Daniel M. Kerns, Jr. - Leadership in the Salesian Tradition
Left to Right: Dr. Barbara McGraw Edmondson, Head of School; Mrs. Laurie Collins Quirk, award recipient; Mr. Kenny Purcell, award recipient; Mr. Dan Kerns, former Head of School.
Dan Kerns, former Georgetown Visitation Preparatory Head of School and current Executive Director of the Fr. McKenna Center gave an expanded version of this address at Georgetown Visitation school Mass on the Feast of St. Francis de Sales. Mr. Kenny Purcell and Mrs. Laurie Collins Quirk ‘74, the recipients of the inaugural Dan Kerns Salesian Leadership Award, were honored. Congratulations to Mr. Purcell and Mrs. Quirk!
2022 is a significant time for those inspired by a Salesian perspective. This year marks a Jubilee Year as we celebrate the 400th anniversary of the death of St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane de Chantal’s 450th birthday. This dual anniversary year gives us a special reason to recognize and honor our patrons’ unique influence and inspiration on spirituality and religious thought and their significance for the Visitation Sisters and our school.
It is fitting too, that as we celebrate our Salesian patrons, we also honor those who live out their values in our Georgetown Visitation community with our inaugural Salesian Leadership Awards. Like Francis and Jane, they too have influenced and inspired countless others by living the Little Virtues quietly and steadily, with great faith, without need for fanfare or accolades. Both Mr. Kenny Purcell and Mrs. Laurie Quirk represent what I see as the characteristics of true Salesian leadership.
Leadership is often misconstrued or not fully understood. In our common culture, leadership is associated with a role or rank. Leadership does reside in roles and those who assume them have a responsibility to fulfill their positions conscious of the trust that has been entrusted to them.
But Salesian leadership calls us to something even greater; the broader perspective that leadership is not simply conferred by an election or an appointment, a position or role. Fundamental to Salesian Spirituality is that each of us -- all of us -- are called to be leaders in the way we live our lives as faith-filled people and in the way we serve others. And that happens not in heroic deeds or with great challenge or sacrifice. Rather it is seen in the way we embrace the present moment and fulfill the daily, often mundane aspects of life: homework, family responsibilities, the way we extend the Little Virtues to others.
“The opportunity of doing great things does not come very often, but at every moment, we can do little acts with great love.”
“Be you who you are and be that well to give honor to the master craftsman whose handiwork you are."
- St. Francis de Sales
When taken together these two quotes define Salesian leadership and are the characteristics we see as the fabric of lives formed and anchored by the spirituality of our patrons, Saints Francis and Jane.
