Do you love the Lord with all your heart? I sure do hope so! When being in relationship with God is the number one priority of our life, everything else snaps into place. Love for God is based on remaining in a relationship with Him, to be in persistent dialogue with Him, and to have God at the center of all our thoughts and actions. Love is more than a fuzzy feeling we have for someone, or thinking fondly about someone. Loving the Lord with all our heart commits us to Him with every fiber of our being, in good times and in bad.

This commitment to love God with all our heart is the source of our love of neighbor. If we truly love God, we will love our neighbor with all our heart, even our enemies, those who disagree with us, and those who have hurt us deeply by their sins against us. Love of neighbor and enemies doesn't mean we need to have positive sentiments for them, dismiss the harm they've caused us or others, or even deny how difficult they are to love. How can I love someone who embodies so much evil? Well, love requires me to commit myself to receiving the person as he or she is created by God, by praying for that person's conversion and healing where needed, and by offering forgiveness as many times as we need to in order to keep my heart free. Without a passionate and persistent love for God, we cannot truly love the worst of humanity. With this intense love for God, there's no limitation to my freedom to love, forgive, and offer myself with Jesus for the life and salvation of the world.

St. Mary School is now an Ed Choice Expansion provider! It's with great excitement that I want to inform you that St. Mary School now accepts Ed Choice Expansion scholarships to K-8 students in our school. The Ed Choice Expansion program is an income-based scholarship program given directly to families through the state of Ohio to pay for tuition. The scholarship provides eligible students the opportunity to attend our Catholic school for little or no cost whose families meet the Federal Poverty Guidelines. Families who qualify for low-income status (250% or below of the Federal Poverty Guidelines) are eligible for this scholarship. The Ed Choice Expansion Scholarship will cover the tuition cost of up to $5500 in elementary schools.

We are joining many of the other Catholic schools in the Diocese as well as in Geauga and Lake County that already are providers and have been for multiple years. Accepting Ed Choice Expansion scholarships gives us another way to make Catholic education an affordable reality for more families in our community. In addition, it will help our Adopt-a-Student and Angel Scholarship Funds to have a greater impact for families who aren't eligible for Ed Choice but who still need scholarship assistance. Most importantly, it will help us to fulfill our mission to share the Gospel with more students and families, making it easier for us all to love God and our neighbor with all our heart!

Visit http://education.ohio.gov/edchoice or www.stmary schoolchardon.org for details, and contact the school office via email ([email protected]) or phone (440-286-3590) for more information on how to apply. Please share this exciting news with family and friends you know who might benefit from this opportunity!