Graced Moments is a reflection series in which members of the Holy Child family share experiences of God’s presence and action in their lives. Launched in 2024 with reflections from Holy Child Sisters, the series expands in 2026 to celebrate the launch of the Holy Child Collaborative, welcoming voices from Holy Child Associates, schools, ministries, staff, alumni, and friends.
We thank Shalonda Neeley Gutierrez, Executive Director and Head of School of Cornelia Connelly Center in New York City and a Holy Child Associate, for offering August’s reflection.
Click below to hear Shalonda’s reflection.
“The way of God is often quite different to our imagination of it.”
— Venerable Cornelia Connelly
When I first walked into the Cornelia Connelly Center, I thought I had found a school.
A joyful school.
A place where students were called by name during morning assembly, letting them know immediately that they are seen, valued, and loved.
A place where teachers knew their students deeply, and everyone seemed to believe that education and love could change our collective future.
A school full of girls just like me.
I came to teach girls.
I did not know that God was also teaching me.
I did not grow up with a clear path to faith. I knew education. I knew hard work. I knew what it felt like to want more from life and not always know how to get there.
But slowly, through this Holy Child community, something in me began to open.
In morning assembly,
in the joy of students saying good morning,
in the example of the Sisters,
in colleagues who believed in love as action,
and in the mission of helping girls know that God lives and acts in them
I began to recognize God’s presence.
Not far away.
Not abstract.
Here.
In the students.
In the work.
In the community.
And, by grace, in me.
For years, I thought I was helping students believe in their inherent value
But step by step, God was helping me believe in mine.
The way to God was not what I imagined.
It was hidden in the mission I was trying to serve.
And all along, God was leading me home.
“It is not presumption to have hope and joy
and confidence in God’s grace.”
-Venerable Cornelia Connelly
What in Shalonda’s graced moment resonated with you? Please share below.
Thank you for sharing your “graced moment”. It was clear that you followed what you were being led to be and carrying out what you were led to be.
@😇. THank God for your experience! a great blessing!
Sholanda walks in grace and faith as she guides and loves the young girls at CCC. I’ve known Sholanda for many years and have always seen in her very special gifts and talents. Who she is gives our young students a strong smart faith filled leader in whom they can aspire to be like. We are blessed to have her as school director of CCC.
Shalonda , you have captured in words exactly how I feel about being a Holy Child educator and being a part of the SHCJ community! Such beautiful words! Thank you.
We are so, so lucky to have Shalonda as our leader at CCC. Her faith, demonstrated through her actions, is a gift to our students, our faculty and staff and to our board.
MJ Murphy, Chair of the Board of Trustees, CCC
Shalonda, I could not have said it more beautifully. When God opened the door to a Holy Child school for me many years ago, I had no idea just how blessed I would be to become part of such a special community. Through the years, I have grown so deeply in God’s grace through the mission and charism of the Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus.