Best of the Week 2018-2019: Holy Cross Values

ST. ED'S INVITES YOU TO PARTICIPATE IN THE ADVENT IN ACTION CHALLENGE

This December, St. Ed's Campus Ministry Department has taken on the Advent in Action Challenge by sharing out an interactive calendar with daily challenges for students to participate in to help prepare their hearts and minds for Christmas during the Advent season. The Advent in Action Challenge, fostered by St. Ed's Student Ministers and their co-moderators, Campus Minister Ms. Cari White and Theology teacher Mr. Owen Williams '13, provides participants with daily challenges ranging from adding extra time for prayer, secretly doing an act of kindness, taking an ornament from the Giving Tree, to consciously practicing patience and thoughtfulness. "I got the idea to bring the Advent in Action Challenge to St. Ed's from a technology teacher I know at Culvert Catholic School in Tiffin, Ohio," says Ms. White. "He shared with me how his school has been participating in the challenge through a Twitter chat with other Catholic School leaders, so I adapted the idea to fit our community so our students can participate in the challenge as well."

Students around the world will be participating in the Advent in Action Challenge this year thanks to the help of social media. To make the challenge even more interactive, participants are encouraged to post images or videos on Instagram or Twitter using #AdventinAction to document how they take part in the Advent in Action Challenge wherever they are. "Social media is an incredible tool for us to share our lives with others," says Ms. White. "Now, students are given an opportunity to share how they are living out their faith and to see how others around the world are participating in the Advent in Action Challenge."

The challenges for St. Ed's Advent in Action Challenge are all focused on hope, joy, love and faith to particularly encourage students to live out these values in a concrete yet subtle way. "I hope that our students realize that it's not always a grand gesture that is important when living out our faith. Sometimes the little things are the best thing we can do," says Ms. White. "As a Catholic, Holy Cross School focused on service, we provide opportunities for our students to spend significant time serving others and sharing their faith, but it's also important to emphasize that the little things that we can do every day as acts of faith are important as well. The Advent in Action Challenge is another way we can provide ways for students to authentically live out their faith. The daily challenges are easy things that can be done in as little or as much time as someone can spend that could inevitably spark good habits and help others grow in their faith."

"The Advent Season is rooted in the hope that is present in our awaiting the Messiah, God incarnate," says Mr. Williams. "Every member of the St. Edward community is called to be a person with hope to bring to the world, and I think this Advent in Action Challenge provides some excellent opportunities for us to constantly be looking for ways in which we can be 'the hope' in our day-to-day lives." St. Ed's encourages our faculty, staff and our students' families and friends to join in the Advent in Action Challenge as well. Click HERE to follow along with our interactive calendar and participate in St. Ed's Advent in Action Challenge this year.