Campus Life

Faith

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“Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)
St. Cecilia Academy radiates faith. As a Catholic school, strong academics and robust extracurriculars are just part of who we are. Ultimately, we are united around our common faith in the God who created us with infinite dignity and who seeks our friendship. Faith is God’s work in us, and through it He reveals the great plans He has for our lives. Our mission at St. Cecilia is to help students realize how much Jesus loves them and desires a deep and abiding friendship with them. This relationship is the secret to lasting joy and the steady anchor amid life’s challenges and trials.
 
All students take religion classes which, in the spirit of St. Thomas Aquinas and our Dominican tradition, are grounded in Scripture and offer solid doctrinal formation while also encouraging growth in prayer and the life of virtue. Emphasis is given to the harmonious interplay between faith and reason, which together are like two wings leading the human person to God, and teachers encourage students to grapple with life’s essential questions in the pursuit of truth and in making faith one’s own.
 
Faith at St. Cecilia permeates all aspects of life. In fact, many opportunities are offered for our students to integrate faith and life, whether through involvement in Sodality, SCA’s youth group and the school’s oldest club, service work and mission trips, retreat opportunities, or moments of prayer in small groups or in the quiet of the school’s chapel. St. Cecilia Academy and Overbrook Catholic School share a campus chaplain who attends to the sacramental life of the students by offering regular Mass and Confession.
 
 

For Our Parents

At St. Cecilia, we believe parents are the primary educators of their daughters, and we want to do all we can to support moms and dads in their vocation. In addition to welcoming families to a number of the traditional faith-centered events at school, we also offer opportunities specifically for parents, including:
  • Dominican Dads, a group of St. Cecilia and Overbrook Catholic dads, gather together every Friday morning for prayer, fraternity, and to be strengthened in their call to fatherly greatness.
  • Moms’ group, a group for St. Cecilia and Overbrook Catholic moms, is offered every fall and spring. A different spiritual reading book is chosen for discussion every time.
  • Annual retreats for moms and for dads at the beautiful Bethany Retreat Center in Dickson, Tennessee (owned by the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia). These weekends run Friday night to Sunday morning and offer a chance for rest, prayer, Mass and Confession, and the fellowship of other parents.

Ongoing Faith Opportunities

  • Religion classes participate in monthly First Friday Eucharistic Adoration.
  • All school Mass is celebrated every month and on special feast days. Class Masses are also celebrated once a month in religion classes. 
  • Prayer is offered at the beginning of each class and at the beginning and end of each day. Sodality officers lead the school community in the Angelus every day around noon.
  • Students and faculty often drop into the chapel for short private visits throughout the school day.

Faith Events

List of 3 items.

  • All School Retreat

    This student-led annual retreat features a visiting priest and a nationally-known Catholic young adult speaker. Vibrant worship music, student witness talks, and small group discussions are all part of the day in addition to Mass, Confession and Eucharistic Adoration. Students come away encouraged and spiritually refreshed.
  • March for Life

    We travel to D.C. each January because we believe that all life is sacred from conception to natural death, and that all attacks on life—whether in the womb, on the streets, or on death row—are an insult to the God of life who created us to love one another and to love Him.
  • World Youth Day

    Our students are encouraged to witness to their faith through participation in special faith-based events, including the Steubenville Summer Youth Conference and World Youth Day. World Youth Day is an international gathering of young Catholics from around the world with the Pope. Students most recently traveled to Poland for a 10-day pilgrimage that combined opportunities for prayer, sightseeing, and making new friends across the globe.