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December 2022 Newsletter
Knightly Newsletter
St. Joseph Mission School San Fidel, NM
Dear Everyone,
As we begin another liturgical year and come to close our calendar year, we enter the routine of reports and finishing up our responsibilities. We know that at times this is nearly impossible with many interruptions in our schedules. What we can control is how we relate with others and with ourselves, specifically in our relationships with our families, our co-workers and our friends. How we see ourselves in our relationships determines how we reflect the face of Christ. This can be difficult task when it involves forgiveness, the ultimate act of love.
In this Advent season, our prayer as a faith community is that the Peace of the Newborn Christ might remind us of the simplicity we are drawn to in practice, one of stillness and quiet. Therefore our real responsibility lies in our relationship with our Creator in love and expressing this love through the humility of God made man and placed in a manger.
In this December Newsletter we want to share about the life and appreciation we hold for the late Father Alberto Avella, our forthcoming Annual Report, and a very special visit from our friend Losang Samten.
This year’s Annual Report is on the way!
Please keep St Joseph's School in consideration to support us in our mission to serve the communities of Acoma, Laguna and the surrounding Spanish Villages. Our Annual Report shares on the generous contributions from our past school year as well as improvements that have been made. We hope you enjoy reading from our alumni Yvette Pino, who reflects on the impact of Catholic education.
We Remember the beloved Father Alberto Avella
Re-shared from the obituary sent out to parishioners of the Diocese of Gallup:
"It is with great sadness that the Diocese of Gallup announces the passing of Fr. Alberto Avella, pastor at St. Teresa Parish in Grants, NM.
Fr. Avella was born on April 8, 1948, in La Luz, Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico and ordained as a priest on December 16, 1980, by Bishop Jerome J. Hastrich.
He served faithfully at many parishes in the diocese, including Winslow, Page, Holbrook, St. Johns, and Show Low, AZ, and Chichiltah, NM. For the past 20 years, he served as the pastor at St. Teresa in Grants, as well as its surrounding parishes in San Rafael, Milan, and San Mateo; as the canonical pastor at Seboyeta and Cubero since 2008; and as chaplain of St. Teresa School in Grants and St Joseph Mission School in San Fidel.
Fr. Avella died in the early morning of October 17, 2022 in Albuquerque, NM, after suffering from a respiratory illness.
He loved his time in the Diocese, and is loved in return by his parishioners, staff, colleagues, and many who came to know him through his various ministries, including his services as a hospital and prison chaplain."
Fr Alberto Avella was our beloved pastor for the past 13 years, he shepherded our school through ups and downs. His priesthood brought the light of Christ when he presided at all of our activities and visited our classrooms. We are deeply saddened by his passing, and we feel his absence. Fr Avella will be fondly remembered in his deep love and devotion to the Lord, in his prophetic counsel, and his deep investment in every person he encountered. We are thankful to our Creator that through Fr. Avella, he brought Christ to all of us in his life and in the Sacraments. We now ask for his intercession with St. Joseph to guide the school in its journey to know Jesus.
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May he rest in peace. Amen.
A special visit from Losang Samten
Piece written by Nancy Keller
Singing with the students is a great joy of the staff and visitors here at St Joseph Mission School. Please enjoy a recorded moment of our students singing the traditional hymn "As I went down to the river to pray" during our field trip to the Rio Grande Nature Center.
St. Joseph’s Mission School received some very special visitors the week of October 17-21, 2022.
Venerable Tibetan lama (teacher) Losang Samten, internationally famous for the beautiful art he creates from brightly colored sand, was making his third visit to the school, having visited before in 2014 and 2016. He brought with him his partner Soo Kyong Kim, a Korean musician and music teacher who grew up in Philadelphia, and his friend Dennis J. Evans, an international photographer who lives on Gabriola island near Vancouver Island on Canada’s Pacific coast.
Kent Ferguson, retired middle school headmaster who directed schools in California and New Zealand, lives in the Zuni mountains and is a longtime friend of St. Joseph’s. He organized the event and was also in attendance. Karen Roberts, another friend of the school, who lives in California and whose kind donation made all of this possible, was unfortunately unable to attend. Everyone thought of her and missed her.
Art created from colored sand is an ancient traditional Tibetan art form, called a sand mandala. During the entire week, Losang showed the students how the art is created, and even let them try it.
Losang had many small containers of brightly colored sand on a small table beside the large table on which he made the mandala. Scooping up a color of sand into one end of a long, hollow brass cone, narrow at the other end where the sand falls out, he held the narrow end over the table as he scraped the tube to make the sand fall onto the table, creating the mandala.
Rather than creating a traditional Buddhist mandala, Losang spent the week creating a beautiful sand mandala telling a story with special significance for the students at St. Joseph’s.
The mandala’s central figures were an elephant, with a monkey sitting on its back, with a white rabbit on top of the monkey, and a bird on top of the rabbit, beside a tall green tree.
Why these animals, and why were they one on top of another? The story comes from an ancient Buddhist legend.
These four animals, living in the forest, decided to find out which one was the oldest, because they wanted to respect their elder. They used the height of a certain tree to help them decide which animal was the oldest.
The elephant said that when it was born, the tree was already big. The monkey said that when it was born, the tree was only a small tree, so the monkey was older. The rabbit said that when it was born, the tree was just a tiny little shoot, with a leaf sticking up from the soil, so that meant the rabbit was older. Then the bird spoke up, saying that it was the one who had planted the seed from which the tree grew - and all the animals realized that the bird was the oldest.
These four animals were the first figures that Losang created, in the center of the table. As the week went on, the rest of the mandala grew out around it. A snowy mountain resembling Mt. Taylor had streams flowing down into a lake. Other images important to the students and the school filled out the scene - Jesus, Mother Mary, St. Joseph, St. Francis, an angel, a Native American, a cross, a schoolhouse, a heart, the name of the school, the children holding hands in a circle, plus sun, star and clouds. There was also a Tibetan yak, a horse, a turtle, and the school’s principal, Antonio Trujillo, dancing with his huge friendly dog, Gubbio.
Teachings important at St. Joseph’s were included in the mandala - compassion, patience, hope, peace, love, and education. F.A.C.E.S. represented the five pillars of what the school stands for: Faith, Academics, Culture, Environment, and Service. Principal Antonio explained that all of these qualities are expressed in the face of each child, so that anyone entering the school encounters the face of God.
The students shared their own arts with Losang, too, teaching him the deer dance, the buffalo dance and the corn dance. Losang showed the students a traditional dance from Tibet called the yak dance, the yak being a very large animal that lives in Tibet. The children sang songs. The sharing of cultures was enjoyed by all.
On Wednesday, Losang’s friend Dennis presented a program of slides about his travels in Tibet, Mongolia and Ladakh. Stories and colorful photos showed children in all of these countries, how the people live there, and the animals they live with, including the yak and the horse.
As the week went on, it was amazing to see the many similarities between Tibetan, Acoma Pueblo, and Laguna Pueblo cultures. Both Pueblo and Tibetan cultures respect their elders. Both have so many traditions and arts that are important to them, including dance, painting, traditional dress, and traditional stories. Seeing Dennis’s pictures of the Tibetan and Asian people, many students and teachers commented that they look like local people here.
On Friday, the students enjoyed a lunch of a traditional Tibetan food called the momo, a special beef-filled dumpling that Losang and Soo Kyong made for them. After that, the students participated in dancing, singing, and dismantling the mandala, using brushes to sweep the colored sand all together. Losang explained that the sand is swept together at the end of every sand mandala, reminding us that everything has a beginning and ending.
The students at St. Joseph’s enjoyed Losang’s visit very much. St. Joseph’s is hoping that Losang might return next year, as part of the school’s 100th Anniversary celebration events. Stay tuned!
Measuring Success in the Classroom
At St Joseph Mission School, our Pre Kindergarten program accepts students from the age from 3 to 5. We commit to a safe environment that respects boundaries and models compassion. This environment builds up student’s practice in social, emotional learning. In the time from the beginning of the school year to the 2nd Trimester, students have shown significant growth from tendencies in non-responsiveness and fearfulness to independent, conversational and collaborative. We see the beginning of success for a child being foundational through early childhood education - habits, routines and recognition is established through our Pre-K classroom.
A quote from our Pre-K director Tonya Louis, "Early learning is critical in helping our children become more responsible, capable, and caring individuals. One of our purposes at St. Joseph's is to perpetuate holistic growth and development at every level and milestone. We seek to cultivate meaningful interactions with our students and families and this is demonstrated in all we do at St. Joseph's whether it's in PreK or the elementary level."
We pray that you and your loved ones have had a safe and restful holiday. We invite you reply to this newsletter, and to let us know how we can pray for you, we would love to hear from you!
Please keep our school in prayer, as we welcome our new Pastor Fr Matthew Keller. We are grateful for the many blessings in the long month of November, and remain grateful for all that is to come forward in December.
Pax Et Bonum,
St. Joseph Mission School
St. Joseph, pray for us.