Jesus exhorted his disciples to love one another as he loved them and to be compassionate as your Father is compassionate. But overcrowed schedules, looming deadlines, and competing demands can set a frenetic pace in the Catholic high school. Our students join the fray, trying to keep up. They proffer a cooperative demeanor for teachers, while inside they are falling apart from stress and anxiety. A culture of compassion can seem more a heavenly ideal than an earthly reality. It's time for a reset. Building a culture of compassion takes more than words in a mission statement or promotional brochure. It is hard work. But this is what students long for, and when they receive it they realize that the school really does care about them. Between the covers of Cyrille's Talk the reader will taste and see what a culture of compassion is like and discover what it takes to make it happen.
