The Hudson School + Mustard Seed School
The Hudson School (THS) is Hudson County’s only preschool-12th grade independent school.
Use this site for THS contact information and to remember MSS’ past.
If you need employment verification or student records, please contact hudson@hudsonschool.org.
We will keep much of the content of the MSS website as is - and add historical content- so that MSS community members can return.
On July 1, 2024, The Hudson School and Mustard Seed School merged. Read more on the 2024-2025 School Year page.
In late June 2024, Shanna Pargellis offered the following address as part of Mustard Seed School’s final commencement.
Mustard Seed Parable reflections
Let’s consider this parable, this story of the mustard seed Jesus told, which inspired those who started this school.
The mustard seed is a tiny seed - small is good and beautiful, and, yes, it is ordinary, yet small things can create meaningful moments and produce a great impact. No matter how long you have been part of the Mustard Seed School, the seed is planted within you: in your memory, your heart, your learning. A seed is a promise of life, and Mustard Seed School has always been about life-long learning.
The roots are hidden— a mustard seed plant has expansive roots that spread, and another plant can easily pop up nearby. You are part of those roots, and what you have learned here you will carry with you to a new place, wherever you sprout. You will grow but still be connected to this network grounding you. It is in community, in life with God and others that we spring forth.
A mustard seed plant is invasive, like a weed–sorry, this is not a noble plant. It keeps one humble. Being invasive speaks to its ability to spread, but also to its ability to endure harsh conditions, to be tenacious, to keep growing no matter what! What you have learned here does not stay here, it keeps spreading out. You are part of that movement, that influence, as you carry the seed within you to new places of learning. And because of those roots you share, and the weed-like resilience you bring to bear, you will be fine. God is with you. Keep reaching out to grow and learn.
The mustard seed becomes a tree, something tall and grand and bigger than thought possible. Ha! a weed becomes a tree–a glorious impossible! Yet, for God nothing is impossible. Jesus as a storyteller is being quite imaginative here, but that ability to imagine makes things happen, made this school happen. If you have faith you can move a mountain. Your imagination, with some prayer and hard work and others alongside you can create something beautiful. Something grand can come into being. This is the seed you carry with you. Find your passion and fertile ground, start in faith that you too are called to create what might seem impossible, which may start out very small. But as we see next, what’s big and beautiful is not just for us.
Birds come and make nests in this tree. There is a welcome here, and a belonging. Building a nest is creating a space for new life, not to dwell forever but a home space to launch one into the next season of life. Nests don’t last forever. Trees don’t last forever. But the love of God? Yeah, that is with you forever and wherever you land. So, with this seed in our hearts we too fly away to new spaces and places, carrying with us the memories and possibilities of what is yet to come. We commence, we begin again in new ways, and we hold this seed of faith and hope and love within us.
Not just academics or art or faith or service, but lessons that permeate that. Each one a seed for your life.
So what are these life lessons? Here are some of them, this will go by fast so find one or two to hang on to.
Life lessons
Listen with curiosity
Speak the truth in love
Look for beauty and goodness, savor it
Know God is with you, always, always
Remember your roots
Claim yourself as worthy and beloved
Make a plan, be intentional
Welcome others, create community, kinship
Share, tell stories, sing together, play together
Help others, learn from them
Pray, wonder
Keep learning and growing
Pursue your purpose and meaning and passion
Admit wrongdoing, have integrity
Forgive again and again
Respond with care and compassion
Find the beautiful questions, ponder them
know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Imagine, explore, create
Say thank you, be grateful
Trust that the small, ordinary, little things have value
Seek justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God
Blessing Ephesians 3
16 I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit 17 and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. 18 I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
