LETTING GO

NOW AND then we hear someone say "I'm going to turn over a new leaf." The meaning of this sentence lies deeper than its words. It means that the person is going to start fresh, new.

IN OTHER words, big changes take place in every person's life, perhaps keeping a New Year's Resolution, or keeping company with good people rather than bad people, or getting serious about studies, or being a good citizen at school or home. "Turning over a new leaf" does not mean going to a tree, pulling off a green leaf and turning it over in your hand.

INDIVIDUAL PEOPLE not the only ones who can "turn over a new leaf." A whole parish school can "turn over a new leaf" too. This is what our parish elementary school does each year at the end of the spring semester. Our parish school is kind of like the "Tree of Life" mentioned in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. God told Adam and Eve about the Tree of Life.

OUR SCHOOL, however, is different than the trees we see around in the city. Real trees grow new leaves in the spring and shed the old ones in fall. Our parish school, however "sheds its leaves" in the spring and grows new ones in the fall! How can this be?

WELL, EACH one of us is a leaf on a very special tree that we know as our parish elementary school. And in the next few days, when the spring semester ends, all of us "leaves" are going to leave the school "tree", and the wind is going to carry us to different directions all through the summer. And just like real leaves are sent by God back down to the ground to enrich the soil, God will send you  his little parish school “leaves" to all directions--north, south, east and west--to enrich the world. God will ask his Holy Spirit to help us do this.

GOD WANTS us to help make the world a better place, in our homes, at school, at work and at play. This is one reason why all our students "fall" from the school tree on the day when the academic year ends. This is what we're supposed to do. The three months of summer, when all the students are gone, will be a kind of winter for our parish elementary school because it will be bare and empty.

BUT WHEN the fall semester starts, there will be new leaves! These new leaves will be all the students and teachers who come back to the school. Then the parish school will no longer be bare and empty. It will be alive and full of activity once more. We know that big trees are home to all of God's little creatures. Our parish school is a big home for many persons in the parish.

I PRAY when all you little "leaves" let go of the tree next week and sail out into the world in all directions to celebrate the warm summer months, that God will bless you and protect you and bring you happiness. Some of our teachers and students will not come back to the parish school “tree” at summer’s end. God will help them to be new leaves on different trees next autumn. We ask God to bless our departing teachers and students with splendid, majestic new trees. God will make them into beautiful large green leaves on these new trees. They too will be a shelter and friend to all who pass by.

IN THE meantime, during the happy summer months, let us ask God to carry all of us on the wind of the Holy Spirit, so that wherever we land--at home, the park, on vacation, at our grandparents' home or wherever God wants us to go--everyone will know that we are all good people. Everyone will know us as happy followers of Jesus Christ, doing his work and revealing his beauty in the world.