“The Lord Jesus loved us and gave up His life for us. Few of us will be called to die the way He died. Yet all of us must lay down our lives with Him and for Him. If we would be faithful to the gospel we must take up our cross daily and follow Him. The cross was constantly before the eyes of Basil Moreau, whose motto for his congregation was Spes Unica. The cross was to be “Our Only Hope.”—Constitutions of the Congregation of Holy Cross, 8: The Cross, Our Hope.
 SPES UNICA—hail the Cross, our only hope. When Fr. Moreau founded the Congregation of Holy Cross, he looked to the Cross of Christ for daily hope through constant trial and struggle.  As our Constitutions state, “The Cross was to be our only hope.”  In Holy Cross, we are called to be men with hope to bring, and we find the hope that we bring to others in the Cross of Christ.  If we look deep enough into the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we will find the most sincere and intimate love imaginable; a love that brings forth hope, which we are called to share with others.
As we begin this new academic year, it is good for us to take a few moments to reflect on hope.  For the past few years, the St. Edward Community has embraced themes that have called us to serve, to lead, to embrace our call from God, and to have the courage to act as people of faith.  This year, we bring all of those ideas together in one of the most pivotal phrases in Holy Cross—hope to bring; we are called to be men and women with hope to bring to the Church and the world.  Our theme for the year is a good reminder of what we are called to do each day as we strive to live out our call from God to love all people, and it challenges us to bring the hope of Christ’s Cross to all people.
St. Edward High School is an amazing place that educates hearts and forms minds of young men, so that we may go out into the world and radiate the love of God.  St. Ed’s has had such an incredible impact on my life.  As I progress through each year of formation in Holy Cross, I continue to be overwhelmed with support from my St. Edward family.  The hope that Fr. Moreau speaks of is that same hope that we, as a school community, are focusing on this year—hope in times of joy, sadness, failure, and fear; we must always be men and women with hope to bring!  We can do so much good for the world simply through our unwavering hope, and so, it is my prayer that each of us in the St. Edward Community might embrace this year’s culminating theme, and continue to be people with hope to bring to the Church and the world.  When we are up late studying for a math test, writing a paper, wearing the green and gold at a sporting event, performing with our Edwardian Players, competing in a robotics competition, or simply walking down the hallway, let us always strive to be beacons of hope.
The Constitutions of the Congregation of Holy Cross end with a very powerful and inspiring line: “The footsteps of those men who called us to walk in their company left deep prints, as of men carrying heavy burdens. But they did not trudge; they strode. For they had the hope.”  We are called to that same hope; the hope that Fr. Moreau founded the Congregation of Holy Cross to radiate—the hope of Christ’s Cross in which we encounter the most powerful act of love in all of human history.  That act of love is where we find our hope.  St. Edward High School has the hope; let’s bring that hope to the world.
As we begin another year at St. Edward High School, my prayer for all of you is to encounter and radiate the hope that we find in the Cross in all that you do each day.  May dear St. Edward High continue to be a place filled with the love and hope of our Lord Jesus Christ, and may all of us who are blessed to be a part of the St. Edward Community continue to heed the words of our Constitutions, “It is the Lord Jesus calling us. Come. Follow me.”
May God bless each of you as this new year of learning and growth begins at St. Edward.
St. Edward, pray for us.