• Hosting a Parent Lunch: Mr. and Mrs. Fred Holbach and family, Mrs. Ann Hipolito family.
• Providing photos of school events: Mrs. Joan Rivero and Mr. Brian Tran
• Helping with chemistry set-up in our school lab: Dr. and Mrs. Bruce Schardt
Volunteer Opportunities are available – contact the school office to help
Congratulations to our students
• Senior Anthony Guerra who was accepted to University of Dallas this week.
Admissions
St. Michael’s next Open House is Sunday, December 6th at 3:30 p.m. in our school library.
Birthdays This Week
11/23 David Suh
11/25 Jay Hipolito
Weekly Homily by Fr. Chrysostom Baer, O. Praem.
Among other things, Fr. Chrysostom teaches Religion, Greek, and is the Dean of Students at St. Michael’s
Given on November 18th on the anniversary of the dedication of the major basilicas of Sts. Peter and Paul. “And thus we came to Rome.”
In the year 61 AD, the marshes of Rome were sanctified by the approaching footsteps of the Apostle to the Gentiles, the Heavenly Trumpet, the Vessel of Election—the Blessed Apostle Paul. For two years he remained there imprisoned, preaching the word without hindrance, until the charges against him dissolved for lack of accusers. Nevertheless, not long after that a fire raged in Rome and the Emperor Nero blamed the Christians. Therefore St. Paul was arrested, bound in chains in the Mamertine Prison and condemned to beheading, which took place outside the Aurelian Walls, along the Via Ostiense, most likely between the years 65 and 67 AD.
His body was buried two miles away from the place of his martyrdom, in the sepulchral area along the Via Ostiense, owned by a devout Christian woman named Lucina, and which was part of a pre-existent burial place. Even though he was a Christian, it was possible to bury the Apostle in a Roman necropolis due to his Roman citizenship. Shortly thereafter, his tomb became a place of worship and veneration. Upon it was erected a cella memoriæ or tropæum, a memorial, where during the first centuries of persecution many of the faithful and pilgrims would go to pray.
When the Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in the Edict of Milan in 313, it became possible to erect a larger, more fitting monument to the Martyr of Rome, and so at the Emperor’s command one was built, originally facing the other direction than the current basilica, and it was consecrated by Pope St. Sylvester I on November 18, 323.
Each of the four major basilicas elicits its own brand of piety. St. John Lateran commands an official devotion to its place as the Cathedral of the World. St. Mary Majors evokes the warm filial affection every Catholic child feels for his Savior’s Mother. The Vatican Basilica drops the jaw at its sheer immensity. But down through the centuries St. Paul’s Outside the Walls, which I think I can say is my favorite basilica, has maintained the “lean and hungry look” that would have characterized its holy patron. Its forest of columns dividing the various naves are like ribs supporting an ever-famished gut whose only food is souls won for Christ. It never pretends supremacy over the Fisherman; rather it pays homage to every last one of his successors throughout the life of the Church. St. Paul was not fat, due to his fasting; he may have been sleek-headed, especially after fulfilling his Nazirite vow; but he certainly did not sleep a-nights, for that was the time of vigils with canticles and prayer. Without doubt, he thought too much, for he had the mind of Christ, and thus he was the most dangerous man alive—not to any Caesar but the powers and principalities that everywhere fought the name of Jesus. All this is writ large on the cold marble walls and narrow alabaster windows of his basilica.
Festum dedicationis ecclesiæ est festum Domini.
But St. Paul hardly cares about himself. He asks the Corinthians, “Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?...What is Paul?” He has no more concern for the other patron of Rome, saying about him that he was one of “those who were reputed to be pillars (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality).” What then matters to the Apostle? “Only that in every way…Christ is proclaimed; and in that I rejoice.”
The arrival of St. Paul in Rome was in germ the fulfillment of Christ’s command at the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth. Once the capital of the known world had been evangelized, then in principle everywhere else had too. It was just a matter of history.
This the Apostle would have us remember if we wish to honor him today, that even the anniversary of the dedication of his basilica is a feast of Jesus Christ, for on this altar the gifts will be made holy—the very Body and Blood of Christ. And if in Rome where his basilica is celebrated, then in every place that commemorates the event. For as often as we eat the bread and drink the cup, we proclaim the death of the Lord until He comes.
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 the reoccurrence of cancer.
• Mr. Robert Greer, maternal grandfather of senior Michael Haeuser, who suffers from declining health.
• Mrs. Amber Manly for a healthy pregnancy
• Linda Vogel, mother of John Vogel, who suffers from cancer.
• Cole Workman, who at 21 months old, is healing from 2 broken bones in his arm.
• St. Michael’s older priests and those who care for them.
• Those who suffer in the current economic crisis.
• Those who are in the armed forces.
School events are regularly updated. Please check the school calendar. StMichaelsPrep.org/calendar
Contact the school office for more information: PamChristian@StMichaelsPrep.org (949) 858-0222 ext 237
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