We live in a culture where the world tells us it is always important to put our best foot forward. Marketing that shows smiling faces and pristine spaces are best. Only post the best pictures and share the best news. Not only is that exhausting, but it is not real.
Don’t get me wrong here, I want our people to be smiling and our spaces to be beautiful, but I would be wrong to sacrifice sanctity and the holiness of all the people in our school in order to give the “right” image to the outside world or the digital world for that matter.
The reality for all of us is that life is messy. Our families are broken and messy. Work is a struggle and parenting is exhausting. The world would tell us to do our best to “cure” those parts of our life. Cut out the disappointments and distance yourself from difficult people. Quit the hard job and do something you love. It isn’t that easy and it isn’t always right. The difference that the saints offered was that they looked at those inconveniences, brokenness and struggle and said Thank you Jesus. The only option was to get up and serve the Lord.
The project of Chesterton Academy of Buffalo is to form saints through a formative education. That is not something easy to quantify like test scores or attendance. I think that a good barometer is looking at the student when they are freshman vs when the leave as a senior. Are their decisions leading them towards the Lord and is He the guiding factor of their life? If yes, then our mission has been a success.
Because we have positioned ourselves as an institution that stands in the breach, we can expect to be targeted by forces not of God. This evil wants to sow division and shatter community. Because of your yes to Chesterton Academy your family is part of that target. Our choice is to choose gratitude for the fight that has been offered to us or to submit and be tossed by the waves and whims of the world. We can choose to be broken by suffering and sin or perfected by it and washed in the blood of the Lamb. I want you to choose to fight. I want our community to be one who chooses to pray, not out of obligation but out of absolute necessity.
Jesus is the reason for this school. Any failure or error or blunder can be attributed to me and the human elements of this operation. It is my desire to follow the Lord where he would lead us. Please pray for me and know that I offer intentions for you and your families daily within these walls.
Thank you also for any additional prayers for my wife as she nears her due date for our son.
Grace and Peace,
Jesse Saltarelli
Headmaster