Today marks the beginning of school for many school districts and colleges across the United States. My students will report to class next week and teachers began in service training today. I continue my own graduate studies at the end of the week. For students the beginning of school means getting new class schedules, remembering new locker combinations and facing the anxiety of making new friends. For teachers it means sitting through hours of in service training, preparing new lesson plans and adjusting to a new sleep schedule.
Patron Saints for Students
While most students actually look forward to going to school, some may face it with anxiety or outright disdain. Either way students have a few allies in the communion of saints. St. Thomas Aquinas is the patron of students. St. Joseph Cupertino is patron of test takers. St. John Bosco is also a patron of students and is a great intercessor for parents whose children are going off to school. St. Aloysius Gonzaga is also another patron of young people and students.
Patron Saints for Teachers
Teaching can be a very rewarding profession, but can also be filled with stress and frustration. Teachers also have a few patrons to lean on for intercessory prayer. St. Albert the Great, who was St. Thomas Aquinas's teacher, is the patron of teachers. Saint John Baptist de La Salle, who is known as the father of modern education, is another patron of teachers. St. Francis de Sales and St. Nicholas (yes old St. Nick) are also patron saints for teachers.
Prayer Before Study
Creator of all things, true source of light and wisdom, lofty origin of all being, graciously let a ray of your brilliance penetrate into the darkness of my understanding and take from me the double darkness in which I have been born, an obscurity of both sin and ignorance. Give me a sharp sense of understanding, a retentive memory, and the ability to grasp things correctly and fundamentally. Grant me the talent of being exact in my explanations, and the ability to express myself with thoroughness and charm. Point out the beginning, direct the progress, and help in completion; through Christ our Lord. Amen. (Saint Thomas Aquinas)
Prayer for Students
O Eternal Father and Incarnate Word, through the Gifts and Fruits of your Holy Spirit, enlighten and perfect my intellect, will and affections that in all things I may be what your Divine Wisdom intended me to be, a Bearer of Christ to all. Illuminate, therefore, my intellect with supernatural faith; strengthen my will with supernatural hope; and inflame my heart with your Divine Love. Create in me Christ-like ideals, attitudes, appreciations and habits that will enable me to think, judge, and act so as to be like your Immaculate Mother, a Bearer of Christ to all. Give me the necessary skills and docility to earn an honest living; prudence to direct and guide my understanding; justice to regulate my will in respecting the rights of others; temperance to control my desires and appetites; and fortitude to defend and practice your Way, your Truth, and your Life, thus being like Saint Joseph, a Bearer of Christ to all. Teach me to be modest and chaste in regard to myself and others; to be joyfully respectful and obedient to my parents, teachers, ecclesiastical and civil superiors. Thus, by your grace will I grow in the Stature of Christ, in wisdom and age, and be a Bearer of Him to all. O most Holy Trinity, dwelling in my soul, make me realize that I cannot thus live without the supernatural life of grace that comes through frequent reception of the sacraments, through my offering with the Priest of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, through my daily prayers and through sacrifices and mortification on my part. Through your grace only will I, therefore, put on the image of Christ so that through Him, and with Him, and in Him, I shall advance the Peace of Christ in the Reign of Christ, and be an eternal Bearer of Him to all my brothers and sisters.
Prayer for Teachers
Heavenly Father, who promised that all those who instruct others in the ways of holiness will shine as stars for all eternity, fill our hearts and minds with true knowledge and the art of teaching. Give us patience and understanding, justice and prudence, humility and fear of the Lord. Grant us wisdom and charity so that with a pure and holy love of God we ourselves may enjoy all these gifts and impart them to our pupils. Teach our children to be obedient to your laws and docile to your inspirations. Let them be instruments of your peace in their homes, in our land, and in the family of nations as becomes children of the sons of God in the Mystical Body of Christ. May the blessings of your sevenfold Gifts be in all who teach and in all who learn through the Holy Spirit who is the Love of the Father and the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
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