This Week at St. Patrick – Week of January 23

We are thrilled to welcome Bishop Kihneman to St. Patrick this week. On Thursday, Bishop Kihneman will celebrate mass here on campus, and he will visit all students, faculty, and staff throughout the day. We are extremely grateful for the support and presence of Bishop Kihneman and look forward to his visit to campus this week.

Priority Registration for the 2023-24 school year will open on Monday, January 30. We are expecting record numbers and a waiting list for all grade levels. We will have a time for Priority Registration for our returning St. Patrick families and sixth grade families from our partner Catholic elementary schools before registration will open to the public. Look for an email from me with all the details very soon. You will certainly want to enroll fast!

Save the date! Shamrockin’ the Coast is all set for Saturday, March 18th at the Beau Rivage Resort and Casino.  Tickets are now on sale! We’re also looking for silent auction items and table sponsorships – email Patrick Miller, if you’re able to help!

We are gearing up to celebrate Catholic Schools Week January 29 to February 3. We have many activities and events planned as we celebrate Catholic Schools Week at St. Patrick! From our Junior Ring Mass to Adoration to Praise and Worship, our students and staff will spend a great deal of time in prayer and spiritual reflection. Additionally, we have lots of fun activities planned such as our annual Teacher vs. Student Dodgeball Game, Catholic Schools Week Trivia Game, and Catholic Schools Week Movie Day!

Let’s make it a great week!

Go Irish!
Dr. Matt Buckley

John 6:20-21: [Jesus] said to them, “It is I; don’t be afraid.” Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.

Jesus comes to his disciples to comfort them in their worst nightmare – a storm on the sea. He literally tells them, “I Am, do not be afraid.” Two key things are here for us to notice. First, Jesus uses a name (“I Am”) that identifies himself with God who delivered Moses and the Israelites from Egypt. Second, he uses a surprisingly frequent command found throughout the Bible: “Don’t be afraid.” When we are willing to invite Jesus into our lives during the middle of our storms and messes, he not only says, “I Am, don’t be afraid!” but he also helps us find our way to our most important destination, ultimate deliverance.

O God, the great I Am, you redeemed Israel from Egypt, you won great victories for David, and you raised Jesus from the dead. I know you can deliver me from what may come my way. Please forgive me when I don’t act with the boldness that is called for by this kind of faith and strengthen me to more confidently trust in your presence. In the mighty name of Jesus I pray. Amen.

Alvarez, Leah
DiFilippo, Ave
Edwards, Ethan
Haddox-Roth, Bailey
Hightower, Addison
Mabary, Natelia
Malone, Riya
Muller, Molly
Owen, Madison
Pannell, Mary Porter
Todaro, Bryson
Mr. William Burke

Monday, January 23
Sunny | 60° | 39° | 7%

Spring Athletic Team Practice Begins
7:30am Holy Half – Eucharistic Adoration
8:30am Logistics Team Meeting
12:30pm Spring Media Day + Senior Banners
3:05pm FIRST Robotics Competition Workdays (FRC)
3:05pm Robotics Meeting
6pm Junior High Baseball Meeting
7:00pm Varsity Men’s Soccer- vs. Clarkdale (Away- 2nd Round MHSAA Playoffs)

Tuesday, January 24
PM Showers | 63° | 51° | 54%

7:45am Student Council Meeting
3:05pm FIRST Robotics Competition Workdays (FRC)
3:05pm LEGO Robotics Work Session
6pm Varsity Women’s Basketball- vs. Perry Central (Home)
7:30pm Varsity Men’s Basketball- vs. Perry Central (Home)

Wednesday, January 25
Mostly Sunny | 57° | 38° | 7%

7:30am Holy Half – Eucharistic Adoration
7:45am Emerald Ambassador Meeting
9am Leadership Team Meeting
3:05pm FIRST Robotics Competition Workdays (FRC)
3:05pm SAVE Club Meeting
3:05pm Choir Practice
5:30pm Varsity Women’s Soccer- vs. SE Lauderdale (Home- 2nd Round MHSAA Playoffs)
6pm Course Selection and Graduation Requirements Seminar for High School Parents

Thursday, January 26
Mostly Sunny | 57° | 34° | 5%

We will follow the liturgy bell schedule today, and students should dress in their liturgy uniform including blazers and ties.
7:30am Choir Practice
7:40am Quiz Bowl Meeting
7:45am National Junior Honor Society Meeting
8:30am Make Up School Pictures
9am District Bowling Tournament @ Union HS (Philadelphia, MS)
9:40am Mass + School Visit – Bishop Kihneman
3:05pm FIRST Robotics Competition Workdays (FRC)
3:05pm MathCounts Meeting
3:05pm Arts and Crafts Meeting
3:05pm eSports Meeting
3:05pm Mock Trial Meeting
6pm Coaches Meeting

Friday, January 27
Partly Cloudy | 57° | 37° | 5%

Wrestling- Daphne Duals @ Daphne, AL
FTC Regional Robotics Tournament
7:45am Science Honor Society Meeting
7:45am Science Olympiad Meeting
11:45am Senior Luncheon
3:05pm Film Club Meeting
6pm Varsity Women’s Basketball- vs. Tylertown (Away)
7:30pm Varsity Men’s Basketball- vs. Tylertown (Away)

Saturday, January 28
Partly Cloudy | 57° | 52° | 12%

Wrestling- Daphne Duals @ Daphne, AL
FTC Regional Robotics Tournament
8am FTC and LEGO Tournaments
9am FIRST Robotics Competition Workdays (FRC)

Sunday, January 29
Showers | 65° | 57° | 58%

11am End of the Year Dance Team Banquet

Monday | Hot Lunch: cheesy chicken penne pasta, green beans, garlic toast; Fresh salad bar; Loaded baked potato; Fresh ham, turkey, and cheese sub sandwich with chips; Grill Items: pizza, french fries, hamburger, spicy chicken sandwich

Tuesday | Hot Lunch: hamburger steak, mashed potatoes with gravy, peas, roll; Fresh salad bar; Loaded baked potato; Fresh ham, turkey, and cheese sub sandwich with chips; Grill Items: pizza, french fries, hamburger, spicy chicken sandwich

Wednesday | Hot Lunch: loaded potato soup, broccoli, cheese toast; Fresh salad bar; Loaded baked potato; Fresh ham, turkey, and cheese sub sandwich with chips; Grill Items: pizza, tater tots, hamburger, spicy chicken sandwich

Thursday | Hot Lunch: loaded macaroni and cheese, corn, garlic toast; Fresh salad bar; Loaded baked potato; Fresh ham, turkey, and cheese sub sandwich with chips; Grill Items: pizza, french fries, hamburger, spicy chicken sandwich

Friday | Hot Lunch: pulled pork on a bun, loaded potato casserole, green beans ; Fresh salad bar; Loaded baked potato; Fresh ham, turkey, and cheese sub sandwich with chips; Grill Items: pizza, french fries, hamburger, spicy chicken sandwich

We hope your new year has kicked off in the right direction, and you are making the most out of every day with your coursework!  

We continue to encourage you to use every resource available to you as you navigate through your classes.  These include, but are not limited to, your teachers, Canvas modules, Canvas calendar, descriptions of assignments in Canvas, tutoring/remediation time with your teachers or peers, etc.  And if your teachers can answer any questions for you, be humble and ask them.  They are here to help and guide you along the way.

We will begin department meetings this week with each of our academic departments.  We use this time to discuss curriculum but also how content in each area should naturally progress from grade level to grade level.  If your child is always increasing their work ethic a little at a time, they are on track to find success in each of their courses.  It is important to articulate to them that each week, month, year or course, the degree of difficulty should naturally increase, and if students understand this their increase in effort should be guided to increase as well.

Let’s take a look at the week! Please remember that Monday is our Spring Media Day pictures and Senior Banners for those spring sports- Seniors, please make sure to have your form filled out beforehand. If you have any questions about this, please contact your coach.

On Monday, Spring Athletic Practice begins for the majority of our programs who participate in spring sports. Robotics has a meeting and work session in the afternoon, while Junior High Baseball has a Parent Meeting on Monday night. Our Men’s Varsity Soccer team will also be traveling to Clarkdale in their 2nd round playoff game! Bring home the win!

Tuesday we will have a Student Council meeting in the morning, and FIRST and LEGO Robotic Work Sessions in the afternoon. The evening is action packed, so make sure you stop by the gym and support our Varsity Basketball teams as they host Perry Central, beginning at 6pm. Let’s Go Irish!

Wednesday we have FIRST Robotics Work Session, SAVE Club, and Choir Practice. Wednesday night our Women’s Varsity Soccer team will host SE Lauderdale at 5:30pm in the 2nd round of the MHSAA playoffs. Tickets are $7 and the only  MHSAA State Passes will be accepted. Please come out and support our team!

On Thursday we will have Choir Practice, Quiz Bowl, National Junior Honor Society, FIRST Robotics Work Session, MathCounts, Arts and Crafts, eSports, and Mock Trial all meeting throughout the day. Throughout the day Thursday, our Bowling team will also be competing at the District Championship in Philadelphia, MS. Good Luck to both our men and women competing!

Friday, we will have Science Honor Society and Film Club meetings during the day, and in the afternoon our Robotics teams will host the FTC Regional Robotics Tournament. Our Wrestling team will travel to Daphne, AL for the Daphne Duals, while our Varsity Basketball teams travel to Tylertown in the evening for an important district matchup. Good Luck to all of our teams!

The Robotics and Wrestling tournaments will continue on Saturday as well, while our Men and Women Soccer teams are tentatively scheduled to play in the 3rd Round of the MHSAA Playoffs- stay tuned for more information regarding those games as we move along during the week.

As our students move into the spring season, please remember to keep our academics up, and strive to be your best in everything you do.

Go Irish!

Results from Previous Week:

1/17/23 Wrestling @ Vancleave- 6 Wins
1/17/23 Varsity Women’s Basketball vs. OLA- Won 53-7
1/17/23 JV Men’s Basketball vs. St. Stanislaus- Lost 43-28
1/17/23 Varsity Men’s Basketball vs. St. Stanislaus- Won 56-40
1/17/23 Varsity Women’s Soccer vs. Resurrection- Won 7-0
1/17/23 Varsity Men’s Soccer vs. Resurrection- Won 5-1
1/18/23 Varsity Women’s Soccer vs. Pass Christian- Won 4-0
1/18/23 Varsity Men’s Soccer vs. Pass Christian- Won 2-1
1/19/23 Varsity Men’s Soccer vs. Sumrall- Won 2-1
1/20/23 Varsity Men’s Soccer vs. McLaurin (1st Round MHSAA Playoffs)- Won 9-0
1/20/23 Varsity Women’s Basketball vs. Jefferson Davis County- Lost 50-36
1/20/23 Varsity Men’s Basketball vs. Jefferson Davis County- Lost 60-54
1/21/23 Wrestling @ Battle of the Bayou- Bronze Winner (33 Wins)
1/21/23 Men’s Powerlifting @ Region 4-3A Championships- 4th Place

Congratulations Mrs. Worrel on your STEM Grant award! You can read more about it here.

Congratulations to our December Students of the Month. Read more here.

Congratulations to Mrs. Jessica Holliman and Ms. Dee Blakeney on being selected as December’s Employees of the Month.

Congratulations to Anna Katherine Thriffiley, Brandon Reed and Bryon Shepard for being selected to play in the Mississippi Coast All-Star Game.

📸 Photo Gallery: St. Patrick Soccer vs. Our Lady Academy
📸 Photo Gallery: Irish Soccer Senior Night

COMING UP: We will have make-up picture day Thursday, January 26. All new students who need to take a school picture should have received an email from Mrs. Aldrich. 

Please join us on Wednesday, January 25th at 6 pm in the St. Patrick cafeteria for a Course Selection and Graduation Requirements Seminar for parents and students. We will provide an overview of the courses that are required for high school graduation, review transcript information, and discuss course selection procedures for the upcoming 2023-24 school year. We will conclude with a question and answer session. Parents and students are invited to attend.

Suggested Reading for your teen:

Catholic author and speaker Katie Prejean McGrady shares sometimes embarrassing, often humorous, and always inspiring stories about how she came to know and love Jesus and how you can, too, through prayer, scripture, sacraments, and service.

In the summer of 2016, Katie Prejean McGrady walked off the stage feeling great about a forty-five-minute talk she had just given, when a young man from the audience stopped her for advice. His questions caught her completely off guard: “Who is Jesus?” and “How can I get to know him?”

Prejean McGrady–who speaks to tens of thousands of Catholic teens and young adults a year about her passion for Jesus–couldn’t give the guy a straightforward answer. And it bugged her.

In Follow, she uses engaging, sometimes awkward, and frequently funny stories from her own life to show you four simple and practical steps to get to know Jesus and have life-changing friendship with him:

Prayer (lift your heart)–She helps you understand that prayer is just talking to God and gives you the tools to start.

Scripture (open your ears)–Prejean McGrady introduces you to an easier way to start reading the Bible.

Sacraments (receive God’s grace)–She encourages you to see the sacraments as spiritual fuel for your relationship with Jesus.

Service (share the gift)–She will nudge you beyond your comfort zone in the Church’s common mission to be the hands and feet of Christ in the world.

Prejean McGrady will help you open your heart and mind to meeting Jesus in a personal way and challenge you to see him for who he really is.

🎟️ stpatrickhighschool.net/shamrockin

Alumni, Families, Clergy, and Friends – Join us on March 18 for the biggest party on the Mississippi Gulf Coast to celebrate St. Patrick Catholic High School and Catholic education!

All proceeds support our mission of living out the Great Commission of Jesus – making Disciples of Christ at St. Patrick.