Spiritual Seekers

In this Q&A from the Spring ’25 issue of Sacred Heart Magazine, SHS Director of Mission & Ministry Kate Motroni-Fish reflects on what it means to be a Catholic school in the 21st century. She emphasizes the importance of cultivating spirituality and meaning across diverse faith traditions and fostering a community where all students can engage with life questions and find meaning. Motroni-Fish exemplifies the values of Sacred Heart’s inclusive approach, blending tradition and innovation to guide students in becoming spiritual seekers and compassionate leaders in a divided world.



 

The word Catholic in itself really has two meanings—Catholic with a capital “C” refers to the organized religion of Roman Catholicism while catholic with a lowercase “c” means universal. Catholics believe that whether you are Catholic in your religious tradition or not, there is something that can be found for everyone. I always tell people you don’t have to believe that Jesus was the Son of God to find wisdom. If you believe in forgiveness, justice, compassion, love—you can find a connection to Jesus. I went to a Catholic high school and a very good friend of mine who is Hindu told me that even though he was not of the faith tradition, he found great comfort in the rituals of the Catholic faith and that there were so many intersections with his own faith’s worldview that it, in turn, made him a better Hindu as it allowed him to think about his own faith.

That is exactly what we strive to do here at Sacred Heart. We want our Catholic students to come out better Catholics, our Jewish students to come out better Jews, our Muslim students to come out better Muslims, and our Buddhist students come out better Buddhists. Whatever the faith tradition our students come from, we want them to be spiritual seekers that ask the big questions in life and are open to the many different wisdoms and perspectives of the world. We honor both “big C Catholic” and “little c catholic” in a variety of ways. Our students are formed in the rituals and traditions of the Catholic faith tradition as a model of how we might seek these higher truths. When students attend Masses and other liturgical experiences across campus, we want as many students involved as possible regardless of faith tradition. There is a place at the table for all. When we discuss moral and ethical issues in class, we use a multifaith lens as we know many of our students are wanting to apply their own traditions to what they are learning. It is important that we hear across faith lines because God expands beyond our humanly created faith lines as well.

 

 

First off, let’s talk a little bit about charism and what that means. I love this definition by Sr. Annie Klapheke, SC: “Charism is not easy to define. I offer this as a simple definition: charism is a gift from God for the church and the world, given as different ways of living out the Gospel.” All religious orders have a particular charism, or gift, that they offer to the world through their spiritual practices. The Religious of the Sacred Heart (RSCJ), our founding order, has a particular charism—to show the world the loving face of God. When St. Madeleine Sophie was trying to figure out how to go about this task, she felt that education was the way to do it. The RSCJ developed a spirituality and a way of educating that they have documented over time and continue to update. The Sisters who previously led schools were immersed in this spirituality in a way that no layperson is able to. What we can and are called to do is to learn from these writings and documents, as well as to engage the Sisters in teaching us. Recently we were blessed to have two RSCJ—Sr. Barbara Dawson, former superior general, as well as Sr. Suzanne Cooke, provincial of the United States and Canada Province—come and speak with us about how we might live out this charism in a world that feels more and more divided each day. They reminded us that St. Madeleine Sophie was developing this order in a time of great divide as well. There is wisdom that we must mine from within the writings and teachings of our foundresses. We must remain in dialogue with the RSCJ in order to learn from their experiences and discernment. Here at SHS, we have a direct line to many of these Sisters who live on our campus and still work in their ministries. We are standing on the shoulders of a deep and rich history and tradition. The continuing job of our educators and administrators therefore is to keep the traditions live and present.

 

 

What draws me personally to Sacred Heart education, both as an educator and minister but also as a parent of Sacred Heart students, is our expansive view and understanding of God. I remember sitting in a class in graduate school and our professor T. Howland Sanks, S.J. said, “Catholics believe that all descriptions of God are metaphors—they only really capture a small piece of what God is. God is like a father, but no father we have ever known. God is like a mother, but no mother we have ever known. We are limited by our human capacities and limitations to ever fully come to comprehend God. That is the great mystery that is God. We can, however, come to know God.” What he meant by “to know” is to be in relationship with. God can be found in so many places—God is so expansive and beyond anything we’ll ever understand. Many spiritualities give you a recipe for knowing God and if you follow that recipe, Boom!: God. What is so beautiful about this spirituality that we live out each day and the spirituality of our charism, is that it says we already have the capacity to know God and be in relationship, that if we listen closely, and take the time and silence, we don’t need a specific recipe. We certainly need guideposts such as our traditions and rituals. Those help point the way. What this also says is that we can also find God in the community of a sports team, or in the spark of inspiration that we gain when we read a poem. God is alive in the world around us, and we are constantly being invited into relationship with God. We take seriously the child’s capacity for spiritual seeking. They often see God in the places where adults struggle the most. We encourage our students to explore those avenues—to see God everywhere around them.

 

 

According to the Congregation for Catholic Education’s writing, “The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School,” Catholic school educators are invited into the vocation of teaching. What this means is that teaching isn’t just about showing up, teaching the content, and then calling it a day when the bell rings. A vocation is about using one’s work to move the world closer to the Kingdom of God.

 

All work has the ability to be a vocation if it is combining the skills that you are blessed with, the joy that you both give and receive from this work, and if it matches the needs of the world and seeks to meet those needs. For teachers, part of this vocational work is a commitment to be models of whole humans—mentally and spiritually whole adults. One thing that Sr. Cooke invited us all to think about when she came and spoke was, “When young people look at the adults in their lives, do they look at them and say, ‘I want to be a grown up one day.’?” We hope our educators are as committed to cultivating their own interior life of prayer and silence as they are to mastering their subject matter. By doing so, they can model a way of life that inspires students to think, “I want to get there. It’s a good thing to be an adult in this world.” Without that, there can be few spaces for hope. While not all of our educators are Catholic, they are dedicated to developing a life of prayer, of balance, and of deep listening to God.

 

There are so many examples it is really hard to pick just one! I think what has impressed me most this year is watching our students navigate the increasingly evident political divide in our country.

 

This weighed heavily on many students, who decided they didn’t want it to happen at SHP. Groups like Young Americans for Freedom and SURJ (Social Unity Rooted in Justice) came together to think through, alongside educators, how to educate students on topics and concerns related to the upcoming election. They organized educational panels, media literacy education, listening circles, watch parties, and prayer groups to discern how we might walk together through a time that can be filled with tension and strife. The students had one major concern in common: dignity for all. How do we make sure that all students, no matter where they fall politically, are being respected and treated as a bearer of God? This is not to say that it was always easy “kumbaya” moments—it was work that required a huge amount of flexibility, deep listening, and understanding. Perhaps we as adults can learn from these students.

 

 

Each year, more and more students feel called to careers in fields like environmental law, medical research, or running non-profit organizations. These are all excellent examples of how they are applying their study of ethics and Catholic Social Teaching to work that helps bring the world closer to God’s vision. The stories I am always most intrigued by are the ways in which many of our students are quietly finding connections. A few years ago, I had a student who, through his study of his Native American heritage in conjunction with what he was studying in classes, was moved to think about land usage differently. In fact, he planned at that time to eventually go into land development or real estate. One thing that he wanted to keep in mind in his future was building relationships with the tribes of those areas before development and having representatives be a part of the planning process. This is not always done in land development, but he believed this was his best place to start—by establishing relationships and bringing people to the table. Relationship is where everything starts in a Sacred Heart education.

 

 

I taught Christian Scriptures for many years and one of my favorite lessons was looking at the Kingdom of God and how we define it. We identify that it is different from a utopian society in that it allows for our humanity and our imperfections while always leading us to forgiveness and reconciliation. There is always a road back into right relationship. I give my elevator pitch to the students and say, “Alright, who is onboard?” I regularly get reactions from rolled eyes to laughter—and not an “Oh, I am so excited for this Mrs. Mo-Fish” kind of giggle—more of a “Yeah right, that will never happen” kind of scoff. We then always go on to talk about how we as humans are incredibly creative in what we make and the ways in which we organize ourselves. Why couldn’t it be a different way? A hope-filled education is one that deeply understands the challenge from the perspective of those impacted and then moves toward action and advocacy. A Sacred Heart education invites students to develop a life of discernment, where they take the time to stop and to pray, to listen deeply to how God is calling them to be the loving face of God in the world.

 

An example I can think of that requires this entrepreneurial mindset is our implementation of restorative justice practices. Mother Teresa said, “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” At the root of restorative justice is the belief that we as people are meant to be connected and in community. When we inflict harm upon one another, we take the time as a community to understand the impact of our actions, and work toward forgiveness and healing of the relationship that has been broken. This looks very different from the traditional discipline models that many of us knew from our school days. This is a process where the focus is not on who did the wrong and how do we punish them, but why did this act happen, who was impacted, and how do we forgive what happened and move forward in community? This change in perspective takes an entrepreneurial mindset—one of risk and of diving into the unknown with hope and openness to what might emerge.

 

 

Last year for our celebration of the “Educating for a Lifetime” campaign, SHP Assistant Principal of Instruction & Faculty Development Dr. Diana Neebe spoke about the joys and the struggles of teaching today. She talked about the struggles students are facing today with mental health. She discussed the impacts of the pandemic on learning and the lift that it required to shift to online learning so quickly. She named the realities of the world that our students are exposed to through constant access to media. As she mentioned challenge after challenge, she also talked about the ways in which the Goals and Criteria are a response to each of these challenges. It is so true. I find that the more time that we ground ourselves in God by creating an interior life, when we face the world with curiosity, we find ourselves wanting to engage in the world and in community in relationship with others, and when we are in right relationship, we continue to create a world for ourselves and others where we can continue making the choices which lead us to a good life. The Goals and Criteria are not a “how-to” list, but a lens for viewing the world. We hope that our graduates and their families have developed this way of viewing the world and therefore can’t help but use the Goals and Criteria beyond our campus walls.

 

 

We are excited to meet the moment with new ways of inviting people into our mission. As I mentioned earlier, we are in a new era and therefore, we are exploring new ways of connecting with our students and families that fit into the rhythm of their lives. One exciting addition to our department has been Fr. John Whitney, S.J., who has been placed here to minister to our community. He has been loving visiting classes and working with the students. He has done everything from leading Ignatian Contemplation with our sophomore English classes to table Masses on retreat with our Middle School. He even did lessons with our second graders on alliteration and poetic imagination. We are seeing students excited to listen to his homilies and inviting him to lead their teams in prayer. Building that relationship with the students is a new doorway into our faith community.

 

Along with Fr. Whitney, our Mission & Ministry team is excited to engage our adult community in new ways as well. We aim to increase awareness within our parent community about how students are growing in their faith. We also want to support our parents in engaging their families in spirituality and prayer at home and in community.

 

Last, we know that our community is far and wide, especially our alumni, and we want to keep everyone connected to the stories of the day-to- day lives of our students and faculty. We have launched a new short-form video series, “Mission & Meaning Minute,” that focuses on really specific stories of students and faculty living out the mission day to day in just over 60 seconds. As we continue to build these connections, we are excited to see how our shared faith and experiences will grow and strengthen the bonds within our entire community.