For the week of April 18, 2010

Thanks to the following families who helped this past week: Mrs. Ann Hipolito for hosting a student over the weekend
 
Announcements
• This week’s photo gallery includes: students serving the Blind Kids of Santa Ana Center as well as this week’s Speech and Debate Competition.

• Congratulations to Speech and Debate members

Resolved: Military Conscription is Unjust.
1st. Daniel Murphy-Dimen (Pro)
2nd. Jonathan Bonello (Pro)
3rd. Nicholas Hanson (Con)

Resolved: The Lakers should replace Kobe Bryant with Carmelo Anthony.
1st. David Suh (Pro)
2nd. Conrad Lakomy (Con)
3rd. Jacob Holke (Con)

• There will be a Freshman Parent Sponsored Lunch Thursday, April 22nd

• Radio announcements about the May 1 entrance test for St. Michael’s Prep are on Immaculate Heart Radio both midmorning and midafternoon in these areas:
KIHP 1310 AM (Phoenix, AZ)
KJPG 1050 AM (Bakersfield, CA)
KIHH 1400 AM (Eureka, CA)
KPJP 89.3 FM (Greenville, CA)
KJOP 1240 AM (Lemoore, CA)
KHOT 1250 AM (Madera, CA)
KSMH 1620 AM (Sacramento, CA)
KSFB 1260 AM (San Francisco, CA)
KWG 1230 AM (Stockton, CA)
KXXQ 100.7 FM (Gallup, NM)
KIHM 920 AM (Reno, NV)
KIHU 1010 AM (Salt Lake City, UT)

Volunteer Opportunities
• Join in sponsoring a Parent Lunch or Event Reception
• Take photos
• Help before-during-after an athletic event
• Host weekenders

Athletics This Week
Wednesday, April 21st: STM vs. TVT @ STM; 3:30 p.m.
Friday, April 23rd: STM vs. The Rock Academy @ STM; 3:30 p.m.

Birthdays This Week
April 24th Edward Lim, Brian Nguyen, and Joseph Porretta

Homily of the Week by Fr. Victor Szczurek, O.Praem.,
Fr. Victor, among other things, teaches Latin in the school.

God, Who is Wisdom Itself, does nothing haphazardly or without reason; and so it was not on some whim that He willed that the first Christians should live together in community: The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common.

If one were to ask the men in blue here what it is that they find most difficult about going to St. Michael's Prep, they would probably say that it is the fact that it is a boarding school. “If only it were a day school, I wouldn’t complain so much,” is a common response one often hears. And yet, year after year, on both the all-school student survey and the senior graduation speeches, most if not all rate dorm life as one of the top things that helped form them during their four years here. And if one were to ask the men in white here what it is they find most difficult about community life, most if not all would probably say “the community.” Yet, we would also all admit that the greatest blessing of our life, after Jesus and Mary, would be our fellow confreres. There are many blessings from living in community. As St. Basil once wrote:


Community life offers more blessings than can be fully and easily enumerated [Long Rule, q. 7]; but most of the blessings can be expressed in the old adage that “there is strength in numbers.” God knows this; that’s why He willed that the first Christians, and many Christians ever since, should live in community.

As so often happens, modern psychology is now discovering what the Catholic Church has always known. A study came out several years ago from a group called The Commission on Children at Risk. A group of 33 children’s doctors, research scientists, and mental health and youth service professionals made the marvelous discovery that human beings are “hardwired to connect.” In other words, all of us are by our very nature social animals, as Aristotle had already
said 2000 years ago; and therefore, we need others for survival. More precisely, the study concludes, children need structured authoritative communities, directed to spiritual ends, in order to be healthy human beings. This is true not only on the natural level, but on the supernatural level as well. And it is true not only about children at risk, but also religious at risk, and lay folk at risk. As it is written in the Book of Proverbs: A brother helped by a brother is like a strong city [18:19]; and again in the Book of Ecclesiastes: Woe to him who is alone, when he falls and has not another to lift him up [4:10].

The value of community life can be illustrated by using the following example taken from football practice (pardon the source). When doing sprints, if one member of the team (the one who is a bit out of shape and overweight)—if he seems not able to keep up with everyone else during the sprints, coaches are known to have the whole team line up side by side, locking arms, placing the poor fellow in the middle of the line. Now when the team does run down the field,
the slow person is forced to keep up, or else he is quite literally dragged along to the finish line. This often takes place with not a little wailing and moaning; but lo and behold, it works. In community life, whether it be a religious community, a school dorm, or a family, we all at times are that chubby little kid who needs to be dragged along by those closest to him, even though it might entail a bit of kicking and screaming on our part. We are dragged to the finish lines by the gifts of others. Again, in the words of St. Basil: In the case of several persons living together, each enjoys his own gift and enhances it by giving others a share, besides reaping benefit from the gifts of others as if they were his own [Long Rule, q. 7].


The devil also knows the great advantages of living in community. That’s why his tactic is always to “divide and conquer.” Consider the fall of our first parents, Adam and Eve. The very first step in the devil’s attack was to approach Eve when she was alone. He knew that with Adam around it would have been all the more difficult to get them to sin. So he waits for them to separate for a few minutes, and he conquers Eve alone. Having accomplished that, he then goes after Adam. Divide and conquer. It worked not only for Caesar; it works daily for the devil. Indeed, there are many blessings, both natural and supernatural, that come from living in community.

And so, as we continue in these coming days to follow that first Christian community by means of the liturgical readings, let us thank God for the community in which He has placed us, be it a religious community, a school or a family; and let us pray for the grace to reap the many blessings God wants to bestow on us through our fellow members of the Mystical Body of Christ. To Christ the Head of that Mystical Body be all glory and honor. Amen.

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
• Aid to the Church in Need, an international charity of the Catholic Church, which is seeking God’s blessings upon their work and their national directors during the month of May.
• Ms. Kelly Choi who is experiencing problems in her vertebrae following an auto accident.
• Dr. Joseph Gloudeman who struggles with a reoccurrence of cancer.
• Mr. Mark McCormick, who was injured during baseball practice
• Mrs. Harriet Nordeck, one time teacher at St. Michael’s, who is close to death
• 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.

• For the repose of the soul of Bishop Norman McFarland, bishop emeritus of the Diocese of Orange.
• For the repose of the soul of Mrs. Wendy Talarico, wife of JSerra President, Frank Talarico.