From the Principal's Desk 3.16

Trait of the Week: RESPONSIBILITY

Dear Friends,

In this day and age, when fault seems to lie with others and solutions always start with someone else, perhaps it is time to think about the character trait of Responsibility.  

When we are born our ability to live rests solely on the shoulders of others. As we grow and develop this shifts to our own shoulders.  As parents we eagerly teach our children how to walk, talk, tie shoes, ride bikes, clean up their rooms, do chores and (my favorite) mow lawns.  We want them to take ownership of their work, so we hang up the artwork they make, and we encourage them when they accomplish a task.  Eventually there comes a day where not all the results are fantastic, the room wasn’t cleaned, the grass is uncut, and perhaps the schoolwork wasn’t that great.   While accepting that the results are their own may not be easy, it is essential because if the results of our actions, or lack of action, are not ours then we are not free persons but puppets.  Whether we like it or not, we are responsible for our own actions, and, in most cases, we cannot claim others made us do things no matter how much we might want to.

In mass we often pray, “I confess to almighty God, and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do, through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault; therefore I ask Mary ever-Virgin, all the Angels and Saints, and you, my brothers and Sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God.”

In the end we cannot escape ownership of our actions and the brave and courageous person is the one who quickly accepts responsibility and deals with the consequences.  Accepting our actions allows us to receive God’s forgiveness if needed, and great praise if deserved.  At the end of our lives we will need to give an account of all we have done, and not done, let us make certain, by a lifetime of good action, that we can stand tall on that day.  For with God all things are possible!

Timothy Gallic
Principal, Holy Family High School
303-410-1411