The Four Pillars of Joy for Catholic Educators

Karen Estep reviews a new pocket retreat book especially written for Catholic educators.

The Four Pillars of Joy for Catholic Educators: A Pocket Retreat 

By Denise Ball 

Published by Loyola Press

Catholic Education Meets Ignatian Spirituality

Ask yourself: How is God using my role as an educator to fulfill His great plan?

This quote from Denise Ball is a pretty good starting place for the new pocket retreat she has released with Loyola Press. This is my 19th year in education, my third year as a Catholic educator, and as of this year I have taught every grade level from kindergarten to 12th grade. There have been so many times that I have questioned myself, become burnt out, and questioned God’s entire plan for why I am still an educator to this day. This book will be incredibly useful for educators in all stages of your education journey, from religious educators at a local parish to college professors.

Denise Ball combines Ignatian spirituality with real-life examples of problems Catholic educators face every day. She gracefully uses this pocket retreat to walk educators through four pillars of joy: forgiveness, trust, service, and joy. Each pillar builds upon the previous pillar; forgiveness goes into trust, which then goes into service, which then ends in joy. It may seem daunting, but do not skip pillars and do not go out of order.

Forgiveness, Trust, Service, and Joy

To meet the needs of students, especially when they need forgiveness, we must first know how to forgive ourselves and how mercifully God forgives us before we can impart that forgiveness on our students. To be perfectly honest, at first I thought this pillar was way too long. However, after realizing that forgiveness was the foundation for this retreat I realize now how much we have to forgive as educators. We are constantly having to forgive ourselves for mistakes, forgive students, forgive coworkers, and we even have to realize that God is wanting us to accept and project His mercy in the midst of all of that. Forgiveness is forever ongoing and we have to learn that to really embrace the other three pillars.

The second pillar discusses trust. My favorite quote from this chapter is, “Trust in both a discipline and a choice.” Ball goes on to discuss some pretty hard concepts involving trust, including how can educators trust their students, colleagues, and families?

The third pillar is service. This pillar is something that is not new for educators; however, Ball reshifted my way of thinking around service. She even put in Ignatius' motto, “Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam” (For the Greater Glory of God) as something for Catholic educators to think about. How can we serve our communities every day for the greater glory of God?

The fourth pillar is joy. Once we learn to heal and forgive, trust and surrender, and serve for the greater glory of God, we can experience true joy. Joy doesn’t mean being happy all day every day. It means we find God in every day, aligning ourselves with His will, even the days that we face the most challenges.

On a Mission

Catholic education has a noble goal of forming the entire student so they can flourish in this life and be saints in the life to come. (Sister Mary Noel Pereira)

This journey Catholic educators choose to go on can feel incredibly daunting at points. It’s not only the challenge of getting curriculum in but also making sure our students know how much God loves each and every one of them. This goal and task that has been placed on our hearts puts us into a mission field. Most people do not realize that Catholic educators are missionaries and while on mission, even surrounded by other Catholic missionaries, we can feel alone, afraid, and burnt out.

We all know that it is impossible to fill others while we have an empty cup, so Denise Ball created this pocket retreat to help educators fill their own cups. Educators can take time out for themselves and use Ignatian spirituality to help guide them to understand what they need in their daily lives to be better missionaries in our very distinct field.

Extra Features I Loved in This Book:

Anyone who knows me knows I love a good annotation and I tend to use A LOT of sticky notes to annotate a book when I love it. This book has a lot of bright pink sticky notes throughout to point out things I love!

• I am trying to embrace Ignatian spirituality as a practice in my daily life. This book was an amazing resource for me as a newer Catholic, still learning spiritual practices.
• After every pillar there is a playlist from various Christian artists listed. I love the extra detail and appreciate the time it took to add this into the study.
• Each section also ends with a prayer, space for reflection, and questions to keep you thinking throughout the year.

Is this a book you'd like to read? Share your thoughts with the Catholic Mom community! You'll find the comment box below the author's bio and list of recommended articles.

Copyright 2026 Karen Estep
Images: (top) detail from cover