Date: 12 February 2016
Weekly Memorandum No. 2016 – 2.2
TO: AdZUHS Community
FROM: Father Principal
1. Principal’s Message:
The end of the school year always presents a challenge. We have worked very hard, and there is a tendency to start taking it easy. But it is important to remember that no instructional days are inconsequential or expendable. The last days are as important as the first. What happens in the waning days of the school year can have an enormous impact upon a student’s impression of a subject and teacher.
Indeed, the efforts and achievements of an entire team can be dissipated in the final days of a term if those days are spent unproductively. What has been carefully developed can begin to erode if the same effort that went into the early part of the year is not invested in its last days.
Happily, I think we are meeting “the challenge of February.” A few days ago, as I walked around the building, I found meaningful instruction going on in nearly every room. Keep up the good work! With this kind of commitment and resolve, we can continue to make the end of the year as exciting as the beginning.
1. Faculty Updates:
a. Mr. Roderick Balucahas been invited to be a speaker in a conference at the University of La Salette in Santiago, Isabela province (Cagayan Valley) on February 20, 2016. The Conference is sponsored by REAP (Resource for Educators and Academic Professionals) in partnership with Rex Bookstore, Inc. Mrs. Gelina M. Tuangco will be the OIC Department Chair from February 19 (Friday) to February 22 (Monday).
b. Mr. James De Los Reyes and Mr. Jayson Mahillum will be on leave from February 15 – 19 as part of the PEAC-FAPE team to monitor GASTPE-ESC participating schools in Northern Mindanao. Ms. Rosie Ledesma will supervise the classes of Mr. De los Reyes while Mr. Mahilum’s classes will be monitored by Ms. Marilin Bentoy and Ms. Fhadzmalyn Issan.
c. Congratulations to Carlo Rafael San Agustin of Gr. 10 Ignatius of Loyola for ranking 6th place in Science Quiz (HS Individual Category) during the 13th National Science Quest on February 5 – 7, 2016 in Baguio City. We thank Mr. Jeffrey Barrera for coaching and accompanying our contestant to the said competition.
2. Activities and Events for February 15 – 20, 2016 (Review week for Grade 10)
a. February 15, Mon. * 7AM: Monday Assembly Sponsors: Ateneo Debate Congress (ADC) and Book Lovers’ Club
Moderators: Mr. Rowil H. Santinlo and Ms. Arlene Gail D. Esperat
b. February 16, Tue. *
c. February 17, Wed. * 7AM: Class Mass c/o Gr. 9 Realino (Moderator: Ms. Christina Alegado)
d. February 18, Thur. *
e. February 19, Fri. * 7AM: Class Mass c/o Gr. 7 Faber(Moderator: Bro. Eric Esteba, SJ)
f. February 20, Sat. *** 8AM – 12 NN: Voter’s Political Education session: “Voice of Zamboanga (VOZ): A Political Discourse.” Facilitators: Ms. Ruth Guerrero, Mr. Ryan Bango, and Mrs. Aurora Gonzalez.
***This is a must for all faculty and staff; however, those who are not able to attend the session will please write a letter addressed to Fr. Principal by February 17, Wednesday.
3. Lenten Reflections:
Jay Cormier
We spend much of our lives in one desert or another; we travel through many wildernesses in the course of our days: terrifying, confusing, intimidating times and places when and where every move is a tentative step into the unknown.
We have all found ourselves in deserts of waiting, of emptiness, of indecision. We have all wandered through the wilderness of rejection, of anger, of despair. In these stark and empty places, we look for some cairn of God’s presence, some oasis of God’s presence, some oasis of God’s grace. Unemployment and the anxious search for a new job, a shattered relationship and the mending of a broken heart, the difficult ending of one phase of life and the unsure transition into a new – all deserts calling us to new decisions, all wildernesses through which we seek a new path home.
Every Lent the Spirit of God that drove Jesus into the desert drives us into the desert of our hearts, into the wilderness within us where God dwells. The desert of our hearts is the silent place where God speaks to us of hope and encouragement; it is the quiet wood where we clear our heads to realize what is right and good; it is the brought vista that opens our eyes to realize the path we should take if we are to become the people of justice and righteousness that we seek to become.
In this Lenten springtime, the Spirit calls our souls into the desert in order to discern what God calls us to make of the time we have been given, to re-center our lives with new hope and renewed vision as we continue our journey to the Easter promise. Every important decision we make in our lives takes place in that journey with Jesus; every milestone, every first experience, begins in that wilderness with Christ.
These six weeks are a desert journey of the heart with Jesus; We follow him from his desert retreat to the Mount of the Transfiguration, from his teaching and preaching in the Galilean countryside to Jerusalem, from his Passover supper with his closest friends to the Passover of his body and spirit, from the cross of Good Friday to the empty tomb of Easter morning. . .
Source:
Jay Cormier, Not by Bread Alone: Reflections for Lent 2015.
