The Beautiful Work: Contemplation On Why We Teach is a spiritual correspondence between the staff of De La Salle North Catholic High School in Portland, Oregon, and the writings of St. John Baptist de La Salle, the Patron Saint of Teaching. Drawing from his experience as Principal and Director of Mission, Tim Joy weaves day-to-day high school moments in his weekly Sunday night emails to his staff, along with imagined visitations from the pivotal life of John Baptist de La Salle. In the long arc of a single school year, the staff's unceasing work among students emerges as a consequential moral act.
The Beautiful Work is a direct message from the mission field of education to amplify the vital nature of the profession, to elevate the dignity of all those who work in schools, and to restore the work as a sacred enterprise requiring adults to submit to their calling and embrace its grave and transcendent responsibilities.