School will be dismissed Wednesday, Dec. 21st at 12:30 p.m. for the Christmas/New Year break. Classes resume Tuesday, January 10th.
Thanks to those parents and friends who have helped
For providing a parent-sponsored lunch: Mrs. Aguilar, her mother, and her aunt on Monday and The Porretta Family on Thursday.
Mrs. Virginia Schoenfeld, for taking pictures and the basketball games.
Financial Aid Applications Due: Please begin submitting your financial aid renewals for the 2012-2013 school year. Applications must be received by PSAS prior to February 1, 2012. The application may be found on our school webpage in the Admissions section or by opening the following link: http://stmichaelsprep.org/images/stories/Admissions/psas_financial_aid_application.pdf
Photographers! When you take exceptional photos of the students doing things noble, virtuous, studious, or fun -- send a copy to the school. This will significantly enrich the treasury of photos available to adorn the electronic and real walls of the campus.
Parent/Student Handbook: FRIDAY AND WEEKEND RULES
All students shall be picked up from St. Michael’s for the Friday dismissal by 1 PM. In the event that a parent or guardian of a student encounters an emergency situation that delays their arrival to the school, the student may remain at the school until 4 PM and will be supervised by one of the Deans of Students or the confrere assigned to weekender duty. In the event that the parent or guardian is delayed past the 4 PM deadline, an additional charge of one day’s boarding cost will be assessed to the student’s account.
With regard to the actual dismissal on Fridays, the parent will be required to report to the supervising Dean of Students who is monitoring student dismissal in the parking lot and sign their student out. At that point, the student will be released to the parent or guardian. Only those individuals who are registered parents or guardians with the Headmaster’s Office will be allowed to retrieve their students.
For those students who routinely stay over the weekend at St. Michael’s they will be supervised by the confreres assigned to weekend supervision. In the event that a weekend boarding student opts out of their weekend status to stay locally with a St. Michael’s host family, the parents of that student and the hosting parents must email the Headmaster’s Office by 12 PM the Wednesday before, giving mutual permission for the opting out of weekend status for that particular weekend. A student will not be granted opt out status of weekend stay by casually stating to a member of the faculty that they are staying over the weekend at another student’s home. If concurrent permission is not received from the concerned parents via email by the stated deadline, the student will not be released to the host family by the Dean of Students.
Oftentimes, students who live locally and return home each weekend are invited to stay the weekend with another local school family. This arrangement will also require notification to the Headmaster’s office via email by 12 PM the Wednesday before so that the supervising Dean will be aware of the arrangement when releasing the student to the host family.
For those students who routinely transit home by train after Friday dismissal, St. Michael’s will facilitate the transportation of that student to the nearest train station for a nominal transportation fee. However, the student’s parents or guardian must confirm the fact that the student will be traveling home by train for the weekend. The parent or guardian will be required to email the Headmasters Office by 12 pm, Wednesday, of each week to confirm their student will in fact be traveling home. They will also provide the departure time of the train their son will be taking home.
This Week’s Photos: Basketball; Christmas Room Decorating Contest
Sports This Week:
To allow our students extra time to study for semester exams without distractions, there will be no athletic competitions scheduled this week, only practices.
Birthdays:
Dec. 19th: James Howard
Dec. 20th: Newton Vu
Dec. 31st: Thomas Esser; Matthew Shelton
Jan. 1st: Faris Alquaddoomi
Jan. 10th: Andrew Bonello; Chimaobim Ejiaga
Homily of the Week by Fr. Abbot Eugene Hayes
This evening with our annual Lessons and Carols service we comply with the church’s admonition to us to rejoice. We have arrived precisely at the midpoint of the season of Advent, the season which prepares for the coming of Christ and the reception of the grace of Christmas, a grace renewed each year, one to be communicated to those who have lived these four weeks well. And through the liturgy and the scr
iptures of this season we are reminded of the various elements of the program of Advent. Today the element put before us, as I mentioned, is one of rejoicing, in fact this 3rd Sunday of advent was known as rejoicing Sunday, Gaudete Sunday – Latin word – plural imperative, telling, instructing, commanding all to whom it is addressed to rejoice. It is a message accompanied by rose colored vestments and the return of the organ and for us here this evening songs prepared by the choir and particularly its schola members under the expert direction of Kathleen Winters. At one time this midpoint observance was celebrated in a much more penitential context. In face for many Advent was like a little Lent. So rejoicing at this time included a welcome break in that penitential journey. Likewise in this setting the midpoint of advent and its celebration was a harkening back to the chosen people and their centuries of expectation. The faithful were asked to continue to persevere in their advent program and given a foretaste of joyful sentiments soon to come.
For people of our time the arrival at the midpoint of Advent might elicit much different sentiments. The realization that Christmas is exactly two weeks from today, for many, signifies how quickly the time is passing and how much more needs to be accomplished in an increasingly brief window of opportunity and for some induces a state close to panic. Yet for those too the message is no less pressing than for previous generations. For people of our time the command to rejoice provides a welcome break from hurry and haste. If all we do today is come to this service and be glad in its celebration then we too have heeded the message. This evening draws the focus once more to what the season and its final goal is all about.
The readings we have heard this evening call
our attention to the simple fact that humanity got off to quite a bad start and
yet in the near immediate wake of catastrophic disobedience and disregard for
God’s plan and God’s program, God himself offers the remedy: a future encounter
between the woman’s seed and that of the serpent, an encounter that will see
disobedience transformed into obedience, and the fall reversed into a
resurrection. God’s plan is foreshadowed
in Abraham and made clearer in his promise of descendants as countless as the
stars and a people more numerous than
the sands of the seashore. That people
who for generations walk in darkness in a gloomy land will rejoice in a child,
a son, the wonder-counselor, the prince of peace.
What centuries of listeners heard as
prophecy, we hear as accomplished fact, for the child has been born, the Son is
given to us, His dominion is vast … over his kingdom both now and forever, all
of this more than reason enough, for us this evening to rejoice.
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
● Jodie Meschuk,
wife of Coach Aaron Meschuk, who is expecting.
● The paternal grandfather of sophomore Andrew
Bonello who is hospitalized
with a broken hip.
● Mrs. Marge DeClue, past parent-league
president, who has declining health.
● Mr. Glenn Emanuel, a member of the Norbertine
Lay Order, who has a serious heart condition.
● Those who are in the armed forces.
● St. Michael’s older priests and those who
care for them.
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