The teacher was making a point while correcting a child by helping him recall that God is everywhere. The teacher asked the child, “Where is God?” The child was silent, so the teacher asked again, “Where is God?” Same response. So quite insistently again the teacher asked, “Where is God?” The child ran out of the room and hid in a cupboard. The principal saw the child run there and opened the door. The child was crying. “What’s wrong?” the principal asked. The child replied, “I’m really in trouble now. God’s gone, and my teacher thinks I took God!”

God is never gone, of course, yet many of us, in the face of tragedy or loss or violence, have asked, “Where is God?” Facing these same issues, students look to us to answer, to reassure them that God is everywhere.

That belief is central to the Catholic school environment. God is explicitly in religion class or when we participate in Mass. God is implicitly present in all our words and behaviours – we speak and act this way because we believe that God is present.

Where is God, then? God is in the classroom, on the playground, in the library, at sports teams’ practices or music rehearsals. God is in the staffroom. We can sense God’s presence in the witness of our colleagues and students.

To Do:  Reflect on where you see God’s presence in your school. Share your thoughts with your students and ask them, “Where is God?” This can strengthen our conviction that, indeed, God is everywhere.

To Pray:  God, I know you are everywhere. Help me to teach the students about you so that they will always feel your presence. Amen.