Our Catholic schools provide a faith based education rooted in the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. We challenge each student to meet Ontario's Catholic Graduate Expectations by promoting their spiritual development with an emphasis on social justice and Catholic Social Teachings. We believe that this formation will not only serve our students today, but also in the future as they contribute positively to our society in the service of others.
Each year we identify an essential element of evangelization, through a spiritual theme, to focus our faith formation initiatives.
Blessed are the Peacemakers (2025-2026)
On May 8, 2025, Pope Leo XIV greeted the city of Rome and the world with these words at his first appearance as the Successor of Peter from the Central Loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica:
“Peace be with you all! Dear brothers and sisters, these are the first words spoken by the risen Christ, the Good Shepherd who laid down his life for God’s flock. I would like this greeting of peace to resound in your hearts, in your families, among all people, wherever they may be, in every nation and throughout the world. Peace be with you! It is the peace of the risen Christ. A peace that is unarmed and disarming, humble and persevering. A peace that comes from God, the God who loves us all, unconditionally.”
Inspired by Pope Leo’s invocation of peace, and his prayer that “one and all” may be helped “to build bridges through dialogue and encounter, joining together as one people, always at peace,” the DCDSB community will be guided by the spiritual theme of Blessed are the Peacemakers (Matthew 5:9) for the 2025-2026 school year.
What it means to be a “Peacemaker” in the Christian tradition
The Beatitude, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9), speaks to something deeper than just avoiding conflict. It’s about actively building peace in a world that often feels divided. The Beatitude challenges us all to consider what it truly means to be a peacemaker.
Peacemaking Is Active
Being a peacemaker involves more than simply avoiding conflict. It means taking intentional steps to build understanding and harmony, whether by helping resolve disagreements, challenging harmful stereotypes, or standing up for justice in the community.
Peacemaking Begins Within
To bring peace to others, one must first cultivate peace within. This includes managing emotions, releasing anger and resentment, and nurturing a calm and centered spirit. As the book of Ephesians reminds us, Christ “is our peace.”
Peacemaking Involves Reconciliation
At its heart, peacemaking is about restoring relationships. It’s a process of healing and renewing love and trust between people, guided by God’s word and grace.
Peacemaking Touches Every Part of Life
Opportunities to be a peacemaker are everywhere – in families, friendships, workplaces, and even in how we care for creation. It might mean encouraging respectful dialogue, listening with compassion, or speaking out against injustice.
Peacemaking Reflects God’s Nature
Christians believe that God is the source of true peace. When we work for peace, we mirror God’s character and love. That’s why peacemakers are called “children of God.” They embody God’s desire for harmony in the world.
Peacemaking Takes Courage
Pursuing peace isn’t always easy. It can mean facing conflict, opposition, or discomfort. Yet the Beatitudes promise that those who strive to make peace will be blessed.
2025-2026 Spiritual Theme Poster Design
Mr. Pisani’s Grade 11 Communications Technology students at St. Mary Catholic Secondary School were invited to design the 2025–2026 spiritual theme poster. The selected artwork, created by Grade 11 student Anne Calistus, offers a compelling visual interpretation of this year’s theme: Blessed are the Peacemakers.
Anne’s design prominently features two hands extended across a broken bridge. “The hands reaching across the broken bridge are meant to represent the effort it takes to connect with others and build peace, even when there are barriers between us,” she explains.
Grounded in Christian faith, the poster places a large cross at the centre, bridging the divide and representing Christ as the foundation of true peace. Anne’s work reminds us that peace is not passive; it is a daily choice rooted in humility, compassion, and Christian responsibility.
Click here for Anne’s Artist’s Note to learn more about her design.
Reflecting on Peacemaking: Family and School Connections
Take some time to review the description of a “peacemaker” and reflect on the poster design. Then consider the following prompts to guide discussion and prayer:
- The images in the poster offer rich opportunities for personal interpretation and spiritual reflection. How do these images (e.g., broken bridge, hands, cross, water, colours, dove, olive branch, etc.) symbolize the call to be a peacemaker?
- In what ways can we embody peacemaking in our daily lives – at home, in school, and throughout the community? Consider how small acts of kindness, listening, and justice can build bridges of peace.
- Use the 50 Scripture Passages about Peacemakers to guide your prayer. Let the Word speak to your heart: listen, respond, and rest in truth. How is God calling you to be a peacemaker today?
- Pray The Prayer of St. Francis together, or listen to a musical version. Reflect on how each line can be lived out during this school year. For further inspiration, explore songs Let There be Peace on Earth, Dona Nobis Pacem, or Peace is Flowing Like a River.
Our parishes
We partner with our local parishes to strengthen the relationship between school, home and church.
Renewing the Promise
"Our Catholic schools offer an extraordinary contribution to the social and environmental fabric of our society and world. In partnership with parents, who bear the primary responsibility for the education of their children, all those who work in Catholic education are called upon to reflect, in a faithful and discerning fashion, God's presence in this world."
(Source: Renewing the Promise a Pastoral Letter for Catholic Education, May 2018)
Find the Pastoral Letter for Catholic Education "Renewing the Promise" here.
Previous Spiritual Themes
Pope Francis has announced that 2025 will be a Jubilee Year. This has become a spiritual tradition celebrated in the Church every 25 years. Pope Francis has chosen as the motto of the Jubilee, “Pilgrims of Hope.” Inspired by this significant moment, the DCDSB community will be guided by the spiritual theme of Living in Hope during the 2024-2025 school year.
What is the Christian Meaning of Hope?
What is the Christian Meaning of Hope?
Faith, hope and charity (love) are the three theological virtues. They are gifts from God that help us to live as children of God. Hope is the virtue that leads us to desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help and the grace of the Holy
Spirit.
In our day-to-day language, the word “hope” is used to express when we want something to happen (e.g., I hope I do well on my assignment; I hope I get that new toy for Christmas). Sometimes these hopes are not realized. Pope Francis explains that in the Christian sense of the word, “hope does not deceive or disappoint because it is grounded in the certainty that nothing and no one may ever separate us from God’s love.” This relationship of faith and trust in God sustains us as we journey through life.
The virtue of hope also calls us into a loving relationship with one another. In his February 2022 letter, Pope Francis writes, “We must fan the flame of hope that has been given us, and help everyone to gain new strength and certainty by looking to the future with an open spirit, a trusting heart and far-sighted vision.” These words will guide our Living in Hope this year.
2024-2025 Spiritual Theme Poster Design
Grade 7-12 students across Durham Catholic District School Board were invited to participate in the design process for the 2024-2025 spiritual theme poster. In May 2024, 20 students attended a full-day workshop at the City of Oshawa’s Arts Resource Centre and the Robert McLaughlin Gallery. Throughout the workshop, students collaborated with DCDSB staff as they reflected upon what Living in Hope means to them. Many of their ideas have been incorporated into this year’s spiritual theme poster.
Our DCDSB staff, students, families, and communities are encouraged to use this spiritual theme poster to reflect upon how Living in Hope will inspire our journey together during the 2024-2025 school year and the 2025 Jubilee Year.
Things To Look For In This Year’s Spiritual Theme Poster
The most prominent image is the hand holding a camera lens that invites the viewer to notice what it magnifies. Amid the current realities and circumstances of our lives, the lens reminds us to focus on the promises of Christ, symbolized by the cross. Founded on faith and nurtured by love, hope enables us to press forward in life.
Next, there are five Fruits of the Holy Spirit that appear as settings along the rim of the camera lens. Jesus told his disciples, “You will know them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:16) If we allow the Holy Spirit to flourish within us, these “fruits” become the resulting observable behaviours. When we commit to Living in Hope, we will bear the following fruit:
- Charity (Love) is the way that we show and share our love for God and others, as Christ showed us by His example.
- Faithfulness is the ability to remain sure of what we cannot see, and to be loyal to God and God’s Word. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)
- Patience is the ability to wait and persevere, even when things are difficult, by trusting in the promises of Christ.
- Joy is more than momentary happiness. It is a deep and enduring sense of contentment that comes from knowing that you are known and loved by God.
- Peace is the ability to feel calm in life’s situations when we fill our hearts and minds with the strength and peace of Christ, and allow God to take control and guide our lives.
Finally, there are also many images hidden in this year’s design that serve as symbols to help us reflect upon how we are Living in Hope.
SPOILER ALERT! Before reading further, see how many images you can find hidden in the poster design. Then consider the following:
- How can prayer help to nurture the gift of hope that God has given to us?
- What is the role of the Holy Spirit to support our Living in Hope? Consider, for example, Romans 5:5: “and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
- Why might a butterfly have been suggested to symbolize the virtue of hope?
- Use the internet to find scripture passages that speak of hope.
- We can demonstrate our love for others, including strangers, through acts of charity. What is the connection between hope and charity?
- The anchor is a traditional symbol of the virtue of hope. This symbol is used within the official Jubilee 2025 logo. Use the internet to learn why the anchor symbolizes hope.
- What is unique about the way that sunflowers grow? How might the sunflower symbolize the virtue of hope?
After reflecting last year on what it means to “listen with the ear of the heart,” we turn to the words of Pope Francis for this year’s Spiritual Theme. Noted during his message for the 57th World Day of Social Communications, 2023, he states, “It is the heart that spurred us to go, to see and to listen, and it is the heart that moves us towards an open and welcoming way of communicating.”
With these words in mind, the DCDSB community will be “Speaking With the Heart” in 2023-2024.
What does it mean to Speak With the Heart?
In reference to the synodal process and the kind of communication needed in the Church, Pope Francis writes, "listening without prejudice, attentively and openly, gives rise to speaking according to God’s style, nurtured by closeness, compassion and tenderness." This serves as an invitation to reflect on what it means to communicate “according to God's style”, welcoming encounters with others as “heart speaks to heart.”
We are also called to consider the many ways we communicate with one another. Beyond spoken words, we express ourselves through gestures, symbols, icons, body language, online communication, art, music, dance, and more. Even moments of silence can communicate meaning.
As we Listen, Learn, and Live in Faith this year, may “Speaking With the Heart” inform communication that “kindles hearts, is the balm on wounds and that shines light on the journey of our brothers and sisters.”
2023-2024 Spiritual Theme Poster Design
Grade 7-12 students across Durham Catholic District School Board were invited to apply to participate in the design process for the 2023-2024 spiritual theme poster.
In June 2023, 25 students attended a full day workshop at the City of Oshawa’s Arts Resource Centre. Throughout the workshop, students collaborated with central staff, Chaplains, and a professional graphic designer as they reflected upon what Speaking With the Heart means to them. Their ideas have been incorporated into this year’s spiritual theme poster.
Things to look for in this year’s poster
Did you know that an “Easter egg” is a hidden message, image, or feature that is often used in video games, comic books, and movies? Our graphic designer used this contemporary design element to hide “Easter eggs” in the Speaking With the Heart poster.
- Can you find the speech bubbles hidden in the poster?
- Do you see the cross, dove, and halo, which remind us that our faith should guide how we communicate with others?
There are also many other words and images to explore in this year’s design that help us to reflect upon how we can enter into an encounter with others in a spirit of open dialogue by Speaking With the Heart!
- Can you identify the plant species indigenous to the traditional lands of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island and the region upon which we learn?
- What is the object that reminds us to amplify the voices or messages of others who have traditionally been forgotten or ignored?
- What message is being conveyed in American Sign Language?
- How can the rainbow bracelet remind us to communicate messages of acceptance and welcome?
- What other words would you include to describe how we are to communicate “according to God’s style”?
Our DCDSB staff, students, families, and communities are encouraged to use this spiritual theme design poster to reflect upon how Speaking With the Heart can guide our journey together in the 2023-2024 school year.
2023-2024 Spiritual Theme Poster Design Process
As part of the Witnessing Faith pillar of our Strategic Plan, each year the DCDSB develops a spiritual theme to unite all members of our community as a people of faith. Our spiritual theme encourages us to make real, meaningful and faith-filled connections every day to build the kingdom of God.
While we continue with our efforts to ensure the safety and well-being of our students, families, staff and communities, we recognize the need to rebuild, restore and renew the important relationships between home, school and parish that form the foundation of our Catholic education system. For this reason, our spiritual theme for this year will be crucial to guide our learning, reflection and actions in the year ahead.
Pope Francis has called the Church to participate in a critical Synod of Synodality, and has outlined the importance of listening with the ear of the heart. In Pope Francis’ January 2022 letter, which we encourage you to read in its entirety, he reminds us, “It is only by paying attention to whom we listen, to what we listen, and to how we listen that we can grow in the art of communicating, the heart of which is not a theory or a technique, but the ‘openness of heart that makes closeness possible’.”
Listening With the Ear of the Heart Poster Design
Grade 7-12 students across Durham Catholic District School Board were invited to apply to participate in the design process for the spiritual theme posters. In June 2022, approximately 40 students were given the opportunity to collaborate with one another and learn from a professional artist and graphic designer. Students attended a full day workshop at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery where they unpacked what this spiritual theme means to them and shared their ideas to help create the new poster design. 
Below is a brief overview of the various elements students incorporated into the spiritual theme design:
- Flowers/Plants: Representative of growth, listening and learning on and about the land. The plants are growing around the headphones as the more we listen and learn, the more growth we experience.
- Butterflies: Representative of listening to and learning on the land. Students wanted to show new life and growth through the visual of a butterfly, which is also used to show a sense of duty and commitment to our earth. Many animals and insects are endangered, including butterflies in Ontario and Canada. By committing to be environmentally responsible and taking measures to care for the planet, including planting native species, we can care for all life forms, including those that are endangered.
- Headphones: Students wanted to show that listening can take place in many different ways, and wanted to show 21st century listening through technology. Technology, especially over the past few years, has connected us to family, friends and community across the world. The headphones are not connected to anything in particular to demonstrate that there are many ways that listening and learning can take place. Technology can be used to connect us with people and information in ways that may not otherwise be possible. The headphones are around the heart to demonstrate that we should truly listen to the hearts, stories and experiences of those surrounding us, including those that may not always be given a voice or may not have their voice centred in society.
- Music Staff: Representative of the arts, self-expression and in the many ways we can learn and listen. The arts are a way that some individuals feel they can communicate thoughts, ideas or emotions that they cannot put into words. We can listen and learn in ways that may not include spoken conversations with each other. We can listen to the hearts, souls, and expressions of others in a multitude of ways!
- Heart: The heart was selected to be at the centre of the design to show that we should be leading and listening with openness, compassion, understanding and LOVE.
- Ear in Heart: The ear in the heart is a visual depiction of “listening with the ear of the heart”. The ear is in a rainbow colour palette to show inclusivity of all, with an emphasis on marginalized individuals and communities. The rainbow colour palette was also selected to represent the 2SLGBTQ+ community. In the Bible, the rainbow represents that we are all God’s children and under His care and protection.
- Dove: Representative of the Holy Spirit and the peace that begins with each one of us. It is placed at the top of the image to honour God’s divinity and creation. The dove is also used a symbol of truth, which also aligns with listening, learning, and speaking the truth.
- Cross: Representative of the ultimate sacrifice of Christ, a symbol of love, and Jesus’ triumph over death. It is placed near the top of the design to show to remind us of all the ways in which Catholic Social Teachings call us to journey with the most marginalized individuals.
- Colours in the design: Students asked for lots of bright colours to represent renewed hope and joy.