More than 1,500 educators at Catholic schools across the diocese filled the Robert C. Walter Student Commons at Columbus St. Charles Preparatory School Monday for a day centered on the Eucharist.
The event earlier this week, organized by the diocesan Office of Catholic Schools, provided teachers and administrators a day to encounter Christ before welcoming students for the 2026-27 school year.
Speakers included Bishop Thomas Daly of Spokane, Washington, and Sister Mary Michael Fox, O.P. (Order of Preachers) of the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia in Nashville. Dr. Rebecca Rook from Franciscan University served as emcee.
Bishop Earl Fernandes was present to celebrate Mass for educators and offer encouragement for the year ahead. The sacrament of Reconciliation was also available during the day, and teachers and administrators spent time in Eucharistic Adoration.
“We wanted to give the 1,500 administrators and teachers in our diocese more than another professional development day; we wanted to give them an encounter with Jesus Christ,” said Dr. Adam Dufault, superintendent for the Office of Catholic Schools.
This year’s theme, “Educating for Eucharistic Amazement,” was chosen in hopes that educators experience a sense of wonder and awe at the miracle of the Eucharist, reflecting on its centrality to their vocation in forming disciples.
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“Through the Mass, Adoration, Confession and the witness of our speakers, our hope is that every educator leaves renewed in their own faith and reminded of the incredible responsibility and privilege they have to lead young people toward Christ,” Dufault said.
“We are blessed with dedicated educators in our schools, and my prayer is that this day strengthens them for the year ahead and helps them become ever more joyful and faithful witnesses to the faith they are called to share.”
Bishop Fernandes spoke directly to educators gathered. He reflected on their role as witnesses of faith to students.
“We hope that today will be a day in which you can deepen your relationship with the Lord and with one another so you can do the work that the Lord has entrusted to you, which is to share the Good News of salvation that comes to us in Christ Jesus,” he said.
“Each one of you must encounter Christ the Lord and be so convicted that what He has revealed is true, and the life and the abundance of life that He offers.”
The bishop released his pastoral letter, “Catholic Education: An Act of Hope,” that day. Educators in attendance each received an advanced copy of the letter ahead of the public release Tuesday.
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The apostolic letter “Drawing New Maps of Hope” by Pope Leo XIV was released last year, unveiling the Holy Father’s vision for Catholic education.
Bishop Fernandes, in his pastoral letter, followed with a vision for Catholic education in the Columbus diocese. He explored the vocation of an educator. “The measure of our success,” the bishop told teachers and administrators, “is sanctity, growth and holiness.
“Young people need credible witnesses—credible witnesses to the faith. If our work and our efforts don’t lead them to an encounter with Christ, then we will have failed in our mission.
“If our work and our efforts do not make them better citizens and better Catholics, we will have failed in our mission. If we do not teach them to think critically and to ask the right questions, we will have failed. We are about offering them life and engaging them in life, not only here below, but we are educating for eternity.”
Bishop Daly served as the first speaker. During his approximately 30-minute reflection, he explored the idea of ongoing conversion.
The Washington state bishop encouraged educators to receive Christ often.
“The Eucharist is spiritual food; it’s sustenance,” he said, “and teachers, in the mystery of education, we need to be sustained.
“Amongst the growing cultural challenges, the demands of parents, your own family responsibilities at home, students coming in with issues that perhaps weren’t present 10, 15 years ago, Christ the Teacher comes to us in the Eucharist to offer the most intimate presence.”
He encouraged school teachers and administrators not to compromise on their mission. Bishop Daly explained how, in the gospels, Jesus respected individual freedom to make choices, but He never compromised.
“When I came to Spokane in the northwest, we kind of turned on Catholic education in the late ’60s for many reasons. It wasn’t my experience growing up in California, where schools were strong, even when the religious left,” the bishop explained.
“And I said, ‘I do not oversee a system of institutionalized mediocrity. We operate these schools,’ and I used to say to parents who weren’t Catholic, ‘ultimately to get your kids into heaven.’”
Sister Mary Michael Fox followed Bishop Daly with morning and afternoon presentations.
In a half-an-hour reflection on education and the Eucharist, she iterated the importance of teachers who are well-formed in faith. She comforted educators, assuring them that Christ knows their fears, doubts and failures.
More important than their work, she said, is the work Christ does in their hearts.
“Children are so resilient; they’re going to make it to high school and college without you. I’m going to be honest,” she said. “They’re going to be fine. Children are resilient with their intellect, but they’re not resilient as much with their heart.”
Sister Mary Michael currently serves as a catechist in Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, a Montessori-style faith-based educational program, offered in many parishes and Catholic schools.
The consecrated religious sister contemplated Eucharistic wonder as a way of educating children, which leads to a “deeper possession of truth.”
“Wonder leads to knowledge, dear friends, because wonder is an attentiveness to reality, and it’s not for superficial, busy people. You want to educate your children for Eucharistic amazement, take them outside on nature walks,” she said.
“Give them timelessness in your school, to delight in the goodness of God’s creation. Foster in them a sense of timelessness, so that they can come to Adoration and be lost.”