Chesterton Academy St. Christopher Fund

St. Christopher is the patron saint of travelers. Legend has it that after choosing to serve Christ as the ultimate king a young child asked St. Christopher to carry him across the river. After crossing, the child was revealed to be Christ himself and told Christopher that he had borne the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Chesterton Academy of Omaha has several traveling opportunities for our staff and students each year. Our largest traveling expense is the annual Chesterton School Network summit. Several staff members will travel down to Ave Maria University in Florida for a four-day event filled with formation, fellowship, strategy, and renewal. Here are a few thoughts from attendees of this wonderful event.

"We learn so much from those at the Network in charge of curriculum and school development alongside and with the hundreds who attend from other Chesterton Academies in the U.S. and around the world. I always come back inspired and ready to serve!"

-Mrs. Bentley, board member

Your contributions to this campaign will help other staff members to experience this transformative event!

Chesterton Academy makes it a priority that our students experience the beauty of God's creation. This requires that we take our students out of the classroom and on adventures in the great outdoors. One such experience included a hiking trip to Indian Cave State Park here in Nebraska. Chaperons led our students several miles along the scenic trails where every site attests to God's glory. For a different physical challenge, the students had the opportunity to go ziplining at Fontenelle Forest thanks to our friends at TreeRush Adventures. While these two destinations are different, they both teach our students about God that would be difficult to communicate in the classroom. Your generosity can ensure that our students will continue to experience God in the world around them.

The monastics throughout Church history have taught us that it is important to seek God in silence and solitude. Many saints did this in dramatic ways by isolating themselves from greater society. We do not call upon our students to do anything as radical as St. Anthony of Egypt, but we do want to provide them a retreat experience each year where they have a chance for one-on-one intimacy with Our Lord. Each class takes a day-long retreat where they have group and individual prayer opportunities. Your contributions allow us to continue to improve these retreats cultivating a stronger bond between God and each student.

Finally, the pinnacle of Catholic travel is the pilgrimage. While the gifts from this fundraiser will not go to support our students going on pilgrimage, we want to share a little about the importance of pilgrimage and the opportunities available to our students.

"This year marked the first time our school was large enough to take part in the Chesterton Schools Network pilgrimage to Italy. Four of our upperclassmen joined over 250 other Chesterton students from across the nation for 10 days over Lent in Rome, Florence, and Assisi. This pilgrimage is the crowning piece of the Chesterton program. First, it is the tangible culmination of the entire curriculum; here they touch the history; see the art of Michaelangelo, Raffael, Bernini, and countless more; read the Latin on monuments, tombs, and churches; and realize their connection in faith with Rome’s Peter, Paul, and the early martyrs to Assisi’s Francis, Clare, and Carlo Acutis to all Catholics of every land and tongue today praying the Angelus with the pope in St. Peter’s Square.

But the primary reason why the Chesterton Schools hope every student will go on this pilgrimage prior to graduation is that it is a pilgrimage. An ordinary trip has a place as its destination; a pilgrimage has a person as its destination, the person of Christ, encountered by walking with Him and His saints over holy ground. The students met Christ over and over again through the daily celebration of the Eucharist in churches of stunning splendor, through contemplation and prayer before so many relics of the saints, through praying the Stations of the Cross in the church housing the relics of the Holy Cross and the Lord’s Passion and then climbing on their knees the very stairs Jesus walked on his way to Pilate, through going to confession in the hut of St. Francis of Assisi and his first followers. They also walked over 80 miles in those 10 days! And so, a pilgrimage captures in a short time and on a small scale the whole point of life – it is hard, even painful, full of uncertainties and sacrifices, but God is waiting for each of us at the end."

-Mrs. Stransky, Latin teacher and parent

Not every travel experience available at our school is a formal pilgrimage, but we hope that our students use these experiences to pursue the person of Christ. We invite you to help make that happen!