‘Children need you, they need your presence,’ Sister of Life tells educators at convention
Sister Mary Grace emphasized the profound impact of Catholic educators' presence and faith on their students during the National Catholic Educational Association convention. The keynote highlighted that teachers provide a vital source of hope and stability that surpasses the influence of modern digital figures. A personal anecdote about a teacher listening to a student's daily stories illustrated how building trust in the classroom can create a safe space for children to disclose serious personal issues. The classroom was identified as the most significant formative influence on a child's life outside of the family home.
3 days ago
Educators at the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) convention in Minneapolis were urged to offer children personal presence, attentive listening, and a lived witness to Christ, rather than relying on trends or technology. In a keynote delivered on April 9, Sister Mary Grace of the Sisters of Life emphasized that classroom relationships can become formative places where children learn they matter. 1
Sister Mary Grace told roughly 3,800 educators that “the children need you; they need your presence.” She urged teachers to bring attentiveness, goodness, and faith into the classroom. 1
She contrasted the influence of teachers with the appeal of modern media by saying that one teacher in front of a classroom—“with the knowledge of Christ”—can bring more “hope and joy into this world than the most dynamic and savvy influencers.” 1
She offered a classroom example centered on daily attentiveness: a teacher who repeatedly listened to a student named Zoey eventually learned that Zoey was being abused, after months when Zoey only shared a story about a slug. Sister Mary Grace used the story to argue that the classroom is among the most formative influences in a person’s life. 1
Sister Mary Grace said people are “hardwired to find meaning in every moment,” and that “deep down, we know that we matter.” She said meaning cannot be manufactured and that God provides even before people perceive their needs. 1
She described what she identified as a central “issue of our times”: a “subtle agreement to the lie that we’re worthless,” insisting the contrary is hope rather than cynicism. She also said “the dark chapter does not have the right to conclude our stories.” 1
Sister Mary Grace said Catholic educators can offer children a safe place and an encounter with divine love first received in the educators’ own hearts, “giving (the children) the love that they would otherwise be deprived (of).” 1
She said educators are needed who “believe” and who do more than teach by testifying to the life of Jesus Christ and the real difference He makes. She added that “every single child, every single human heart, needs another person.” 1
She also framed teaching as ongoing formation, saying schools need teachers “willing to take days … to be formed.” 1
A middle school science teacher, Mary Carlson of St. Joseph in West St. Paul, said the conference helped her view teaching as a calling that “restores and gives life.” She described the event as inspiring and said she felt the program increased both relationship-based teaching (“teaching heart-to-heart”) and practical skills. 1
Carlson said that at the end of the day, the work amounts to an “encounter (with Christ),” and she spoke about feeling energized for Catholic education “as it goes on for weeks, years.” 1
Brian Shriver, a teacher at St. Ambrose in Woodbury, said the conference blended education and Catholic faith. He said he hoped to apply “useful tips and guidelines” shared during keynotes, including those connected with Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston and Sister Mary Grace. 1
Across the keynote and educator testimonials, the convention’s message centered on personal presence in teaching, the classroom as a formation space for trust and safety, and a Catholic understanding of education rooted in encounter with Christ. The reporting also tied educator formation and lived witness to hope for children and families. 1
Catholic teachers’ presence is essential for children’s spiritual formation
The claim that Catholic teachers’ presence is essential for children’s spiritual formation is strongly supported by Catholic teaching—especially when “presence” is understood not merely as staffing in a classroom, but as a living witness of faith, a spiritually formative educational atmosphere, and a true partnership with parents and the Church. At the same time, Catholic sources emphasize that teachers are not substitutes for parents’ primary responsibility, but indispensable collaborators in transmitting the faith.
Catholic documents consistently describe the goal of Catholic education as more than passing on religious information. The purpose is fundamentally to communicate Christ and help form Christ in others—so that children learn to live the Christian life. John Paul II explains that Catholic education is “above all a question of communicating Christ, of helping to form Christ in the lives of others.” This means the child’s spiritual growth happens through encounter, witness, and formation—mediated in a special way by educators.
Likewise, Catholic education requires integrity: catechesis must not be “mutilated, falsified or diminished,” because the person who becomes a disciple has a right to receive the “word of faith” whole. This protects children from being formed by partial or selective teaching.
The Church teaches that teachers are “of the first importance” in giving Catholic schools their distinctive character, and therefore “it is…indispensable to ensure their continuing formation” so they can be witnesses of Christ in the classroom. In other words, the teacher’s presence is not an optional extra; it is a principal channel through which the school’s spiritual identity becomes real and visible.
John Paul II sharply underlines the mechanism: faith is “principally assimilated through contact with people whose daily life bears witness to it.” This links “presence” to daily credibility—teachers’ lives become part of the child’s learning.
The Congregation for Catholic Education teaches that in the Catholic school “there is no separation between time for learning and time for formation,” and that school subjects do not present only knowledge to be attained, but also values to be acquired and truths to be discovered. This requires “competent, convinced and coherent educators” who reflect the “one Teacher.”
So the teacher’s presence is structurally built into Catholic education: learning is ordered toward wisdom and discipleship, not only toward skills or facts.
Catholic educational formation includes a “continuous vertical interaction, through prayer.” In this framework, teachers pray for students, and students learn that they “must pray for their teachers.” The religious dimension is therefore relational and sustained, not occasional or purely intellectual.
Catholic teaching does not claim that teachers replace parents; it claims they are essential collaborators.
So the “essential” role of Catholic teachers must be read in a Catholic sense of communion: teachers serve the child’s spiritual formation by strengthening, complementing, and extending what parents—together with the Church—are responsible to do.
The Church repeatedly insists that teacher presence must be backed by preparation—otherwise their influence can become ineffective or even harmful.
Educators need theological formation “through constant improvement,” and they also must cultivate “spiritual formation” so they develop a real relationship with Jesus Christ and become “a Master like Him.”
Additionally, the identity of the Catholic school depends “almost entirely” on teachers, who must be carefully prepared so they are equipped in both secular and religious knowledge, along with pedagogical skill aligned with contemporary needs—while bearing an “apostolic spirit” and witnessing to Christ.
The Congregation for Catholic Education warns that in religious instruction “an unprepared teacher can do a great deal of harm,” therefore Catholic schools must ensure adequately trained religion teachers.
Modern challenges require “rigour and depth” in teacher training, so teaching is credible and the educational project retains its evangelical identity in practice. The Congregation also warns against a “double population” of teachers and calls for unity among educators in embracing and sharing a specific evangelical identity and consistent lifestyle.
Finally, Catholic sources distinguish between religious knowledge and transmission of the faith.
John Paul II remarks that religious education should not be confused with “teaching of religious knowledge” as is common in many schools; information about religion may help children discover spiritual and moral roots of culture, but “it does not yet constitute the transmission of the faith, which opens them to practising the Christian life.”
In the same line, he stresses follow-up to the sacraments of Christian initiation so children can have a deep spiritual and ecclesial life, and he warns that formation cannot consist only of scientific and technical training; it must incorporate moral and spiritual dimensions.
Catholic teaching supports the idea that Catholic teachers’ presence is essential because their witness and formation shape the child’s lived encounter with Christ. Teachers give Catholic schools their distinctive character through credibility, daily example, prayerful accompaniment, and the integration of learning with formation. At the same time, the Church clarifies that teachers act as indispensable collaborators with parents and the Church—not as replacements for parents’ primary responsibility—and that teacher effectiveness depends on serious ongoing theological and spiritual formation.