The Woodlands community gathered today to celebrate the Solemnity of All Saints with a Mass that also honored one of our founding mothers, Janet Erskine Stuart, RSCJ. Head of House Stuart, Mr. Brendan Bond, led with a reflection on Mother Stuart. House Stuart President Ida Psencik '25 provided the student reflection.

 

Faculty Reflection by Mr. Brendan Bond

Good morning, and welcome to Woodlands Academy’s All Saints Day Mass, which also honors and celebrates Mother Janet Erskine Stuart, an important member of our Sacred Heart family. I warmly welcome any guests visiting us today, especially our celebrant, Fr. Radley. 

We gratefully acknowledge that our school stands on the ancestral homelands of the Council of Three Fires: the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi. We also gratefully acknowledge the many peoples this land was important to; the Peoria, Ho-Chunk, Kickapoo, Myaamia, and many others who walked this land before us. 

We come together as a community today to celebrate Mass during an exciting stretch of the Christian calendar. Yesterday was All Hallow’s Eve, today is the Feast of All Saints or All Hallow’s Day, and tomorrow is All Souls Day. Today also marks the start of the Dias de Los Muertos celebration.

These days are an invitation to celebrate and remember those who have gone before us. We reflect on the lives they lived, and the examples they gave us on how to live lives of love and service. I reflect on my Grandma Fran today, an artist and educator who taught me the value of education and also modeled the joy of creating art. 

I also reflect on Mother Stuart today. As the head of House Stuart, I am honored to carry on Mother Stuart’s--and my grandmother’s--legacy of education. Growing up, my grandmother stressed the importance of education and being a lifelong learner, and Mother Stuart does the same in her writings. She was intellectually gifted, studying philosophy, math, and literature as a child at a time when the education of women was not a main focus. She was fluent in German and French, as someone who was born and raised in England. She embodied Goal II, a deep respect for intellectual values, in both herself and those around her as a member--and then the leader--of the Society of the Sacred Heart.

At Woodlands, House Stuart honors her legacy by promoting a deep respect for intellectual values, not just within our members whose interests and strengths range from the science lab to the written page, from the volleyball court to the spotlighted stage, but in our whole community. We uplift and support those with varied academic and co-curricular strengths and encourage them to do their best, just as Mother Stuart did. Just as my grandmother did to me.

Mother Stuart also wrote of silent contemplation to better connect with God, and developing a loving kindness first to ourselves to allow us to offer love and compassion to others. I know in my personal life, the frenzy and stress of this time helping support the seniors to the finish line of early applications and preparing for the upcoming basketball season has made it hard to slow down and reflect on God’s love and offer myself kindness. So this Mass and celebration of Mother Stuart is a good reminder to me to prioritize taking a quiet moment and offering myself the grace that I can then extend to others.

I invite others to do the same. To take a quiet moment sometime today. And in that moment, please reflect upon someone who has gone before you during these important days in our Catholic faith. Remember the love they gave, and the lives they lived. 

 

Student Reflection by Ida Psencik ‘25

Good morning. My name is Ida Psencik, President of House Stuart, and I graciously thank all of you for your time today. My big turning point, as I like to call it, in my high school career was at the end of my sophomore year and it stemmed from my changing role in House Stuart from just a member of the house to somehow becoming the student leader of the house. When I was a sophomore, I had this bright idea to run as House Stuart president. I can't even explain why I wanted to run for the position besides something driving me and pushing me to do so.

Looking back now I like to think it was Mother Stuart pushing me to try to push myself. This dogged determination to do not what is easy but what is right has been my guiding philosophy in my stewardship of House Stuart and my own personal philosophy, and I like to think that it has shaped House Stuart into the loving and spirit group it is today. Mother Stuart once said, "The way to do much in a short time is to love much. People will do great things if they are stirred with enthusiasm and love." I have found through my years in House Stuart that to be a member of Stuart is to love the things you care about to the point of creating something new.

I personally can say that I love House Stuart with all my heart and I can't wait to see how the legacy of Mother Stuart guides House Stuart in the future. Thank you.