For the week of October 11, 2009

Thanks to the following families who helped this past week
· For helping with car pools: Col. and Mrs. Bowe
· For hosting the Cross country team for a barbeque after Saturday’s invitational: Mr. and Mrs. Hanson
· For conducting a CPR class: Capt Matt Holke
· For providing a Parent Lunch: Mr. and Mrs. Sandoval
· For hosting students over the weekend: The Bowe family, Le family, Manzano family (Joe Manzano ’09), and the Rivero family

Tonight! October 11, 2009
College Application Parent Meeting, 7:00 p.m.

Admissions
Fr. Gabriel participates in three High School Information Nights this week. If you know any families who would enjoy finding out more information about St. Michael’s, please let them know about these events.
· Monday, October 12. Mayfield Junior School in Pasadena. 7 – 9 pm
· Tuesday, October 13. St. John’s Episcopal School in Rancho Santa Margarita. 6:30 – 8:30 pm
· Thursday, October 15. Pegasus School in Huntington Beach. 7 – 9 pm
St. Michael’s first Open House for the 2010-2011 school year is Sunday, October 18. 3:30 – 5 pm

Norbertines in the News
· Fr. Hugh Barbour wrote “The School of History,” which appeared in the September edition of the monthly magazine, Chronicles. pp. 20-22. The article highlights the Abbey and its sponsorship of the Prep School.
· Renowned author, Dean Koontz, recently publish A Big Little Life, a memoir of a joyful dog. The Abbey and Prep School are mentioned on p. 238.
· A photograph of Fr. Sebastian Walshe is both on the cover and page 10 of the October edition of Orange County Catholic. Fr. Sebastian is hearing confessions as part of the Catholic Detention Ministry. Norbertine priest, Fr. Adrian Sanchez, is a full-time chaplain with the same ministry.

Thanksgiving Break
Students will be dismissed at 12:40 pm on Tuesday, November 24th for Thanksgiving break. Parents are encouraged to make flight and train arrangements as early as possible. Please email our school office a copy of the flight or train ticket confirmation. We can help with transporting students to the train station after school on Tuesday. Trips to the airport require parents to arrange for shuttle transportation. Again, shuttle confirmations should be emailed to our school office.

Cold Weather Additions to the Uniform
Cooler weather brings requests for warm sweaters. Online catalogues to purchase St. Michael’s appropriate v-neck or cardigan sweaters in charcoal grey or navy blue include: Brook’s Brothers, Land’s End, J.C. Penney, and L.L. Bean.

St. Michael’s Preparatory School can earn a donation every time you shop online at these and over 600 other shops. Simply start your shopping by logging into: http://www.goodsearch.com/goodshop.aspx and it will direct you to these shops sites. A percentage of each purchase goes to St. Michael’s Prep School!

Student Birthdays
10/14 Derick Khong
10/16 James Tran

Academic Updates
· Oral Exams conclude the first quarter. The exam is conducted by the teachers in that discipline area and weights approximately 10% of the quarter grade. Oral exams provide the students the chance of thinking and speaking on their feet. This skill is very important in effective communication, logical thinking, and all forms of public speaking. Oral exams also provide another medium through which student progress is effectively assessed.
· Students in an Advanced Placement (AP) class must earn at least a “B” by the end of the first quarter in order to continue that accelerated level of study.

Congratulations to Spencer Manson for being the fastest pioneer cross country runner at the Huntington Beach Invitational.

Upcoming Athletic Events
· Thursday, Oct. 15th: XC @ SVC; 2:00 p.m.
· Saturday, Oct. 17th: Fball vs.Capo Valley @ San Clemente HS; 7 p.m.

Weekly Homily by Fr. John Henry Hanson, O.Praem.
Among other things, Fr. John Henry teaches English to our students.

“Lord, teach us to pray.” In one of her poems, Saint Therese of Lisieux says that the Blessed Virgin teaches her “how to weep and rejoice”—what to have sorrow for and what to rejoice over. From the time that we are children, we have the sense that we need to be taught what merits our tears and our joy. We are told by our parents: Don’t laugh at that, Don’t cry over that, Don’t be angry or sad. It is as though they are saying from an adult perspective: save the emotions for things more worthy. Save it for when you will really need to laugh and really need to cry. There is a time for every purpose under heaven, but everything in its proper time.

This is even more true of the Christian soul, which must always have Christ at the center of its joys, sorrows, and hope. St Augustine says, “The pleasures I find in the world should be a cause for tears, and the sorrows of the world should be a cause of rejoicing.” Yet we often allow ourselves to rejoice and to sorrow over the wrong things.

Jonah felt an anger that was excessive and misdirected. His fault was not in feeling the emotion, but in justifying it before God. And so the Lord needed to instruct him and to correct his anger. This is the type of openness we must have to the Lord: to be taught to weep and rejoice. We take for granted that we think, feel, and act in fallen ways, but the Christian soul says to the Lord: teach me, change me, save me. The Apostles asked Jesus: Teach us to pray, because after having spent some time in His company, the excitement that they felt about having been picked by Jesus subsided, and they realized Actually, we don’t know what we’re doing--how to pray, to be disciples. The Lord was glad to hear that and glad to teach them. Their question showed that they were now open to be taught by Him. It is always a sign of progress in our prayer when we see that we do not know how to pray as we ought.

The rosary of Our Lady is the great teacher of our spiritual, emotional, and psychological life. In its mysteries we learn where we should find joy, illumination, sorrow, and glory. And we find that Christ is at the center of it all: His presence is pure joy; offenses against Him are bitter; and His glory is our hope.

Meditation on the mysteries of our redemption helps us to avoid the trap that St Paul speaks of in Philippians: “Many … live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our commonwealth is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body….”—a very powerful summary the sinful tendencies that the rosary seeks to mend in us.

Because we are so easily upset or we get excited over the wrong thins, we have a constant need to be brought back to the sober truths of our redemption. Our focus needs to be redirected continually, through the repetition of prayers to our Heavenly Father and to our Blessed Mother. Some say that the rosary is too repetitive. The rosary is repetitive because it needs to be. All prayer needs to be repetitive. We are repetitive: our actions, our thought patterns, the images that return regularly in our imagination, the words we speak—everything about us is repetitive. Our heart beat and breathing is repetitive.

A saint of the Russian Orthodox Church, St John of Kronstadt, a priest of the last century, says that “it is not by the variety of prayers that the soul is strengthened, but by their constant repetition--thus they are brought into our heart and into our whole life. Your heart may change and grow cold, but the same words of the same prayers still have the same power with the Lord, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

Since the effects of original sin touch every aspect of our lives (thoughts, imagination, emotions), so we must allow grace to touch us all the more, and continually. Like the Apostles, our petition might very well be teach us to pray, but also: teach us to think, teach us to feel, teach us to see. This is what the rosary teaches us--the things we cannot teach ourselves, but must learn from the Lord and from His Mother, who are only too eager to teach us

In publishing this homily, we hope to share a portion of the spiritual treasure by which the students are enriched every day. However, this homily may not be reproduced by the parents or friends of St. Michael’s without written permission of the author.

Prayer Requests
· Dr. Joseph Gloudeman who suffers from a reoccurrence of cancer.
· Mrs. Jodi Meschuk for a healthy pregnancy.
· Mrs. Betty Vaughan who suffers from declining health.
· St. Michael’s older priests and those who care for them.
· Those who suffer the effects of the current economic crisis.Those who are in the armed forces.