Catholic Education Week

Catholic Education Week is held each year in May in 29 Ontario Catholic School Boards. Catholic Education Week 2026 is scheduled to take place during the week of May 3 – May 8.

Catholic Education: Pilgrims of Hope

Our scripture passage for Catholic Education 2025-2026 is:

“As God who called you is holy, be holy yourselves.” (1 Peter 1:15-16)

This year, Ontario Catholic schools will once again celebrate Catholic Education as Pilgrims of Hope. Hope is foundational to our faith. We find hope in God’s grace and love. This year’s Catholic Education Week, Catholic Education: Pilgrims of Hope: On the Path to Holiness is inspired by the following considerations:

• The Pilgrims of Hope Jubilee year provides us the ongoing opportunity to serve the common good and recommit ourselves to prayer, service, and evangelization.
• As we remember with love our late Pope Francis, and look eagerly to the pontificate of Pope Leo XIV, the coming school year will be a time to renew the momentum of our Jubilee celebrations, by inviting everyone in Catholic education to embrace the journey toward holiness and peace.
• In light of the upcoming canonization of Blessed Carlos Acutis, the Catholic Education Week theme will focus on the Pastoral Letter to Young People issued by the Bishops of Canada in October 2022. As young people themselves, their example shows us, very vividly, what it means to live as pilgrims on a journey of faith, toward a hope grounded in the unshakeable love of the Risen Jesus.
• Our lives as Christians are truly a path toward holiness – becoming, more and more, the people God created us to be. That will look different in each of our lives, but for all of us, we know that it is God’s Spirit at work in us who guides us toward holiness: “The Holy Spirit illumines all believers with the light of hope. He keeps that light burning, like an ever-burning lamp, to sustain and invigorate our lives.” (Spes Non Confundit, 3) 

The five sub themes for Catholic Education Week explore ways to live out Pope Francis’ call for
each one of us to be Pilgrims of Hope...

Monday: Peace be with you
Tuesday: God loves you
Wednesday: Christ saves you
Thursday: The Holy Spirit lives in you
Friday: Together on the journey

Catholic Education Week Prayer

God of grace and love,
Strengthen and sustain us as we continue to journey as pilgrims of hope.
Guide us on the path to holiness with the light of your love.
Inspire us to serve joyfully in the love of Christ through the beautiful examples of the saints.
As we journey together in faith, may we experience the peace of Christ through the presence of one another.
We pray that all young people in our Catholic schools may believe, and become empowered by, these three important Gospel messages:
“God loves you!”
“Christ saves you!”
“The Holy Spirit lives in you!”
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.