Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Academy

My name is Mark Chambers. I am the Treasurer and co-founder of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Academy.

Many of you know me by the phone calls you receive when you send a donation to the Academy, or you may recognize my wife’s name, Eileen, from the thank-you notes written on behalf of the Academy. We are truly humbled by your generosity over the years. Many of you have never met us personally, but have come to believe in this vital cause for the education and sanctification of our children.

I was convinced of the need for a school like Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Academy when it was time to decide what educational path we would take for our own children. At the time, the Rockford public schools were some of the worst in the nation, and the parochial schools lacked the emphasis upon tradition that we were hoping for. My wife began home schooling our eldest daughter, Katie, much to her consternation! After two years of her playing the dual role of strict school marm and frazzled mommy, we came to the conclusion that home schooling, however laudable, was not going to work in our family. Our options were dwindling rapidly. We faced two choices: settling for the unacceptable or founding our own school, incorporating the wonderful aspects of home schooling (autonomy in choosing a solidly orthodox curriculum devoid of the secular humanism that has crept into so many areas of education, as well as spiritual formation based on the whole of the Catholic faith and not just what has occurred since Vatican II) and the good things that come from a classroom setting (a dispassionate teacher whose goal is to teach, and good peer pressure that comes when children, together, are striving for the same goals). God nudged (nay, SHOVED!) us in the direction of starting a school.

Our overhead in 1998 was virtually nil ($10,000), as we could house the school in our basement as well as provide room and board for our teacher. We have come a long way from the days in the basement: our Board of Trustees has gone from two to four with the addition of our good friends the Bageanises, and our over-head has skyrocketed to $350,000!

We have hired some of the brightest talent to work at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Academy. Our teachers have not only a firm grasp of the subjects taught, but an even firmer grasp of their Faith. Each lives out his vocation in splendid example to the students. Each realizes the huge mission that has been placed before us. Yes, it is daunting – our very salvation depends upon our efforts! We have realized for some time that these efforts cannot be made alone – we have God at the helm, with his most Blessed Mother guiding his hand, and you, who have sacrificed along with us to help realize this dream. The bottom line is this: without some huge strides being made to keep this apostolate solvent, we may never break ground on a school of our own, a school with a beautiful chapel where our children can participate in the traditional Mass on a daily basis, a real gym, a science lab, playing fields – a place where vocations are fostered and those children who are called to work in the world will do so armed with the habit of virtue and strength of character that has been fostered by our good and holy teachers.

If any of you are in a position to give more of your financial resources to this apostolate, I beg you for your help now. We can all lament the dire state of the culture, or we can help “rebuild the culture through truth, faith and service.” I am certain the generosity you offer to Our Lady’s school will reverberate throughout eternity. Please remember, you are in our prayers every day.

Mark Chambers

Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Academy is delighted to

welcome Marc A. Devoid as headmaster. He comes to us with ten years' experience as principal at Saint Augustine School in Hartford, WI, where he also taught theology, philosophy, history, literature, Latin and French, and coached Junior-high basketball.

Mr. Devoid earned his Master's degree in theology at Holy Apostles College in Cromwell, CT, and his Bachelor's with a certificate in classics, at Saint Anselm College, Manchester, NH.

The academy's theme for the 2005-2006 academic year is: GRATITUDE. I would be remiss if I did not take this opportunity to thank all of you who support the academy. I recall the words of Henry Adams, The teacher's influence reaches eternity; no one ever knows where it ends. I propose the same may be said of all our dear benefactors. Your generosity, sacrifices and prayers are vital to the academy’s existence and mission. Only our Divine Teacher knows how influential your every prayer and your every dollar has been. Deeply appreciative of your support I remain

Marc A. Devoid

I didn't want the 2005/2006 academic year to end. The upper school achieved such a good blend of seriousness about living the Faith, academic ambition, mutual encouragement and good humor! I wish I'd attended a school like this one, when I was fifteen and sixteen.

As you know, the entire Academy attends First Friday Mass each month. Early in the morning of the first Friday in April, one of the freshmen flew into his home room and asked, "Can we please leave early for Mass today? I made an examination of conscience this morning and it was awful. I have to go to confession."

This is a perfectly normal, red-blooded American male, a first-rate athlete who is very good at having fun, speaking unselfconsciously among his peers. His peers, moreover, were entirely sympathetic; they thought his request was reasonable. "I have to go, too." "Me, too." "Me first. I'm at the head of the line." These young people know how to laugh at themselves over the minor pit-falls of life, and they have the sense to take them to the confessional.

I loved how personally the senior high took their course in ancient and medieval history this year. When Septimius Severus divided Rome into the honorates and the humiliores, with different treatment under the law for the two classes of citizens, they were outraged. "That's completely contrary to tradition, completely contrary to Roman law!" When John Huss defended his heresy to the Church, they were not merely derisive, but precise as to why his errors were errors; and they foresaw the tragic consequences of those errors for Christendom.

They praise each other's successes, and encourage each other in adversity. When we began to assemble the Kyrie of a difficult polyphonic Mass, the altos and basses first sang it together. At the end, a bass said, "Altos, that was awe-some," and he and the other basses broke into applause: "Altos! Altos!" Of course the girls were delighted.

We still have going for us the good interaction between the upper school and the lower school. Often, a very small child will run to a senior-high student, demanding praise for an A in spelling or arithmetic; the adolescent will toss the small child in the air or turn him upside down. Obviously, this inter-action is at least as salutary for the older students as it is for the younger ones: knowing that the little children look up to them is a good motive for the upper-school students to behave well.

The defining feature of this wonderful year is Marc Devoid's astute helmsmanship as Headmaster. He completely understands the mission of the

Academy, and he has the experience and wisdom to make the theory more and more a reality. Miss Klucinec said a few weeks ago, "This has been a great year, because I've been able to do my job the best way I can. Mr. Devoid is just what we needed." I could not agree more. I can turn to him in perplexity, or in frustration, and know that he'll give me wisdom and understanding. He's even patient when I want someone to hear about successes.

Miss Ericksen's entrance as a Benedictine in Kansas has been an important experience for every student in the school. As of now, traditional religious life is something done by a real person they all know. The junior high wrote about it in their final exam in religion: "If you do what God wants

you to do, you'll have a happy life. Miss E. won't need things to make her happy, because she'll have Jesus."

Miss Ericksen knows we'll be counting on her prayers, and her sisters' prayers, for the Academy. She has given me her piano, perhaps to shut me up because I kept saying, "I'm not allowed to complain about your departure, right?" Every time I play it, I'll pray for the well-being of her new family, and know they're all praying for ours.

All right; I'll say it. We need major funds, right now, in order to construct a building of our own. We have established a traditional Catholic atmosphere on the second floor of the community center, an atmosphere of prayer and scholarship and camaraderie; but we need an entire island of the Faith. As you know, we have the land. As you know, thanks to the generosity of a diocesan priest, we have nearly enough funds to begin building; but we don't have enough for a beautiful chapel or a first-class science lab. Please, won't you help, so this seedbed of good soldiers and officers may become what it should be? ¨

The following is an excerpt of a weekly informational sheet that goes home to the kindergarten parents in order to keep them abreast of all the important things going on in their child’s busy week.

This year the theme will be that of Soldiers for Christ. The instant you walked into my classroom, you became a soldier with me, Miss Ericksen, for your leader. Being a soldier requires discipline; you must listen to your leader. It requires obedience and work, but carries with it honor and the joy of victory.

This year, for Jesus, we will conquer counting, the alphabet and the written word, among other foes in our class. We will also conquer bad habits and faults. I trust you are ready and will have a wonderful year.

In the classroom, we will not scream, fight, yell or be disrespectful. We will not interrupt each other, and will raise our hands before speaking. We will be courteous and polite, keeping in mind that we love God above all things, and everyone else for His sake.

Spring of 2005, the week after school was over, our dedicated senior- and junior-high students came back to school for a whole day of recording Christmas music for a CD. "Let's try that one again! We can do it better," they said, as the temperature rose well past ninety. We hope our friends and benefactors will order many copies. The music is all very old fashioned, and all a capella: "Veni, Veni, Emanuel," "Puer Natus in Bethlehem," "Resonet in Laudibus" and "Adeste Fidelis," and from the traditional English repertoire "Winter Snow," "Once In Royal David's City," "Joy to the World" "Cor Dulce, Cor Amabile" and more--18 pieces total.

Please mail your order for an OLSHA Christmas CD with postage paid $18.00 to the address below: