st. timothy school

St. Timothy Students Demonstrate ‘Love of Neighbor’

By Henrietta Gomes
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the Issue of 5/24/07)

Simple acts of profound charity and desire to aid the poor is what motivated the students at St. Timothy School in Chantilly to raise $2,600 for the Holy Childhood Association Missions program through the Society of the Propagation of the Faith, said Linda Gott, the school’s missions coordinator.
By doing chores around the house or simply asking for spare change from their family members, the students raised funds throughout the year.
During a multicultural assembly last week, the students presented Father Patrick Posey, the diocesan director of the Propagation of the Faith with a check. The priest thanked the students and reminded them that through their generousity they were responding to their baptismal call to spread the message of the Gospel.
“All of you are missionaries,” he said. A missionary is one “who proclaims the love of God.”
The mission was just a vehicle for the students to express the charity they already have, Gott said. “My motivation for them was to see every human person with dignity and respect and treat them with Christian charity,” said Gott, who teaches Spanish to kindergarten through sixth grade. She wanted the “respect for life to trickle down throughout their lives.”
Gott recounted her amazement when a student walking toward the cafeteria with a dollar in her hand gave her the money and asked that it go to the missions. “That dollar was destined to go to chips or ice cream, but instead it went to the missions,” she said. She referred to the self-sacrificing nature of the students as “heroic acts of Christian charity.”
Three times a year, Gott visits each class to teach students about missions around the world. She discuses great saints who made heroic acts of charity, such as Maximilian Kolbe and teaches the students to emulate them however they can. It is not just about the money, she explained. “It’s more like a movement in their hearts. Jesus sees that movement in their hearts. The money is just a bonus.”
The mission program is based on children helping children and the funds will go toward education efforts in many third world countries.
“Their motivation is so pure. They’re doing it for Christ and it’s the most exciting thing to see,” Gott said.