For us to advance the importance of our school in the Grand Island community, we need to center our school on the fundamental teaching of the Catholic Church and a daily encounter with our Risen Lord. Jesus is, and should be, the center of everything we do at Grand Island Central Catholic. With that in mind, our teachers need our prayers, especially during the school year. They face many situations on any given day and need our prayers for clarity and support. Please consider adopting one of our teachers and commit to praying for them daily. Consider the amount of time these teachers spend with our students and the influence they have on them as they are being formed mentally, physically, and most importantly spiritually. This ministry is simple to do and with the power of our families, friends, alumni, community, and parishes, we can shower the power of prayer over our teachers and staff.
Getting Started
Please select a teacher or staff member from the list below. Email both Kory Koralewski (kkoralewski@gidiocese.org) and Janelle Armstrong (jarmstrong@gicc.org) with the individual you would like to prayerfully and spiritually adopt. The list below will be updated to indicate the teacher has prayer support. Any teacher that does not yet have a symbol next to his/her name needs to be adopted.
Your Daily Involvement
🙏🏼 Commit to daily prayer specifically for the teacher/staff member, 5-10 minutes per day could be as simple as offering up an Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be.
🙏🏼 Be intentional and specific for their needs and pray that Our Lord be present to them. Consider praying for their: Patience, Security, Understanding, Compassion, Courage, Consistency. 🙏🏼 Pray for their families and anything they might be struggling with outside the classroom. The Lord knows what they need; when we call upon Him to help, He will show up. 🙏🏼 Thoughtfully pray for every student they will encounter, both in the classroom and out. "Lord, let our kids see you in each of our teachers and be present to them today." When every teacher is being prayed for, every student is also being prayed for in abundance. Image the impact. This is the reason we choose this school for our kids; we know Christ will be at the center of everything they do. 🙏🏼 Pray that our teachers and staff will spend time with the Lord in our beautiful new Chapel of the Holy Spirit, and that this sacred space will be used to help with the struggles our teachers may face today. This shows our students that the best way to solve problems is in His presence, and He is present in our chapel! |
Central Catholic Teachers and Staff to be Lifted Up In Prayer Each Day
🕊️ Jordan Engle, Principal
🕊️ Phou Manivong, Assistant Principal 🕊️Dr. Julie Hehnke, Guidance Counselor 🕊️Dick Ross, Activities Director 🕊️Mike Rohweder, Business Manager 🕊️Janelle Armstrong, Marketing Manager 🕊️ Amy Ostdiek, Office Secretary Kelly Balz, English, Journalism 🕊️Fr. Sidney Bruggeman, Chaplain 🕊️Colleen Childers, Business, Photography 🕊️Brady Brokaw, Spanish, History Jeff Chmelka, English, Math, Intervention 🕊️ Makenzie Dunham, Health 🕊️Tim Dvorak, Math,Social Science, Weights Nancy Erives, Para Educator Bill Gavers, Science 🕊️ Dawnell Glunz, Intervention, Speech 🕊️Dee Hanssen, Religion 🕊️Debora Houdek, Religion 🕊️Cathy Howard, English 🕊️John Howard, Social Science |
🕊️Keith Kester, Social Science
🕊️Tyler Koepp, Music 🕊️ Lucy Long, English 🕊️ James Lowry, Social Science, Math 🕊️Marilyn Luther, Math, Library 🕊️ Amy May, Spanish 🕊️Kevin Mayfield, Math 🕊️Kathy McFarland, Religion 🕊️Mitchell Miller, Science 🕊️ Monika Peters, Music 🕊️Marcelline Ross, Math 🕊️Ryan Smith, Science 🕊️ Kelley Ward, Computers, Health 🕊️ Dawn Zulkoski, Visual Arts, Religion 🕊️Betty Seim, School Nurse 🕊️Sharon Zavala, Library 🕊️James Martinez, Maintenance 🕊️Lisa Montgomery, Cafeteria 🕊️Dawnita Buck, Cafeteria Tommie Martinez, Cafeteria |
Saint John Baptiste de La Salle Patron Saint for Teachers of YouthDe La Salle was born to a wealthy family in Rheims, France on April 30, in 1651. He was the oldest child of Louis de La Salle and Nicolle Moet de Brouillet. Nicolle's family was a noble one and ran a successful winery business and she was a relative of Claude Moët, founder of Moët & Chandon.
La Salle received the tonsure at age eleven and was named canon of Rheims Cathedral when he was sixteen. He was sent to the College des Bons Enfants, where he pursued higher studies and, on July 10, 1669, he took the degree of Master of Arts. When De La Salle had completed his classical, literary, and philosophical courses, he was sent to Paris to enter the Seminary of Saint-Sulpice on October 18, 1670. His mother died on July 19, 1671, and on April 9, 1672, his father died. This circumstance obliged him to leave Saint-Sulpice on April 19, 1672. He was now twenty-one, the head of the family, and as such had the responsibility of educating his four brothers and two sisters. He completed his theological studies and was ordained to the priesthood at the age of 26 on April 9, 1678. Two years later he received a doctorate in theology. At that time, most children had little hope for social and economic advancement. Jean Baptiste de La Salle believed that education gave hope and opportunity for people to lead better lives of dignity and freedom. Moved by the plight of the poor who seemed so "far from salvation" either in this world or the next, he determined to put his own talents and advanced education at the service of the children "often left to themselves and badly brought up". La Salle knew that the teachers in Reims were struggling, lacking leadership, purpose, and training, and he found himself taking increasingly deliberate steps to help this small group of men with their work. First, in 1680, he invited them to take their meals in his home, as much to teach them table manners as to inspire and instruct them in their work. This crossing of social boundaries was one that his relatives found difficult to bear. In 1681, De La Salle realized that he would have to take a further step – he brought the teachers into his own home to live with him. De La Salle's relatives were deeply disturbed; his social class was scandalized. When, a year later, his family home was lost at auction because of a family lawsuit, De La Salle rented a house into which he and the handful of teachers moved. La Salle decided to resign his canonry to devote his full attention to the establishment of schools and the training of teachers. He had inherited a considerable fortune, and this might have been used to further his aims, but on the advice of a Father Barre of Paris, he sold what he had and sent the money to the poor of the province of Champagne, where a famine was causing great hardship. De La Salle thereby began a new religious institute, the first one with no priests, at all, among its members: the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, also known as the De La Salle Brothers (in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Malta, Australasia, and Asia) or, most commonly in the United States, the Christian Brothers. (They are sometimes confused with a different congregation of the same name founded by Blessed Edmund Ignatius Rice in Ireland, who are known in the U.S. as the Irish Christian Brothers.) The De La Salle Brothers were the first Roman Catholic teaching religious institute that did not include any priests. |