By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami
Homily by Archbishop Thomas Wenski at Mass for the 100th Anniversary of St. Theresa Catholic School. Coral Gables, Nov. 16, 2025.
There are not many things in South Florida that have been around for 100 years. But St. Theresa School has been! As you might know, it was founded and staffed first by the Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Augustine. And we welcome those sisters here today. Not those who came here 100 years ago, of course, but representatives of that religious community that had such an impact on our State and on this school over the years.
Catholic schools teach the three “Rs” very well – reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmatic; but they also teach us about a fourth R – religion. And St. Theresa has been doing this for one hundred years – and doing it very well as generations of alumni can attest.
Here, we learn the truth about ourselves: We learn that God made us to know him, to love him and to serve him in this life so that we can be happy with him forever in the life to come.
Can we say that we are learning the whole truth if we do not learn about God, about how he loves us and how he sent His Son who became man to save us by dying and rising for us?
We learn that happiness is not found by getting but by giving, that it is more blessed to give than to receive.
We learn that success in life is not about just doing well – getting rich and having lots of things. True success is about doing good – the good that God wants us to do, the good that our neighbor needs us to do.
The goal of Catholic education —and what makes Catholic education “good news” —is the development of the whole person. In pursuing this integral formation, which aims to prepare our students for life —both this life and the life to come — we want our students to become saints.
And since we are nearing the end of both the calendar and the liturgical years, the Scripture readings these days speak about the “end times”, about the life to come.
In today’s gospel reading, Jesus speaks about the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, he talks about natural disasters, about wars and persecutions. Such is our lot as we travel as pilgrims through this vale of tears on our way to our heavenly homeland.
Jesus is not the kind of prophet that preaches doom and gloom. To interpret these scriptures in that way would be wrong. Yes, Jesus Christ does not promise a life of calm – even while the storms and hurricanes of life swirl around us. The road to heavenly glory always passes along the way of the cross.
But faith in Jesus offers hope that in every situation, we can weather any storm. If the Lord takes us to it, he will bring us through it.
In the past 100 years, St. Theresa School and Little Flower parish has weathered many storms and challenges.
Today, we thank God for the generations of students, their parents and their teachers that have passed through the halls of this school. We thank God for the sisters – those sisters who began this, the Sisters of St. Joseph, and the Carmelite Sisters that continue it today. And we thank God for the priests that serve this community so well over the years.
We thank God that Jesus has been for this school and parish community a sure sign of hope; he has been calm in the eye of the storm, wisdom in the face judgment, love in the face of hatred, perseverance in the face of persecution and protection in the face of adversity.
Catholic Schools, like St. Theresa, give the children – and their parents - the opportunity to learn how to be better Christians and better citizens. In other words, here the we are taught about how we are to live as children of God and brothers and sisters to Jesus. And we don’t need to wait another hundred years to celebrate that!
