Convocation Message
September 9, 2026
Richard R. Halloran, PhD
Head of School
What Are We Learning to Love?
At the beginning of a new school year, it is worth asking a surprisingly important question:
What do you love?
There are plenty of possible answers: family, friends, sports, music, food, a favorite hobby, or any number of other things. But the question matters because our loves pull us somewhere.
We pursue what we love. We make sacrifices for what we love. We give attention to what we love. And over time, what we love helps shape who we become.
Imagine someone followed you around for a week. They could not ask you any questions or somehow look inside your heart. All they could do was watch.
They watched what you did with your free time, what you talked about with your friends, what you practiced even when no one made you practice, what you were willing to get up early for, what you spent your money on, what disappointed you, and what made you genuinely excited.
After a week, that person could probably make a pretty good guess about some of the things you love.
Our loves do not stay hidden inside us. They become visible in what we pursue, for what we make sacrifices, and what receives our attention. Eventually, those loves begin shaping the people we become.
What Are We Learning to Treasure?
Jesus helps us think about this in Matthew 6:21. As He warns His followers to consider carefully what they treasure, He says:
“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
If we want to know what we love, one place to look is at what we treasure. What gets our attention? What receives our time and resources? What do we pursue? What feels especially valuable to us?
Our hearts are not disconnected from the things we value and pursue. Our treasure and our hearts travel together.
That raises an important question for us at Providence:
What are we learning to treasure? What are we learning to love?
This year, we will spend intentional time considering what we call the Six Loves of Providence:
- Love of God
- Love of Learning
- Love of Virtue
- Love of Growth
- Love of Creativity
- Love of Neighbor
These are not six new rules. They are not six boxes for our students to check. They describe loves that we hope increasingly characterize our community and shape the kind of people our students are becoming.
And they are not six equal loves.
Love of God comes first and gives direction to all the others. When Jesus was asked to identify the greatest commandment, He answered that we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind. The second is to love our neighbor as ourselves.
That is why our Six Loves begin with the Love of God and end with the Love of Neighbor. Everything in between is shaped by those loves.
Together, the Six Loves help describe what we hope a Providence education cultivates in our students.
More Than Words on a Wall
Of course, it would be easy for the Six Loves to become six phrases that our students memorize. We want something much deeper.
We want these loves to become visible in the way we live.
Throughout this school year, our chapel teaching will take us through Paul’s letter to the Colossians. In Colossians 3, Paul gives Christians remarkably practical instructions about how their faith should shape their lives. He calls them to mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness, love, peace, and gratitude. He tells them to let the Word of Christ dwell richly among them.
Then he gathers all of this into one sweeping statement:
“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus.” – Colossians 3:17
Think about the reach of those words: whatever you do.
When a student sits down in a classroom: whatever you do.
When something is difficult and the temptation is to give up: whatever you do.
When there is an opportunity to create something beautiful: whatever you do.
When our students compete and really want to win: whatever you do.
When someone annoys them, hurts them, or disagrees with them: whatever you do.
When nobody else is watching: whatever you do.
Do it in the name of the Lord Jesus.
This is where Love of God, Love of Learning, Love of Virtue, Love of Growth, Love of Creativity, and Love of Neighbor become more than words.
They become our way.
An Education That Shapes Our Loves
At Providence, we believe education is about much more than what students know or accomplish. It is also about who they are becoming.
That means we want students to love God above all things, allowing their love for Him to rightly order every other love.
We want them to love learning, pursuing truth with curiosity, wonder, and perseverance.
We want them to love virtue, choosing what is good and right even when no one is watching.
We want them to love growth, receiving correction, persevering through difficulty, and recognizing that God is still at work in them.
We want them to love creativity, recognizing and cultivating what is good and beautiful while using faithfully the gifts God has given them.
And we want them to love their neighbor, learning to see, serve, encourage, forgive, and sometimes place another person’s interests ahead of their own.
Our teachers play an essential role in this work because they are more than instructors. In a very real sense, they are a living curriculum.
Students learn from the books their teachers assign, the lessons they prepare, and the questions they ask. But students also learn from what their teachers delight in, what they take seriously, how they respond when things go wrong, how they treat others, and what their lives demonstrate is worthy of love.
This is the formative work of a Providence education. We are teaching students to read, write, calculate, reason, communicate, create, and understand God’s world. But through all of it, we are also seeking to cultivate rightly ordered loves.
Because what we love matters.
Our loves pull us somewhere. They shape what we pursue and, over time, help shape who we become.
Our hope and prayer is that the Six Loves increasingly become visible throughout the life of Providence, not simply as words we know, but as loves we live.
Our way.
Semper excelsior ad gloriam Dei
Always ever upward to the glory of God!
Richard R. Halloran, PhD
Head of School
