School mascot with text

St. Mary's Families,  

Again, please read carefully.  There is a lot of info below (perhaps a small bit of humor as well).   

Saint Catharine of Bologna, pray for us.
-- Read more about St. Catharine: https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-catharine-of-bologna/
-- Daily Mass readings: http://cms.usccb.org/bible/readings/032820.cfm

Updates.
-- The student VIDEO CONTEST is underway!  Have your students review the president's video in the News section of the school website for details.  PRIZES AWARDED, social media viewership GUARANTEED, fame and fortune await...  Well... Maybe...  First place is a $100 Dutch Bros gift card, or a $100 Scrip gift card of winners choice. Additional prizes for second and third places.  Details in the video: www.smpirates.org/article/220318?org=smhs   

Cool Stuff!
-- CHECK IT OUT!  St. Mary's girls basketball on ESPN!  
www.facebook.com/SMHSColorado/videos/773256996535361/?epa=SEARCH_BOX  

COVID-19 coronavirus.  
-- Approaching 1,500 cases in Colorado.  COVID-19 trivia:  My home state of SOUTH DAKOTA has the least number of cases (46) of any state.  Either they grow us STURDY up there, or SOCIAL DISTANCE is just a part of life in the Rushmore State...  I'm going to say it's a little bit of both.... www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html    

What's Next?  
-- Less than two days until we have the OPPORTUNITY to resume our structured learning.  Aren't we BLESSED that we are allowed to attend school?  

How you can help
-- We need student (and parent) videos and photos for social media and for the online Gala.  This is IN ADDITION to the student video contest.  The CONTEST has specific rules (see the president's video on the school web site).  We also need non-contest videos and photos for both social media and for the online Gala, and those videos have no specific rules (other than being in GOOD TASTE!).  Funny, faithful, moving, informative, whatever excites your inner videographer.  Send them to our Communication Director Amy Partain:  apartain@smhccs.org
-- Our very good friends at Catholic Charities of Central Colorado are closing their online auction at noon, this Monday.  They do GREAT work for our community, our students are regular volunteers at the Marian House soup kitchen, and their work is more important than ever before.  The link to the auction is here: www.fox.com/the-iheart-living-room-concert-for-america/  

How are your students doing?  
-- Take a break and relax as a family.  TOMORROW night (Sunday, March 29) put down that awesome book you've been reading (right?) and turn on your television set at 7 pm (MDT) for the iHeart Living Room Concert for America: www.fox.com/the-iheart-living-room-concert-for-america/   

Thought for the Day.
-- These are difficult and challenging times we're living in right now.  For PERSPECTIVE, we might look to others who suffered.  The story of the Christian experience is filled with suffering and martyrs.  But perhaps we can look to more recent history for motivation to PERSEVERE.  Let me share with you a thought from Dr. Viktor Frankl (1905-1997).  Dr. Frankl was an Austrian psychiatrist and neurologist.  He was also Jewish, and it was his Jewish nature that resulted in his being incarcerated in multiple Nazi concentration camps during World War II.  Dr. Frankl survived that horrific experience.  Except for one sister, every member of his family, including his wife and his parents, were killed in the camps.  Frankl knew and experienced the meaning of suffering.  In his most famous book, Man's Search for Meaning, he says this:  
-- "Everything can be taken from a man but one thing:  the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."  I invite you to make the most of our much less difficult "incarceration." 
-- I invite you to CHOOSE your attitude.    

Prayer.  
-- Better attitudes come from better prayer habits.  Please continue to pray with us and pray with our community:  

THE MEMORARE
Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary,
that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection,
implored thy help, or sought thy intercession, was left unaided.
Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother.
To thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful.
O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions,
but in thy mercy, hear and answer me.
Amen.  

Respectfully,
Rob Rysavy
President
St. Mary's High School