Parare October 2017

PARARE
St. John XXIII College Preparatory Magazine | October 2017
Helping after Harvey

In this issue…
!
!
DOMINICAN
SISTERS JOIN
OUR SCHOOL
COMMUNITY
P. 5
STUDENTS
RECEIVE
NATIONAL MERIT
HONORS
P. 9
IN HARVEY’S
WAKE,
STUDENTS HELP
REBUILD
P. 11
President’s Message Page 2
Alumni Updates Page 8
2017 Raffle Winners Page 14
Parare is a production of St. John XXIII College Preparatory. All material herein is the copyright and product of the
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send a message to news@sj23lions.org.
Rev. Steven Sellers, President
Mr. Timothy Gallic, Principal
Mr. Jonathan Mitchican, Assistant Chaplain
and Parare Editor!
Parare
October, 2017
St. John XXIII College Preparatory
1800 W. Grand Parkway N.
Katy, TX 77449
Phone: (281) 693-1000
Fax: (281) 693-1001
1

September 19, 2017
From the President!
Thoughts from a Grateful Heart
I can think of no better way to begin our new bimonthly
e-magazine than with a few words about gratitude. So, let
me start by confessing that I try very hard to commence
each day by giving thanks to God for giving me a new
day. Countless people did not get the gift of today. But I
did, for reasons known only to God. As I give thanks, I
recognize each morning that I am on borrowed time. God
has had several opportunities to “beam me up,” as it were,
but I’m still here. And so each day for me is a gift.
Gratitude is saying “thank you” to God for a beautiful,
priceless, unmerited, unpredictable gift: The gift of life,
the gift of a new day.
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OCTOBER 20, 2017
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Gratitude, for me, has nothing to do with how I feel. It is
the starting point of my faith each day to tell the Lord that
I am thankful to Him for every single, solitary thing, good
and bad, pleasing and painful. St. Paul said nearly the
same thing in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “In everything give
thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus
concerning you.” God wants us to be grateful. God wants
me to be grateful. And so I am, or at least I try to be. !
!
The bullet hole in Fr. Sellers’ windshield.
“I know that my guardian angel
deflected the bullet.”!
!
I am particularly grateful that nearly two years ago – on
Monday, October 5, 2015 – I faced one of those moments
when an unexpected event could have hastened my
departure from this world. I wrote about it in our St. John
XXIII newsletter. Here is how I described the gunshot that
crashed into the front window of my car as I was on the
way to school: “So I was praying the Rosary, as I always
do when driving. And meditating. And then something
crashed into the lower left part of my windshield with
stunning force. I was shocked, and immediately assumed
it was a large rock. But then I noticed shards of glass on
the dashboard and in my lap. Something small had
actually hit my car head on. When I got to school and saw
the hole, I immediately knew. My windshield had been
hit by a bullet. Someone had taken a shot at me, probably
with a .22 caliber or 9mm weapon. It was either a
deliberate, extremely lucky shot (since I was traveling at
60 mph), or it had come from a weapon fired into the air
nearby.”!
!
The Sheriff’s Department never solved the case, but I
know that my guardian angel deflected the bullet – which
came halfway through the window and then ricocheted
off. !
!
3

OCTOBER 20, 2017
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Parare Mente et Corde
Over the last three decades, I have learned that each day
presents only two possible ways for me to interact with
the world around me: With a grateful heart, or with a cold
heart. One of my favorite writers, the great English poet,
philosopher, and journalist G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936),
saw the daily choice this way: “When it comes to life the
critical thing is whether you take things for granted or
take them with gratitude.”!
!
To me, gratitude is a no-brainer. It lifts me above myself,
out of my immediate circumstances, and into the presence
of my God. Another of my favorite writers -- Fr. Henri
Nouwen (1932-1996) – put it this way: “Perhaps nothing
helps us make the movement from our little selves to a
larger world than remembering God in gratitude. Such a
perspective puts God in view in all of life, not just in the
moments we set aside for worship or spiritual disciplines.
Not just in the moments when life seems easy.”!
!
Finally, gratitude brings me closer to those people whom
God brings into my life. When I pray for them each day, I
become part of their journey, and they become part of
mine. That prayer connection brings a richness, a fullness,
that transcends this world. One of my heroes, the great
German pastor and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer
(1906-1945), smuggled these words out of the Flossenberg
Concentration Camp in Nazi Germany shortly before his
execution: “In ordinary life, we hardly realize that we
receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only
with gratitude that life becomes rich.”!
!
At this moment, I am grateful for all of you in our Lion
community. For faculty and staff, board members and
benefactors, students and families, and especially for those
who are struggling to overcome immeasurable adversity
due to flooding. I am grateful for your presence in my life,
for the joy, beauty, energy, wisdom, and courage you bring
to our school. I am grateful to God for all of you.
!
Fr. Steven Sellers
4

OCTOBER 20, 2017
“Signposts for Heaven”
!
The two Dominican sisters at St. John XXIII
this year have come to do battle. “My main
goal this year is that [the students] come
closer to Christ and that Jesus uses me as His
instrument,” says Sr. John Michael, O.P. “We
go to fight against the devil for the souls of
our students. We’re constantly praying for
them.”!
Sr. John Michael and Sr. Maria Guadalupe,
O.P., are part of a group of five sisters that
have recently come to Houston from the
Michigan based Dominican Sisters of Mary,
Mother of the Eucharist (DSMME), a large
religious community with missions all over
the country. Sr. Maria Guadalupe is teaching
theology and English while Sr. John Michael
teaches history. Both have been educators for
many years, but no matter what it is they are
teaching, Christ is always at the center.!
!
“Heaven has to be on our horizon in Catholic
education because that is our ultimate
destiny,” says Sr. Maria Guadalupe. “That is
what God made us for.”!
!
The sisters have come to Houston at the
request of Bishop Steven Lopes, the Bishop of
the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St.
Peter, a special diocese-like structure for
former Anglicans who become Roman
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Dominican Sisters Join the SJXXIII Faculty
All five sisters of the Houston mission standing in front of the shrine at Our
Lady of Walsingham Cathedral. Top row: Sr. John Michael, Sr. Maria
Guadalupe, Sr. Albert Marie. Bottom row: Sr. Amata Veritas, Sr. Thomas
Aquinas
Catholics. Along with the two sisters who
teach at St. John XXIII, two of the sisters work in the Ordinariate’s Chancery and one teaches at St. Thomas
University.!
!
When Fr. Steven Sellers, the President of St. John XXIII and an Ordinariate priest, learned that two sisters
would be coming to us he was very excited. “It was an answer to prayer,” he said. “Having the sisters with
us is an affirmation of our Catholic identity. They’re a reminder of the contemplative vocation that we all
have.”
5

“We’re kind of signposts for heaven in a
sense,” says Sr. Maria Guadalupe about the
religious vocation. “We’re supposed to
point to the reality beyond this world. We
can hopefully bring the students to a
broader horizon than their ordinary daily
lives would bring them.”!
!
OCTOBER 20, 2017
Sister John Michael never expected to be a
sister. She grew up in a large Catholic
family outside of Kansas City. “I always
assumed I would get married,” she said.
“I don’t have to come here every
day and try to make the culture
Catholic. It already is. That’s a
beautiful thing.”
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The sisters cheered on the football team at this year’s homecoming game.
It was not until she went on her Confirmation retreat at
age fifteen that she began to have a sense of God’s
calling, but she still was not sure of her vocation. She
decided to pray the rosary every day, asking God for
guidance. By the end of her junior year in high school,
she was sure.!
!
The call for Sister Maria Guadalupe began when she was
a junior in college, studying in France. She had a difficult
semester that she only made it through by turning to her
faith. In gratitude, she asked God what He would have
her do and He told her to enter religious life, but it was
not until she spent two years teaching in Belize that she
came to realize the call would not go away. Through a
combination of Marian devotion and Eucharistic
adoration, she was finally able to say yes. “It was
definitely a journey,” she says. “It took me to three
different continents!”!
!
The sisters hope that their presence on campus will help
students to realize that the call to religious life is a
legitimate option for a good and holy life. They say that
while many people think that a calling from God is
generic—a call simply to be a priest, a brother, a sister,
Sr. John Michael teaching history.
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OCTOBER 20, 2017
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The sisters meet their new students. Top:
Sr. Maria Guadalupe, Veronica Ibarra
'20, Candace Noonan '20, Sr. John
Michael. Bottom: Thomas Rider '19,
Parker Frasier '21, Santiago Pincon '20.
“We go to fight against the
devil for the souls of our
students. We’re constantly
praying for them.”
a monk or a nun—that in fact God
always has a plan to send us into the
community where we can use our
gifts the best and grow closest to Him.
For both of the sisters, that
community was definitely DSMME.!
!
Sister Maria Guadalupe says that the
joy of the DSMME community came
home to her during her first
discernment retreat. There was an ice
storm and the roads became very
treacherous. But instead of worrying
about it, “the sisters interpreted it as a
good sign, because they saw it as
opposition from the evil one, trying to
put a stop to the good things going on
at the retreat.” As it turns out, all the
women who ended up entering the
community with Sr. Maria Guadalupe
were on that retreat.!
!
“That’s Dominican,” Sister says. “You look at a bad situation and turn
it around.”!
!
While there is a tremendous amount that St. John XXIII stands to gain
from the sisters, they also acknowledge that there are graces God has
for them here. They love the people of Texas and the friendliness and
warmth of the faculty and staff of the school. They also love seeing the
emphasis that St. John XXIII puts on Catholic formation with daily
Mass and Confession, prayers throughout the day, retreats, and
opportunities for doing good works. They notice the respect our
students have as they recite the Angelus or cross themselves when
passing by the Chapel. Sr. Maria Guadalupe says, “I don’t have to
come here every day and try to make the culture Catholic. It already
is. That’s a beautiful thing.”!
!
We can look forward to experiencing God’s blessing in the years to
come through the presence of the sisters on campus. Those who want
to find out more about the DSMME should check out their website at
sistersofmary.org.
7

OCTOBER 20, 2017
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Alumni Updates
Ms. Tracy Lee ’10 is teaching 2nd grade and engaged to be married on
January 6, 2018.!
!
Mrs. Ashley Nwokedi-Smith ’10 married Daniel Smith on June 11, 2017.!
!
Mr. Arthur Babcock ’11 published 2 peer review articles in the International
Journal of Sports Medicine, and is currently coaching and teaching at Grace
School in Houston, Texas.!
!
Mr. Matthew Krusleski ’11 recently started his second year of formation for
the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. This year he will be studying at
Holy Trinity Seminary in Irving, Texas.!
!
Mr. Justin Demois ’12 joined the staff of St. Ann’s Catholic Church in
Coppell, Texas as Director of Strategic Communications.!
!
Mr. Robert Garza ’12 graduated from the University of Houston in 2016
with a degree in Kinesiology- Exercise Science and published a novel titled
“Stuck In Neutral” in April of 2017. Robert is a certified personal trainer and
exercise nutrition specialist, and is currently in graduate school, attending
Texas Chiropractic College in Pasadena, TX pursuing a doctorate in
Chiropractic.
We would love to hear from you! Send your alumni update
information by going to www.sj23lions.org/page/alumni and using the
alumni update form.!
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OCTOBER 20, 2017
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Students receive National Merit recognition
From Left to Right: Seniors Bridget Parmenter, Emily Poux, Keegan O’Connor, Griffin Alexander, David
Thompson, Daniel Azuara, Bailee Johnson, and Principal Timothy Gallic.
On September 13, two seniors at St. John XXIII College Preparatory were named as semifinalists
in this year’s National Merit Scholarship Program. Bridget Parmenter and Emily
Poux join a select group of sixteen-thousand students who qualify out of more than 1.6
million students who entered across the country by taking the PSAT.
“When I first saw my score, I think I kind of screamed,” said Poux. “I was
blown away.”
!
“I was ecstatic and relieved,” said Parmenter, who spent a significant portion of her
summer preparing for the test. This spring, both Parmenter and Poux hope to become
finalists and vie for one of 7,500 scholarships, but even as semi-finalists there are many
schools that are willing to offer scholarship opportunities.!
!
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OCTOBER 20, 2017
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“When I first saw my score, I think I kind of screamed,” said Poux. “I was
blown away.” She encourages other students who will be taking the test
in the future to review and study on their own, taking the initiative to
expand on what they have been learning in the classroom. “Just a few
extra hours of study can really make a difference.”!
!
In addition to our semi-finalists, five other seniors were recognized for
their high PSAT scores. Griffin Alexander and Keegan O’Connor were
recognized as “Commended Students,” meaning their scores were in the
top five percent of test-takers. “It was an honor to know that hard work
pays off,” said O’Connor who hopes to start a pre-med program in the
fall.!
!
“I’m proud of my hispanic heritage,” said Thompson.
“It’s nice to be recognized for that.”
Daniel Azuara, Bailee Johnson, and David Thompson were identified by
the National Hispanic Recognition Program for scoring among the top
5,000 of 250,000 test-takers with a 3.5 grade point average who are at least
one quarter hispanic. “I’m proud of my hispanic heritage,” said
Thompson, who believes having smart parents and a Catholic school
education all the way through helped contribute to his success. “It’s nice
to be recognized for that.”!
!
All of the students say that the “great teachers” at St. John XXIII helped
make these achievements possible for them. Thanks to the teaching they
have received here, their hard work, and the distinctions they have now
received, almost all of them plan to attend universities next fall that will
offer them full or partial scholarships.!
!
“We are all very proud of these students for their achievements,” said
Fr. Steven Sellers, President of SJXXIII. “Not only are they wonderful
students who exemplify the best of this school, but we have no doubt
they will be doing their best work in the future.”
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OCTOBER 20, 2017
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Helping after Harvey
Students pitch in to help those affected by the hurricane
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OCTOBER 20, 2017
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“I’d rather people’s lives be saved than materials like a
house.” That’s what Chris Saba ’18 says about the release
of water from the reservoir that resulted in the flooding of
his home. The Student Prefect says that it was scary when
the water started to creep up to the front door and began to
come in through the walls. Saba and his family escaped on
a rescue boat.!
!
Previous page: Chris Saba
’18 and Michael Proaño
’18 stand atop a pile of
debris removed from
Saba’s house.
The inside of Coach Llorens’ house as the water began to roll in.
Kaylee Brosch ’21 sorted
donated items at the Berry
Center in Cypress.
Like many in the Houston area, Saba’s family faces a
monumental task. Homes throughout the region were
damaged or destroyed when Hurricane Harvey took its toll
at the end of August. In the wake of the storm, students at
St. John XXIII have been stepping up and offering their
assistance wherever possible. In Saba’s case, that includes
his friends, Michael Proaño ’18 and Ryan Zimmerman
’18, who helped to tear up sheetrock, rip out carpet, and
wade through the water with supplies.!
!
“People have just sprung into action,” says Lauren
Bergeron ’12, Assistant Campus Minister and head of the
Works of Mercy program. The program requires every
student to complete a certain number of hours of
community service each year. According to Bergeron, after
Harvey many students did all their hours and “went above
and beyond,” doing things like working in shelters and
donation centers,
The view from Coach
Llorens’ front door during
the flooding.
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OCTOBER 20, 2017
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making meals for first responders, organizing clothing drives, working with local parishes in
their relief efforts, and helping in people’s homes.!
!
Head Football Coach Clay Richardson went with a group of students who helped clear out a
house of one of their peers after the storm. “The whole neighborhood looked like a war
zone,” he said. In a twenty-four hour period, nineteen
boys from the program played a football game, worked
out hard the next morning, and then spent many hours
helping. Fifteen other athletes helped in other houses.!
!
“I was really impressed with our boys,” Richardson
said. He added that the athletic program at St. John
XXIII is designed not just to encourage excellence in
athletics but also to help students build character. “I felt
that their character shined through in what they did that
day.”!
!
Students were not the only ones whose homes were
damaged in the storm. Math teacher and Head
Basketball Coach Jerome Llorens reported that at one
point there was six feet of water on his street, enough
almost to cover his mailbox. Eight inches of that water
made its way into Llorens’ house, causing him and his
family to have to evacuate. They were taken in by Phil
Grandjean, father of SJXXIII student Valerie
Grandjean ‘18. The Grandjean family housed the
Llorens family for more than a week.!
!
After the water subsided, many students came to help
Llorens with the cleanup, including Ian Craig ‘18,
Matt Stasia ‘18, Lucy Phelan ‘18, and Grandjean.
They helped to take up the carpet and throw out
clothes, cabinets, furniture, and anything else that had
been sitting in the water. “I couldn’t have done it
myself,” Llorens said. “I was so glad they all were willing to help.”!
!
As the whole region continues to recover in the months and years ahead, students
and faculty at St. John XXIII will undoubtedly continue to display the resilience and
character of this community.!
!
Andrew Blick ’19 helps with clean-up
efforts at a friend’s house.
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OCTOBER 20, 2017
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2017 Raffle Winners
We are pleased to announce that this year’s raffle has brought in more than $100,000! The raffle
winners were announced during this year’s big Homecoming game in which our football team
was victorious over St. Joseph High School. It was a night to celebrate all around.!
!
Here are this year’s winners:!
!
1st Prize - Justin Kilbride - Choice of a car or a $20,000 gift card. !
2nd Prize - Kim Leal - 60" Smart Television
3rd Prize - Stacy Milstead - $500 Visa Gift Card!
!
Also congrats to Tyler Leal ('18) who won the Student Seller grand prize, a new iPhone X.!
!
Also, many thanks to our top student sellers:!
!
Jacquelin Johnston - $300 gift card winner - Class of 2018
Hannah Ottosen - $200 gift card winner - Class of 2020
Sophia Sweet - $100 gift card winner - Class of 2018
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1800 W. Grand Parkway N.
Katy, TX 77449