Archbishop Golka Heads Back to School, Welcoming Students and Faculty Around the Archdiocese
- André Escaleira, Jr.
- 2 minutes ago
- 11 min read
In a weeks-long tour around the archdiocese, the Denver archbishop visited several schools during back-to-school season, welcoming communities back and encouraging them at the beginning of a new academic year.
The new academic year is in full swing, with teachers and students settling back into classrooms across Northern Colorado.
As backpacks were being packed, books were being purchased, and new uniforms were being ironed, Archbishop Golka was front and center, welcoming students and teachers back for a new academic year at schools across the archdiocese.
Over several weeks, the Denver archbishop blessed new Catholic school teachers and visited St. John Paul the Great High School in Denver, Chesterton Academy of Our Lady of Victory in Littleton, St. Joseph Parish and School in Fort Collins, Colorado State University in Fort Collins, St. John Vianney Seminary in Denver and Chesterton Academy of Our Lady Seat of Wisdom in Denver.
In each visit, the archbishop offered his prayers and encouragement as the new academic year began, calling students to a deeper life of faith, intellect and discipleship.
Archbishop Golka greets two Religious Sisters of Mercy from St. Clare School in Edwards.
(Photos by André Escaleira, Jr./Denver Catholic)
Archbishop Golka to New Teachers: ‘Our Father’s grace is always enough’
Well before the school year began, more than 100 new Catholic school teachers across the archdiocese gathered for a day of prayer, training and orientation together with archdiocesan leadership and Denver Archbishop James Golka.
Drawing on the day’s Gospel reading in his homily at Mass, the archbishop reminded the teachers that their vocation is all about service, denying themselves to give to their students and communities.
“To deny yourself means that you know totally you’re a loved child of God, that your life is not about you; it’s about the God who made you,” Archbishop Golka said. “God has a plan and a place for you. You are here because God called you here. God has a reason and a purpose for you to be in our schools. That reason and purpose is not about you. It’s about God and God’s purposes. But God has equipped you for this. God gave you all the gifts and weaknesses you have, so God can use them for God’s betterment.”
While it may seem like a tall order to educate, form and inspire young souls, these new teachers — among “the best people I know,” the archbishop noted — will help bring about God’s Kingdom on earth as long as they listen to God’s will and lean on the Lord as the school year begins.
“I just want you to trust our Lord totally. He has given you what you need,” he said. “You cannot do it yourself, but our Father’s grace is always enough. You have everything you need to share with our students.”
For the new teachers in attendance, the day was a perfect way to start their first school year in Catholic schools.
“I truly felt that today was such a wonderful and meaningful day,” one teacher shared. “I’m leaving feeling so full, inspired and grateful.”
“I was incredibly nervous about diving right into my first year teaching, but now I feel well-equipped and supported to do so,” another added.
“I feel as if I am part of something bigger than I imagined, and where God has placed me to be,” a third teacher said.
(Photos by Madison Gonzalez, courtesy of St. John Paul the Great High School)
St. John Paul the Great: Saintly Service and Sacrifice
As Archbishop Golka visited St. John Paul the Great High School in Denver, he couldn’t help but remember the saintly pope’s visit to Denver 33 years prior, to the day.
“We believe that simple visit of just a couple days here changed Catholicity in Denver and in Colorado,” the archbishop said. “So we don’t just look back and say, ‘Wasn’t it great that he was here?’ He is still here, and he wants to intercede for us. Especially when we name a school in his honor, you can believe he’s interceding for you. His presence is here.”
The saints play a key role in the spiritual life, the archbishop noted as he turned to St. Maximilian Kolbe, whose feast day was being celebrated. The saintly Polish Franciscan priest gave his life as a martyr for charity in Auschwitz during World War II.
“He was a priest who does what I think any bishop, priest or deacon, and probably any Catholic school teacher, would do for the people entrusted to them,” Archbishop Golka explained. “They would do anything for you, and I believe they would even die for you. I know, if it meant getting you to Heaven, absolutely I would die for you, and I only know a couple of you.”
St. Maximilian Kolbe’s example shows what it means to sacrifice for another and to do so united with Jesus, the archbishop continued.
“Tough times are going to come to your life. Don’t be afraid of that. Jesus showed us how to go through tough times,” he said. “Don’t go through tough times alone. Turn to Jesus. Turn to your friends. Turn to your trusted teachers in this school, because we’re all in this together.”
Through both tough times and blessings, God calls each person to a particular mission and vocation, even to sanctity, Archbishop Golka explained as he reflected on his own vocation. After a near-death accident, he realized that “from this moment on, everything is bonus,” and therefore, that his life was not his own anymore.
“Students of St. John Paul the Great, your life does not belong to you, and your life is not about you,” the archbishop concluded. “Your life belongs to God. Our lives should be about God and God’s purposes. When you do that, I promise you, you’ll be really happy, and you’ll be really happy for all eternity.”
(Photos courtesy of Chesterton Academy of Our Lady of Victory)
Our Lady of Victory: The Pope, the Pallium and God’s Perpetual Presence
“This is the best thing I get to do: to celebrate our faith with you, to come to the altar, to be fed by the Word of God, to be fed by the body and blood of Jesus. So, it's an honor and a joy to be with you,” Archbishop Golka told students at the Chesterton Academy of Our Lady of Victory in Littleton in his back-to-school visit.
The Denver archbishop was on hand not only to inaugurate the new academic year, the school’s first in its new permanent home in Littleton, but also to bless the new school building. Considering the joyous occasion and new school home, the Denver archbishop reflected on the faithful’s home in the heart of the Good Shepherd.
Pointing to his new pallium, received from Pope Leo XIV on the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul in Rome, the archbishop explained that the two-inch-wide band symbolizes unity with the Good Shepherd, the Holy Father and each other. The vestment also calls to mind the lost lamb that the Good Shepherd carries back to the flock, he added.
“We are all on mission to go out and find whoever is lost,” Archbishop Golka said. “I will tell you, right here in this room, some of us feel lost. We are called to let Jesus work through us to find, to seek out the least, the littlest, the lost, the last, and to bring them back together. We have a mission to be able to let Jesus save others through us.”
As the faithful — student and graduate alike — embark on that mission, their hearts often bear the imprint of the sheep’s hoof, another symbolic element of the pallium, the archbishop noted.
“Jesus is our Good Shepherd. The moment you were conceived in your mother's womb, an imprint was put on the heart of Jesus for you, for you specifically, because he's utterly committed to you,” Archbishop Golka said. “He died for you. That means that you mean something to him, so it's not a mistake that you're here. You're here because God intended it from the beginning of creation.”
(Photos by Ben Bradley Photography, courtesy of St. Joseph Parish and School, Fort Collins)
St. Joseph, Fort Collins: 100 Years and a New Pastor
Archbishop Golka’s visit to St. Joseph Parish and School in Fort Collins was doubly special: it marked the parish school’s 100th anniversary and the parish’s next chapter with the installation of Father Brian Larkin as pastor.
Reflecting on the beginning of Father Larkin’s pastorate at the parish, which providentially coincides with a new academic year and a new chapter in the school’s history, Archbishop Golka invited the faithful to intercede regularly for their new spiritual father.
“Your role with a new pastor is to provide welcome, hospitality and the promise of prayer,” he said. “If you let him feel welcome, he’ll be able to do more for you. If you pray for him, he’ll be able to fly, to do way more for you.”
The archbishop said he learned from his Hispanic parishioners over the years that the best time for that daily intercession is during the Mass, as the priest receives the Eucharist.
“Pray that he might have a good communion with the Lord, so that the Lord will animate and commandeer his life so that we, priests and ministers, look more like Jesus and less like ourselves,” Archbishop Golka exhorted the faithful. “Because if we are letting Jesus work through us, you will be served way better because he’s a way better pastor than we are.”
This sort of prayer from a Catholic parish and school on behalf of their priests highlights a foundational truth about the Church established by Jesus Christ: the Lord remains intimately involved in his Church and in the world.
“This is the genius of the Catholic Church: Jesus left us a church whereby he can continue to work through us to care for you, his people,” the archbishop explained. “So, at every sacrament, it is Christ who speaks, not your priest. It is Christ we encounter, not just your priest.”
(Photos by Reilly Costa Photography)
Colorado State University: ‘You can find a home with us’
Jesus was standing in front of a wall full of pagan idols. With his back to it, he asked the apostles — and each of us — that famous question: “Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16). The question has resounded through the ages and is only more relevant on a college campus like Colorado State University.
“There are many false gods out there in the world, trying to take you away from our Lord Jesus, trying to take you away from the practice of the faith. You’re going to run into it,” Archbishop Golka said in his homily to Ram Catholic students. “Don’t be afraid of that. I invite you to be attentive to that, because standing in front of all of that is our Lord Jesus, and he’s looking at each of you with intent and with love. You belong to him, and he will do anything to keep you. No matter how far away we wander, it’s not so far that his love and mercy cannot reach us.”
Emphasizing God’s profound mercy, available especially in the sacrament of Confession, the archbishop reminded students to return to Jesus and find true happiness.
“When those false things come and temptations try to pull you away, Our Lord is looking at you not to judge you, but with intense love, because he is stirred by you,” he shared. “He will do, and he has done, anything to save you. Thanks be to God.”
For students and community members, Archbishop Golka’s visit and his reminder of God's profound love were a powerful way to begin the new school year.
“It’s pretty amazing,” shared one CSU freshman. “This is my first experience as a Catholic on campus. Coming in, that’s something I was really looking forward to: getting involved in the Catholic Church here. So, for the first event to be with the archbishop, it just makes me really excited to be Catholic coming to CSU.”
Throughout the year, even when the archbishop is off campus and in Denver, CSU students can find a home away from home in Ram Catholic, and in the heart of God, Father Sam Munson said.
“I just want to say, brothers and sisters, I love you. We love you. You might be away from home, but in the Eucharist and in the Church, you're always home,” he shared. “So you can find a home at John the 23rd. You can find a home with us. So please, I ask you to join us, walk with us, go on mission out on this campus with us.”
(Photos by Grant Whitty)
St. John Vianney Seminary: A Call to Surrender
After a long, quiet first summer in Denver, Archbishop Golka was excited to welcome more than 100 seminarians, as well as faculty and staff, back to St. John Vianney Seminary in Denver for their opening Mass.
“As the summer went on, I grew hungry for what will happen now that we gather back, what will happen on this campus, in your hearts and in all of us,” the archbishop said in his homily. “We will have a community of men and women here dedicated to trying to grow ever closer to our Lord, praying regularly, learning how to be brothers. We have a community of people who want to learn wisdom and guidance, who want to grow in intellect. … This will become a holy place because you are doing holy things. So I welcome you back, and it’s a joy to have you here.”
Turning to the day’s reading from St. Paul’s Second Letter to the Thessalonians, Archbishop Golka highlighted two ways seminarians could go about the new academic year: drifting from one thing to another, unmoored, or surrendered to God, allowing him to lead the way.
“What’s the difference between those two?” the archbishop asked. “One is to intentionally trust in God and to ask God, for God’s purposes, to lead and to direct and to guide you. Then, to have the courage and strength to actually let him do that.”
Of course, trusting in God and surrendering to him does not mean the seminarians won’t have work to do. The rigors of seminary still apply, whether in the classroom, in parish assignments, in formation or in the chapel. But the spirit beneath those activities is markedly different when one lives surrendered to the Lord, the archbishop noted.
“It means that if I’m trusting him, I can lean into him totally. He will take me where he wants me to go,” Archbishop Golka explained.
If the seminarians — and indeed, each of us — live in such a surrendered way, Archbishop Golka promised two things: “one is you’ll be really happy. The other is you’ll be really happy for all eternity.”
(Photos courtesy of Chesterton Academy of Our Lady of Victory)
Our Lady Seat of Wisdom: ‘Hungry for Heaven’
On the feast of St. Augustine, Archbishop Golka visited Chesterton Academy of Our Lady Seat of Wisdom in Denver to open the new academic year in prayer.
Noting the great saint’s years of searching, the archbishop encouraged the school’s students, parents, faculty and staff to seek God more intentionally this school year.
“We are always hungry for heaven, for the reign of God, for Jesus to come again. When we are in the presence of Christ, we will receive all fullness, and until then, we should never be satisfied,” he said. “That's why we think Catholic schools are so important, because they help us along the way to be able to move aside all of the stuff we don't need and then try to let ourselves be filled with what matters. We want to be filled with the things of heaven.”
Whether in class or the chapel, with mentors, teachers or parents, God will be at work this school year. The students’ job, the archbishop noted, is to cooperate with God’s will.
“All of that together is an arena where God can do God's great work, and he can help fill you up with what he wants you to be full of,” Archbishop Golka explained.
Drawing on the day’s Gospel reading of the parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25:1-13), he exhorted the school community to prioritize their relationships with God to be considered among the wise in the parable.
“You are invited and greatly challenged to let yourself know Jesus even more and be more committed to his Church. If and when you know Jesus even more, you'll know why he made you,” he concluded. “I invite you this year: do your part. Invite Jesus to invade your life. Invite Jesus to come into your life even more, and I guarantee you, you will find happiness which is eternal. You'll begin to get filled up with those things that are of heaven.”
