Please follow this link to our Engaging Minds, Hearts, & Hands for Faith High School Newsletter for Spring 2015. In this issue you will find the following articles:
"Ave Celebrates 150 Years!" by Stephanie Sibal
"Beyond the Job Description" by Jared Dees
"Catholic Education and Jesus as Definitive Teacher" by Justin McClain
"Getting the Most Out of theTextbook" by Tom Dlugosz
"Happy 80th Birthday to Sr. Kieran Sawyer, S.S.N.D.!" by Michael Amodei
"New Elements in the Encountering Jesus Series Teacher's Wraparound Editions" by Christine Schmertz-Navarro
Engaging Minds, Hearts, and Hands for Faith is a free newsletter published by Ave Maria Press. To subscribe, email your name, the name of your school, and your address to reled@nd.edu.
January 20 is the feast day of Bl. Basil Moreau, founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross, and a true patron saint of Catholic religious education and formation. The following quotation on the necessity for teachers to take on the quality of gentleness is taken from Christian Education, a manuscript outlining the ideals and goals of Holy Cross education as Moreau saw them.
On Gentleness
It was the Lord Himself who said “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” There is no other conclusion to be reached than that in the overseeing of the mind and heart of a young person and in the effective use of authority in a school, a teacher needs to possess gentleness. Gentleness is the filling of the soul with the Spirit so as to moderate the anger that arises when a person feels irritated towards those who have caused some injury. It is the result of a patience that never tires and of a self-control that keeps everything under the guardianship of reason and faith.
Given that, one can understand the need of such a virtue in teachers, for to fulfill their mission successfully teachers must make themselves liked by their students. Gentleness is the only way in which they will succeed in the task of bringing out love in their students. You are aware of the statement “love causes love.” As people, we are built so that we cannot resist a person who displays true affection for us. Young people are very impressionable and are especially prone to this. They relate easily and happily with those from whom they hope and expect to receive reciprocal love and confidence. Feelings of love and respect between teachers and students are the result of charity and gentleness, inseparable virtues that cannot exist independently of one another. Saint Francis de Sales himself says that meekness is “the very flower of charity.”
Teachers who are meek and who follow the example of Jesus Christ lose none of their authority and do not stress what is hard and severe in authority. They put themselves in their students’ places. They try to persuade their students that they will find in their teachers tender and devoted friends who understand them. Considering themselves as taking the place of those who have entrusted young people to them, gentle teachers borrow from the father and the mother positive feelings toward young people. Everything in such teachers bears the stamp of this virtue: They avoid judging with harshness and anger, and they do not rely on exaggerated confidence in themselves. They are always guided by a heart full of compassion and kindness and make their decisions without stubbornness or injustice. They do not say things that will hurt the feelings of young people and do not make fun of students, as people who often feel injured by the statements or actions of another do. Gentleness overcomes those tendencies to self-love and shuts out the desire for revenge. Gentleness permits teachers to endure all the adversities and unpleasant experiences and occurrences that go hand in hand with schooling and to proceed with complete calmness of spirit.
Gentleness begets a number of other good qualities: sensibility, good will, and a pleasant manner of acting and speaking. Gentleness permits teachers to remove what is harsh from a command, permits teachers to participate in activities with young people, leads teachers to be able to talk and discuss matters with students, permits teachers to sympathize with students who are often upset over things that are not important, and permits teachers to assist students when they are not feeling well or when they are depressed. Teachers filled with meekness can show an interest and an affection for young people that will win hearts. In class such teachers treat students with politeness, answer their questions with patience, and help keep students from punishments as much as possible by keeping them out of situations that are likely to lead them to misbehavior and punishment.
Gentle teachers will never be seen to inflict punishment when they are overly angry and upset. They will never push to the limit a student who is ready to react with anger and an outburst. Since these teachers are more disposed to reward than to punishment, whenever someone guilty of an offense wishes to return to a positive relationship, they pardon the student and show even more respect and friendship to that student than before. Gentle teachers also look upon school as their mission. Far from being a source of boredom and disappointment, classes become a real pleasure. This simply supports the statement of the wise person who said, “Do everything with gentleness and you will attract not only the respect but the love of other people.”
Teachers who have drawn such gentleness from Jesus Christ will be blessed and happy. They will truly be the important people in their school, and they will cause Jesus Christ to be the important person there. Loved by their students and respected by the parents, who will be so happy to have found such excellent teachers for their children, they will be rewarded with blessings from the entire school community and will go through life “doing good works.” Their memory will remain engraved upon the hearts of those students whom they have brought to the fullness of Christianity, and they will be a model to imitate and an example to follow.
Sad results flow from teachers who lack these qualities. Teachers who make no effort to acquire the gentleness of mind and heart that was recommended by Jesus Christ are really to be pitied. In their classes, they are annoyed and angered over every little thing. They shout, talk harshly, and carry on in all kinds of ways. Their rude and harsh approach intimidates and frightens students without their realizing that these actions can compromise them in the eyes of their students and the students’ families. They injure their students by making fun of their inadequacies, or their families, or their ethnic background. They call their students names. They impose exaggerated and unjust punishments on some; they require of others assignments and duties beyond the range of their abilities or experience. They cause students to lose a love of learning and to develop a distaste for school. Such conduct on the part of teachers earns them scorn and dislike; students try to find all kinds of ways of getting away from them and look for all kinds of ways to displease them. Not only will these teachers be unable to bring students to the fullness of Christianity, but they will also be unable to give students the knowledge and the instruction that are owed them. It would have been better if such teachers had never entered a classroom and attempted the difficult art of teaching.
Pope Francis announced today that he will canonize Bl. Junipero Serra (1713-1784), the Franciscan priest who carried on extensive missionary work in California in the eighteenth century. "In September, God willing, I will canonize Junipero Serra in the United States, who was the evangelizer of the west of the United States," he told reporters aboard the plane taking him from Sri Lanka to Manila on the second leg of his Asian tour.
Bl. Junipero Serra helped to found nine missions in California beginning with the San Diego mission in 1769. He died in 1784 near the mission in Carmel. In time, Spanish missionaries built twenty-one missions in California.
The basic idea behind the missions was to keep the nomadic Native Americans from wandering, settle them by teaching them farming techniques, and then trying to convert them to the faith. Thus, missionaries set up schools, churches, and marketplaces. They taught women domestic arts like sewing, weaving, and cooking. They trained men to be farmers, carpenters, ranches, and tanners. Missions were spaced out a day's walk from one another. A criticism of the mission system was that in most cases once the Native Americans had converted to Christianity they were not free to leave the missions.
When Spain lost control of Mexico in 1828, the missions declined. Some friars left for Spain. A secular government took over Mexico. Greedy politicians looted and ruined missions, exploiting and killing Native Americans. Religious practice declined. By the time the United States took California from Mexico in 1847, there were only thirteen priests left in the vast territory.
Assignments
Read and report on the California missions. See information at this state sponsored site.
Read and report on the life of Bl. Junipero Serra. See the Catholic Encyclopedia site.
Pope Francis announced his intention to create twenty new cardinals at the upcoming consistory (an assembly of cardinals called together by the pope) on February 14, 2015. Fifteen of the new cardinals are less than eighty years old and would be eligible to vote for a new pope should the need arise. Five of the cardinals are over eighty and will receive the red biretta (the three-peaked hat worn by cardinals) as an honor for their service to the Church, but would not be eligible to vote for a new pope.
The new cardinals represent many smaller countries and countries with few Catholics. Some observers were surprised by this. Others noted that the international nature of his choices and his decision not to make cardinals out of leaders of traditional cardinalatial sees (cities that are usually headed by cardinals) has precedence in Popes Pius XII and Pope Benedict XVI. In 1946, Pope Pius XII chose fifteen cardinals from around the world as well as seventeen from Europe and the United States. Pope Benedict’s final consistory in 2012 was also international with one new cardinal from the United States and the other five from Lebanon, India, Nigeria, Colombia, and the Philippines.
Invite students to review geography and consider the countries in which these cardinals live.
You might consider posing questions like the following:
Where in these countries will the new cardinals live?
How many of them will be cardinals of cities that are also capitals of their countries?
Elector Cardinals
Archbishop John Atcherley Dew of Wellington (New Zealand) Where? Southern tip of North Island, capital city
Archbishop Daniel Fernando Sturla Berhouet, S.D.B., of Montevideo (Uruguay) Where? Southern tip of Uruguay on the coast, capital city
Archbishop Ricardo Blázquez Pérez of Vallodolid (Spain) Where? North central Spain
Archbishop Alberto Suàrez Inda of Morelia (Mexico) Where? Middle of Mexico but closer to the Pacific Ocean
Archbishop Francis Xavier Kriengsak Kovithavanij of Bangkok (Thailand) Where? Southern part of country, capital city
Archbishiop Manuel José Macario do Nascimento Clemente, Patriarch* of Lisbon (Portugal) Where? Southwest Portugal, near coast, capital city
Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura** Where? Vatican
Archbishop Charles Maung Bo, S.D.B., of Yangon (Myanmar) Where? South of the main part of the country, capital until 2005
Archbishop Edoardo Menichelli of Ancona-Osimo (Italy) Where? Northern east coast
Archbishop Francesco Montenegro of Agrigento (Italy) West coast of Sicily
Archbishop Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel, C.M., of Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) Where? Center of Ethiopia, capital city
Archbishop Pierre Nguyên Van Nhon of Hà Nôi (Viêt Nam) Where? South central area of country, capital city
Bishop Arlindo Gomes Furtado, of Santiago de Cabo Verde (Archipelago of Cape Verde) Where? Middle of largest island
Bishop José Luis Lacunza Maestrojuán, O.A.R., of David (Panamá) Where? Western side of country
Bishop Soane Patita Paini Mafi of Tonga (Island of Tonga) center of the Island of Tonga
Non-elector Cardinals
Archbishop Luigi De Magistris, Major Pro-Penitentiary*** Emeritus (Italy);
Júlio Duarte Langa, Bishop Emeritus of Xai-Xai (Mozambique).
Archbishop Karl-Joseph Rauber, Apostolic Nuncio**** (Germany);
José de Jesús Pimiento Rodriguez, Archbishop Emeritus of Manizales (Colombia);
Luis Héctor Villaba, Archbishop Emeritus of Tucumán (Argentina)
* Why is the cardinal-elect from Portugal known as the “Patriarch” of Lisbon? A papal Bull (decree) in 1716 gave the cleric who presided at the college chapel cathedral the rank of patriarch. The patriarch was responsible for Western Lisbon and some other areas. The plan was that he would be created a cardinal at the first consistory following his appointment. Later, the patriarch became responsible for Eastern Lisbon and other areas formerly under the leadership of the archbishop of Lisbon because there was no need for an archbishop and a patriarch at the same time.
** What is the Prefect for the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura? The Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura is a court of justice, in this case the supreme court of justice for the Vatican that also ensures that justice in the Church is correctly administered. The prefect is the chief officer of this tribunal.
*** What is the Major Pro-Penitentiary Emeritus? This is the Vatican court of mercy that deals with issues such as excommunication, indulgences, and so on. Emeritus is a Latin term that describes a person who has retired from a post.
**** What is an apostolic nuncio? An apostolic nuncio is a Church diplomat to a state or international organization.
Sources:
Elizabeth Dias, “Pope Francis Surprises Again: 20 New Cardinals, None from USA.” January 4, 2015, Time, http://time.com/3652935/pope-francis-cardinals/
Robert Mickens, “Francis chooses new cardinals from the margins,” January 5, 2015, National Catholic Reporter Online, http://ncronline.org/blogs/roman-observer/francis-chooses-new-cardinals-margins
Andrea Tornielli, “Pius XII and Benedict XVI’s “global” Consistories,” January 5, 2015, Vatican Insider, http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/the-vatican/detail/articolo/pio-xii-pacelli-papa-pope-concistoro-concistory-concistorio-38389/.
Enjoy sharing some brief background on the life of St. Andre Bessette, a humble member of the Congregation of Holy Cross, and the prayer to St. Joseph, the one he was devoted to.The feast day of St. Andre Bessette is January 6.
Traditional Novena Prayer to St. Joseph
Oh Saint Joseph, whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the Throne of God, I place in you all my interests and desires.
Oh Saint Joseph, do assist me by your powerful intercession and obtain for me from your Divine Son, all spiritual blessings through Jesus Christ, Our Lord, so that having engaged here below your heavenly power, I may offer my thanksgiving and homage to the most loving of fathers.
Oh Saint Joseph, I never weary of contemplating you and Jesus asleep in your arms. I dare not approach while He reposes near your heart. Press Him in my name and kiss His fine head for me, and ask Him to return the kiss when I draw my dying breath.
Saint Joseph, Patron of the departing souls, pray for us. Amen.
For this prayer experience you will need tapers, slips of paper, and something to write with. Gather the students in an open space. Have them sit in a circle. Give each person an unlit taper candle. Follow these directions.
Remind the students that Jesus calls himself "the light of the world" (Jn 8:12).
Have the students write on small slips of paper specific elements of darknes in their own lives (e.g., jealousy, hatred, prejudice, fear, loneliness) and on other slips of paper specific ways Jesus has brought light to their lives (e.g., a special friendship, a caring teacher, a favorite spot in nature, peace through participation in the sacraments, prayer).
Have the group sit in a circle with the unlit taper candles. Make the room as dark as possible.
Call on one student to begin by sharing an occarsion of darkness from his or her life. Repeat the process around the rest of the circle with each student sharing about darkness.
Then, repeat the sharing, this time with the participant telling about how Jesus brings light to their lives (e.g., family relationships, friendships, achievements, nature, compassion, love). Light the first person's candle.
Repeat the process. After each new person has shared, they should light their candle from the person who spoke before them.
Conclude with a song, perhaps "I Am the Light of the World" by Greg Hayakawa.
