As a young boy, I can still recall sitting next to my mother, flipping through the pages of the "Picture Book of Saints.” My favorite was John the Baptist. He wore clothes made from camel's hair, roamed the desert and ate locusts for food. As a 7 yr old boy, that was pretty awesome!

One of my mother’s favorites was St. Philip of Neri. She said when he died, his heart was so big, two of his ribs had broken just to make room for it! To my young mind it made sense mom would like Philip of Neri and his big ole heart. My mom was a nurse.

As a grown man, I’ve come to understand what it is these Saints (our true role models) possess with such great abundance. It is virtue – the disposition to do good and the truth to know what good is. Virtue helps us to be good and to do good things for other people, creating a culture of love.

We need more Saints!

We need to get back to basics and focus on the virtues. Whether it be the divinely infused virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity or those acquired by our more human efforts - Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance. Our society needs to do a better job at distinguishing right from wrong, and choosing virtue over vice, and we need to be able to teach this to our children at the earliest age.

As parents, we are the first to teach the children about virtuous acts; but outside of the home we entrust our children to teachers who must carry on the teaching of virtuous acts, especially through their good example. This is why I am excited about CEF and Catholic education.

Teachers in the Catholic education system are obligated to help students value virtue, moral actions, and good character as a way of life! The Catholic philosophy of education is to not only teach the children the intellectual means to succeed in life, but the spiritual means to know what is good in the eyes of God.

It is my hope that you see the value CEF brings in raising money to fund Catholic education for those in need. The Catholic Education Foundation is helping children and their families eradicate the cycle of poverty they are currently experiencing through a Catholic education. They are simply giving kids a chance. Please have a heart like St. Philip of Neri and donate to the Catholic Education Foundation.