Encountering Christ: A Sacramental Worldview
The Incarnation of the God-Man
God is not just the destination, but the Way. Fundamentally we teach that God satisfies our restless hearts that we have on this earth. Having become incarnate, He is the true form of what it means to be human. It is only through encountering Him that our identity is truly revealed.
We hope we do not only teach about God or how all subjects in the end point to Him, but that we allow Christ to form the soul of each student.
It is through the Sacraments that He invites us to participate in His Divine Life: “For the Son of God became man so that we might become God” (St. Athanasius).
Learning How to Encounter
Learning how to pray is deeply tied to learning what it means to be a Christian. We not only desire to teach that God is at the center of all that we learn and do, but also how to encounter Him. We begin every morning with daily Mass because the Eucharist is the source and summit of our life. Heaven begins the moment that we see the real presence of God in the Eucharist.
Presence of Clergy
Being at Our Lady of the Valley Parish has given us the ability to invite priests into the daily life of the school. Students hear the homilies from the clergy daily (many which speak to their particular needs) and have the opportunity for Confession on a regular basis. Our students have valued getting to know priests as relatable and view them as their own spiritual fathers. As we build our own campus, we always welcome the presence of priests and hope to have priests assigned as spiritual fathers for the students and staff.
The House System at St. John Paul II High School
JP2HS’s House System, drawn from the thousand-year-old system with roots back to schools like Oxford and Cambridge, forms the competitive backbone of our school’s community life.
When students join JP2HS, they are sorted into one of our four Houses, allowing them to create a community beyond their class level divisions. The four Houses compete in a year-long contest that is designed to help them navigate their high school career, grow in virtue, and build school spirit and comradeship. Each of the four Houses are dedicated to a saint that has particular relevance to our students’ lives, and each House also focuses on one of four core virtues: Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude, and Justice.
The Four Houses:
House Catherine of Siena
A saint who stood up to a period of great confusion and turmoil in the Church, St. Catherine of Siena utilized a calm presence of mind and a great command of reason to guide the course of church history through her discourse with Pope Gregory XI, and helped to negotiate peace with the Florentine Republic. House Catherine makes Prudence—the practical reason to discern true good in every circumstance and knowing how to choose the way in which to achieve it—their primary focus.
Colors: Red and Black
House Gregory the Great
Pope Saint Gregory the Great, a father to us all for his papacy, was also the father of musical notation, and so is the patron saint of musicians and teachers. While in Rome and dealing with the influx of the barbarians, St. Gregory the Great made it the goal of his papacy to send missionaries to the people that were leading to tumult in the culture around Rome. He was a lover of beautiful things, and wanted people to cherish the good rather than to attempt to subjugate it. The primary virtue that House Greg focuses on is Temperance—the virtue which moderates our desire, and keeps it in the right relationship with reason and faith.
Colors: Yellow and White
House Joan of Arc
Best known for being burned at the stake by the English following the Hundred Years’ War, St. Joan of Arc was a woman of great accomplishment because of her even greater faith. Though she began as a French peasant, St. Joan led soldiers decades older than herself, bringing order and faith to the roughest of soldiers because of her own piety and decisiveness. And with her great bravery and military brilliance, the virtue that House Joan pursues most specifically is Fortitude—the moral virtue allowing for staunchness and the resistance of temptation in the face of difficulties and temptation.
Colors: Purple and Silver
House Thomas More
St. Thomas More is known for his exceptional public life as a loyal servant to England, but a more loyal subject of Heaven. When confronted by his king and demanded to support sinful action as lawful, St. Thomas More remained stalwart in the face of great adversity and spoke as witness to the Truth. As such, the virtue that members of House More make their primary design is Justice—the firm will to do the good, not tethered to a sense of matters and rules, but in direct relation to Goodness itself, giving always to each what is their due in relation to God.
Colors: Green and Gold
Encountering Witnesses: An Invitation to Journey on the Way
Our Teachers
Prayer. Wisdom. Zeal.
We asked our youth what they need to help foster their faith. So many responded that they lack living examples of people striving for holiness. Our response is to surround them with a community of vibrant teachers who witness that living the faith is possible as they reach college and beyond.
Prayer: Love for God. For each teacher that we bring on staff, we want to see that they Him. have an authentic prayer life. We want our youth to see that our teachers know the Person of Jesus Christ and have the desire to grow in their relationship with Him.
Wisdom: Love for Truth. Teaching is not only about the passing on knowledge, but also teaching the the art of living. We value in our faculty not only the expertise in their field of teaching, but have the capacity to show how it relates to life and the pursuit of the living God.
Zeal: Love of Souls. We desire that the teachers see what they do not as a job, but as a mission and vocation. The true purpose of this high school is to win souls for Christ.
info@jp2hs.com
HOURS: Monday - Friday, 8am-3pm* or by appointment.
* Staff are at Mass from 9am-9:30am
PHONE: 970-281-5269
LOCATION: Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Church
1250 7th Street | Windsor, Colorado 80550