October 2024
Dear Saint Peter’s Prep Family,
There are certain things we know in the life of a school year at Saint Peter’s Prep. We know the heated rivalry between Prep Soccer and Kearny. We know freshman orientation is always a sea of blue blazers and khaki pants and anxiety; commencement is always white dinner jackets and black tuxedo pants and perhaps a different kind of anxiety. Eighth graders begin visiting within the first two weeks of school, as do college representatives. JUG, inevitably, is given out every day. Kairos and Emmaus continue to transform hearts and remain largely secret. Of course there is the Walkathon, a long Christmas break, and before you know it, baseball season and graduation.
In some way we have been here before, and yet we know that simply “hitting repeat” is never enough. It’s never just another school year. We have the awesome responsibility of knowing that day by day we are both writing the story of Saint Peter’s Prep, and helping our young men write the stories of their lives…helping them find their greater perhaps.
A Greater Perhaps is our theme of the year. It brings together the ideas of the magis and hope. The magis, an integral part of our Ignatian charism, means to go beyond merely what is required or expected—to strive for a deeper and more meaningful contribution in service to others and for the greater glory of God. The magis, united with a great sense of hope, calls us to look beyond immediate goals with courage and confidence, and believe in the difference each of us can make in a future we have not yet imagined. And in order to find this greater perhaps, we invite God into that process. We listen for God’s whisper. What is God calling me to be? What is my powerful dream or hope or goal that goes beyond what is expected, in service to others, for the greater glory of God?
When we combine the magis and hope, it almost makes our hope limitless, our possibilities boundless. Rev. John Foley, S.J., founder of the first Cristo Rey school said: “May our hope be so outrageously bold that we’re afraid people might laugh at us if they knew what we hoped for.” A Greater Perhaps.
This is the hunger that drives the daily work of our teachers and coaches and staff and students, but it also speaks to the essence of our institution: a bold and powerful desire for collective growth—loving who we are and all we have been, but all the time listening for God’s whisper that dares Prep to dream further of who we can be. Together, let’s continue to work and pray and laugh and love generously and abundantly this year, not just for the now, but for the not yet. The now and the not yet, that tension between the day to day—the things we know—and the aspirations of our hearts. We pray that hope and the magis lead us into the unknown as we seek our greater perhaps.
Sub Umbra Petri,
Michael Gomez, Ed.D., ’91
President
