Mary Hogg, a counselor at Notre Dame Catholic Schools in Burlington, and band instructor Joshua Hopper, hold a copy of the Wednesday Warriors e-newsletter they create each week for faculty and staff.
By Lindsay Steele
The Catholic Messenger
BURLINGTON — The Wednesday Warrior digital newsletter at Notre Dame Catholic Schools offers faculty and staff a chance to offer up prayer requests, pray for others and receive spiritual enrichment.
“I think it’s a wonderful way to keep people connected,” said counselor Mary Hogg, who works on the newsletter each week alongside band instructor Joshua Hopper.
Hogg and Hopper participate in a Monday morning prayer group that started last fall. During one of the first meetings, Hopper, who is in his first year teaching at Notre Dame, noted that the school he previously worked for in Indiana had a weekly newsletter with prayer requests and other reflections. Hogg and Hopper thought it could be a good fit for Notre Dame.
The newsletter contains four sections that form the alliteration ACTS: adoration, confession, thanks and supplication. The newsletter also contains a prayer and a Bible verse.
Often, each week’s newsletter will have a theme, like self control, gratitude or humility. Sometimes the topic is random, other times intentional. “We listen to staff,” Hogg said. “If there’s something we could be extra mindful of, that impacts or influences (the topic).”
Teachers and staff email Hogg their prayer requests and Hopper designs the newsletter using a template he made in Google Docs.
The Dec. 12, 2018, newsletter focused on self-improvement. The adoration section read, “Gracious God, we praise and thank you for creating us in your image, for giving each of us unique talents, gifts, and personalities. Your amazing grace and unconditional love flow through us, even when we fall short.” The confessions section read, “We confess that we do not always act like the person you want us to be. We may hide our gifts and talents from the world. Even though we make poor decisions, you love us unconditionally. Please forgive us for not always living the life path you desire for us.” The “thanks” section offered up gratitude for answered prayers, while the prayer requests included health concerns and a former student whose family lost everything in a fire.
Hogg hopes the newsletter “will have an impact for each teacher and staff member, and that it transcends out to the students as (staff) teach and meditate on the things we do and talk about in the newsletter.”
Make a newsletter
For more information on creating a Wednesday Warrior-style newsletter, email joshua.hopper@bnotredame.org.
