The summum bonum of Catholic education can be expressed in two words: Jesus Christ. Every Catholic school, every subject, every extracurricular activity exists to form students’ minds and characters after the heart of Christ so that they may live in union with Him in this life and the next. Catholic school students, therefore, ought to be immersed in the Eucharist so they can see, taste, and be transformed by Christ, present yet hidden under the veils of bread and wine.

We can rightly call the Eucharist, then, the summit and source of Catholic education. It is the goal to which schools lead their students, and it provides the grace for administrators, teachers, and students to fulfill their vocations. The Catholic school’s mission includes developing students’ understanding and love of the Eucharist. At the same time, a school that places the Eucharist at the heart of its life stands fortified against constant pressures to conform to the world’s – and the government’s – demands.

As we celebrate Catholic schools this week amidst our national Eucharistic revival, the stature of the Eucharist in our schools’ curricula and programming should be our top priority. Yet, somehow, as if unaware of this pivotal movement in the Church, the National Catholic Education Association has chosen for this year’s celebration the bland and uninspired theme of “United in Faith and Community,” one that can be charitably judged as a missed opportunity.

For in this current moment, Catholic schools, to play their vital role in the Eucharistic revival, should be guiding their students to the Eucharist constantly, every day, in multiple ways. That is, our schools must provide a Eucharistic education.

What does a Eucharistic education look like?

First, religion curricula at each grade level, K-12, must be tied to and include instruction on the Eucharist. For example, primary grades often have course themes such as “God our Father” or “Our Life in Christ.” The connections are straightforward and can be developed in multiple lessons: The Eucharist allows us to see God, and we have life in Christ by receiving and worshipping the Eucharist. Teachers can do likewise for other grade levels.

In addition, formal instruction on the Eucharist itself cannot be confined to the years devoted to the sacraments. Rather, multiple lessons on the Eucharist – what it is, how it comes to be, how we worship it – can easily be incorporated into, and made a major component of, the traditional course divisions of Scripture, Church history, and morality.

Typically, schools do not teach the Eucharist as a distinct topic across curricular themes in this manner. But if we want to reverse the dismal decline of faith in the Real Presence, today’s desperate times call us to think differently.

Second, because the Eucharist is Christ Himself, it transcends limits of time and space – and academic disciplines. Religion classes teach the substance of the Eucharist; other disciplines point to its vitality. That a class in a Catholic school begins with a prayer is standard; that it begins with a Eucharistic prayer is not, but the possibilities are many: Anima Christi, Adoro Te Devote, O Salutaris Hostia, Pange Lingua – in English or, where appropriate, in Latin.

Every discipline can showcase the Eucharist in multiple ways. Art classes of different grade levels can study countless paintings that incorporate the Eucharist, and students can be taught to create their own. Music classes can study and sing the aforementioned prayers; how much greater is this effort when combined with Latin classes. Literature classes have Eucharistic themes in the Chronicles of Narnia for the younger grades, Flannery O’Connor and Graham Greene for older students.

Then there is science class. What better venue is there to study the Eucharistic miracles, particularly the more recent ones in Poland, India, and Mexico, than in science, the discipline that many secularists see as religion’s executioner? Doing so will help correct Catholic students’ mindsets: science is not the answer to the world’s moral problems, but a window into God’s omnipotence.

Third, since the Eucharist is a wonder both for study and for adoration, academic courses require robust religious programming. Mass, holy hours, and benediction should be regular features of a school’s life. Retreat programs become more powerful when silent adoration and benediction are included. In June, every school should bring its academic year to a close by celebrating Corpus Christi with a robust Eucharistic procession around campus.

Finally, since the goal of Eucharistic education is not merely to know about the Eucharist, but to love it, schools must strive to capture students’ imaginations with the mystery and power of this most Blessed Sacrament. Eucharistic holy hours and benediction help, so do stories of the saints who went to superhuman lengths for their love of the Eucharist. (Consider, as one example for school children, St. John Berchmanns, who served three Masses before his first class each day.) Best of all are the Eucharistic miracles, which, in my own experience, students find spellbinding.

In his final encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, St. John Paul wrote simply that “the Church draws her life from the Eucharist.” The same can be said of Catholic schools. The Eucharist animates, strengthens, and directs them to fulfilling their mission: leading their students to Jesus Christ.

As we celebrate Catholic Schools Week, let us kneel before the Blessed Sacrament and pray in the words of St. Thomas Aquinas: “Grant that with Thy saints above, sitting at the Feast of Love, we may see Thee face to face.”