As we begin our 26th year at Good Shepherd, my mind goes back 30 years ago to the time before we opened. Catholic Central School had closed in 1971. The former school building was being used for parish religious education and the gym was rented out. Our people had spent twenty-seven years of wandering through a type of spiritual desert. But, during the roughly three years that I was at St. John the Evangelist (from 1994-1997), I would walk through the empty hallways where Catholic school students had studied, since its construction in 1961, praying for a new school to open. I prayed the Rosary and especially I invoked the intercession of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.

     Every time I walk through those same hallways now, I thank God for having heard those prayers and I thank that founding generation of parishioners, benefactors, parents and teachers, who made so many sacrifices to fill these halls once again with students. We left the desert and have entered into the promised land.

Written By: Father Lance W. Harlow

Date Published: August 29, 2024