Do you ever get that feeling that our modern world just isn't that exciting and life-giving? Perhaps strolling through Facebook or Instagram just isn't feeding you the way you know you need to be fed?
Please notice the beauty, order and imagination of the above picture which is Saint-Chapelle in Paris. In this space we have unity, harmony and brilliance, the three components of true beauty. When you see this you are experiencing truth at its highest level because you can't do anything else. Case in point: How many of you have enjoyed watching some show and are eating food and perhaps talking with a friend? You would have no desire to do this when confronted with THIS real beauty. This is one example of what the Catholic Church offers and what we at Chesterton Academy help demonstrate for our students.
Some might say, 'well that's interesting, but lots of things look beautiful and I enjoy all kinds of different things in life what is the point of it all, why the big deal?" The simple and profound answer to that is because it directs our whole mind and soul to the Truth. A fixed gaze on anything less is really a waste and futile. For example, imagine you say to your young son, "look at my new iPhone while you stand in Yosemite National Park gazing up at a waterfall?
Your son would ask what YOUR point is when objectively true beauty is staring and imposing itself right in your face! That intrepid young son of yours won't likely point you to the minds of Aristotle and Aquinas, but he knows deep in his bones what realness and truth are. At Chesterton, our goal is to always pursue like a hunting dog that greatness because it is worthy of pursuit and never boring!
Folks, we have embraced absurd pleasures and clung to earthly safety too much. Satan hates God's creation and beauty, he wants us to be satisfied with lowly things like him and not acknowledge, embrace, proclaim and live in Beauty.
At Chesterton Academy our curriculum looks different because we have acknowledged beauty, structure and truth and pursue it without hesitation. We have the goal of leading students to God through formation not simply information. We understand the world is desperate for spiritually formed young adults who know why God made them and that His world is both imaginative and structured. We are resolute in shattering the myth that we are all just evolutionary accidents on our way to oblivion, but rather climbing (often stumbling) to glory with God forever because we have been made for that!
In conclusion, I ask again to please look at another image. This spring anemone is just one of billions of imaginative gifts that God has given us. I am waiting patiently in our garden for mine to arise and so we too must arise in this great new springtime in Green Bay for Catholic education.
Please pray and discern in your family if giving to our beautiful endeavor is something you feel called to do. May God bless you all in this Eastertide!
AMDG,
Patrick McKeown
Headmaster of Chesterton Academy of St. John Paul II Classical School
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