ischmalzried

“The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.” - Isaiah 60:3 The joy that is felt on Christmas day, as we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ is truly beautiful. Many of us can look back on Christmas and reflect on memories with family and friends. These memories could be going to the Christmas Eve Vigil, spending time with loved ones, baking family recipes, or getting that one special gift that you will never forget. My favorite memories as a child were spending time with my grandparents, eating my aunt's famous Christmas [...]

Each time before my students take a test, I make it a point to ask if they have any last minute questions they want answered before we begin the assessment. A few weeks ago in seventh grade, I presented this question to the class and one eager hand shot into the air. Anticipating a question about solving equations, as this was the topic of our assessment, I was met instead with a much more profound question: Was Math something that was created or is it something that we have discovered over time? In that moment I was struck by the way [...]

The Advent season is a beautiful time of preparation that invites us to focus our hearts and minds on Christ’s promises—His glorious second coming and the joyful celebration of His birth at Christmas. It’s a season that calls us to be vigilant and ready, setting aside distractions and worldly concerns (Lk 21:34-36). Much like Lent, the liturgical color of Advent is purple, reflecting a spirit of penance and preparation. This season encourages us to quiet our minds, practice discipline, and make space for Christ. One meaningful way to enter into this spirit is by participating in the Nativity Fast, also known [...]

Eyes beaming, my five-year-old son Michael handed me a block of wood with a face scribbled on one surface. Nailed to the bottom were two small wheels salvaged from a closet renovation. "It's a robot," he proclaimed proudly, "I made it to clean the bathroom for you!"   Moments later, Michael pulled back from my embrace, asking, "Mama, do you want me to make another robot that can put Caroline and me to bed at night?"  "No," I said, locking eyes with him and smiling, "That is what I am made for."   Knowing what we are made for - or better yet, [...]

Advent - a season of waiting, expecting, anticipating, and preparing. In many ways, the past two years have been an "advent" for me, and perhaps for some of you as well. We have been waiting for funds to be raised, plans to be drawn, builders to be hired, ground to be broken, foundations to be dried, building to begin, delays to cease, inspections to be passed - praying and anticipating all the while. Waiting is difficult and tedious, but must be endured. We do not like to wait! The Church in its wisdom gives us this season of Advent to reflect, [...]

One of my absolute favorite things to teach is fairy tales. Kind-hearted, beautiful princesses and courageous, daring princes, magical enchantments and talking animals, benevolent fairies disguised as stately ladies and wicked dwarves, snowy woods and enchanted gardens, cabbages that are really people and rings that transport you when you twist them – it’s all so magical and wondrous!  Fairy tales seem to be one of the things that I love as much as, if not even more than, my students. And while brilliant authors like George MacDonald, C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, and Vigen Guroian have written extensively on the incredible benefits of [...]

“America the beautiful! So you sing in one of your national songs. Yes, America, you are beautiful indeed, and blessed in so many ways,” said Pope John Paul II in his 1987 visit to America.  Blessed in so many ways. Especially during November, gratitude is such an important virtue to remember. Our gratitude towards the country from which we came is what the Catechism calls a duty (CCC 2239). Similarly, to how we owe respect out of justice to our parents for providing our basic needs and upbringing, so too are we obligated as Catholics to have a love for a [...]

All Saints Day is my favorite day at St. Benedict Classical Academy. This day makes visible an invisible reality: that I am surrounded by little saints each day I go to work. Each day as I walk across the turf field from my classroom in our St. Gertrude building to the main Schoolhouse I traverse simultaneous football and soccer games, a few basketballs, a handful of jump ropes, and at least three make-believe worlds. Typically, there is much that distracts us from the glory these young saints offer to God through their prayer, work, and play. But on All Saints Day, [...]

On Mondays at 10:00 AM, it takes about twenty-nine minutes for me to drive north from my house to St. Benedict Classical Academy. But I don’t leave at 10:00 AM... I leave at 7:05 AM, along with my daughter and two other students who live ten minutes farther from school. Then we drive another ten minutes to pick up three more SBCA students. With a car full of chattering children, we embark on the 11-mile drive to school. At 10:00 AM, this would take twenty minutes, but I am driving (along with the over 150 other families) at 7:30 AM - [...]