Farewell from Upper School Principal Mrs. Ruth Heilman
Auf Wiedersehen. Adieu. Adios. Cheerio.
I’m not very good at saying, “Goodbye.” Just ask former Concert Choir members. Each spring, my eyes would start to cloud over when we rehearsed certain songs. Okay, it happened at other times of the year, too, but it got much worse in the spring, peaking at graduation. Students guessed how quickly Mrs. Heilman would be in tears at the Spring Fine Arts Festival, or whether I would make it past the first line of A Parting Blessing at Commencement before the waterworks started. Concerts, Choir tours, Senior Choir Luncheons, Graduations, awards nights, senior exams, the last performance of musical – these remind me that another group of God’s children is leaving our school to take on the world. After 33 years of working in Lutheran schools, almost half of which have been here, it’s my turn to do the same. As CPS families know, I am moving on from Concordia at the close of this school year. God has called me to a ministry of full-time church music at The Lutheran Church of St. Andrew in Silver Spring, Maryland. I am excited to begin something new, but I am saddened to leave Concordia.
Members of the Class of 2018, you are your parents’ children and God’s children, but you are our children, too. As your teachers and administrators, we have loved you, corrected you, taught you, laughed and cried with you, and prayed with and for you. You will stay in our thoughts and prayers long after you stop making daily footprints in the CPS hallways, and we hope that you will visit often. Over the past 53 years, each student, parent, and teacher has made an impact on our school and has made CPS a caring, Christian community. I thank God for allowing me to be a part of this rich history, and I am excited to see CPS continue to grow and thrive.
Now the tears are flowing, so I will simply end with the words of A Parting Blessing, sung by BLS/CPS Choirs so often throughout the past 53 years. The first line, which translates literally as, “May your journey succeed,” is my prayer for the CPS Community and most especially, the Class of 2018.
May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
May the rains fall soft upon your fields
and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.
All my love,
Mrs. H
“Once a Saint, Always a Saint!”