As our school year came to a close this past week, the second annual Anthony R. Bellezza Memorial
Kindness Program Scholarships were awarded to three St. Joan of Arc School students. Sister Eileen and our teachers selected these students for their extraordinary acts of kindness during the year. Each student received a $250 scholarship! We congratulate each of them as they are an outstanding example of “God’s Way – The Road to Kindness!” There were so many wonderful acts of kindness done by our students during this school year. We want to recognize all our students for showing kindness and caring during the school year! We also thank our teachers and parents for their encouragement and support of this Kindness Program! Our children watch and learn from the kindness we show every day. Continue to be inspired to be kind over the summer months! Show that you care by following “God’s Way – The Road to Kindness!” Have a wonderful summer and may God’s loving care always be with you!
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HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!
As we celebrate this holiday, let’s remember all of those that passed away in active service. This Memorial Day and weekend let’s take a moment to offer your own gesture of thanks to our men and women serving abroad and at home, as well as their families, and reflect on these men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice. A small act of kindness could include:
Be inspired to Be Kind! Show that you care by following “God’s Way – “The Road to Kindness!” Have a wonderful Memorial Day holiday! May God’s loving care always be with you! We hope that all our mom had a wonderful Mother’s Day! We hope that you saw the Kindness Blog that included a special Mother’s Day prayer.
This week our focus is on our children and students as there are only a few weeks left in the school year. Let’s focus on being kind as you finish school. Final exams will be coming up soon – if someone needs help studying, please offer up your kindness and help them. Let’s finish these few weeks with passing on our kindness each day. Here are five acts of kindness that you could do over the next few weeks: · Lead a group of students to study for an exam. · Help another student prepare for a class presentation. · Help your teachers to clean up their room. · Buy lunch for another student. · Tell another student “good luck” before a final exam. Enjoy the last few weeks of school and make it special by doing an act of kindness each day! Be inspired to be kind! Show that you care by following “God’s Way – “The Road to Kindness!” Happy Mother’s Day to all our moms! Let’s make today special for our Mothers! Give your mom an especially long HUG today and tell her “THANK YOU” for all that she does to make your life special! Let’s remember those moms that have passed away and those dear moms that have lost a child. Our hearts and our prayers surround you today and always! We also thank those special woman that have stepped in and been “like a mom” – your caring means so much to our children. A Mother’s Day Prayer and blessing: Be inspired to Be Kind, and show that you care by following “God’s Way – “The Road to Kindness!”
Have a wonderful week! May God’s loving care always be with you! Do you think that Kindness permeates the social media sites? Our experience and surveys show both positive and negative views. We want to stress the positive side of social media and Kindness Acts however, we hear too often about the inappropriate use of social media. The words we use on social media are so important! We may not often agree with what is said on social media, but if we respond in a negative fashion we are just going to further continue the bad conversation.
Let’s try Kindness! The next time you are disturbed by statements made on social media, STOP before you respond in a negative manner – don’t fuel the negativity! Practice Kindness in your communication! Always try to look for the positive and try to redirect the conversation to caring, compassion, empathy and Kindness! Your efforts will impact that conversation and may also make the social media landscape and the world a better place! Social media sites can offer an excellent opportunity for us to promote Kindness. An excellent article on this topic titled “How to Use Technology and Social Media for Kindness - the Art of Joy” can be read online at: www.theartofjoy.org. We hope that you shared some kindness during the Memorial Day holiday! During the masses last weekend, we heard a number of families say that they were going to grill hamburgers and hotdogs and share them with their neighbors. At the Life Teen mass, one family member told us that they were going to prepare a Memorial Day meal for an elderly couple.
We are so touched by all of these acts of Kindness! God’s Kindness speaks to us in many ways. As we reflect on the Life Teen mass last weekend, the closing song was “Mighty to Save”, by Hillsong. The first verse in this song really speaks to God’s Kindness and compassion: “Everyone needs compassion Love that’s never failing Let mercy fall on me Everyone needs forgiveness The Kindness of our Savior The hope of nations” Everyone needs compassion - we thank those families that shared their Memorial Day food and time with their neighbors. We are so happy that God’s Kindness is filling the heart of those in our church community! This week we wanted to share a short article taken from the “Daily Motivator,” written by Ralph Marston on “Adding Kindness.” This article really hit home with us and speaks to our Kindness Matters program and God’s Way – “The Road to Kindness.”
We hope it also hits home for you! “When interacting with other people, keep this in mind. They are people, with lives, stories, families, hopes, challenges and feelings. For your own sake and for the sake of everyone, go out of your way to be considerate. Do all you can do to be Kind. Especially when you're not met with kindness, offer your own Kindness in return. Instead of trying to get the last word, seek to give the first smile. Kindness does not get used up. In fact, the more it is expressed, the more of it there is, and the world will benefit from all you can give. You may have every reason to be angry, disappointed, impatient, sarcastic. Yet Kindness is almost always the better choice. If the world seems too harsh, rude, inconsiderate, do something positive about it. Add your own kindness, every opportunity you get.” This week’s Kindness Acts to share with you: "I'm always in a hurry. Always! It seems a bit much at times but I'm always running from one event to another with very little time in between. I think we train ourselves to do this so we don't have to serve or help others. I'm trying my best to do little things like pick up peoples trash and put it in the garbage for them. It's small but I'm trying." ~ Life Teen Sophomore "Many of my business associates and friends are male. Since it was Mother’s Day, I still wanted to take the opportunity to wish their wife the very best for Mother’s Day. It is a very special time. So, I texted all of them and asked if they would extend a Happy Mother’s Day to their wife and also asked them to do something Kind for her today! I hope that they did and I hope that all Mothers were made to feel special on their day!” We are so happy to see the Kindness Acts that are coming in! Thank you for demonstrating your caring way!
We have heard that you may be doing Kindness Acts but prefer not to share them – we understand. It is the act of Kindness that counts! When we kicked off this Kindness Matters Program – we wanted Kindness to be Contagious. One of the ways to make it contagious is by sharing the Kindness Acts each week in our parish. Please remember you can always share your Kindness Act by indicating “Anonymous”. This week’s Kindness Acts to share with you: Following last week’s theme of teaching our children to be Kind, we want to share that we have wonderful neighbors. One of our neighbors has a two year old little girl named Kate. Kate helped her mom to make two cupcakes and she delivered them to us with the biggest smile! We were having a challenging week and this very special act of kindness by Kate made our week! Kate’s parents are truly teaching her what kindness means. Thank you for sharing your kindness with us. "I always find myself too busy to even think of doing an act of kindness. That's when it hit me that we keep ourselves from just being nice to each other. I've spent the last week at school just saying hello to people walking down the hall. Was it intentional? Yes, but it soon became second nature and who knows, maybe people just want to be recognized as being present in life." Let’s focus on teaching our children to be Kind! This week, please take some time to talk with your children on why being Kind matters. The ultimate goal is that we raise our children to do good in the world. Your children are always watching what you do as a parent. When you do a Kind act for someone, it is more likely that your children will also do a Kind act. You can make Kindness contagious when you set the example. In your role as a parent, it is up to you to teach your children to be thoughtful, caring, empathetic and Kind! “Doing acts of Kindness sets the example of how to behave in this world!” This week's "Acts of Kindness" to share: Over the weekend, my neighbor had a huge pile of mulch delivered. My first thought was, "that's going to take him all weekend." After watching neighbor after neighbor stop by and say hello to him, I realized this is the same guy who snow plows everyone's drive and walkway during the winter. My son and I went over and helped the gentlemen with the mulch for the next 3 hours and we were able to finish it all. ~ Anonymous I am a part of Life Teen here at St. Joan of Arc and we collected clothes for shelters and ministries in Harrisburg. It was a great way to give back and we had a lot of fun too. ~ Hershey Sophomore Please share your act of kindness by emailing them to: kindness@stjoanhershey.org
Kindness – what does it mean to you? It has a very special meaning to our Parish. Kindness starts at home and home to us is our Parish Family, and that’s why this program is so important to us! God wants us to show our Kindness! Kindness is:
Take some time to talk about the kind deeds that your family does during the day and week. If we could spend a few minutes a day talking about kindness, God’s Way - “The Road to Kindness” will become clearer! "In the end, only kindness matters" This week, we had several Acts of Kindness to share: " My neighbor came to me with his bike asking if I had a wrench to remove a broken pedal. I was able to remove the pedals and install a good replacement that I found under my workbench." ~ Unknown " I am studying abroad in Beijing, China and yesterday I met someone who is learning English. I offered to help them study this week for their English test for free. Tonight was the first time we studied together and I was able to teach her a lot of new words and phrases in English. I hope she was happy with my help and that we become friends! I think it is very important to help these Chinese students so they can learn and understand more about America!" ~ Morgan " I have a bad habit of getting in the car and wanting to get there. In a hurry. I'm sorry to say that my driving etiquette was not always the kindest. In the past year, I have really tried to be more aware when I am in the car, slowing down, taking my time, and if somebody else is in a hurry, letting them be in a hurry. Letting people cut in front of me, when normally I wouldn't have done that. So while this is not a kindness for a specific person, it is a kindness for people in general. Especially those on the road." ~ Unknown Please share your act of kindness by emailing them to: kindness@stjoanhershey.org
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About Our Blog"The Road To Kindness" Archives
September 2019
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