Formation in faith is essential to the definition of education at Mary, Mother of God School. Drawing from the riches of the Catholic tradition, staff and students join in daily prayer (including the Rosary), weekly Mass, and monthly Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, and celebrate the annual cycles of the liturgical calendar. Weekly classroom visits by our chaplain, one of the Fathers of the Toronto Oratory of St Philip Neri, help nourish the students’ love for and personal connection with the Catholic Church.
Guided by the pedagogical principles of St. John Bosco, who emphasized that cultivating virtue in children requires reason, religion, and kindness, the school provides structures and incentives to help students grow in moral strength. Rules are in place to benefit and protect the students, and are guided by Christian charity.
Through the active sacramental life and devotion to the Mother of God, the school strives to meet every student’s educational needs while fostering their experience of the love and joy of childhood.
Living the Catholic faith together shapes all we do at the school. Three times a day the students and staff gather to pray in a variety of ways, including the Rosary and joyful singing.
Each day begins with a small reflection on the saint of the day or the liturgical season, or with a discussion of how we put the faith into action in our relationships with the people around us, or with sharing prayer intentions and remembering our benefactors and all who need our prayers.
Every week, we are able to attend holy Mass together during the school day. On the first Friday of each month, students and staff are able to adore the Lord at St Vincent de Paul Church for Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, and we have other times of Adoration with the extended community at the School.
We also grow as a community of Faith in our participation in annual special events: the Forty Hours devotion at Holy Family Church, the annual May Crowning of our statue of Mary, a May pilgrimage to seven local churches in honour of St Philip Neri, Our Rosary Tea for Seniors, and the Stations of the Cross during Lent.
At Mary, Mother of God School, students learn to recognize themselves and one another in their love for Christ, the centre of the school’s life and mission, and to express their love for God and neighbour in concrete forms of service.
Each day when we pray, the needs of the Church, of the world, and of ourselves are in our hearts. We pray for our benefactors, for our families, and for the repose of the souls of all the dead. We learn to love God in the people around us, through visiting the elderly in the neighbourhood seniors’ residences and the sick in the neighbourhood hospitals, by serving at St Francis’ Table, by Lenten almsgiving and fundraising for Bishop Kasanda of Mbuji-Mayi (DRCongo), by Advent food drives, by cleaning and working in foodbanks, and in many other ways.
