●Mr. and Mrs. Porretta for providing a parent sponsored lunch for students and faculty before Easter break
Parent/Student Handbook: Chapter 3, Sections 12 and 13
SECTION 12: GRADE POINT AVERAGE (GPA)
St. Michael’s records student progress at two levels. The official GPA is the 4-point scale of the academic record. The more common Honor Roll GPA is the 100-point scale which parents and students read on the school’s electronic grading program. With this second scale, instructors provide a more nuanced report of student progress. This second GPA includes nonacademic subjects such as P.E., and conduct.
SECTION 13: ACADEMIC RECORDS
The Grade Point Average (GPA) at the semester is based on the semester grades, not the quarter grades. The GPA is the added value of the grades received, divided by the number of subjects taken. The values of grades received in full-year courses are as follows: A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, F=0. For those University of California approved courses at the Honor and Advanced Placement level, a 5-point scale is used. A=5, B=4, C=3, D=1, F=0. The values of half-year courses are half of the above, and the course is counted as only half a subject.
St. Michael’s uses a 4-point scale to record student achievement on the permanent record. There is no plus or minus (+ or -) on the permanent record. This GPA officially represents the student to other institutions. This GPA is distinct from the quarter report card which uses a 100 point scale.
Transferable credits earned in another school are entered on the student’s permanent record (transcript) and will be accepted toward graduation. Likewise, work completed in summer school is accepted as long as the student can demonstrate appropriate competencies.
The transcript of the grades will be sent to schools and other agencies upon request by the student or his parents.
This Week’s Photos: pick-up basketball game, visit to the Nixon Library, senior reflection
Etiquette Point of the Week
When a gentleman learns that a friend has been stealing, using drugs, or doing anything else that could get him in trouble or harm either himself or someone else, he knows it is his responsibility to speak up. He does not spread rumors, but he does tell his parents, a teacher, or a counselor that he is concerned about his friend’s behavior.
50 Things Every Young Gentleman Should Know, John Bridges and Bryan Curtis; Rutledge Hill
Birthdays
May 3rd Nicholas Hanson
Athletics
Tuesday, May 3rd: Baseball vs. TVT @ STM; 3:15 p.m.
Thursday, May 5th: Baseball vs. TVT @ STM; 3:15 p.m.
Homily preached by Fr John Henry Hanson, O.Praem.
Among other things, Fr. John Henry teaches English and Scripture.
“We were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel.” On the morning of the Resurrection, after the angel had appeared to Mary Magdalene and the other holy women at the tomb, they “went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce the news to his disciples.” They were not expecting an angelic apparition. They had hoped for nothing more than to see the Lord’s body one last time, and to complete the anointing ritual for His burial. That was all they were hoping for. Their only obstacle was “Who will roll us back the stone?”
On the evening of that same day, two disciples were slowly making their way to Emmaus, not expecting a Third to accompany them. Nor were they expecting Him to interrupt their argument with an authoritative rebuke, and then to proceed to cite one verse after another from the Scriptures to prove that “the things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene” in Jerusalem were “necessary,” prophesied, planned, and carried out with all of the perfection of divine Providence.
At last, their ordinary evening meal is, quite unexpectedly, transformed into a Eucharist.
We have also heard in the reading from Acts of the crippled man who was hoping only for money, a handout, but received healing instead.
Isn’t it true that Jesus always exceeds our hopes? The Resurrection is supposed to impress that truth upon us and change us as it changed these first disciples: that we never again set our sad and fearful limits on what the Lord can do. Even when things go contrary to our expectations and holiest desires, God is still God; He has not been overpowered or outsmarted by human malice or trickery. Nor is our Christian hope simply the attitude that somehow everything will just work out. Much less is it the idea that if I wait long enough eventually I’ll get what I want and things will go my way. Hope is really something more courageous and supernatural than that. “We have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” That is the cost and strength of our hope.
The Resurrection stands as the supreme witness of how Christians must now see the world and themselves: That God often makes use of evil to show His power. Even as God chooses weak instruments like ourselves to accomplish His will, so does He take humanly impossible and evil situations and make good out of them.
There was a large number of people in Jerusalem during our Lord’s trial and execution who did not want to see Him die. They most likely prayed against it. They prayed that Jesus of Nazareth would be spared this horribly unjust ordeal: “O Lord God! Do not let it happen!” Those whom He had healed were probably full of anger at the way Jesus was being treated. Many wept bitterly over it—all the way to Calvary and back. Was God listening to their cries, to their prayers? Not only was Jesus crucified, but He was tortured and mocked along the way.
Once the Lord had been raised and began to appear to His disciples, those same disciples were forced to rethink everything that they had believed before. Their outlook had to change in the light of the resurrection. They had to rethink good and evil, justice and injustice, human malice and treachery. What are these in God’s hands? The unlikely instruments of our redemption. The Lord had overcome the world using the same evil instruments that the world used to conquer Him in the flesh. Because of this, Christians cannot go into that same conquered world with simple enthusiasm and optimism. We must go with our hope centered in the God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead. That is the type of hope we need.
Often we might think that we have only one obstacle before us, and if it were gone then all would be well. A stone needs to be rolled back, and that is all. We are crippled or impeded in some way--remove that, and all will be well. Or we need some explanation, and with that clarity, all is made well. But maybe what we perceive to be obstacles are really God’s instruments, which He uses to challenge and enlarge our hope. The Holy Spirit tells us: “For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”
It takes a courageous Christian spirit to believe this and to act on it. St Mary Magdalene and the other holy disciples suddenly became courageous. They knew that they had trials ahead of them, a hostile world to contend with. They knew that humanly speaking everything was against them. But, “If Christ is for us, who can be against us?” And because Christ is for us, and risen from the dead, we are justified in hoping against all odds that God can accomplish far more than we can ask for or imagine.
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 without written permission of the author.
Prayer Requests
● For Mrs. Jodi Meschuk’s safe pregnancy.
●Those who are in the armed forces.
● St. Michael’s older priests and those who care for them
●For the repose of the soul of Mrs. Dorothy Prellwitz
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