We Are Saint X!

We are St. X! pic.twitter.com/QiWrC7bpy9

— Bobby Nichols (@nicholsrobert) September 10, 2016

A few years ago, I began a morning at St. X with a prayer and speech behind the meaning of the “We are Saint X!” cheer. In light of St. X’s fourth honor as a Blue Ribbon School, I feel that cheer and the honor of wearing our green and gold carries a new weight. Now as St. X takes the stage for our annual rivalry game, may our words, cheers, and actions reveal the true nature of what it means to be a man of Saint Xavier High School!

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“We are Saint X!” It’s a simple phrase, but it represents a great deal. It represents who we are, who we hope to be, and whose message we uphold. We are Saint X. From the sports fields, to the theater, to the innovation lab, classrooms, art studios, and even outside of this building, we are Saint X.

But we are more than that, we are more than our academic and athletic achievements. We are Saint X, and we represent a 150 year tradition that is beyond what we could ever dream possible with our limitless state championships and National Merit Scholars. We are Saint X, and we represent the Xaverian Brothers who founded our school, and whose spirituality is deeply rooted in a Catholic Tradition that values and understands the need for balancing our athletics, our humanities, our academics, our faith, and our spirituality.

We are Saint X, but when you were cheering “We are Saint X” in the final minutes when we were beating Trinity, were you considering the true weight of those words? We are Saint X, and we have a great deal to be proud of, but we also have a lot to live up to.

We are Saint X, and when we are doing service, when we are standing in the mud and rain and carrying the casket of a homeless individual, when we are entering into the homes of others and placing plastic around their windows, and when we are using our privileges to help support others in need, we are giving power to those words.

We are Saint X, and when we are attending retreats, when we are sitting up into the late hours of the night sharing our stories with others, when we taking time to Live the 4th by supporting those students who are on retreat and celebrating their journey when they return for the closing, and when we take time to honestly examine our relationship with God and others, we are giving life to those words.

We are Saint X, and when we pack the chapel as tight as we pack the rage cage, when we wake up early to kneel on a Wednesday morning to pray the rosary, and when we come in on a Friday morning, even though we might have stayed up late studying for a test or worrying about the next game, to begin our day with Mass, we are believing in the mission of those words.

We are Saint X and we need to honor the tradition of those words. When you hear the words “We are Saint X,” what do you hear? Are you giving life to those words in your extracurricular activities? Are you giving power to those words by finding time to volunteer? Are you putting faith into those words by finding time to grow in your relationship with God and others? We are Saint X and we have some amazing things to be proud of but none of us are perfect, especially myself, and we all have room to grow. Let us all accept the challenge to find a new opportunity to define what it means to be a part of the mission of Saint Xavier High School.

We are Saint X.