education endures because Christ has never stopped dwelling among His people.

This Advent, our task is simple and profound:

In making room, we renew our mission. In renewing our mission, we strengthen our schools. And in strengthening our schools, we honour the gift entrusted to us by generations who came before us.

“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.”— Isaiah 9:2

Let us walk as people of that light.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel!

We are blessed in Alberta with fully publicly funded Catholic education — a unique and hard-won gift that generations safeguarded before us. It remains one of the most precious contributions the Church offers to society: schools where Christ is known, loved, and proclaimed; where truth is taught with clarity; and where young people encounter a living faith rooted in the tradition of the Church.

GrACE’s monthly newsletter continues this mission by strengthening a province-wide Catholic community and lifting up the stories that show Catholic education at its best. Across Alberta, there is no shortage of witness — classrooms alive with learning, parishes partnering with schools, and educators forming students in mind, heart, and spirit.

Catholic education is more than a system. It is a 2,000-year inheritance carried forward by our schools, colleges, universities, and by every educator committed to academic excellence shaped by the Gospel and the teachings of the Church.

As grateful advocates and leaders within Catholic education, we have a responsibility to showcase the unmistakable Catholic identity of our schools. Share the stories, traditions, liturgies, acts of service, and daily moments of grace that reveal who we are and what we cherish.

Your school’s faith life is not an “add-on” — it is the heart of the mission. When we celebrate it openly, we strengthen our students, encourage our families, and give public witness to the beauty and purpose of Catholic education.

December draws us into the quiet hope of Advent and the joyful anticipation of Christ’s birth. In our Catholic schools, these weeks are a treasured time when faith becomes visible—through prayer, generosity, and tradition that connects us to generations before us.

Schools are encouraged to highlight their Advent practices: prayer services, Jesse Trees, Nativity plays, classroom wreath lighting, acts of charity, and parish connections.

May your December submissions show how your school is preparing room for Christ—with reverence, beauty, and the hope that anchors our Catholic identity.

Follow GrACE on Facebook and Twitter. Post your pictures and tag us so we can share them and celebrate too. Thanks for being a grateful advocate of Catholic education! @GrACE4cathed

GrACE Facebook address is www.facebook.com/GrACE4cathed

Grace email is gracedirector7@gmail.com

GrACE Twitter address is @GrACE4cathed

Instagram: @grace4catholiceducation

• Sign up for GrACE’s monthly newsletter
• Share GrACE’s monthly Newsletter
• Celebrate Catholic schools and Catholic education
• Provide information to share in GrACE’s monthly newsletter
• Tell your positive stories and benefits from your Catholic school(s) and Catholic education
• Subscribe to GrACE’s Facebook; Twitter (X), and social media pages
• Encourage parents to become more actively involved in GrACE
• Support local GrACE group in your parish
• Ensure the GrACE database has your correct contact information
• Encourage a sense of collective responsibility in upholding the mission and values of Catholic education in our shared society
• Make a stand for Catholic schools and Catholic education in Alberta and beyond
• Assert your choice in favour of Catholic schools/Catholic education and its values
• Champion the benefits of Catholic schools and Catholic education, alongside its broader implications for the spiritual, intellectual, and social development of individuals and society as a whole
• Be active in the GrACE movement
• Post your pictures and tag us so we can share them and celebrate too

Student volunteers are warmly invited to represent their School in GrACE’s

social media campaign, new outreach, and database development.

All thoughts on how we can we better utilize technology platforms to ensure timely and effective communication within the wider Catholic education family and beyond will be gratefully received.

Please email gracedirector7@gmail.com to express interest and suggestions.

• GrACE Alberta - Catholic Education Week
• 'Instruction of the Congregation for Catholic Education, ‘The identity of the Catholic school for a culture of dialogue, from the Vatican, 2022
• Growing in Faith Symposium — 5 Marks of Catholic Education
• CCSSA Catholic Leadership Quality Standards
• 5 Marks of an Excellent Catholic Leader
• The Excellent Catholic Teacher
• Calgary Catholic Schools
• Redeemer Revelations

Together, let us reclaim what is eternal. Catholic education is not merely surviving—it is reviving!