Category: Chesterton Academy

Today is Ash Wednesday, and the official beginning of the Lenten season. It is a season of renewal, sacrifice, and preparation. Many of us have specific Lenten penances that we do with our families, and so it is also a season of community. 

This week I want to share a quote that will pack a punch and hopefully lead to deeper reflection:
“First, our wounds are not arbitrary, they are not random. Satan is like a sniper. He intuits with his angelic intellect the destiny of every human person and he shoots his deadly arrows into the place that will do the most damage in order to thwart the flourishing of the person and God’s plan for their life. Satan succeeds when he can convince us to hate God, hate ourselves, and hate others for the wounds we bear.” – Sr. Miriam James Heidland SOLT’s book Restore p. 63.  

My reflection is simple: We are a community committed to forming saints for the new millennium, and the evil one is going to shoot his arrows at the places that will do the most damage—division. He wishes to divide and conquer the spirit and community of SJPII Classical School, and we must be on guard. 

I challenge everyone—as a family—to enter into this Lenten season prepared, knowing there is going to be a fight, trusting in the Lord, and persevering as we enter into God’s Glory.  

— Headmaster Eric Schreiber

St. John Paul II Classical School and Chesterton Academy are of the Green Bay Area Catholic Education (GRACE) School System. They are private Catholic classical schools serving Montessori preschool and elementary through high school. They have open enrollment and provide an individualized education in an integrated faith-based environment. Each child is supported not only academically, but spiritually. Learn more by scheduling a visit.

“Last week, I reflected on my favorite scripture passage (Cf. James 1: 2-6) which happened to coincide with the virtue of the month, perseverance. Perseverance is a beautiful virtue as the unsung attribute of discipleship. It’s also necessarily appropriate for this month of February, which often sees the beginning of Lent with Ash Wednesday and the journey we enter into during that time.  

Because Ash Wednesday is next week, I find it appropriate for all of us as a community to reflect and prepare our hearts for the journey, strengthening ourselves in perseverance. The reality is, the more we move closer to Christ—especially through our sufferings—the more spiritual attacks we will receive. The evil one does not wish for us to be close to Christ; he does not want us to be united to Christ in the Cross. This is where perseverance needs to be a well-formed habit.  

I challenge everyone—as a family—to enter into this Lenten season prepared, knowing there is going to be a fight, trusting in the Lord, and persevering as we enter into God’s Glory. — Headmaster Eric Schreiber

St. John Paul II Classical School and Chesterton Academy are of the Green Bay Area Catholic Education (GRACE) School System. They are private Catholic classical schools serving Montessori preschool and elementary through high school. They have open enrollment and provide an individualized education in an integrated faith-based environment. Each child is supported not only academically, but spiritually. Learn more by scheduling a visit.

“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. And let perseverance be perfect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and he will be given it. But he should ask in faith, not doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed about by the wind” (James 1: 2-6).

I have always seen this verse as the Christian journey, knowing that everything is given from a generous and loving Father. Perseverance is the unsung attribute of discipleship that pushes us to take up our cross and follow the Lord daily (Cf. Lk. 9:23). It is the attribute that challenges us to move beyond the daily trials—that are inevitable—and continue to put our faith, hope, and love in the Lord.

This is also the attribute of SJPII Classical School that I have come to appreciate. As we celebrate our upcoming anniversary of 10 years, this school and this community can be seen as the true fruit of perseverance. And the more we continue to do the work of God, the more we will encounter various trials; and let’s pray that our perseverance becomes perfect.       — Headmaster Eric Schreiber

St. John Paul II Classical School and Chesterton Academy are of the Green Bay Area Catholic Education (GRACE) School System. They are private Catholic classical schools serving Montessori preschool and elementary through high school. They have open enrollment and provide an individualized education in an integrated faith-based environment. Each child is supported not only academically, but spiritually. Learn more by scheduling a visit.

“Happy Catholic Schools Week to you all! What a wonderful celebration of the gift of Catholic schools, where we have the freedom to live our faith daily. At the same time, there is a danger that comes with this freedom, where we as humans lose sight of our daily call, to take up our crosses and follow Jesus (Cf. Lk. 9:23). 

I was reminded while watching one of our seniors’ capstone presentations that we as Catholics are born to be warriors; the evil one is always lurking to undermine the good we are striving for. Our faith—and the freedom to live it authentically and daily—should not be taken for granted, whereby we get caught up in how the world thinks. Our faith should be a lived expression of hope, joy, love, and peace.

Our school—our Catholic school—and the community that makes us who we are, must always be on guard, for our “adversary the devil prowls around” (1Pt. 5:8) and we are his prey. This imagery is meant to inspire us to strengthen our community and help lift one another up. All this comes from and leads us back to the Eucharist, to the source and summit of our faith, to gratitude.” — Headmaster Eric Schreiber

St. John Paul II Classical School and Chesterton Academy are of the Green Bay Area Catholic Education (GRACE) School System. They are private Catholic classical schools serving Montessori preschool and elementary through high school. They have open enrollment and provide an individualized education in an integrated faith-based environment. Each child is supported not only academically, but spiritually. Learn more by scheduling a visit.

We are excited to welcome new students for the 2026–27 academic year. Admission applications are now being accepted! Re-enrollment information can be found here. If you’re new to GRACE, please click the button below to learn how to apply.

St. John Paul II Catholic School and Chesterton Academy are of the Green Bay Area Catholic Education (GRACE) School System. They are private Catholic schools serving Preschool and Elementary through high school, adding one grade per year. They have with open enrollment and provide an individualized education in a faith-based environment. Each child is supported not only academically, but spiritually. Learn more by scheduling a visit.

“Each year, the last week of January is dedicated to the national celebration of Catholic Schools Week—an opportunity for our community to rejoice in the truth, beauty, and goodness of Catholic education. As our patron, Pope St. John Paul II, reminds us, “The mission of the Catholic school is the integral formation of students, so that they may be true to their condition as Christ’s disciples and…work effectively for the evangelization of culture and for the common good of society.”

This mission reminds us that a Catholic school is not an isolated institution, but a living community formed through the collaboration of families, school, and Church. Catholic Schools Week, therefore, is a celebration of the whole—an invitation to gratitude within each of these relationships. How is gratitude being lived and expressed in these three areas? How will Catholic Schools Week be celebrated within the school of your home?” — Headmaster Eric Schreiber

St. John Paul II Classical School and Chesterton Academy are of the Green Bay Area Catholic Education (GRACE) School System. They are private Catholic classical schools serving Montessori preschool and elementary through high school. They have open enrollment and provide an individualized education in an integrated faith-based environment. Each child is supported not only academically, but spiritually. Learn more by scheduling a visit.

“This month we turn our attention to the virtue of orderliness—a term not often associated with virtue, and one that may at first seem more descriptive of temperament than of moral formation. Yet, when understood classically, orderliness is deeply virtuous, for it reflects the proper ordering of the soul toward the good.

Seen in this light, orderliness draws us toward discipline and stewardship. Discipline, rooted in discipleship, disposes us toward docility—an openness to instruction, correction, and growth. It is through disciplined habits that the intellect and will are trained to love what is true, good, and beautiful.

Stewardship follows naturally, for what is rightly ordered within must also be rightly ordered without. To be good stewards is to live in harmony with others and with the created world entrusted to us, exercising care over our minds, bodies, and spirits so that we may serve well.

In your homes, how is order cultivated? Have you considered orderliness not merely as structure, but as a virtue that forms character and prepares the soul for wisdom?” Headmaster Eric Schreiber

St. John Paul II Classical School and Chesterton Academy are of the Green Bay Area Catholic Education (GRACE) School System. They are private Catholic classical schools serving Montessori preschool and elementary through high school. They have open enrollment and provide an individualized education in an integrated faith-based environment. Each child is supported not only academically, but spiritually. Learn more by scheduling a visit.

We are still in the Christmas season and in the midst of celebrating the Incarnation of our Lord and Savior. The incarnation is a launching pad moving us into this next semester and onward because Catholic education must be incarnational. In Mr Schreiber’s last lecture night, he fleshed out that the Incarnational is the belief that truth is not abstract but became flesh in Jesus Christ. This means education is embodied — it involves real relationships, real encounters with beauty, real moral formation, and the shaping of real human beings. Teachers and parents participate in this incarnational mission by making the faith tangible through words, actions, and the culture we create at home and school.

Though the Christmas season is a little on the shorter side, every time education is embodied—with Christ at the center—we can share in the Christmas joy.

St. John Paul II Classical School and Chesterton Academy are of the Green Bay Area Catholic Education (GRACE) School System. They are private Catholic classical schools serving Montessori preschool and elementary through high school. They have open enrollment and provide an individualized education in an integrated faith-based environment. Each child is supported not only academically, but spiritually. Learn more by scheduling a visit.

The latest GRACE Winter 2026 newsletter is now available to read! Check it out by clicking the button below.

St. John Paul II Catholic School and Chesterton Academy are of the Green Bay Area Catholic Education (GRACE) School System. They are private Catholic schools serving Preschool and Elementary through high school, adding one grade per year. They have with open enrollment and provide an individualized education in a faith-based environment. Each child is supported not only academically, but spiritually. Learn more by scheduling a visit.

Please take a moment to read a special Christmas message filled with heartfelt wishes for you and your loved ones from GRACE President Kimberly A. Desotell!

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St. John Paul II Catholic School and Chesterton Academy are of the Green Bay Area Catholic Education (GRACE) School System. They are private Catholic schools serving Preschool and Elementary through high school, adding one grade per year. They have with open enrollment and provide an individualized education in a faith-based environment. Each child is supported not only academically, but spiritually. Learn more by scheduling a visit.