Happy Feast of Our Lady, Mother of Divine Grace!

In honor of today’s feast day, Laura Berquist shares the story behind how our school received its name and its patron!

“We’re a homeschooling program,” says Laura, “and we are very aware of the parents as the primary educators and the mothers as the culture-bearers. To acknowledge Mary as the leader in this enterprise just fits with reality.”

The task of picking the exact title of Our Lady for the school was done with the help of Laura’s husband, Marcus Berquist.

“We went to the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary, reading through the names, and Mother of Divine Grace seemed to reach out to us,” says Laura. “I think that’s because grace acts on nature.”

Drawing from St. Thomas Aquinas’ Commentary on Boethius’ De Trinitate, Laura talks about the relationship that grace has to the intellect.

“Grace strengthens the agent intellect and enhances the natural powers,” she says, referencing St. Thomas. “We are using the natural powers that distinguish us from the rest of visible creation, namely our intellect. We’re using those powers as we are learning. And so it seemed to us that grace was what was going to make this school possible.”

Ultimately, it is fitting and right that a school dedicated to supporting parents in their mission of educating their children should be named after Our Lady.

“The Blessed Virgin Mary shows us how to be a mother,” concludes Laura. “She’s our teacher, the teacher of all of us. She’s our model."