A student making a paper poppy is beginning to understand something that will take years to fully grasp. There are people we have never met whose lives have shaped our own, and losses we did not witness that we are still called to remember.
This week, our OCSB school communities paused for Remembrance Day. Through liturgies, student-led ceremonies, music and art, students honoured those who have served, those who continue to serve, and those who never returned home. Veterans, Canadian Armed Forces members and community guests joined us. In one school, a staff member’s father returned, as he does each year, to mark the day with students. That continuing presence is a gift. For a child, history can feel far away until someone who carries it walks through the door.
Students brought care to their remembrance. Grade 4 students led ceremonies, Kindergarten children participated in liturgies, and classrooms explored ‘le coquelicot’ and ‘la paix’. Through artwork, older students considered sacrifice and the suffering of war, expressing feelings that can be difficult to put into words.
These experiences give our Catholic values a human context. Community grows when generations listen to one another. Respect for human dignity deepens as students consider the lives behind the stories. Hope takes root when children recognise their own capacity to care for others.
Our spiritual theme, We Are Called to Nourish New Beginnings, invites us to nurture that understanding: to welcome questions, encourage compassion and help students practise fairness in their daily lives. What we learn through remembrance should stay with us when we return to our classrooms and playgrounds.
As we close the week, we thank everyone who helped our communities remember with reverence. May that same care continue to guide how we live together. We will remember them.
