Bring flowers of the fairest; bring flowers of the rarest . . .

The May Procession is an important highlight of our school (and community) year. The event allows us to honor our heavenly Mother is a special way, and the procession is the impetus for us to get the grounds cleaned up after the winter storms. The Sisters beg the flowers from vendors of a flower market and the girls come to help them make crowns and bouquets.

May Procession 2010

We had a beautiful day yesterday with five First Holy Communions and our annual May Procession. The school children have central roles in the procession, during which four statues are crowned. Our Lady is truly the Queen of our Hearts! Keep “reading” for pictures from this event.

Table of contents for Mother Love

1. The Christian Training of Children – Early Cares
2. The Christian Training of Children – New and more Difficult Cares
3. The Christian Training of Children – Admonition to Mother
4. The Christian Training of Children – Combating Concupiscence of the Flesh
5. The Christian Training of Children – Combating Concupiscence of the Eyes
6. The Christian Training of Children – Combating Pride
7. The Christian Training of Children – Rewards and Punishments
8. The Christian Training of Children – The Father’s Role
9. The Christian Training of Children – Prayers
10. The Christian Training of Children – Maxims and Sayings
11. The Christian Training of Children – Co-operation with Pastor and Teacher
12. The Christian Training of Children – Catechetical Instruction
13. The Christian Training of Children – Preparing a Child for Confession
14. The Christian Training of Children – Preparation for Holy Communion
15. The Christian Training of Children – Care of Young Adults
16. Mother Love

The Six Truths which all must know and believe to gain eternal salvation:

1)    There is but one God, who created, preserves and governs all things.

2)    God is a just Judge. He rewards the good and punishes the wicked.

3)    In God there are three Persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.

4)    The Son of God became man, and died on the Cross to save us.

5)    The soul of man is immortal.

6)     Grace is necessary to salvation.

The five Joyful Mysteries are to be said form the first Sunday in Advent, until the Feast of the Purification; the five Sorrowful Mysteries, from Ash-Wednesday until Easter Sunday; the five Glorious Mysteries, from Easter Sunday to Trinity Sunday. During the remaining part of the year, the Joyful Mysteries are said on Mondays and Thursdays, the Sorrowful Mysteries on Tuesdays and Fridays, and Glorious Mysteries on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays.

The Seven Sacraments were instituted by Jesus Christ, for the salvation of sinners, and the perseverance of the just. They are: Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Holy Orders, and Matrimony.

The Baptismal Vows are fourfold:

I. I believe all that the Holy Catholic Church believes and teaches.

II. I renounce Satan.

III. I renounce all his works.

IV. I renounce all his pomps.

The three principal parts of the Mass are:

I.       The Offertory

II.     The Elevation

III.   The Communion of the Priest

I.   Devout prayer to the Holy Ghost.

II.  A careful examination of conscience.

III. A sincere contrition and a firm resolution.

IV. A sincere confession of, at least, all mortal sins with their number and any

circumstances that materially change their nature.

V. Satisfaction, or the performance of the penance imposed by the Confessor.

O Blessed Jesus, come to me!

O make me burn with love for Thee,

That I may live and die in Thee!

Act of Faith:

My God, I believe in Thee and in all that Thy Church teaches, because Thou hast revealed it, and Thy word is true.

Act of Hope:

My God, I hope in Thee for grace and for glory, because of Thy promises, Thy mercy, and Thy power.

Act of Love:

My God, because Thou art so good, I love Thee with all my heart, and for Thy sake I love my neighbor as myself.

Act of Contrition:

My God, because Thou art so good,

With sorrow I deplore

That I have ever offended Thee.

I’ll never offend Thee more.

The Corporal Works of Mercy

I.       To feed the hungry.

II.     To give drink to the thirsty.

III.   To clothe the naked.

IV.  To ransom the captive.

V.    To harbor the harborless.

VI.  To visit the sick.

VII. To bury the dead.

The Spiritual Works of Mercy

I.       To admonish the sinner.

II.     To instruct the ignorant.

III.   To counsel the doubtful.

IV.  To comfort the sorrowful.

V.    To bear wrongs patiently.

VI.  To forgive all injuries

VII.        To pray for the living and the dead.

The Eight Beatitudes (Matt. V):

I.   Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

II.  Blessed are the meek; for they shall possess the land.

III.  Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted.

IV.  Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice; for they shall be filled.

V.  Blessed are the merciful; for they shall obtain mercy.

VI. Blessed are the clean of heart; for they shall see God.

VII. Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of God.

VIII. Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Charity, Joy, Peace, Patience, Benignity, Goodness, Long-Suffering, Meekness, Fidelity, Modesty, Continency, Chastity.

I.    To serve God, by keeping His commandments.

II.   To imitate Jesus Christ, by practicing the Christian virtues.

III.  To honor the angels and saints and invoke them.

IV.  To save his soul.

V.    To avoid hell.

VI.  To gain heaven.

VII. To despise the vanity of the world.

VIII. To atone for his sins.

IX.  To overcome evil inclinations.

X.  To perform good works.

XI. To edify his neighbor.

XII. To die, and to stand before the judgment-seat of Christ.

[I realize that the Christmas season just ended; but one of our Sisters gathered these quotes, and I don't wish to wait another year to share them with you. Sr. M. Ph.]

Dominus dixit ad me, Filius meus es tu; ego hodie genui te.  The Lord said to my Lord, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten Thee. That was taken from Psalm II. For one thousand years all the holy men and women repeated it. The royal, poetic prophet David, who was inspired to give us the 150 Psalms, was privileged to hear this sentence uttered in eternity. This is overhearing talk among the eternal Persons of the Trinity.

God the Father said to the Eternal Son, You are my Son; this day have I begotten Thee. Some people, like Saint Louis Marie de Montfort and our very beautiful eastern saint (who was long before him but had the same genius), Saint Ephrem, see Our Lady in everything.  Now this sounds like a sentence heard thundering in eternity. And you say, Where is Mary? Well I will show you where Mary is.

There is only one other person that could make that same sentence, and that was the Blessed Virgin Mary.  That same sentence, exactly as it was uttered by God the Father, thundering in eternity before the world was created, could be said by the Blessed Virgin Mary on the first Christmas. Thou art my Son; this day I have begotten Thee.

And don’t think that the Holy Ghost Who inspired that sentence to be there, to be chanted, to be repeated, to be meditated on for a thousand years before the first Christmas occurred, did not notice that that sentence was a common statement that could only be said by two Persons, God the Father in eternity, and the Blessed Virgin Mary in time.

Dominus dixit ad me, Filius meus es tu; ego hodie genui te. The Lord said to me, Thou art my Son; this day… This day (that’s the now of eternity; that’s the day of eternity) God the Father is saying it at this instant, because eternity over-arches all of time.

But the Blessed Virgin Mary is saying it on the first Christmas, on the first day in which Jesus was a baby in our world.  And somehow, because when time and eternity unite, eternity takes over, Our Lady can be saying it right now, as if it is the first Christmas.  (12/24/1978 Brother Francis Talks I # 11 unedited)

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Viderunt omnes fines terrae salutare Dei nostri. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. All the ends of the earth. That, in a way, is a wonderful phrase in defense of our position. They pretend today that there are millions and millions and millions of people that don’t even know that a Savior was given to us.  And therefore, because they don’t know, you can’t blame them. And because you can’t blame them, they will all be canonized saints in Heaven. And we say that is not at all realistic. All the ends of the earth…

That is probably the greatest miracle that this world knows. Can you tell me, if you were  watching that little crib on the night of the first Christmas, with oxes and asses, little cats running around, very poor father and Mother, little Baby, can you say that they would be able to have a campaign of publicity, of advertisement, to announce what was happening there to all the ends of the earth? You say, “Where would they get the finances? Where would they find the billboard company that will spread the news” and so on?

How did the Faith of what is happening on Christmas come to you and me? How did it
survive? In one way, it’s terrible that there isn’t more realization that Jesus is God, that there are still hundreds of millions of people that have followed some other leader, as if they could find as much from him as they could find from our little Baby of Bethlehem. It’s terrible that that should be so!

But just imagine, to look at it now a little bit from an encouraging angle. Imagine with the frailty of every one of us, all the human problems, everyone of us could be discouraged, give up. Saint Francis every time he saw the worst criminal would say, There, but for the grace of God, go I. Any one of us looking to see the privilege by which we do have the Faith could see how we could easily have missed out on it…

With all that frailty, still on the face of this earth now, from Still River in Massachusetts (whoever would think that that’s the way to start?) to the remotest island, there is hardly a human being   old enough to know what time of the day it is, or what day of the week, that doesn’t know that tomorrow is Christmas, and doesn’t somehow know that Christmas is the Birthday of God.   (12/24/1978  Brother Francis Talks I # 11)

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Just imagine the eternal God in swaddling clothes, the garments of helplessness!

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Puer natus est nobis.  A Child is born to us.  Filius datus est nobis.   And a Son is given to us.  Cuius imperium super humerum eius.  Whose empire is on His shoulders. What does that mean?  It means that we don’t vote Him into office.  He comes with royalty vested right on His own Person.  We can ignore that authority, that royalty, only at the risk of our eternal salvation.  He is a KING, and He is NOT a king by any human institution.

Et vocabitur nomen eius, and His Name shall be called magni consilii Angelus, the Angel of great
counsel. Now what tremendous power is found in these few words!

First let me go to the two words, Child and Son. Our Lord is a Child. Our Lord is a Son. Child immediately makes us think of the Blessed Virgin Mary. A child is born, is mothered. A Son emphasizes more the Father.  When the Father’s voice spoke from Heaven to tell us Who Jesus Christ was, one of only three times that the voice of the Eternal Father was heard on this earth, He didn’t say, This is my Child. He said, This is my Son.

So Our Lady would say, This is my Child. God the Father would say, This is my Son. He is both at the same time.

Now it doesn’t mean that God the Father cannot, in some sense say, He is my Child. It does not mean that the Blessed Virgin Mary cannot say, in some sense, This is my Son. It just means that, this is where again we say, our motto at the Center, as Father used to say, We distinguish; we do not divide.

When you call Him Child you think first of Mary and, via Mary, of the Eternal Father.  When you think of Son you think first of the Eternal Father and, via the Eternal Father, of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  That’s where the greatest Supreme Being Who is God, and the greatest creature ever made, the masterpiece of creation, the source and fountain of the life of grace, the exemplar of all sanctity, that’s where They speak the same language.  That’s where They have something definitely and uniquely in common.  No other person in the world can enter in on it.

When God the Father sees His Son, and Mary sees Her Child in the crib of Bethlehem, that is the
salvation of the world.  All the issues of the world boil down to one question.  Every Catholic will have to answer it!  Every Protestant will have to answer it, all the different billions of varieties they have!  Every Jew will have to answer it!  Every Moslem will have to answer it!  Every Buddhist will have to answer it!  Who – is -  that – Child – in the crib of Bethlehem?

Don’t tell me that they haven’t heard about it.  Don’t tell me that there are millions of people that don’t know that at least some people say that this is the Birthday of God.  What’s that question?  Who – is – that – Baby – in – the – Crib? The Child of Mary, we all know, the Son of God, the same, one Person, two clear, different natures.  Every nature presupposes a birth. Born in eternity, born in time.

A Child was born to us.  Notice; a Son was given, the Child was born.  A Child was born, and a Son was given.  Born from the Virgin Mary, given by the Eternal Father.

His Kingdom, His Empire is on His shoulders.  We don’t vote Him into power.  He is there, our King.  Take Him or leave Him.  We leave Him only by going to hell, that’s it, by choosing to go to hell.  God intended, and we go along with it, every man is free to decide to go to hell; there is nothing you can do to stop them.  You are free to do it.  I am free to do it.  Every living man is free to do it.

If they want to go to Heaven, there is only one way to do it.  They have to come to this Savior and to the things He instituted for salvation.  That is the truth that Father taught us.  That is the truth that we promised Father that until they cut us in pieces we are not going to betray!

…We know very well that there is not going to be any revival of the strong Church, the great Church, the sacred Church, until they come back to this doctrine.

Puer natus est nobis et filius datus est nobis, cuius imperium super humerum eius, et vocabitur.  His Name shall be called the Angel of the great Counsel? What is the great counsel in this world?  Simply the counsel that lets us know that eternity is greater than time, that there is no success in this world unless it leads to salvation.  That is the great counsel.  That’s wisdom.  Everything else is nothing but folly.

A man could be the most learned man, the most educated man, the most sophisticated man, he could use big long words from the dictionary – he is a big fool if he thinks there is any other success on this earth short of
saving his own soul.  What good does it do him to be a professor at Harvard and spend his eternity in hell?  (12/31/1978  Brother Francis Talks I # 12 unedited)

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Let me see anybody invent a competition for Christmas.  Let me see them try it.  That is a great miracle.  We watch it every year happening.  The whole world is full with a joy, with a spirit, even the purity of the air, no other time of the year is capable of repeating it.  So, if Jesus is not God, try to explain how this came to be.

Now the Gloria IS a Christmas song.  And the Gloria is not a song that men started; it is a song that the angels started.  Some of the books I was reading the last couple of days, it says that while the angels knew, in some abstract, angelic way, that God loved men, and was going to go to live their life and be with them in order to bring them
salvation, while they knew that, they still couldn’t believe it when they saw it realized.

And that the song wasn’t something that some super angelic intellectual sat down and wrote, it was the way they exploded in sheer amazement to see God on the straw between an ox and an ass.  And they shouted-the whole choir of angels.  They say not one angel was left out of it.  Every angel in Heaven spontaneously shouted, Gloria to the Highest!

So that is Christmas, and if we have Gloria in the Mass, every time it is said it is Christmas put in the Mass again.  So Gloria is that great Christmas hymn.  (Brother Francis Talks I # 11   12/24/78)

Table of contents for Education - Necessary for Life

1. Toward a Deeper Understanding of the Powers of Life
2. As They Transcend the Material
3. The Acquisition of Wisdom and the Transmission of Culture

St. Ignatius (kneeling, center) and his first Jesuits

Our third level of education is the human or liberal — the training of man as man (how to think, how to act, and how to express oneself eloquently with both tongue and pen). A liberal education presupposes the earlier levels. If you can’t stay alive, you won’t be able to train your intellect. If people aren’t working together in society and providing for its needs with servile education, liberal education isn’t an option. But, once a society is established, now we can build even higher. And, to paraphrase Brother Francis, having a liberal education will make everything else you do more meaningful. Remember, the more you know, the more you can love, and the more you love, the more you serve.

In honor of Father Leonard Feeney, one of my examples is Saint Ignatius and his Company of Jesus.

Like that of Saint John Bosco, the story of Saint Ignatius’ personal education is fascinating. He was of a noble family and followed a military career. When he was laid up after the cannon ball broke his leg, he was disappointed that his sister-in-law had nothing else for him to read than the lives of Christ and the saints —so he was literate — but this reading educated him in a way that opened his soul to grace and God’s call (he had not been living the faith very well until now). In order to become a priest, he had to get a more formal scholastic education and so he went back to school. You are probably familiar with his humility, a grown man in a class of little boys, and how he worked his way up through school until he received his degree. It was while he was at the university that he met Saint Francis Xavier and gathered the rest of his first followers.

To talk about the founding of the Company, I’m going to use excerpts from The Jesuits and Education — by Father McGucken:

“His original concept [for the Company of Jesus was] of a very select body of men, limited in number . . .not to exceed sixty . . .He had not visualized a vast organization, but rather a small group of men, gifted, trained, university men, of whom St. Francis Xavier was a perfect example; men of executive ability, bound by no petty parochial cares, much less by the daily routine of the classroom, ready to fly at a moment’s notice to any part of the world at the Pope’s command, there to sit in on the councils of kings, to argue with heresiarchs, or to captivate the university centers of Europe by their learning and eloquence” (pg 6) — making sure that the Faith was integrated at highest levels of society . . . something they could only do if they were learned, holy men.

The Society developed differently, however, even during Saint Ignatius’ lifetime.

Soon he had “great numbers clamber[ing] for admission to the new Company . . . [and t]he admission of these younger men, the “scholastics,” their university training not yet complete, presented a new problem to St. Ignatius, the problem of educating them. At first they were “sent in small groups to the universities (the first one to Paris 1540), where “they lived under a superior and followed the ordinary exercises of community life, daily Mass, meditation, and the like. . . .Naturally, these young men with their fixed hours for study and their regular manner of life were a striking contrast to the university youth of the sixteenth century. Young seculars desirous of profiting by the favorable surroundings of the Jesuits asked to be taken into the Jesuit [residence hall] “college”. Occasionally courses were given by Jesuit professors to counteract the none-too-orthodox university teaching, or to supplement a regular course.” (pg 7) (*re-cap*) From here, it was only a short step to founding a separate school, in fact, only seven years after the first scholastics were sent to university of Paris, the first Jesuit college, as a school for externs (seculars) only — with Jesuits acting as professors — was established at Messina.

Eventually, the scope of Jesuit education was broadened to include what we call “secondary” education.

“[A]lmost against [St. Ignatius'] will, he and his followers came to see the power of education. This would be not [just] a cure for heresy, but a preventive of it. To save southern Germany for the Church, there was needed a genius like Peter Canisius; and even his heroic efforts were powerless to remedy all the ravages wrought by heresy and worldly prelates. But once get control of the youth, train them in right principles, impart to them at the same time an education the equal or superior of any in Europe, and the whole world is saved for the Church.” (pg 9)

And if you can’t get control of ALL youth, you start with those you have. The effectiveness of the Jesuits in the Catholic Counter Reformation for two and a half centuries can perhaps best be measured by the hatred which they inspired in the enemies of the Church — hatred that led to their suppression. If you think of the familiar English Jesuits, like Saint Edmund Campion, or if you look at the family of Saint Thomas More, I think you will immediately get a picture of the kind of full Catholic life and culture that is the result of a liberal education.

We are in the home stretch, but to show that an appreciation for liberal education is not limited to modern times . . . I would like to go back to the Middle Ages, what your average American knows as “the Dark Ages.” We move to England, where the King is Alfred the Great. It is the late 800′s, and with his wars of defense over, he is turning his attention to the welfare of his people’s souls. With the aid of the monks (mostly Benedictines), he duplicates in England — much more gently — what Charlemagne did in France during the previous century — what’s called the Carolingian Renaissance. This covers all aspects of life and learning: religion, education, law (trial by jury of 12), language, exploration and expanded trade and travel, agriculture, the useful and mechanical arts. The result of Alfred’s reign was such peace and tranquility that he could (and apparent did) hang gold bracelets some major sign posts and no man would touch them — and that if a traveler dropped a purse in the highway — he would find it untouched the next day! This is particularly impressive when you realize that prior to this, plundering and robbery by the English of their own countryside had become common place. King Alfred’s reign was one of the golden ages of England history.

Let’s just take a quick look at St. Alfred’s educational policies.

First of all, not only did he restore the destroyed monasteries, but at the advice of St. Neot founded a palace school. To run this school, the king invited scholars (monks) from Europe and Wales. King Alfred himself hadn’t learned to read until the age of 12 because of the invasions of the Danes and he always regretted this late start. So, (to paraphrase Father Butler in his Lives of the Saints for October 28, feast of St. Neot)

“Not only did the King see to his own education, spending all his free time conversing with the scholarly monks of the palace school, he also made the series of translations* for the instruction of his clergy and people, most of which survive.” (en.wikipedia.com) He himself set the example for his people of putting religion first: eight hours of the day he devoted to prayer and reading, eight hours to the administration of his kingdom, and the final eight to the needs of his body. King “Alfred stirred up all the gentlemen to bring up their sons to the study of literature, or, if they had no sons, some servants or vassals whom they should make free. He obliged every free man … [with a certain amount of land] to keep their sons at school till they were fifteen years of age. … In order to be qualified [for their rank and responsibilities], their tender hearts must be deeply impressed with the strongest and most generous sentiments of sincere piety and religion, and of true honors; . . . they must acquire the habit of reasoning well and readily, and of forming right judgments and conclusions. Their faculties must be raised and improved by study, … [and then after a foundation in the sciences, directed according to their talents]. King Alfred also exhorted the noblemen to choose among their country vassals … some youths who should appear by their parts [talents] and ardent inclinations to piety, particularly promising to be trained up to the liberal arts. … [T]his prince was solicitous that care should be taken for the education and civilizing of all [his people] by religious instructions and principles. …” [Butler’s Lives of the Saints, John Murphy & Co., 1866 – Volumes 4, October 28, page 227]

*St. Bede’s Church History, St. Gregory’s Pastoral, Orosius’ Roman History, Boetius’ De Consolatione Philosphia, St. Austin’s Soliloquies, Dialogues of St. Gregory, as well as a prose version of the fifty Psalms. A book of the poverbs of St. Alfred has come down to us, as well as the King’s crowning literary work: The Lays of Boethius. He was probably also the inspiration for the Saxon Chronicle and the Saxon Martyrology.

I already mentioned the peace and tranquility that reigned under this amazing, saintly king — and the education of himself and his people played no small role.

***

In our time, with a majority of high school students going on to college — although most of these colleges are providing, not liberal education but more advanced vocational training — higher education certainly is valued.

Brother Francis was asked by Father Feeney: what is the matter with education today? Unbeknownst to Father, Brother had been thinking about this question and so surprised him with a ready answer: An absence of Wisdom. Brother told this story many times, but I remember one time in particular. I can still remember the joy on Brother’s face — the smile with which he told me how he surprised Father!

And absence of Wisdom. Education today needs the Faith. It was this conversation, I believe, that led to Brother Francis’ Tuesday Night Philosophy class at the early Center. Philosophy is the study of wisdom, natural wisdom as a preparation for supernatural wisdom, and so it ties right back into our definition of education: what was it? (repeat definition)

It was to address the problems of modern education that the Center was founded in the first place; and it was at the Center that Father Feeney put his finger on the root of the current Crisis: yet another attempt to deny the necessity of the Faith in our time, by denying the necessity of the Church for salvation – by denying the dogma: Extra ecclesiam nulla salus — Outside the Church there is no salvation.

Just look at that pile of books!

Among Brother Francis’ notes, I found a couple of lists, enumerating the results of denying this dogma. One list has nine points, the other has fourteen — but both lists include this point: one of the results of denying the dogma is the destruction of Catholic Education. If we take that and word it positively, we get: If we are defending the dogma, we should be building Catholic Education.

How can we build Catholic education, the acquiring of Wisdom and the transmitting of culture, into our own lives now that, for most of us, the years of our formal education are past? An excellent means of continuing our education is to be part of the Saint Augustine Institute of Catholic Studies. [There is more information on the table over there.]

The history of man follows a predictable pattern of hills or waves. There is a period of growth, of effort and enthusiasm, of building, until a certain order is reached. This is maintained — or even built upon — for a time, and then people start getting lax. This begins a downhill trend until things get so bad that “somebody does something” and we begin the upward processes again.

We see this in nations, in societies, in families, in individuals. And we see it in the history of education.

Education is necessary for life; Catholic education is necessary for a Catholic life.

****

Before I close, I would like to give you two short exercises in imagination.

First, imagine yourself without any of your senses, except the sense of touch. You cannot see, you cannot hear, you cannot smell, you cannot taste. All you can do is feel. Now I, who have my senses, wish to share with you a gorgeous rose. But you cannot see it and you can not hear me describe it . . . So I take the rose and put it near your hand. What happens? You would probably prick yourself on a thorn and refuse to touch it any more, being content with a smooth pebble or a simple clover blossom that doesn’t hurt. You will not be able to appreciate much about the rose with only the sense of touch.

But suddenly you have your sense of taste! Well, taste doesn’t help much with roses, although you could taste honey made from its nectar, but you probably wouldn’t make any connection between honey and the thing that pricked you since you can’t hear.

Add your sense of smell. You can smell the marvelous scent of the rose … which might make you explore further with your sense of touch to find the velvety petals. But you are still very limited.

The appreciation of roses . . .

Now you can hear. I can tell you about the rose, give you its name, you can hear poetry about it . . . but you still can’t fully appreciate the gorgeous queen of flowers — you don’t have enough knowledge.

So: You now have sight — But only shades of gray — because you are colorblind. You can now see the petals, the beautiful intricacy of God’s creation, but when I tell you that it is red, you have no idea what I’m talking about.

At last, you can see color. The fascinating shades of gradating color in the petals . . .Now you can truly know what I mean when I say: “Look at the beautiful rose!”

What the senses do for the body in acquiring knowledge, education does for the intellect and will: it makes one able to appreciate all of God’s creation, physical and spiritual, as well as God Himself.

***

I have one more exercise for you. I have here on the podium a little white rock. Suppose I give it to you. What is your reaction?

What a nice white rock — just like hundreds of others out in the driveway. Thank you! And you toss it outside.

It is possible that because I gave it to you, you might not toss it away, but slip it into your

Education leads to appreciation.

pocket. If you were Brother Francis, you would make a meditation on it — probably several meditations on it! — all about the stability of its nature, what its nature means for plants, animals, and men — in fact to the whole universe — what part rocks played in the life of Our Lord or the Saints . . . but most of us would just throw it away.

But now I tell you that it comes from the Holy Land — and you know what the Holy Land is. Wow, now this rock takes on some significance. From being ready to toss the rock outside, you might keep it as an almost-relic — or at least an interesting artifact.

And this respect will deepen into reverence when I explain that it came from a spot near Calvary, a spot where we know Our Lord and Our Lady had been.

You are really starting to appreciate this rock now that you are being educated about it.

But, when I tell you that this rock, this exact piece in my hand, is a piece of the Holy Sepulcher, where Our Lord Himself was laid after He was taken off the cross, your reverence turns to . . . veneration.

This rock really is from the Holy Sepulcher. Helene Armeno and her twin sister brought it back with them from their pilgrimage.

Until I educated you about this rock, this relic, you might have been ready to throw it away.

Can you see how education, leading to appreciation, can affect our outlook and decisions?

Remember, the saints became saints because they appreciated the things we have — the things that we don’t appreciate.

***

Seat of Wisdom, pray for us!

Another quote from Brother Francis (which I’ve included on the handout):

“When the condition of the world is as bad as it is, it calls for great sanctity to meet the challenge. Mediocrity is not for our time.”

Sanctity is union with God, union with God is measured by charity, charity is fed by knowledge . . . and knowledge is gained by education.

I have shown you different scenes from the past that demonstrate how Catholic education played a vital role in teaching, living, and spreading the Faith.

How will future historians describe our time — so troubled and muddied?

What difference will Catholic education make for us now?

Our Crusade was founded by educated men and women — with such courage — what will the future have to say about OUR response in this critical time?

Thank you.

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Bibliography (partial):

Pioneer Priests of North America, 1642-1710, by the Rev. T. J. Campbell, S.J., Fordham University Press, 1908.

The Jesuits and Education, The Society’s Teaching Principles and Practice, Especially in Secondary Education in the United States, by William, J. McGucken, S.J., Ph.D., The Bruce Publishing Company, 1932. (pp. 6-9)

The Biographical Memoirs of Saint John Bosco, by Giovanni Battista Lemoyne, S.D.B., An American Edition Translated from the Original Italian, Diego Borgatello, S.D.B., Editor-in-chief, Volume IV, 1850-1853, Salesiana Publishers, Inc., 1967. (pp. 204-207)

The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints; by the Rev. Alban Butler, John Murphy & Co., 1866. Volume IV, pp. 222-229.

Saint Angela of the Ursulines, Mother Francis d’Assisi, O.S.U., The Bruce Publishing Company, 1952.

Immaculate Heart of Mary Brigade in front of the Shrine of the Eight North American Martyrs, Auriesville, NY.

At the end of September every year, the older students have a chance to go on the seventy-two mile Pilgrimage for Restoration. It is a wonderfully painful walking retreat — with amazing spiritual results!

Lining up to get the banners blessed at the beginning of the pilgrimage, Lake George (Lake of the Blessed Sacrament), NY.

Part of Saint Joseph's Brigade

Brother Andre, Chief of Brigadiers

Friday evening Benediction at Blessed Kateri's shrine in Fonda, NY. The celebrant is Canon Andreas Hellmann of the Institute of Christ the King.

Brother Francis, M.I.C.M.

Our superior and beloved teacher, Brother Francis, went to his reward yesterday morning. It was the feast of Saint Lawrence Justinian and a First Saturday (dedicated to making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary). You can Brother Andre Marie’s brief comments, get information on the wake and funeral, and read Brother’s biography here.

Brother Francis left us a tremendous legacy of fortitude, patience, and charity (to name just a few of the virtues we all saw him practice), but possibly his greatest contribution was his ability to “wonder” — his love of wisdom. As a true philosopher (“lover of wisdom”), he defined wisdom as: “The most perfect knowledge of the most important truths, in the right order of emphasis, accompanied by a total, permanent disposition to live accordingly.” Think about that for just a moment . . . If that doesn’t define a saint, I don’t know what does!

The Sisters compared notes when we gathered for our last couple of meals and some interesting quotes were presented. On First Saturdays the Sisters have a Day of Recollection and make a Preparation for Death (in fact, we were reading about “the death of the just” when Brother Francis died). One of the Sisters had opened Saint Alphonsus’ The True Spouse of Jesus Christ to the meditation on the Advantages of the Religious State (a commentary on a quote from Saint Bernard of Clairvoux) – to the section “A religious dies more confidently” – and found the following statement:

Saint Bernard says that “it is very easy to pass from the cell to heaven; because a person who dies in the cell scarcely ever descends to hell, since it seldom happens that a religious perseveres in her [the book is written for Sisters] cell till death, unless she be predestined to happiness.” Hence St. Laurence Justinian says that religion is the gate of paradise; because living in religion, and partaking of its advantages is a great mark of election to glory. [. . .]

Brother Andre arranges Brother Francis' hands in death.

Brother Francis made many sacrifices to enter the religious state . . . and his death was very peaceful (his face was very beautiful in death).

Another Sister looked up Saint Lawrence Justinian in Dom Gueranger’s The Liturgical Year and found that St. Laurence and Brother Francis shared a love of wisdom. Here are some quotes from the saint:

Come, all ye who are drawn by the desire of unchangeable good, and who seek it in vain in this passing world; I will tell you what heaven has done for me. Like you, I once sought with feverish eagerness; and this exterior world could not satisfy my burning desire. But, by the divine grace, which fed my anguish, at length she, whose name I then knew not, appeared to me, more beautiful than the sun, sweeter than balm. As she approached, how gentle was her countenance, how peace-inspiring her voice, saying to me: “O thou, whose youth is all full of the love wherewith I inspire thee, why dost thou thus pour out thy heart? The peace thou seekest by so many different ways, is with me; thy desire shall be amply fulfulled, I promise thee, if only thou wilt take me for thy bride.” I acknowledge that at these words my heart failed, my soul was all pierced with the dart of her love. As I wished to know her name, her dignity, her origin, she told me she was called the Wisdom of God; and that, at first invisible in the bosom of the Father, she had taken of a mother a visible nature, in order to be more easily loved. Then, with great delight, I gave my consent; and she, kissing me, departed full of joy. Ever since then, the flame of her love has been growing within me, absorbing all my thoughts. Her delights endure forever; she is my well-beloved bride, my inseparable companion. Through her, the peace I once sought is now the cause of my joy*. Hear me then, all of you: go to her in like manner; for she makes it her happiness to reject no one. Fasciculus amoris, cap. xvi

Brother Francis at one of the night lectures (the Summa, I think) - c. 2001

And several shorter quotes:

O Wisdom, who sittest on Thy lofty throne; O Word, by whom all things were made, be propitious to me, in this manifestation of the secrets of Thy holy love. De casto connubio Verbi et animae.

All things here below are reflections of God’s eternal beauty; they teach us to love Him, and help us to sing our love. Ibid.

All things are profitable to her [the soul admitted to ineffable intimacy with the Wisdom of the Father]; which way soever she turns, she perceives but the gleams of love. Sights and sounds, sweetnesses and perfumes, delicate viands, concerts of earth, brightness of the skies: all that she hears, all that she sees in the whole of nature, is a nuptial harmony, the beauty of the banquet wherein the Word has espoused her. Ibid.

Those of you who know Brother Francis or who have heard his tapes will see many Providential notes in these quotes.

Brother Francis was Father Leonard Feeney’s first disciple. Many of us now fighting in Our Lady’s Crusade (to defend the dogmas of the Church, especially Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus) owe our participation to the fidelity of Brother Francis. I personally knew and studied with Brother for fifteen years, and was actively influenced by him for ten years before that.

June 2004 - High School Students & Faculty

Our little school owes its foundation and preservation to Brother Francis. He has been an important part of it since the foundation in Cambridge in the 1940′s. He saw the school as an integral part of the Crusade of Saint Benedict Center, set the policy that no one would be turned away for financial reasons, and made tremendous sacrifices to keep the school going. With his intercession and God’s grace, we plan to carry on his many-sided work — and in the school facet, make it what he wanted it to be: “a consolation prize to Our Lady.”

Brother Francis - high school chemistry

Thank you, Brother Francis, for your love, your simplicity, your sacrifices, and your wisdom. Help us to be true Slaves of Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart!

*That title “the cause of my joy” is one of Our Lady’s titles (very fitting — Our Lady is the Seat of Wisdom, Our Lord is the Incarnate Wisdom, Holy Scripture refers to Wisdom in the feminine — and readings about Wisdom are used indiscriminately for Our Lord and Our Lady). Brother Francis wrote a poem that was set to a Lebanese melody:

Cause of Our Joy

O Cause of all our joys!

Queen, merciful and kind,

What makes our girls and boys

So precious in your mind?

From heaven you still have yearned

For this our lonely place.

With all that you have earned

In glory and in grace,

What keeps you so concerned

About our race?

O Mary, Chosen One,

Eternal Father’s boast,

Mother of God the Son,

Spouse of the Holy Ghost.

Queen raised above the stars,

Exalted, set apart,

What do our wounds and scars

And all our hurts impart?

What thoughts and what memoirs

To your dear heart?