Matt Schlotman, Grade School Principal
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“It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.”  -Saint Mother Teresa
 
Each year at Royalmont for the past 15 years we have held a totally free carwash for the community.  We do our very best to make the cars as shinny and clean as possible and we expect nothing in return.  If patrons ask to make a donation we respectfully decline and thank them for permitting us to practice charity.  At Royalmont we strive to help the children know, understand, and live the queen virtue of charity at all times.   I define charity as unconditional, unending, unlimited self-sacrifice for the good of another.  Charity is love’s foundation. 
 
But for this year’s carwash I wanted to help the children come to an even deeper understanding of love. Is there more to love than charity?  I asked the children of Royalmont to reflect on the question, “How do you wash a car with love?”  I then shared with them Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, chapter 13, verse 13, where Paul writes, “And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.”  From this verse we come to understand that it is possible to make significant sacrifice for someone, even giving up our life, while at the same time not participating in love.  It is possible, but how is this possible?  How can it be that I could wash someone’s car, not ask for anything in return, and yet my action would lack love?  How can I make sure that when I wash the car I am doing it with love in the fullest sense of the word?  Saint Paul is saying there is something beyond sacrifice that is necessary.  What is that something… that something that will make what I am doing count… that will make my action an act of love? 

Royalmont fifth grader, Joey D. answered the questions this way, “I washed cars with love today by loving the work I do and loving the people who I’m doing it for.” 
 
Pope Benedict XVI wrote in his encyclical, God is Love, “I must give to others not only something that is my own, but my very self; I must be personally present in my gift.”  
 
For love to be complete it must involve more than our actions, it must involve our hearts.  What is going on in our hearts while we wash our neighbor’s car free of charge?  Are we loving our neighbor from the depths of our heart.  This is the call of the Saints of God--to love as God loves.  Christ does not just give us his life, he gives us his heart too.  As he looks down from the cross he sees us as beautiful, he desires forever unity with us, he morns our separation caused by our sin, and it is this great love God has for us which holds Jesus to the cross. 
 
He sacrifices for us because he loves us.    We are called to do the same for our neighbor.  To do so, we must begin by having an encounter with God, who is love.  Love changes and fills our hearts.  This is how they will know we are Christians.  This is how we can wash a car with love.  ​

Chris Willertz, High School Principal

Last Monday, September 12th our Royalmont High School students took a walk.

Not just an ordinary walk.
 
But, instead, a strenuous walk, in dress shoes, shirts, and ties, skirts or dress slacks and blazers.  We walked for a mile and a half, praying and thinking about others.  It definitely was more than just a walk, maybe more like a Memorial Walk.
 
Our high school students at Royalmont are great young people!  They are thankful, “Thank you for teaching us today,” many say.  (I kid you not!)  They are respectful, they aim to please… They really “try.”  We, the administration and teachers, feel like we owe it to them to do the best we can to educate and form them because they deserve it.
 
When we got the opportunity to attend a forum at Mason High School to hear the last known survivor of the South Tower from 9/11 give his testimony, we jumped at the chance.  As adults, we have an OBLIGATION to educate our youth, especially those things that MUST be remembered.  Of course, you and I remember exactly what we were doing that fateful Tuesday morning in September 2001, but our teenagers don’t.  Most weren’t even alive yet and if they were born, they were too young to remember.
 
So we decided to give our Royalmont high school students a day they would never forget, even though it was 15 years later. We were all so proud of our effort to educate.
 
Little did we know that Jesus would top all our efforts!
 
We left the Royalmont campus at 12:15 p.m. praying the Rosary, despite the road construction up through old town Mason, despite the heat and the traffic. We were running late, so the students hustled and prayed, hustled and prayed, sweating and being uncomfortable (to say the least!), experiencing maybe just a little bit of what some New Yorkers experienced that day.
 
By 1:00 p.m. we were in our seats. Our speaker, Mr. Ron DiFrancesco, came up onto the stage and began to narrate the day’s events. Our students were riveted. They were there, they were there on 9/11 experiencing it through the explicit explanation with all the details of a survivor who had been in the building with all the smoke, the fire, the terror, the death and the hope.
 
Hope?
 
Hope, you may say?  How, was there hope?
 
For, when it seemed like it was over, our survivor had called it quits, he was stuck in the stairwell, smoke everywhere, blockaded at the 72nd floor with no ability to go down and only smoke and fire up.  He laid down, closed his eyes and heard,
 
“Get up.  Get up and go downstairs.”
 
He did not hesitate, he got up.  What else would YOU do if you heard a voice in an empty stairwell, speaking to you in your head, urging you to LIVE? 
 
So, he got up and started downstairs.
 
And as he reached the part at the 72nd floor where the stair was blocked, our hero punched through the wall to discover it was particle board.  Soon, he was through and after 72 agonizing flights of stairs he arrived at the lobby.
 
Our students sat in stunned silence, with everyone thinking, “Did he just say that God spoke to him?” “I think he just said that God spoke to him.”
 
Yes.  He.  Did.
 
Our young people need experiences like this.  They need to know about survivors.  They need to know about tragedy.  They need to know about real life.  They need to know that God loves them.  God cares about them. God is constantly thinking about them.  God comes through despite tragedy and the drama of real life.  When there is death, there is also life.  They need to know that God can and does talk to those He loves.
 
In this secular world, we rarely hear witnesses to the eternal.  And I must admit, I was not expecting anything “religious” when we started our walk to get some real life history remembering 9/11.  But when you have an open mind and an open heart and you go out to serve, God just happens to appear.  Indeed, God did appear and what is more, He embraced all of us.  How do I know?
 
Because we decided to take a walk and celebrate true heroism last Monday, September 12th.
 
I hope He did the same for you!
  
The watch Mr. DiFrancesco’s was wearing when the 2nd plane hit Tower 2.

Chris Willertz, High School Principal
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In twenty-six years as an educator, teacher, coach in Michigan, Kentucky and Ohio, (and now high school principal at Royalmont Academy in Mason, OH---Praise God!) I have had the opportunity to walk the halls of many, many different high schools. 
 
For me, whenever I entered a particular school, I felt it could talk to me. Some schools would assert, “Academics”. Others would scream, “Sports”. Yet, still others would confidently proclaim, “Excellence”. Frightfully, other high schools I would enter would shrug and say, “We don’t care”, or “ Learning is NOT a priority here”.
 
So, what did I hear, when I entered Royalmont Academy on August 23rd, 2016; the first day of the 2016-17 school year for our 46 high school students, you may ask?
 
I heard God. 
 
What did He say, you may ask?  He said,
 
“Well done, good and faithful servant!” Matthew 25:21
 
Royalmont Academy has been founded for many different reasons to be sure, but make no mistake, top on that list is to teach our young people to be lovers of Christ, to serve God and to train HARD to become saints. And every school day here always consists in God speaking……. and us learning to listen.
 
So, on that first day, Father Kevin (LC) went from room to room, blessing each, sprinkling holy water and salt, burning incense and singing and praying. Deliberately, we were inviting Christ to be at Royalmont and to bless us with His presence.
 
And we are certainly blessed at Royalmont! Father Kevin or Father John (LC) are at school four days a week, celebrating Mass, and supporting our students and teachers. Miss Lorianne and Miss Kate (Consecrated) are available four days a week to give Spiritual Direction to students and teachers alike. Brother Vinh and Brother Thomas are also present and just as available.
 
Royalmont is unique for many reasons. But, probably, the biggest reason is the overwhelming presence of Religious that exude love, joy and service for God. God IS REAL and here is some of the evidence. People, like you and me that have decided to answer His call completely and share that call with others. What an honor and privilege to be called High School Principal at such a place.
 
We welcome all to come and visit Royalmont Academy and hear the call oneself.
 
God calling is the sweetest sound in the world.