The Weekly Bulletin of the Catholic Community at The Family Foundation School
Pauca Verba (a few words)
Number 23 – May 2, 2010
Here’s a continuation of the Rule of Saint Benedict. Interested in learning to live well – the gospel way? Read on:
Do not injure anyone, but bear injuries patiently.
If people curse you, do not curse them back, but bless them instead.
Refrain from too much eating and sleeping.
Do not grumble or speak ill of others.
Place your hope in God alone.
If you notice something good in yourself, give credit to God, not to yourself.
Be certain that the evil you commit is always your own and yours to acknowledge.
Live in fear of judgment day.
Have a great horror of hell.
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May is Mary’s Month! The Church dedicates an entire month to Our Lady – the most lovely of months when everything is green and blooming. We celebrate the one who gave us Jesus, the Lord of Life, in the month when life is returning to our part of the world! Perhaps you will come to the Saturday Masses which sing Mary’s praises. Perhaps you will dedicate some part of your daily prayer to the recitation of the rosary. There is a new book inviting us to contemplate The Earlier Mysteries of Mary’s Life. Pausing at Mary’s Shrine on our school property is like taking a deep breath. Maybe you can arrange your schedule so that you can participate in the evening rosary. But don’t let the month disappear without having somehow grown in love for the one who so generously gave herself to the service of God.
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Here is a very dear hymn to Mary in the Month of May. Ave Maris Stella (IX century) translates from the Latin: Hail, Star of the Sea. Don’t we need a guiding light – the little boat of our lives so tempest-tossed? Oh, I think we will understand.
Ave Maris Stella
Ave maris stella, Maria!
Dei Mater alma, Maria!
Atque semper Virgo,
Felix caeli porta,
Maria! Maria!
Hail, bright star of ocean, Maria!
God’s own Mother holy, Maria!
Ever sinless Virgin,
Heaven’s happy portal,
Maria! Maria!
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Confirmation is celebrated for some of us in less than a month. Others of us will amend the poor reception of that Sacrament. Ordinarily a bishop confers Confirmation which signifies that we are part of a Church which is bigger than our own little congregation. And bishops represent that our faith goes back 2000 years to the time of the apostles.
Sacraments are outer celebrations that give us experiences of invisible things. The outer part of each sacrament is something we can touch, taste, hear, see, smell. That’s how we experience things – in and through our body’s senses. And the sensory thing of Confirmation is a sacred, fragrant oil called chrism. It’s fragrance signifies that I would leave the fragrance of Christ wherever I go! How do I do that? Can I imagine that after having encountered me, that the others would have a sense of having encountered something of Jesus – his kindness, patience, self-forgetting, peace-making, his justice, his hospitality?
And oil makes a thing shiny. This signifies that I would reflect Jesus, that I would be bright with Christ-light – not given over to moodiness, self-pity, cynicism, ingratitude, entitlement.
And oil was used by ancient wrestlers to help them evade the grip of the other contestant. Get it? That living in Christ, I would evade the grip of the enemy – Satan – the whisperer – the spoiler – the liar!
The term milites Christi (soldier of Christ) is sometimes used of those who are to be confirmed. Soldiers are at the ready, obedient, willing to do without, wide awake, tough, high-spirited. Am I?
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One student reflected that since praying the rosary on Tuesday nights with his fellows, that Wednesday is a better day! Why not? And another student shared that since praying the rosary, his life has opened up – that he’s more generous, less snappy and moody, more at peace and less anxious. So what are you waiting for?
