Crusader Times February 27, 2019

• MOTHER-SON DATE: This Saturday, March 2nd! 1st-5th Grades, 10:30-12; 6th-8th

Grades, 12:30-2:00 in the school library (see last two pages)

• PICTURE DAY is next Tuesday, March 5th. Be sure to bring sweaters (LS & MS) and

blazers (US).

• ASH WEDNESDAY: March 6 — Lenten Season Begins

• UPPER SCHOOL GYM NIGHT: March 8th, 6-9

• EARLY DISMISSAL: March 15

PreK3 through Grade 12

15415 Red Robin Road

San Antonio TX 78255

210-695-2240

www.atonementonline.com

Rev. Mark Lewis Pastor

Mr. James Growdon

Head of School

Dear Families, As we wrap up the month of February, we acknowledge the im-portance of the virtue of Honesty in our lives. Honesty is the bedrock of Integrity. The habits of one’s Honesty or lack of Honesty reveal a person’s level of Integrity. When exercised well, Honesty is a virtue demonstrating great dependence upon other virtues. Truth is pure and should be shared by Christians, and Honesty is an expression of how one shares a universal truth or a personal thought. Humility often plays a large part in how we convey Honesty to others or even how we feel about ourselves when being Honest. Similarly, various de-grees of Gentleness, Prudence, Patience, Charity, Mercy (Compassion) and Understanding may accompany the Honesty conveyed if a heart is to be receptive to accepting a truth. Honesty without tempered support from these other virtues may come across as cold, or judg-mental. To be Honest means that I know my own limitations or that I am sober about the reality of a circumstance. When we are faced with difficult decisions and we seek counsel, it is our friends who pos-sess great Integrity who are most helpful to our situation, precisely because they are Honest, and they show us Honesty through love. In Christ, Mr. James Growdon So you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the right-eous. For the upright will inhabit the land, and those with integrity will remain in it. —Proverbs 2:20-21 If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything. —Mark Twain To make your children capable of honesty is the beginning of education. —John Ruskin Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom. —Thomas Jefferson A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to put its pants on. —Winston Churchill

DRAMA: It’s not just a

club anymore!

This year saw the advent of Atonement Academy’s very first drama class, designed and taught by University of Dallas alum-na Audrey Ahern Lenahan. Virtually since the school’s incep-tion, our students have been involved in successful drama clubs, but never a full-year graded course. This year’s course focused on teaching the principles of perfor-mance through the use of classical texts and formed students for poetry recitation, lector preparation and practice, radio plays, and play performance. In Drama II, or Period Drama, students will read, analyze, and prepare classical texts from different historical periods (Ancient, Medieval, and Modern) for perfor-mance. As we at The Atonement Academy focus our efforts on build-ing a stronger and more cohesive classical curriculum, I am ex-cited to be directing two plays that tell vital stories in the histo-ry of Western Civilization. The senior acting class will perform Antigone, one of the most enduring and influential of the Greek tragedies. This timeless play follows a young woman who risks everything to pay honor to her deceased brother, defying unjust human ordinances in obedience to divine law. The production is staged in a unique thrust arrangement, giving actors and audi-ence the feel of an ancient amphitheater. The freshmen and jun-iors will perform I Never Saw Another Butterfly. This contem-porary one-act tells a little known story from history as it fol-lows the children of Terezin concentration camp. Through art, poetry, and music, these resilient young people find beauty and meaning in the face of unimaginable suffering. In their own ways, these two plays both point to deep truths embedded in the human experience. They cause us to reflect on where our allegiances lie and what is most important to us. They are stories that will allow our students, our young artists, to answer St. John Paul II’s call “to use […their] creative intui-tion to enter into the heart of the mystery of the Incarnate God and at the same time into the mystery of man” (Letter to Art-ists). Antigone and I Never Saw Another Butterfly run April 13 at 7 pm and April 14 at 3 pm. Please come out too see our Compa-ny of Crusaders!

Audrey Lenahan holds a BA in Drama from the Uni-versity of Dallas and an MFA in Acting from West Virginia University. She has appeared in numerous regional theater produc-tions, as well as short films and regional commercials. For nearly three years, she toured North America with Saint Luke Productions,

playing St. Thérèse of Lisieux in their one-woman play, Thérèse: The Story of a Soul directed by Patti Defilippis. Other credits include Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare Dallas), A Man for All Seasons (Berkshire Theatre Festival), and The Ghost Sonata (Undermain Theater). Mrs. Lenahan was married at Our Lady of the Atonement this past January. Educated in the classical Catholic tradition, Mrs. Lenahan will teach Drama I and Drama II next year.

—Audrey Lenahan

THANK YOU to all who volunteered to help with PSIA! We still need a few

coaches for: Maps, Graphs and Charts Modern Oratory On Site Drawing Please contact Mrs. Zuberbueler at azuber-bueler@atonementonline.com

Enroll Now You are welcome to Mrs. Joiner’s office for RenWeb assistance!

Contact her at yjoiner@atonementonline.com.

PRAY THE ROSARY FOR THE ATONEMENT ACADEMY!

8th grade Scholarships Our local chapter of the Knights of Columbus is offer-ing five scholarships of $500 each to our 8th grade students to support their continued pursuit of a Catho-lic education. As part of their application, students will write an essay on the importance of Catholic edu-cation in light of political correctness. Completed ap-plications are due on Wednesday, March 13th. Please note that only completed applications will be reviewed. Interested students should contact Mrs. Powell or Dr. Lamascus for applications. Fish Fry Fridays The Knights raise funds for scholarships through do-nut sales on the second Sunday of the month and their Lenten Friday Fish Fry Suppers. Please stop by the donut sales in the Narthex on the second Sun-day of the month to help the Knights support our stu-dents! Every Friday during Lent, the Knights fish fry begins at 4:45 and continues to 8PM. You can eat in St. Anthony Hall and stay for Stations of the Cross at 7pm or pick up your order to go. A drive through is also available. Please support the Knights!

All are invited to pray the rosary together for

The Atonement Academy each Monday

morning! If you can join us, meet us after

drop off in the main Church! The rosary

starts at 7:45. If you cannot be there, pray

on your own with us wherever you are!

https://signup.com/go/RPNNMGz and let us

know you are praying with us.

Knights of Columbus

Announces Both

Scholarship

Opportunities and

Lenten

Fish Fry Fridays!

Pray the Rosary with Us!

I am now a student at Trinity University, and I’m proud to say that on June 2, 2017, I graduated from The Atonement Academy high school along with 24 of my fellow classmates. The literal translation of the Latin phrase “alma ma-ter” is “nourishing mother,” which is so fitting for me to call Atonement. Both the attached parish, Our Lady of the Atonement Catholic Church, and The Atonement Academy truly did nourish me in both fides et ratio (faith and reason), in accord with the school’s motto. As I am writing this, Valentine’s Day is drawing near, and I simply could not pass up this chance to ex-press my love and gratitude to this beautiful school. Atonement has taught me so much in academics, but even more so spiritually, and I’m extremely thankful that I chose to attend this school that brought God into every moment of my life. I love how each class started with a prayer, and how the school brought God in, not just its religion clas-ses but even in Latin, History and Literature classes. I love how each month teachers took time out of their classes to bring my classmates and me to the Confession, and above all I love how The Atone-ment Academy made time for the students to go Mass every day so that we could partake in the beau-tiful celebration of the Eucharist—the source and summit of the Catholic life—each day and receive the sacramental graces which come with it. And because of Atonement I can proudly say that I read, outlined, and studied the Catechism of the Catholic Church cover to cover, and that I studied and read the whole Bible in the course of one year. Because of The Atonement, I was able to go to the March for Life in DC and go on a pilgrimage to Italy and the Vatican. Because of The Atonement I can proudly say that I’m a Catholic, and that I have been equipped with the tools to help me distinguish right from wrong. I can go on forever, but in short, The Atonement Academy has taught me things that will stay with me for the rest of my life– things that will prepare me for a world full of persecution and misguidance. During my studies there I was shown nothing but love from the staff, the parish priests and my peers, but that is not to say my time there was nothing but sunshine and rainbows.

After transferring from St. Luke’s Catholic middle school to my first year in high school at The Atonement Academy, through no fault of the school, I developed a severe so-cial anxiety disorder. Because of this, most of my days went by with me not using my voice at all, save for a few barely audible murmurs of a “thank you” or “good morn-ing.” I had extreme difficulty making eye-contact to where at one point it took herculean effort to simply look up at the board and stay in the classroom full of people. Eventually four hours of sleep became what I considered a decent amount of rest for one night, if I was able to even sleep at all, and this led to an even bigger can of worms– psychiatric medica-tions, long-term depression, and eventually being hospitalized multiple times after having suicidal ideations. These were the hardest four years of my life, yet these hardships made me love The Atonement Academy even more. Throughout every step of the way, the teachers of the Atonement Academy, most especially Deacon James Orr, Mr. Walter Spencer, Mr. Andrew Shivone, Mrs. Catherine Prochko, Mr. John Markovetz, and Mrs. Ana Powell were there to help me and my family and made sure that I was able to graduate; I cannot thank them enough. The Atonement Academy showed me nothing but love, and out of all the things I learned during my time there, above all, I was able to learn the im-portance of loving myself. It was here that I learned that I had to be kind to myself to be kind enough to the world. Because of The Atonement Academy I am where I am at today. I am now a freshman at Trinity Uni-versity and the president of Trinity’s pro-life group, Tigers for Life. I am now majoring in Psychology and Business Administration with the aim to be a psychotherapist for the mentally ill. I am now the owner of the best pug in the world, Nugget. My name is Angelique Lopez, I am a proud alumna of The Atonement Academy, and I dedicate this in loving memory to Deacon Orr.

Reflections of an Atonement Alumna:

Angelique Lopez A slightly different version of this article originally appeared in The Tower, the online student magazine of Trinity University.

Our Juniors received their class rings last Friday during the school Mass.

Parents were welcome to join us for the Ring Ceremony, such as Dr. Armando Garza seen here with his eldest daughter, Maria.

Above left: Second graders in choir — they will sing at tomorrow morning’s school Mass. Above: Hannah Cruz gleefully displays her acceptance to the Freshman Class next year! Left: Mrs. Czech’s fourth grade girls happily display their Presidents’ Day projects.

TAPPS League I am happy to announce we will be back in TAPPS beginning in June. We are classified as 2A for the 2019-2020 Academic School year. Please note that the district we are placed in for football is different than the other sports due to us playing 6-man foot-ball. Here are the other schools we will be competing with in regards to our district for Football: Division III, District 3 Fredericksburg Heritage Christian Bulverde Living Rock Cedar Park Summit Christian San Marcos Hill Country Christian For all our other sports and fine arts we will be competing in the 2A Classification, District 5: St. Gerard Shiner St. Paul Bracken Christian Faith Academy Victoria If you have any questions about our transition to TAPPS, feel free to email me. Varsity Basketball Please include in this week’s newsletter that the Varsity Basketball team made it to the champi-onship of the LSCAA State Tournament but lost to FEAST. They were runner-ups in the league. MS Baseball and Softball MS Baseball and Softball begin their seasons at Cornerstone this Thursday, at 4:30 and 5:30 pm. MS Track MS Track has a meet at SACS at 10:00 am this Friday

Dakotah Vidal M.Ed. Interim Director of Athletics Head Football Coach Head Basketball Coach dvidal@atonementonline.com

Atonement Athletics Update

At right, Four varsity baseball players get ready for the upcoming season!

THANK YOU to our Booster Club and our loyal fans!

We had a number of Middle School and High School students compete in Solo and Ensemble Competitions this past weekend, with all students earning a Superior Rating. We also had three students named as Outstanding Soloists, and two Upper School students will be advancing to the state competition in Houston in April. The list of the students follows: Emmanuelle Mefrige Hannah John Madison Vale Amani Ierome Karolina Garza Micah Rabey Claire Hivnor Hannah Cruz Paulina Esquinca Moreno Ryanne Ambrosio Matthew Cantu Hunter van Delden And — Mark Lane – Outstanding Soloist Christian Sanchez –Outstanding Soloist Andres Sanchez – Outstanding Soloist Maria Garza – Advancing to State David Henriquez – Advancing to State Please join me in congratulating our young choristers on their achievements!

—Jesus De Hoyos Music Department

BOXTOPS

FOR EDUCATION Send then in to the front office now! The Meyering family is once again heading up this effort for the PTC, and another submission date is just around the corner!

LUNCH TIME

CONSIDERATIONS… Whether you pack your child’s lunch or they do it them-

selves, please don’t forget to add a plastic fork or spoon as

needed! Our hot lunch company has been giving out hun-

dreds a week to children who do not buy a lunch, and it is

getting prohibitive for them to continue to do so!

(Donations of plasticware are cheerfully accepted, too!)

Music Department Notes

THANK YOU We appreciate our contributors of photos and/ or stories. They include: Lorelle Lamascus, Julia Bush, Dakotah Vidal, Angelique Lopez, Peter Petroff, Jesse DeHoyos, Yolanda Joiner, Susana Treviño, Deborah Wendtland, Maria Kennedy, Terri Garza, Emily Simpson, Letty Cruz, Brian Schott, Celeste Tidwell, and anyone from whom I “stole” FB photos and forgot to credit! In addition, last issue should have also acknowledged contributions from Sister Mary Margaret. We appreciate your contributions to the Crusader Times!

One Day Only! A “Book Tasting” is scheduled for all MS and US only. This Book tasting is an opportunity to pre-view new B&N books in a quiet and relaxed setting. Quiet conversations about the book is encouraged! We understand students have very little time to enjoy browsing a book store or library due to assignments and extracurricular activities. We will display seven new books acquired from Barnes & Noble for review by students. Students may purchase a copy of the book on the same day while supplies last. Students may pay with cash, debit, credit or bill the cost to school account. Mrs. Wendtland will provide forms in the next newsletter. MS Books on display 11:30 – 12:15 pm US Books on display 12:30 – 4:30pm

We Are Having a Book Tasting!

Grades 7-12

Tuesday, March 12th

Keep a look out for the

March Madness 2019

Tournament of Books (4 rounds)

Votes tallied every

Tuesday and Thursday

Voting starts March 19th – April 1st More Information to Come!