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This appeal is slated to gather $3.6 million to magnify the mission of St. James Academy. Building upon the great work that has begun in this One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic community, in keeping with the original master plan, this is a special occasion to share and receive lasting gift that will advance the Academy to a higher level of access and excellence.
Placing trust in God, remembering how He works through our fathers and the founders of this school, we as one body will strive to joyfully model for our children, and their children, prayerful stewardship faithful to the Catholic Tradition.
Hands of the Holy Family
 Artist Jason Jenicke was commissioned to create an image that would move the St. James community to ponder the power and primacy of passing our faith from generation to generation.
Hands of the Holy Family is the fruit of Jason's inspiration. The work depicts Joseph's hand clinging to a carpenter's square, Mary's hand wrapped around a scroll, and the outstretched hand of the Christ Child bearing two nails.
The carpenter square calls to mind the noble occupation that Joseph modeled for his Foster Son, his lack of idleness, the good measure of devotion he brought to the care and keeping of the two precious treasures God entrusted him with - Mary and Jesus, and most especially, the alignment of his will to the will of his Heavenly Father. Matthew reminds us: "Joseph did as the Lord commanded him."
In the second half of the thirteenth century the image of mother teaching child to read emerged in the iconography of St. Anne reading the Psalms to Mary. Here, the scroll in Mary's hand suggests the passing of God's Word to His children. By wrapping Mary's hand around the scroll, Jason hints at the loving manner in which Mary embraced God's plans as she embraced her Son - the Word Incarnate. "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord, may it be done to me according to your word," Luke 1:38.
Jason's entire piece is centered on the docile Child Jesus' hand, open and yet poignantly grasping two nails, foreshadowing the greatest act of love in history. With a striking contrast between His tender hand and the rough-hewn nails He holds, the Christ Child beckons us to draw ever nearer to his Just Foster Father, His Immaculate Mother and to Himself. Jason has "stirred us to wonder" indeed!
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