Office of Catholic Schools

8 community of faith where students, faculty, staff, and administration seek to pattern their lives after the life of Christ in a communal manner. To that end, the Catholic school exists to form not simply disciples, but a community of discipleship where all learn how to live well and to grow "in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man" (Lk. 2:52). The Church is committed to Catholic education, because it relates to its mission to form disciples, who are students of Jesus and learn from him how to live. Because Jesus asked the Church to form disciple-students, the school is the natural place for discipleship, in learning the Christian faith and form - ing habits of the Christian life. Schools are places of formation that immerse students within a com- munity that embodies the faith. The school forms disciples within a community that draws upon the life of the parish and which requires the support and involvement of families. The Mission of the School: Formation for the Whole of Life Catholic educators realize that only in communion with the Holy Trinity does the person find true hap- piness, a communion and a happiness that begin here on earth. This upward orientation to God in education can liberate the student f rom a purely horizontal goal of educational success aimed no further than securing the best job, the best college, or the highest G.P.A. While these ends promise a complete happiness, they cannot secure it. The orientation of the Catholic school can open the student to true happiness precisely because God is our true end. The Catholic school grounds the

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