Little Flower School in Great Mills, Maryland celebrated the feast day of its patron saint, St. Thérѐse of the Child Jesus, with a special Mass on Oct. 1, 2024 at neighboring Holy Face Church, and then with a ribbon-cutting at the school’s new Early Learning Center that now serves 2-year-old children. Little Flower’s Early Learning Center is the eighth such center at a Catholic school or parish in The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, and the first in St. Mary’s County.
“She (St. Thérѐse) is the saint of the Little Flower. These are the littlest flowers of our community. It’s most fitting,” said Father Scott Holmer, the pastor of Holy Face Parish in Great Mills.
In an interview before the Mass, the priest noted, “There are a lot of parents who need this, because of their long commutes and work schedules. It’s a need for the community that Little Flower School is happy to provide for parents.”
That point was echoed in an email interview beforehand with Caitlin Keeton, Little Flower School’s principal, who said, “We chose to open an Early Learning Center to meet the needs of young families in our community. Affordable, high quality child care can be challenging to find, and we wanted to do what we could to help.”
Keeton noted the new Early Learning Center is faith-based, serving young students and their families from various faiths. “They are being exposed to and learning about the basic foundations of the Catholic faith as part of our program. This includes saying a blessing before meals, celebrating holidays and holy days, learning about the Holy Family and reading Bible stories, and having a prayer space in the classroom,” she said.
The new Early Learning Center at Little Flower School will serve 12 children who are 2 years old, and in the summer of 2025, it will be expanded to include an infant and toddler classroom. This year, Little Flower School has 176 students, its highest enrollment in more than a decade. The school has 35 students in its pre-kindergarten program for 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds.
Father Holmer noted that the Catholic school in rural Southern Maryland, which opened in 1887, “has a special place in the heart of this community.” Little Flower School was renamed in 1926 for the newly canonized St. Thérѐse of Lisieux, who saw herself as a Little Flower of Jesus.
Before St. Thérѐse died of tuberculosis at the age of 24 in 1897, she said, “After my death, I will let fall a shower of roses. I will spend my heaven doing good upon earth. I will raise up a mighty host of little saints. My mission is to make God loved…”
At Little Flower School’s feast day Mass for their patron saint, Father Holmer said the “Little Way” of St. Thérѐse of Lisieux “forms everything we do as Little Flower School.”
In his homily, he encouraged the students to emulate St. Thérѐse by doing little things with great love in their everyday lives. Father Holmer noted that often in today’s world, people strive for big things that don’t bring peace or happiness. “The secret of the Little Flower is to aim for the little… Aim for little acts of love,” he said, adding, “By doing little things with love, we give God a great opportunity to work in our lives.”
During the Mass, students recited a prayer to St. Thérѐse and took turns narrating her life story. After Communion, Little Flower fourth grader Charlotte Hartzer held roses and a crucifix as she portrayed St. Thérѐse, wearing a child-sized version of the saint’s brown Carmelite habit. While she stood near the altar beside a statue and portrait of the saint, pairs of Little Flower students of different ages walked to the altar and placed red roses in a vase.
Afterward, students walked to Little Flower’s new Early Learning Center located in a cottage behind their school that had earlier served as a space for the school’s after-care program and its pre-kindergarten. They walked into a fenced-in yard, past a “Little Way” street sign, and stood between the cottage and colorful playground equipment.
Caitlin Keeton, Little Flower’s principal, noted that part of the school’s mission is to partner with families. “St. Thérѐse was all about doing little things with great love. We’re extending that to serve the littlest ones in our community,” she said.
Father Holmer recited prayers of blessing and sprinkled the building and the students with holy water.
Then Father Holmer – joined by Father John Nguyen, the pastor of St. George Parish in Valley Lee that cosponsors the school along with Holy Face Parish and Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Lexington Park – cut the ribbon for the Early Learning Center, as four children in the inaugural 2-year-old class watched from the porch along with their teacher Jean Beyer.
In an email interview, Elizabeth Wagner, the director of Little Flower School’s Early Learning Center, said she was very excited that “after hearing the needs of our community, we can offer a Catholic early learning option. Working this past year getting the program up and running has been a labor of love, and it has been a joy watching the children learn and play in this space that we have created for them.”
The Early Learning Center there is using the Funshine Express curriculum, which is approved by the Maryland State Department of Education’s Office of Child Care. The center is open from 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. year-round and is located in a convenient location to many local employers, including the Patuxent River Naval Air Station.
Erica Joy, whose son Noah is among the first group of children learning at Little Flower School’s Early Learning Center, said in a testimonial that her son who had been hesitant to go to day care “is now excited to go to school, walks right in, and hugs his teacher. He has built a positive relationship with his teachers in a short amount of time.” She said the staff, which also includes teacher Lisa Johnson, has made the transition easy for the participating families. “They work with you to ensure your child is getting the best care. Our son is already learning so much and having fun while doing so,” she said.
Among those attending the ribbon cutting ceremony was Roshon Casey-Lee, the director of Early Childhood Programs for the Archdiocese of Washington. She said the new center was serving a great need in that part of Southern Maryland.
“I’m glad we’re able to serve not just our families in the parish, but also families in the community that the parish serves,” she said.
Casey-Lee said that the early childhood programs offered by local Catholic parishes and schools, which are all licensed, provide an educational foundation for young children and “expand our reach and our ministry and our mission.”
After the ribbon cutting, Jean Beyer brought the four young children back into the classroom, which includes little tables and chairs, a tent, nap cots, picture books, baby dolls, blocks and a toy school bus.
She earlier taught middle school students at Little Flower, and now she is the lead teacher for the 2-year-olds at the new Early Learning Center, which opened on July 15. “It’s where I’ve been called to be,” she said.
Beyer noted that the little children are getting ready to eventually “go to the big school,” by learning how to make the sign of the cross and recite prayers, and basic things like walking in lines, cleaning up after themselves and playing nicely together.
“They love to watch the big kids play recess,” she said.
Meanwhile, Little Flower middle school students have been coming over to the center to play with the small children, read to them and help wake them up after naps.
Reflecting on her work at Little Flower School’s new Early Learning Center, Beyer said, “I love working with 2 year olds. They’re experiencing things for the first time. I get to experience things through their eyes for the first time again.”
Early Learning Centers at local Catholic schools and parishes
Eight Early Learning Centers are now being offered at Catholic schools and parishes in The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington. Four of those Early Learning Centers are located on Catholic school campuses in the archdiocese:
- The new Early Learning Center at Little Flower School in Great Mills, Maryland, is serving 2-year-olds, and its infant and toddler classroom will open in the summer of 2025.
- The St. Andrew Apostle Tiny Tots Center in Silver Spring, Maryland, offers a full-day, year-round educational program starting with infants at 6 weeks of age through children who are 2 years old.
- The St. Jerome Child Center in Hyattsville, Maryland, is a ministry day care service for children ages 6 weeks to pre-kindergarten.
- The Pallotti Early Learning Center at St. Mary of the Mills in Laurel, Maryland, serves children ages 2 to 5 years old.
Four other Early Learning Centers are located at Catholic parishes in the archdiocese:
- Christian Beginnings Preschool at St. John Vianney Parish in Prince Frederick, Maryland, offer classes for 3-year-olds and for 4-year-olds (PreK) during the school year (Labor Day through Memorial Day.)
- The Good News Preschool at Jesus the Divine Word Parish in Huntingtown, Maryland, serves 3-year-olds to 5-year-olds.
- Resurrection Preschool at Resurrection Parish in Burtonsville, Maryland, serves 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds.
- Our Lady’s Little Christians Early Learning Center at Our Lady Help of Christans Parish in Waldorf, Maryland, serves 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds.
Website for the Early Learning Center at Little Flower School in Great Mills:
