#LasallianLife
Saint Lucy's
December 8, 2022
This past week, a group of CBA students, parents, and alumni joined together to volunteer at the Saint Lucy’s Christmas Drive. Saint Lucy’s Catholic Church serves a wonderful community, many of whom reside in an area of high economic poverty on the Near Westside of Syracuse. Each year, Saint Lucy’s opens the historic gym doors of their former school to offer residents an opportunity to “shop” for free Christmas gifts for themselves and their families.
In preparation for the event, our Alumni Association assisted by purchasing $500 worth of toiletries. Our school community shopped, organized, and packaged the toiletries into several hundred individual bags. The amount of preparation was significant but yielded gifts that made a beautiful impact during this Christmas season!
The preparation of the toiletries and participation in the drive stirred a memory of a remark from a homily by Father Enrico Hernandez at the Lasallian Huether Conference:
“You cannot give a gift that you do not have.”
Our Lasallian education focuses on developing the unique gifts of each young person entrusted to our care - gifts that they will eventually share with the world. The Advent Season reminds us to continue to “prepare” these gifts within our students and within ourselves.
To provide wisdom, we must first develop a wise mind.
To instill faith, we must first strengthen our own trust in God.
To inspire joy, we must first find joy in our own hearts.
To build peace, we must first live in peace with others.
Each year, I am sincerely proud of the various ways that our CBA students, parents, faculty, staff, and alumni share their own unique gifts and talents with the world. The preparation will always be significant, we know no other way, but each of the gifts from our CBA family have a beautiful impact far and wide!
God bless,
Mr. Matthew Keough
President, Christian Brothers Academy
