● Porretta, Portka, and Saglietto Families for hosting students over the weekend
● Fr. Benedict, Mr. Aaron Meschuk, and all who helped make the Fall Sports Award Ceremony a success.
General announcements to Parents
● Students are dismissed for the Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend on Tuesday, at 12:40 PM.
College representatives visiting this week: None
Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC)–Western Catholic Education Association (WCEA)
A new section of the WCEA/WASC self-study is dedicated to Catholic Identity. Fr. Victor will soon be emailing all families a brief questioner regarding their thoughts about the school’s Catholic Identity. You may email him your responses.
This week’s photos: Students planting new fruit trees; Soccer practice
Parent/Student Handbook: Chapter 5 Dress and Appearance Code, Sections 1 and 2
SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION
St. Michael’s maintains high standards for good grooming. Proper grooming demonstrates a healthy self-respect and prepares a student for the larger stage of life where stringent standards of comportment and clothing are prerequisites. The first part of grooming is attention to personal and oral hygiene. The complementary component is how one is dressed.
SECTION 2: NEATNESS IN APPEARANCE
Students are expected to have enough well-fitting, clean and mended clothing to be able to always dress neatly. Each school day a well-pressed shirt should be worn; trousers should be pressed and shoes shined. A coin-operated washer and dryer are provided for the use of the students. A prerequisite of dressing neatly is daily attention to oral and personal hygiene. The important thing about hair is th
at it is kept in a manner appropriate for a conservative, professional business setting. Normally, this means that it is short, neatly trimmed and combed. It should not touch the ears, shirt collar, or cover the eyes. No bleached or colored hair is permitted. All students must be clean-shaven. Sideburns may be no longer than mid ear. All personal items must be marked for easy owner identification. It is the right of the headmaster and/or his delegate to judge whether the dress code has been followed.Etiquette Point of the Week
When receiving an invitation, a gentleman always respects a request to r.s.v.p., which is a French abbreviation requesting you to please respond letting your host or hostess know whether you will attend or will not attend the event you have been invited to. How To Raise A Gentleman, Kay West; Brooks Brothers Press
Student Birthdays: Nov. 23 David Suh
Homily preached by Fr. Chrysostom Baer, O.Praem. on the Feast of St. Elizabeth of Hungary.
Among other things, Fr. Chrysostom teaches Latin and Greek
St. Elizabeth of Hungary, whom we celebrate today, was born in 1207 and died in 1231. This solitary biographical fact is itself the source of a great consideration. How many of us who are over the age of twenty-four can say of ourselves that we were canonizable at that age? How many of us who are not yet twenty-four can say of ourselves that the current trajectory of our holiness is likely to achieve the level of heroic virtue by then?
What was it, therefore, that so marked the all-too brief life of this woman that even now, almost eight hundred years later, we still sing her praises? If there is one aspect that shines through her biography, it is intensity. Sure, she started young, being married at age fourteen, but more importantly, her life is filled with so many stories of deeds of kindness and piety that it’s a wonder she ever slept.
To find the secret to her holiness, then, it is not enough simply to notice her intensity; we need to examine the contact point between that intensity of spirit and works of virtue. And in her case, the works of mercy she undertook were predominantly those which brought her into immediate interaction with the poor and miserable. It is necessary for any great work or project of mercy that there be planning and organization, but these can never replace the very human contact of personally handing over food to the hungry. One of the most edifying miracles that God worked to show approval of her corporal works of mercy was when one day she was serving beer to a number of poor men, and when each
had had as much as he desired, it was found that the jug still contained the same measure of beer as before. And this is to say nothing of her donation of clothes for the baptism of children, sheltering pilgrims and the homeless behind her own castle, and tending the sick in all their vile needs herself. This kind of generosity of spirit constantly demands the relegation of self and my needs to second place.
Now, this intensity in doing good works is impossible to maintain without a deep and vibrant contemplative life. The almost frantic need to exercise works of mercy would burn itself out and leave behind no reputation for godliness were it not constantly being refueled from above.
But what seals the deal, of course, is the renunciation of all worldly attachments through obedience. Her harsh spiritual director was Conrad of Marburg, who imposed many vexatious and contrary things upon her, and even separated her from her handmaids, who were her closest friends once her husband had died. With a spirit of prompt obedience and limitless patience, she said, “For God’s sake…have I given my obedience to Master Conrad…that I might be bereft of every earthly consolation!”
I’m not recommending that we run out and find a spiritual director of like ilk. Nor is youthful sanctity the point as much as always stretching out for heroic virtue. But that intensity of spirit, which exhausted St. Elizabeth’s young body through all of her charitable labors, likewise crushed her own will through obedience—through embracing what we would find most irksome—and this is to be recommended, so that our self-love and attachments to our own desires can be burned up in the fire of divine love. Through the intercession of St. Elizabeth, may we be graced with that single-minded intensity by which the saints live here below the foretaste of life in the world to come. 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
● Mr. Thomas Markel, father of our school nurse, who has been battling failing health.
● Those who are in the armed forces.
● St. Michael’s older priests and those who care for them.
had had as much as he desired, it was found that the jug still contained the same measure of beer as before. And this is to say nothing of her donation of clothes for the baptism of children, sheltering pilgrims and the homeless behind her own castle, and tending the sick in all their vile needs herself. This kind of generosity of spirit constantly demands the relegation of self and my needs to second place.Now, this intensity in doing good works is impossible to maintain without a deep and vibrant contemplative life. The almost frantic need to exercise works of mercy would burn itself out and leave behind no reputation for godliness were it not constantly being refueled from above.
But what seals the deal, of course, is the renunciation of all worldly attachments through obedience. Her harsh spiritual director was Conrad of Marburg, who imposed many vexatious and contrary things upon her, and even separated her from her handmaids, who were her closest friends once her husband had died. With a spirit of prompt obedience and limitless patience, she said, “For God’s sake…have I given my obedience to Master Conrad…that I might be bereft of every earthly consolation!”
I’m not recommending that we run out and find a spiritual director of like ilk. Nor is youthful sanctity the point as much as always stretching out for heroic virtue. But that intensity of spirit, which exhausted St. Elizabeth’s young body through all of her charitable labors, likewise crushed her own will through obedience—through embracing what we would find most irksome—and this is to be recommended, so that our self-love and attachments to our own desires can be burned up in the fire of divine love. Through the intercession of St. Elizabeth, may we be graced with that single-minded intensity by which the saints live here below the foretaste of life in the world to come. 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
● Mr. Thomas Markel, father of our school nurse, who has been battling failing health.
● Those who are in the armed forces.
● St. Michael’s older priests and those who care for them.
● Repose of the soul of alumnus Brent Johnson ‘75
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