By Bernard Dumond, President & CEO of Catholic Vitality 360

Editor’s Note: This month, THE CIRCLE Blog and Zoomcast are authored and facilitated by Catholic school leader and spiritual director, Ken Rasp.

“Do not pray for easy lives; pray to be stronger people. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks."

 - Blessed Solanus Casey

Blessed Solanus Casey

As a Catholic School leader and administrator, who served in various roles over 35 years, I am excited to share more about a Leader Who Leads and the Spirituality of Leadership. Through this important blog and newsletter, I am happy to provide some thoughts about what I consider to be an essential tool for school leaders. It plays a significant part in helping me be a better person and leader who leads.

Let me start with some important background information. I am a leader of an organization called Franciscan Connect. One of our activities is a Wednesday Night Reflection series conducted via Zoom. Our primary objectives in the group are: 

• to share our faith journey with some like-minded people, 
• nurture our relationship with Jesus in a fraternal community setting, and 
• learn more about the continued impact of St. Francis of Assisi and Franciscan charisms in our lives.

We always begin with prayer. Following prayer, a member of the facilitating team introduces us to a Franciscan saint. On this particular Wednesday night a few years ago, we learned about Blessed Father Solanus Casey. He was born in Wisconsin in the 1880’s and died in 1957 – in my lifetime. Father Solanus was an OFM Capuchin Simplex Priest - this meant he could celebrate Mass, but could not preach a doctrinal sermon or hear confessions.

Due to his limitations, he served as a Porter at the parishes he served. Because of his simple spirituality about God and His people, he was a hit. In no time, people would be lined up to talk with Fr. Solanus. Many positive things happened when you visited with Fr. Solanus. The number of those reporting miraculous events increased, and it didn’t take long for the clerical provincial to take note of Fr. Solanus’ growing reputation. After his death, even more was learned of the holiness of Fr. Solanus. He is on the path to sainthood. His beatification Mass occurred on November 18, 2017, at Ford Field in Detroit.

A Simple Guide to Perfection

At a point in the story, our Franciscan Connect facilitator informed us that while reviewing his papers as a part of the canonization process, they discovered something our facilitator called his Simple Guide to Perfection. Fr. Solanus wrote it during his postulant years. She shared that it served Fr. Solanus as a sort of guide and reminder as he walked through his life as a Franciscan priest.

As a group, we were intrigued by the concept of the Simple Guide to Perfection. Without seeing his guide, we talked about how something like that could positively impact our journeys to alignment. What would we include if we were to write and adopt a Simple Guide to Perfection?

I decided to take the challenge and attempt to draft my own guide. I initially approached it like it was going to be a daunting task. My first issue was to deal with the concept of perfection. Striving to be perfect seemed unattainable, and how simple could that be. As I began to jot down my ideas on paper, the task was less daunting than I thought. I realized that my guideposts were already a part of my leadership style, how I approached work and life, and how I treated those I encountered. To be honest, I was surprised. It was more straightforward than I expected.

Before sharing mine, I would like to share the guide by Fr. Solanus. He actually did not call his A Simple Guide to Perfection. For Fr. Solanus it was the Means for Acquiring the Love of God, which to Fr. Solanus was perfection. Here is the version from Fr. Solanus:

• Detachment of oneself from earthly affections - singleness of Purpose
• Meditation on the Passion of Jesus Christ
• Uniformity with the Divine Will
• Mental prayer – meditation and contemplation
• Prayer – “Ask, and it shall be given to you.”
• To Preserve God’s Presence:
• Raise your heart to Him by frequent aspirations 
• Make a good intention at the beginning of each week and frequently during its execution.

Now here is mine: Ken’s Simple Guide to Being Saintly:

• Just Make a Difference
1. Simple and Radical
2. Openness
3. Ask and Act
4. Ready and Willing
5. Always a role model
• No Excuses
1. No rationalization
2. Accept total dependence!
3. Just the truth, only the truth, nothing but the truth
4. God is in control.
5. There are no shoulds.
• Accept it, Own it, and Step into it.
1. If it is my issue, take care of it appropriately.
2. No backing down
3. It is MINE, and I will deal with it.
4. Acceptance and positivity
5. It’s my choice!
• Turn Left
1. Radical choice
2. Proactive, intentional, REAL
3. Trust - God is in the choice.
4. Boldness
5. The Radicality of Purpose – the guide and principle
• Listen Intently & and with Heart
1. Stop and focus, totally focused.
2. Intentionality
3. Hearing the message, not just the words
4. Hearing Between the Lines
5. Play it back!
• Yes, Lord!
1. You are God, and I am not.
2. Proclamation – God was! God is! God always will be!
3. I am who I am!
4. My response – AMEN
5. Prayer = Communion and Relationship
• Thank you! The Power of Gratitude
1. Openness to goodness and kindness
2. Respecting the dignity of all others
3. It starts with me.
4. I care!
5. Grace Bearer
• After Falling- Get up
1. Growth and maturity
2. God’s continual call
3. An intentional and authentic response
4. Humble surrender - Just do it!
• Lead with Integrity and as a Servant
1. Servant and service
2. Walk the talk!
3. Own being Franciscan.
4. Practicality of Mission
5. Lifting and letting others shine – T.E.A.M.
• I am a Gift from God
1. Practicing the Gospel of Poverty
2. Poor in Spirit
3. God is my all.
4. I am a gift.
5. It must be shared

• Ken’s - To Preserve God’s Presence:
1. Pray daily, sing God’s praises, and listen for His call.
2. Read the scriptures and other spiritually enlightening books.
3. Live simply and with the radicality of purpose
4. No Panic, No Gossip, Expect a Miracle
5. Choose to be a Grace Bearer and Peace Giver
6. Ensure openness to an ever-present God.

I firmly believe that God calls us to be Catholic School leaders. He gifts us a skill set that we must hon into a toolbox, attributes, and traits that allow us to be His hands and feet in our school setting. We must choose to notice His continual presence in our lives. Please remember – We are Disciples of a Lord who died for us and continues to manifest His love and mentorship for each of us.

As we at Catholic Vitality 360 illustrate through our Seven Circles of Catholic Vitality (see our website at catholicvitality360.com for information and the assessment scorecard), parishes, school and diocese that cultivate and demonstrate Visionary Leadership are on the path to achieving higher levels of vitality and growth. By sharing and integrating into your leadership process the above elements of A Simple Guide to perfection, we can all become better and more effective leaders, who live their faith life with passion and purpose. This is your time to thrive!

We Can Help

Here at Catholic Vitality 360, it is our ministry to serve your needs. Our mission is your vitality. All of the processes we share in our writings, videos and Zoomcast, THE CIRCLE are available to you. You are not alone in this work and we are happy to help. We consider you and your parish/school a vitality partner with us as we navigate building the Kingdom of God. Our proven approach will provide clarity, a working plan and a proven system that produces impressive results and engages more people in the life of the parish/school.

Engage others, share this dynamic vision, create a collaborative team and build ongoing vitality.

This will take time, patience, persistence, perseverance and PRAYER.

Do not fear, we walk in Faith and this is God’s work. 

Be Good and Do Good.