HOPE DOES NOT DISAPPOINT

 The death and resurrection of Jesus
is the heart of our faith
and the basis of our hope.

Christ died, was buried, was raised and appeared. For our sake, Jesus experienced the drama of death. The Father’s love raised him in the power of the Spirit, and made of his humanity the first fruits of our eternal salvation.

Christian hope consists precisely in this: that in facing death, which appears to be the end of everything, we have the certainty that, thanks to the grace of Christ imparted to us in Baptism, “life is changed, not ended”, forever. Pope Francis, Spes non confundit (Hope does not disappoint), 2024.

 

May the celebration of Easter fills you with hope brought about by the mystery of Jesus’ resurrection. Felix Alleluia!

Anton Česen, M. A., Director of St. Stanislav’s Institution

 

The salvation that God offers us is an invitation to be part of a love story interwoven with our personal stories; it is alive and wants to be born in our midst, so that we can bear fruit just as we are, wherever we are and with everyone all around us. The Lord comes there to sow and to be sown. (Pope Francis, Christus vivit, 252)

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a joyful New Year 2025.

St. Stanislav’s Institution, Diocesan Classical Gymnasium, Jeglič Student Home,

Alojzij Šuštar Primary School, Good Shepherd Kindergarten, Music School, Janez F. Gnidovec Residence Hall, Stane Kregar Gallery and Slovene Home

Anton Česen, M.A. Director

 

 

Each year the entire school community celebrates St. Stanislav’s Day to mark the feast of the Institution’s patron. This academic year the celebration is special as the 10th anniversary of the establishment of The Good Shepeherd Kindergarten is being marked. The fill rouge of the celebration is explained under the motto Rejoice in the Lord.

We have the pleasure of inviting you to this year’s celebration which will be marked with holy mass on Wednesday, 13th November 2024. Holy mass will be celebrated by the Archbishop of Ljubljana, Stanislav Zore at 3 p.m. in St. Vitus Church, Ljubljana Šentvid. The formal celebration will take place at 5 p. m. in the sports hall of the Alojzij Šuštar Primary School. Andreja Poljanec, Ph. D., a lecturer at Sigmund Freud University Ljubljana, will hold the official speech. The performance will be given by the students of all schools in St. Stanislav’s Institution.

We look forward to celebrating with you.

Anton Česen, M. A., Director of St. Stanislav’s Institution

The entire school community of St. Stanislav’s Institution, in particular The Diocesan Classical Gymnasium, is delighted and proud to inform you that the video featuring the above- mentioned choir performing the piece The Holy Spirit – The Quickener of Life, composed by the medieval mystic St. Hildegard of Bingen, has reached its one millionth view in these days. The video has received more than 30,000 likes and over 800 comments in languages from all over the world.

These views and likes certainly reflect the quality of the musical performance and the professionalism of everybody involved, above all the singers of St. Stanislav Girls’ Choir of DCG, the conductor Helena Fojkar Zupančič and the producer Primož Zevnik. All the songs are sung in Latin. It is priceless that the listeners’ feedback speaks to the relevance of Hildegard’s music today and shows that humanity – regardless of culture, race, religion or language – is in search of and in need of the presence of the Spirit. Here are some meaningful comments that reflect this urgent need of man today:

It is a beautiful, kind performance. All my respects to the people of all nations. May God bless you and bring peace to all conflict zones. Greetings from warm Armenia

People love to dump on religion, but religion has inspired some of the greatest works of art known to humanity. That’s not restricted to any one religion either. The understanding that we are small within the enormity of the universe, but that we do have a purpose, if we strive to seek it evokes a powerful good in people. Listening to something like this, you can’t help but be overwhelmed by a sense of peace. What an amazing gift to be able to offer through the ages: calm amidst the chaos. Beautiful performance by a beautiful choir. Thank you for sharing it!

Listen and watch it again and again – casual lyrics, cool music & so much creativity!

Beautiful and very traditional European in every way. It is what we need to get back to.

Some of the girls feel the deeper meaning of Hildegard’s message. You can see it at their faces. I’m really happy about this. RIP holy Hildegard! You are still a great inspiration in our times.

Truly moving. May God bless these young ladies.

Really from Heaven. And how beautiful sounds that wonderful instrument…make me feel peace!

 /Lily Schweiger Kotar/

The exchange with Sint-Calasanzinstituut in Nijlen, Flanders, has been in progress since 2006. This year it took place from 3rd to 8th October 2024, when a group of 10 students (years two and three) accompanied by two teachers went to Belgium. In October 2025 the same group of Belgian students will return the visit to The Diocesan Classical Gymnasium. We stayed with our host families and naturally communicated in English. On the first day we had a tour of the school and a workshop on biodiesel production. In the afternoon we went to the Diamond Museum in Antwerp. This city used to be the center of diamond sales, so we visited the diamond museum, where we could try our hand at diamond polishing. On the following day we took a train to the famous Bruges, which is also called Little Venice. The next morning, we visited the Museum of town history, in the afternoon we went to the BODYWORLDS exhibition – a demonstration of how the human body works. We mostly spent Sundays with our host families, visiting Antwerp and some of us also Brussels. Monday was particularly interesting as we spent the morning at the Tabloo Interactive Museum, where the theme discussed was nuclear energy. In the afternoon we went swimming in an aquarium among tropical fish in the town of Beringen. On the last day, we visited the small typical Flemish town of Lier in the morning and we said farewell to our hosts in the afternoon. One of the students wrapped up the entire experience saying: “It was unforgettably beautiful. I will cherish the impressions for a long time to come. I really look forward to their visit next year.” /Lily Schweiger Kotar/

 

Urša Logar and Vivijana Wogrin (year 4) accepted the invitation to participate in the competition entitled The Germans and Their Eastern Neighbors/Die Deutschen und ihre östlichen Nachbarn. The event is organized annually by the Bavarian Ministry of Education for foreign students learning German. The theme in the accademic year 2023/2024 was The Republic of Slovenia.

The above mentioned students entitled their work The Influence of the Slovenian Language on National Identity/Sprache und nationale Identität, presenting the Slovene people and their language through history, from the time of Carantania to the present day. The result of several months of work is a well-researched, insightful, and beautifully designed project 20241103-Sprache und nationale identitat .The mentor of the project is Irena Bolta, teacher of German at the Diocesan Classical Gymnasium. /Irena Bolta, B. A./

 

In the school year of 2023/2024 an exchange took place between St. Stanislav’s Institution and Sint-Lodewijkscollege in Brugge, Belgium. In September 2023 Belgian students visited Slovenia and Slovenian students returned the visit from 11-15 March 2024. The exchange was centred around the idea of freedom and self-expression in different forms, especially in art history and ancient times.

In Slovenia we explored the freedom of mind and body, including the freedom of travel and seeking different approaches. We created several artworks with certain limitations, and tried writing, drawing, and weaving. We explored the way our body speaks about our emotions and how it impacts our view of the world. We visited Celje where we got introduced to a world traveller and we saw ancient ruins under the city. The next day we visited lake Bled and wrapped up the exchange in Slovenia.

In Belgium we learned about different ways to be free within the limitations given to us by the world itself. By running around Brugge and taking whichever path we wanted, but keeping our goal in sight, we learned that there are a lot of different paths we can take and that this approach is also applicable to other aspects of life. We also analysed ancient views of freedom by translating different manuscripts from ancient Greek and Latin and created collages to illustrate different ways people can be enslaved by expectations or their own ideals. We learned about the history of the city of Brugge and visited several museums and galleries in Brugge and Ostende, where we also took an ice bath in The North Sea.

The most important takeaways were that every person has their own perception of freedom and what this means in their life. Learning from great philosophers we changed the way we think about the true meaning of individuality and freedom while trying to balance our own wants and needs with our community and the world’s expectations. /Liza Knez, year 4/

The international cooperation with Lycée René Gosse from Clermont l’Hérault, a school close to the 7th biggest French city Montpellier started last school year, when we were included in the eTwinning project Your art is also mine. Stane Kregar’s paintings with French motifs were the subject of our research.

This school year, however, we started the Erasmus and eTwinning project Art without borders, where we focused on the topic of architecture, both in Slovenia and France. The exchange at The Diocesan Classical Gymnasium took place from 7-13 October 2024, when 13 students and two professors from France were hosted.

At the beginning of March from 3-7 March 2024 it was our turn to visit the French friends. We started the journey from the Brnik airport to Paris and eventually to our final destination, Montpellier. Our French hosts were already waiting for us and we were happy to see each other again.

Next morning, we started the program with the headmaster’s speech and a few presentations of Slovenia. Then we participated in some ice breakers with our French and Polish friends, whose exchange was about ecology. In the afternoon we followed up with a tour of Clermont l’Hérault, the town where the school is located. It’s a nice town and it looks very Mediterranean. We also went up to the castle so we could get a good view from above the city. Having finished the tour, we spent the rest of the day with our hosts.

We took part in some lessons on the following morning. Most of us had an English class, the others took rugby which was a lot of fun. After the lessons we had a guided tour of Saint Guilhem le Désert, a gorgeous medieval town nearby. After lunch we also participated in a pottery workshop where we created different architectural designs from clay. We visited the museum of clay and pottery, where we learned a lot about this subject.

Wednesday was the most interesting day. We visited Montpellier, where we had a tour of the city, some free time for lunch and exploring the city on our own. Upon return, some of our host families took us to the coast where we spent the evening together.

On Thursday morning we visited a large Roman villa in Lupien. We learned a lot about Roman heritage on the French coast. In the afternoon we worked on the projects we had to brush up for the Erasmus project. We worked on a making of a magazine and a special architectural project, where we had to craft a building of our own. We were inspired by some of the buildings we saw during our stay in France. After we finished the projects, we had evaluation quizzes about the past week. During the finishing ceremony we received certificates of participation. In the evening most of the French hosts took us to dinner and we spent the last evening together. We left early in the morning, at 3.30 am and after a gorgeous sunrise, some pantomime at the airport in Paris and during two other flights we safely returned home. /Zoja Kern, Lucija Kremžar, year 3/

 

 

 

The stone which the builders rejected; the same is become the head of the corner.

This is the Lord’s doing: and it is wonderful in our eyes. (Ps 118:22-23)

May the celebration of Easter open our eyes to the light of the Risen, so that our lives may reflect the hope that he bestows upon us!

Felix Alleluia!

St. Stanislav’s Institution

Diocesan Classical Gymnasium, Jeglič Student Home, Alojzij Šuštar Primary School, Good Shepherd Kindergarten, Janez F. Gnidovec Residence Hall, Slovene Home, Matija Tomc Music School and Stane Kregar Gallery

Anton Česen, M.A. Director

In this school year we have been celebrating the 30th anniversary of the reestablishment of St. Stanislav’s Institution.

We will mark this occasion with a conference in May that will bring together teachers and distinguished speakers to address the challenges of education in the digital age.

We are delighted to invite teachers from abroad to join us and share their insights and experience in addressing the challenges that lie ahead. The conference will be held from 9 to 11 May 2024 and will offer the chance to connect with fellow teachers, engage in meaningful discussions, expand knowledge and exchange best practice.

You are kindly invited to join us as we share and learn together.

For more information visit the conference website.

Anton Česen, M.A., Director