All-Girls Catholic School
Our spiritual foundation.
We believe that all God's creation speaks of God's love and boundless affection for us. We believe in the power of God's truth to transform ourselves, our students, and our world.
Our mission.
Rooted in the Gospel of Jesus, and steeped in the tradition and spirituality of the Sisters of St. Joseph, the mission of Sacred Heart Academy is to live and witness unity, reconciliation, justice, peace, and God's inclusive love.
Our vision.
Sacred Heart Academy is the Catholic college preparatory school of choice for young women with strong academic and leadership potential who wish to make a difference in their communities, the Church, and the world.
In every generation, the Sisters of Saint Joseph strive to give new expression to their congregational charism, which calls each sister and our partners in mission to a profound love of God and neighbor without distinction. This call is rooted in the gospel and lived out in following Jesus, who has given us an example of inclusive love for all without distinction or limit.
Our mission to unite all in God’s love aligns with Catholic Social Teaching, which stresses the inherent dignity of every human being. To that end, the Sisters of Saint Joseph, in their directional statements, pledge to promote peace, advance the well-being of every person, oppose all forms of discrimination, and work to create a more just and compassionate society.
Through service, girls begin to identify their calling: each of us has a calling to meet one of the world's hungers.
Values we live by
Values are inclusive love, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, peace, honesty, responsibilty, kindness, to give and not expect anything in return. A love that is active: removes shame, discrimination, violence, hatred, divisions. Values our personal lives and world needs.
The mission of SHA is Living Jesus' values of a love marked by inclusion, unity, reconciling differences, justice and peace. Striving to live this day by day; makes a difference-- Makes Sacred Heart a Catholic school.
What SHA Teaches
Of course Sacred Heart Academy offers a robust theology department that offers many opportunities for reflection and discussion. These courses include: Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, Doctrines of the Church, Sacraments, Church History, Morality, and the Social Teachings of the Church. In addition students select from electvies such as: Quest for Peace and Ethics in Healthcare
PUTTING FAITH INTO ACTION
Each SHA student is required to do service---a service that addresses a need of our times and helps our students focus on others less fortunate than themselves and feel as if they make a difference in the world.
Through service, girls begin to identify their calling: each of us has a calling to meet one of the world's hungers. Their courses, clubs, as well as food, clothing and toy drives, help the girls put their faith into action and heal a hurting world.
Worshiping As a Community
Worship is important as it provides the opportunity to feel closer to God, to meet other Catholic girls with the same beliefs and to feel a part of a community of believers who regularly come together to express their faith in prayer.
Jesus taught values everyone should live: respect for everyone and all God's creation, compassion, honesty, and forgiveness.
WHAT MAKES A SCHOOL CATHOLIC?
The courses each student takes in the Theology Department, prayer and worship in the Catholic tradition, service requirements and opportunities, and values. So often, Catholic parents and parents of other religions choose to send their children to Catholic schools because of the values that are taught and that set high expectations. These are the values Jesus lived, taught and witnessed.
Jesus taught values everyone should live: respect for everyone and all God's creation, compassion, honesty, and forgiveness. Jesus taught us how to live an active love: a love that removes poverty, injustice, hatred, violence and divisions. These values give us purpose and vision for living that is personal and social; values that develop the best in us and foster the good of the family, neighborhood and world.
Striving to live these values day by day is part of what makes SHA a Catholic school and our world a better place.
CSJ Reflections
Welcome to our Mission Corner!
S. Jean Amore, CSJ, Ed.D., former Principal at Sacred Heart Academy, will share thoughts and updates on the Mission of the schools of the Sisters of St. Joseph and other important Church and world issues. Visitors are invited to read, reflect and join us in prayer.
We Become Our Image of God
Some years ago a spiritual director and writer referred to the historical novel The Source by James Michener. Minchener tells the story of a Canaanite Village in pre-biblical days. These Canaanites worshiped numerous gods to whom they offered human sacrifice in the belief that if they sacrificed the life of their firstborn son, the gods would be so pleased that the gods would enable the Canaanites to bear many children and their legacy would go on for many generations. Timna, the protagonist of the story, can’t accept the sacrifice of her firstborn son. She protests, pleads and resists, but to no avail. Her husband sacrifices her son. Grieving deeply, as she slowly walks home, she reflects on what has happened, and with new and painful clarity says: “With a different god, my husband would be a different man.”
In our world today, so much happens in the name of God and religion. Sometimes we can say: with a different God, we would have a different world, a different country, a different neighborhood, and different religious beliefs and practices. What would our times look like if we believed in the God described in the Psalms: God is gracious and forgiving, slow to anger and full of kindness. God’s love is steadfast and tender reaching to all creation. Jesus acted so everyone’s life would flourish. He loved inclusively so all would feel safe, valued, connected and have a sense of belonging. He excluded no groups, races, social classes, sinners, women, or non-Jews. He loved those we call the enemies, the social outcasts, the unworthy ones. He prayed that all may be one in God and with one another.
Let us believe in a Universe, begun over 14 billion years ago, always immersed in God’s presence and a love that pervades, permeates, embraces and loves you, me and all creation.
How we see ourselves has everything to do with how we see God and how we see others. Let us make sure our God is the kindest, most loving and forgiving person we know. We become our image of God.
Lent 2025
A Reflection by S. Jean Amore, CSJ
amore@csjbrentwood.org
That All May Be One
During these weeks of Lent, the Gospel stories are filled with people who approach Jesus with a variety of sufferings to be healed. No type of disease or disability was too big, or distasteful, or strange for Jesus' compassion. He encountered everyone personally, touching them, placing His hands upon them, and coming close to each of them. Especially during these days, we are invited to talk with God about whatever causes us suffering, whether it be our own spiritual incompleteness, difficult relationships, or negative emotions that prevent us from seeing others clearly. With the same faith as those in the Gospel stories, let us listen to the Spirit inspiring and empowering us and trust the healing process.
Being faithful to the inner work of looking into our hearts helps us to see the big world, the whole planted imbued with God's presence and love. Pope Francis reminds us that Earth is God's home. God has joined us and all life closely to the world so we are interdependent and connected. The joys and hopes, the sufferings and anxieties, of others are ours too. The wellness we long for personally and for our families and nation comes to the extent we seek healing for the whole. We are healed not in isolation, but in relationship. Wellness of the part and wellness of the whole go together. This is God's plan. It is together that we shall all be well. In His last days, Jesus prayed that "All may be One".
In His life, death, and ressurection, Jesus showed us a new way of seeing, loving, being, and relating. Deep within us is the wisdom of God, the creativity of God, and the healing energies of God. What each of us can do is struggle to keep moving the world inch by inch in the right direction. Our prayer, our love, our thoughts, our kindness, and our advocacy for justice and peace will make a difference we may never see, but somehow in the mystery of a loving God, we've made the world better!
Easter 2025
A Reflection by S. Jean Amore, CSJ
amore@csjbrentwood.org
The Easter Challenge
“You believe because you can see…
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.
- John 20:2
Every year it happens:
earth shakes its sleepy head,
still a bit wintered and dull,
and feels new life stirring.
Every year we hear the stories:
empty tomb, faithful women,
runners with news and revelation,
unexpected encounters,
conversations on the road,
tales of nets filling with fish,
and breakfast on a seashore.
And every year
the dull, the fear, the disbelief in us
meet our Easter challenge:
to find God in the unexpected,
to believe beyond our insecurity and doubts,
to seek God’s presence and revelation in every situation, in every person,
to believe that all creation speaks of God’s love and boundless affection for us,
to be open to new possibilities arising from failures, disappointments or what has ended,
to trust in my own greening,
and to make peace with myself and my world.
May we be open to the graces God wishes to grant us this Easter.
Have a blessed Easter!
