Hello Ursuline Families,

On Tuesday, while discussing plans and imagining possibilities for next year with some of our amazing Mothers Club leaders, one mom asked what Ursuline does for student well-being. My thinking defaulted to guest speakers on anxiety and teen mental health, advisory activities, Life Skills classes, research on exercise/athletics and well-being, giving students people on campus to support them, and Campus Ministry programming.

Well-being finds its way into many conversations at Ursuline. Even one of our application questions this year invited the girls to write about their own vision for a Wellness Day at Ursuline. Most responses included little to no school, comfy clothes, either green smoothies or decadent dessert buffets, team-building activities, movies, inspirational speakers, time to do whatever you want, and (my personal favorite) renting charter busses to a spa.

As I continued asking myself what Ursuline does for well-being that evening, I had a moment in which I realized I missed something big. That same night, my 2nd grade daughter received the sacrament of Reconciliation (also called Confession). Of all practices in Christianity, the tradition of confessing your sins aloud to another person often raises many questions. Adelaide was appropriately nervous but also excited to participate in something special for which she had been preparing. After losing in paper-rock-scissors, I resigned to be the basketball practice chauffeur while my husband took Addie to church. After some time, he sent a photo of her staring into a bowl of water. The children had written their sins on a piece of paper which they took into confession with them. Once they had received the sacrament, they dropped the paper into the water. The paper dissolved, and the sins disappeared. She was light and happy. Addie then shared with her dad about an exchange with the priest following confession, “Afterwards, I asked Father Alfonse what my sins were, and he couldn’t remember – it was a miracle!” In her little 2nd grade experience, not to be underestimated, she felt spiritual freedom.

Adelaide’s experience of the healing of Reconciliation illuminated a part of well-being we often forget. Maybe we don’t associate it with well-being, because we’ve been sold an idea that well-being equates to an indulgent form of self-care in which we can avoid responsibilities. Doing hard things, practicing humility, taking responsibility, and seeking God’s help and healing aren’t mainstream views of well-being; however, sometimes the things that make us uncomfortable, vulnerable, and humble are just the things that we need for our own well-being and our own happiness.

The Christian season of Lent is entirely a well-being practice. Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving (components of almost all world religions) help us reorder our lives, beginning with our relationships. They lead us to figure out who we are and whose we are, something that eating power bowls and sleeping in cannot. Not to be misunderstood, I wholly value physical well-being, but we as body-soul creations cannot separate the two. At Ursuline, we intentionally carve out time for these well-being practices in spiritual realignment. What a gift that our faculty and students had the opportunity to spend time in the chapel and go to Reconciliation before Spring Break. In a beautiful way, when we rid ourselves of the burden of sin and make ourselves spiritually whole and well, the grace we receive flows over into our relationships, families, and communities. In these final weeks of Lent, may we remember that Jesus promised to us, “I have come that [you] might have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Jesus, help us always to know our well-being begins in you.

With prayers,

Mandy Briones
Dean of Students
469-232-1805