March 27, 2011

Thanks to those parents and friends who helped make the week a success

● To all the parents who gave of their time to meet with our visiting WASC committee. They were very impressed with the strong showing of parent interest and support.
● To Mr. and Mrs. Portka for bringing cupcakes for our students in honor of Jacob’s birthday.
● Alumni parents, Mr. Ed Unterman and Mr. Keith Johannes, who shared their expertise with our current students.
● To the Schardt Family for hosting a student this weekend.

General announcements to Parents

● Third Quarter report cards will be sent home electronically early this week.

Third Quarter Honor Roll, 2010-2011
First Honors: Joshua Aaker Christian Aguilar Faris Alquaddoomi Jonathan Bonello Daniel Dang Derek Giap Nicholas Hanson John Hebert Jacob Holke James Howard Michael Howard Brett Lenahan Edward Lim Hieu Pham Joseph Porretta Brian Schardt Scott Schardt Johann Schoenfeld David Suh Joseph Terlisner James Tran William Warnisher
Second Honors: Andrew Bonello Nicholas DiNapoli Yongkyoo Kim Alan Le Spencer Manson Gregory Minder Bryce Pickett Charles Sandoval Jonathan Tran Mathew Vu Tuyen Vu

Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC)–Western Catholic Education Association (WCEA)
The visiting committee was very impressed with the fine program which St. Michael’s Prep offers its young men. The committee was explicit in identifying these school-wide areas of strength:
● Strong faith formation of students.
● School’s small size that permits individualized instruction for all students.
● Sound academic formation that develops student self-discipline and focus.
● Boarding school environment that develops personal responsibility, good time management and study habits, life-long friendships, and college dorm life preparedness.
● The dedication and Christian example of the Norbertine Confreres.
● The two-tiered Board of Directors that support Catholic education for young men.
● The support and dedication of the Administration, particularly the Headmaster and Assistant Headmaster, for the academic and spiritual formation of the students.
● The dedication and generosity of the Faculty and Staff to the academic and spiritual growth of the students.
● The camaraderie, self-discipline and focus, and hospitality of the St. Michael’s students.
● The unselfish involvement of St. Michael’s parents in all aspects of school life.
Thank you to all the parents, students, teachers, alumni and friends who participated!

Parent/Student Handbook: Chapter 3, Section 6
SECTION 6: TECHNOLOGY USE POLICY
The Internet is a powerful learning tool when used properly. All data passing through network resources at St. Michael’s Prep are not private. The I.T. department and/or administrators reserve the right to inspect data and communications across network resources at St. Michael’s. It is within the rights of the school to monitor email or computer usage as it strives to maintain both the virtue and safety of the students, faculty, and staff. Use of a computer and network system that is shared by many users imposes certain additional obligations. St. Michael’s Preparatory School makes it a violation to recklessly or maliciously interfere with the computer, network resources or data. The school also upholds that misappropriation of data or copyrighted materials may constitute theft. Internet access is available in the library when there is adult supervision. Academic use of the internet always has precedence to recreational use. Recreational use of the Internet is limited to recreation periods and only for those students not on study detention. St. Michael’s computer abuse policy applies to all students, faculty, and staff. The use of computers or network systems in no way exempts any member of the school community from the normal requirements of ethical or legal behavior. Student violations may result in (but not be limited to) suspension of privileges. All on-campus computers are monitored to assure compliance with school policy. The School works to ensure that students do not access or share Internet material which is inappropriate or offensive and instructs students in the proper and responsible use of the Internet. Yet, due to regular advances in technology and the multiple types of personal electronic devices which receive, store, show, and send data, the School cannot be held liable for the actions of students who deliberately contravene the school’s policies and guidelines.

This Week’s Photos: Visiting team representing the WASC Accreditation process talking with students.

Etiquette Point of the Week
When soup is served, wait until the hostess or the other ladies at the table have lifted their spoons before picking up your own soup spoon and beginning to eat. If there is no host or guest of honor, wait until all dinner companions have been served before lifting your spoon and beginning to eat.
A Gentleman at the Table, Bridges and Curtis; Brooks Brothers Press

Athletics
Tuesday, March 29th: Baseball vs. Noli Indian School @ STM; 3:15 p.m.
Thursday, March 31st: Baseball vs. San Diego Jewish Academy @ San Diego; 3:30 pm

Homily preached by Fr. Charles Willingham, O. Praem.
Among other things, Fr. Charles teaches scripture and chaperones the weekend students.

We heard in the Gospel Antiphon “Your words Lord are Spirit and life; you have the words of everlasting life.” These words come from the 6th chapter of St. John. Jesus speaking of the gift of the Holy Eucharist said “My words are Spirit and life.” And when Jesus asked the twelve apostles “Do you want to leave me too?” Peter answered Him “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. To whom shall we go?” Sometimes when we read books or watch movies about saints or holy people, like “Song of Bernadette”, “The Reluctant Saint”, “The Island”, or most recently, “Of Gods and Men”, we come away saying to ourselves “I have to start again” or “I have to get started.” I have to start being good, I have to start living for God, I have to start living religious life the way I should be. Because compared to what we see in the lives of these saints or those who aspired to sanctity, we fall short – very short. The problem is that we make the mistake of thinking that in order to get started or in order to advance we have to change our place: become a recluse in the desert, a Carthusian on a mountain top, a bishop in charge of a diocese or a husband and father of 10 children. In the film “Of Gods and Men” when the monks realize it would be advantageous from all viewpoints to leave, they all decide to stay. Brother Christian says “The wild flowers do not change their place to find the rays of the sun. God makes them fruitful wherever they are.” We do not need to move from our place to find God’s grace, to do His will. God makes His grace to shine where He himself has put us. There is where we accomplish His will. “But” you say, “the way things are here, the people I live with, they block the sun. I can’t grow.” In the trial of beautification for St. Therese of Lisieux one of the sisters testifying described the convent as a veritable mad house with many divisions among the sisters, poor observance, a superior who would wake up everyone at night to find her cat when it went missing. Yet, she ends by saying “In spite of it all Therese became a saint.” It would have been better if she had said “Because of it all Therese became a saint.” Why? Because that’s where God called her and chose for her to be. As wacky as the Lisieux Carmel was, Therese was effected by the other sisters and affected the other sisters. Fr. Abbot Parker told the story many times of a postulant years ago, before we had such things such as gas powered trench diggers, who on the very day he arrived was put to work digging some kind of trench with a shovel. He suddenly threw down the shovel and said “What on earth am I doing here!” He left the same day he had arrived. What was it this postulant was looking for? What did he expect? Maybe he just didn’t like it. Did he forget, in less than a day, that the One he came to follow said “Take up your cross unless you do penance, take up your mat and walk, deny yourself. As the Master so shall the servant be.” Maybe the postulant was looking to have his desire for God completely satisfied? That won’t happen in this world. You will always desire more. Was it mystical experience he wanted? He failed to see that there is something beyond mystical experience that one arrives at immediately through love: simple uniformity with God’s will. Maybe he left because he felt his gifts were not being noticed, appreciated, or used. Who left like that? Lucifer! Because he thought heaven could not accommodate his degree of goodness, beauty, or intelligence. Maybe this postulant really thought he wasn’t up to this life, perhaps not good enough or too weak for all this digging and for everything that was to come, yet, that is the very best attitude to have because, none of us receives the ability to live this life from ourselves. It comes from God. Because He chose you and because He brought you here and has given you so many special graces to prove that He wants you here. Living this life does not mean being successful, it means being faithful. As Mother Teresa of Calcutta said “God does not demand that we be successful, only faithful.” When a priest asked her “Mother, pray that I may have clarity” she answered “No, I won’t. I will pray that you have trust.” In “Of Gods and Men” the old doctor, Br. Luc, quotes a remarkable passage from Pascal’s “Pensees,” “We advance toward God through failure, through weakness, by falling.” Why does Pascal say that? Because we only advance toward God through trusting Him. Nothing brings us to lose all trust in ourselves and place it completely in God faster than the realization of our own weakness, the acknowledgement of our own failures and sins. It is a downward path, one of falling, but falling to God. When I say God will give us the grace to live this life, I mean only this: He will give us the ability to trust in spite of my weakness and falls; in spite of my brother’s weaknesses, in spite of my situation or my health; in spite of everything, yes, even in spite of the very place in which He has put me or perhaps, more appropriately, precisely because of the place He has put me. St. Norbert, St. Therese, St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa. All of them had very great desires. All of them felt misunderstood. All of them had great trials. None of them gave up on their order. Even Mother Teresa of Calcutta who started a new congregation, had first lived faithfully as a Loreto Sister for almost 30 years. The only reason she left was because God knocked on her forehead and said He had a special commission for her. Even then, she got permission from her superiors. Jesus said to the twelve “Do you want to leave me too?” Brothers in Christ, a postulant throwing down a shovel is one thing. A man who has consecrated his whole self to Christ in religious life and has even been raised to the sublime dignity of priest is entirely something else. Jesus went on to say “Did I not choose the twelve of you myself? Yet one of you is a devil.”
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
●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 Mr. William Brown

March 19, 2011

Thanks to those parents and friends who helped make the week a success
● Mr. Ralph Martin for coaching Pioneer Baseball into another win.

General announcements to Parents
●The deadline for 2011/2012 non-refundable tuition deposits is March 21st.
●The deadline for the Senior Graduation Fee is April 1st.
●There will be a special schedule on Good Friday, April 22nd. Students will attend the Good Friday Liturgy until 4:30 p.m. There will not be an early dismissal as there normally is on Friday. Parents who need to purchase a train ticket may calculate the boys’ arrival at the train station by 5:30 p.m. Please purchase train tickets early. Email ticket confirmations to the school office before April 18th.

Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC)–Western Catholic Education Association (WCEA)
Please note that the Visiting Committee will meet with all the parents of St. Michael’s Prep on Sunday Evening, March 20, at 7:00 PM, in the modular classroom. This meeting will take no more than 1 hour. It is very important that all parents come to the meeting who can. Please remember that what we identify as our school’s best traits, Faith, Academics and Character, are also known as the school’s “Expected Schoolwide Learning Results [ESLRs]. Thank you!

This week’s photos:
Baseball, Classes during exam week, Spring On The Hilltop

Parent/Student Handbook: CHAPTER 3, SECTION 5
SECTION 5: PLAGIARISM, HOMEWORK COPYING, CHEATING
Plagiarism (taking ideas, writings, etc. from someone else and presenting them as one’s own) and homework copying are placed in the same category as test cheating. Any student using material copied from an Internet source under the guise of his own name is cheating. Students have a moral responsibility to themselves and others to work honestly. The consequences for cheating and/or plagiarism are progressive. For the first offence the student receives a “0” and a letter home. The second offence adds a conference with the parents and the loss during that academic year of all co-curricular and extra-curricular privileges and positions. The third offense is sufficient reason for expulsion from school. The record of these offenses accumulate throughout the years the student attends St. Michael’s. In addition to other means, the school does use commercially available software designed to identify unreferenced sources in student work.

Etiquette Point of the Week
A gentleman always sends a written thank-you note if he has been someone’s guest on a special vacation or outing.
How To Raise A Gentleman, Kay West; Brooks Brothers Press Perennial

Athletics
Congratulations to our Pioneer baseball team for their wins Monday and Tuesday. The Pioneers remain undefeated. Come join us at one of the following games.
Tuesday: Baseball vs. San Jacinto Valley @ STM; 3:15 p.m.
Thursday: Baseball vs. Noli Indian School @ Noli; 3:15 p.m.

Birthdays This Week:
March 25 Jacob Portka

Homily preached by Fr. Justin Ramos, O.Praem.
Among other things, Fr. Justin leads our development efforts.

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” …Words of our blessed Lord.

The story of Queen Esther in today’s lesson is one of the many Old Testament illustrations that persistent asking, seeking, and knocking pay off with conquering results. More often than not however, it seems as though we’re like Moses asking, seeking and knocking at the door of the Pharaoh who refuses to fulfill our request!

That is because we have the wrong idea of who God is. We think God is more like us or Pharaoh-- stubborn, unbending and wicked. But even if we have this warped notion of our Heavenly Father, we should be encouraged to ask, seek and knock since ‘even we, who are wicked give good gifts to our children.’

The fact is that God isn’t like us. Our Heavenly Father is generous, merciful and just. So, why don’t we ask, seek and knock with the daring persistence of Queen Esther, Moses, and the saints?

We that God knows everything we need even before we ask for it—so is it worth praying for something we have no control over? Is our asking, seeking, knocking really free or out of our control? Can we really cause events to happen by our actions?

God has preordained the world to exist in a certain way—much is out of our control but we do have a role to play that causes things to happen in this world.

C.S. Lewis puts it in this way, “It is like a play in which the scene and the general outline of the story is fixed by the author, but certain minor details are left for the actors to improvise.”
In that Christmas Classic movie It’s a Wonderful Life, after George Baily sees all the events, things and people he affected during his entire life, his guardian angel Clarence remarks, “Strange, isn't it? Each man's life touches so many other lives. When he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he?” If God permits things to happen because of us so why wouldn’t He permit us to make things happen by directly asking him?

If we can effect good in others such as helping them do well in school, assisting someone with a doubt or simply helping to change a tire, what greater things will our heavenly Father do if we ask with perseverance. There are even things which depend upon us to ask for otherwise they would not occur.

St. Patrick’s prayers affected the conversion of the entire nation of Ireland to Catholicism. He relates in his "Confessio": "But after I reached Hibernia I used to pasture the flock each day and I used to pray many times a day. More and more did the Love of God, and my fear of Him and faith increase, and my spirit was moved so that in a day I said up to a hundred prayers, and in the night a like number; besides I used to stay out in the forests and on the mountain and I would wake up before daylight to pray in the snow, in icy coldness, in rain, and I used to feel neither ill nor any slothfulness, because, as I now see, the Spirit was burning in me at that time". Ireland’s conversion depended upon St. Patrick’s persistent asking, seeking and knocking.

Day in and day out we ask God in the sacred liturgy to hasten to our assistance. Our entire life and that of many others depends upon our asking, our seeking, and our knocking. Only those who ask, will receive; and those who seek will find;
 and those who knock, the door will be opened.

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
● The entire girls’ softball team and its coaches from Benedictine College whose bus was rear ended by a semi on their way to a competition.
●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 Mr. William Brown

March 13, 2011

Thanks to those parents and friends who helped make the week a success
● Mrs. Gin Howard, Mrs. Chelsey Lenahan and Mrs. Joan Terlisner for providing a luncheon for our students and faculty
● Mrs. Aguilar and her mother for bringing stacks to the away baseball game

As reflected in our newly posted photos, February was a busy month at St. Michael’s Prep School. Our Norbertine Fathers appeared at Seagerstrom Hall in the Orange County Performing Arts Center, we celebrated the sacrament of confirmation, we heard Sister Christen speak to our parents on the importance of prayer for our sons, our sophomores and juniors spent a day learning about non-invasive surgery at the UCI Medical Center, our boys enjoyed a day at the beach, we ended the soccer season with an awards ceremony and opened the baseball season. We hope you enjoy sharing these experiences with us through our photos.

Photo Gallery

General announcements to Parents
School will be dismissed at 12:40 Wednesday, March 16th for the St. Patrick and St. Joseph Day weekend. Students report back to school as usual on Sunday evening.

Third quarter oral exams take place this week, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.

The deadline for 2011/2012 non-refundable tuition deposits is March 21st.

The deadline for the Senior Graduation Fee is April 1st.

Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC)–Western Catholic Education Association (WCEA)

Please note that the Visiting Committee will meet with all the parents of St. Michael’s Prep on Sunday Evening, March 20, at 7:00 PM, in the modular classroom. This meeting will take no more than 1 hour. It is very important that all parents come to the meeting.

This week’s photos:
The visit of the relic of St. Mary Magdalene; Latin III class working on their Latin compositions

Parent/Student Handbook: Chapter 3, Section 2
SECTION 4: HOMEWORK
Homework assignments have clear and definite purposes. They are designed to meet one or more of the following aims:
§ To provide the drill necessary for the mastery of the skill.
§ To promote individual and cooperative study and preparation of the course materials.
§ To stimulate creative intellectual activities on the part of the student through solving problems, composition work, etc.
Teachers give daily assignments. The typical student, working diligently, should be able to complete the daily assignment within 30-40 minutes per class. Within this time frame are reports, map work, projects done outside of class, etc. There are homework assignments over the weekend. Students working in more advanced classes do have more work required of them. Students should work on their long-range assignments (such as book reports, term papers, maps, compositions, and lab projects) systematically in order to have adequate time for their day-to-day assignments.
Written work should be neatly presented on standard 8½ × 11 white paper, (no pages torn out from spiral notebooks). Written work should normally be completed in pen of blue or black ink or produced on the computer. Written work should always be grammatically correct and have proper punctuation. Clearly title all work with the student’s name, date, and class. Accepting late work is at the discretion of the individual teacher.

Correct English, written and oral, is insisted upon in every class by every teacher. An example is set in this matter by the teachers themselves.

After an absence, it is the student’s personal responsibility to see his teachers about making up all work he missed. It is the responsibility of the student to turn in all work and to request any exam on his own.

Etiquette Point of the Week
There are times when email is not appropriate. Thank-you or sympathy notes should be written by hand on notepaper (personalized, if you have it) and sent by regular mail. Invitations should always be responded to so the host knows whether or not to expect you. If your invitation says “RSVP” and is followed by a phone number, then you simply call and let the host know whether or not you will attend. If “RSVP” is followed by an address, it means a short note such as “Looking forward to your football party Saturday evening” is expected. If the invitation says “Regrets only,” then you need to respond only if you won’t attend. Be sure you respond promptly. Emily Post’s Teen Etiquette, Elizabeth L. Post and Joan M. Coles; Harper Perennial

Athletics
CONGRATULATIONS to our Pioneer Baseball Team for Tuesday’s win.
Monday, Mar. 14th: STM vs Liberty Christian @ STM; 3:15 p.m.
Tuesday, Mar. 15th: STM vs. San Jacinto @ STM; 3:15 p.m.

Birthdays This Week: None

Homily preached by Fr. Gabriel Stack, O.Praem.
Among other things, Fr. Gabriel is the Headmaster and teaches Latin and Spanish.

We know that God blesses us in various ways each and every day. Today we focus on the blessing which we call “the cross.” This is important because Jesus tell us, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

We typically consider the cross something to avoid if we can and something to complain about if we cannot avoid it. Or, at least, that is my adolescent response. And for that reason I now know why one or the other of my parents seemed to be always saying “offer it up,” or asking “did we say our morning offering yet?”

Why is there a cross when we seek to follow Christ? We cannot heal ourselves. No matter how much our medicine and psychology advances, we have a wound that will not yield to those sciences. Only the cross of Christ can heal us.

Why did salvation come through crucifixion? Part of the reason is that God loves us too much to spoil us. Evil and suffering entered the world because of sin - mankind's rebellion against God. That original disobedience was a free choice, as is every sin.

God respects our freedom; it, too, is His gift to us. We are created in His image. This means that we are neither rodents nor robots. Because God respects our freedom, He also has to respect the consequences of our free choices – even when we make bad choices, even when we sin.

St. Paul wrote once to the Philippians, "He emptied himself... He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death... on a cross." In other words, Jesus turned the consequences of our sin into the remedy for our sin - this is how powerful and complete his love is.

Because of his willingness to suffer out of love for us, our suffering has become a way to unite us more fully with him, the only source of our healing and lasting happiness. Jesus told St. Faustina of the Divine Mercy that one hour of meditation on his passion and crucifixion does more good for our soul than an entire year's worth of other devotions. It is not enough to hang crucifixes on the walls of our churches and homes, to wear crucifixes around our necks, or to dangle them from our rearview mirrors.

To unleash God's transforming power in our lives and our world, we must go deeper and fix the crucifix firmly in our hearts. And we can only do that through prayer, through developing a real and sustained relationship with Jesus Christ.

During this holy Mass, we are truly present at our Lord's crucifixion through the sacrament of the Eucharist. Look upon Him who, as the Holy Victim, lifts us up too. Make a commitment to unite yourself with Him in spiritual reading and in personal prayer every day this Lent. This way the cross will become, more and more, the triumph of Christ's healing love in you and through you.

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
● Giancarlo Medina who is battling cardiac problems
● Francesco Tanzi Grandfather of Mr. Lieggi who is close to death.
● Those who are in the armed forces.
● St. Michael’s older priests and those who care for them.

March 6, 2011

Thanks to those parents and friends who helped make the week a success

The Lim Family for hosting a weekender.

General announcements to Parents
Daylight Savings Time begins March 13th.  Clocks should be moved ahead one hour.

Ash Wednesday is a regular day of classes

There will be a parent sponsored lunch for the students and faculty on Thursday, March 10th.  If you are able to help provide a future luncheon for our students, please contact Mrs. Cathy Porretta.

Open House for any family interested in applying to St. Michael’s on Sunday, March 13th at 3:30 PM. Please let friends and family know.

Third quarter oral exams begin on Monday, March 14.

The relics of St. Mary Magdalene will be at the abbey on this Tuesday afternoon and evening.  All are welcome to come pray with us!

The National Latin Exam will be held on Sunday, March 13, at 7:00 PM.  All students enrolled in a Latin class must sit for the exam.

Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC)–Western Catholic Education Association (WCEA)
Please note that the Visiting Committee will meet with all the parents of St. Michael’s Prep on Sunday Evening, March 20, at 7:00 PM, in the modular classroom. This meeting will take no more than 1 hour. It is very important that all parents come to the meeting who can. Please note that Faith, Academics and Character are what are known as the schools “Expected Schoolwide Learning Results [ESLRs]. Thank you!

This week’s photos: Sacred Heart statue; first school baseball game; Norbertines singing at Segerstrom Center for the Arts

Parent/Student Handbook: Chapter 3, Section 2
SECTION 2: GRADUATION POLICY
Seniors who earn less than a “C” as a semester grade in any class do not graduate from St. Michael’s until that grade is remediated. If this unfortunate circumstance arises, then two courses of action follow. (1) As the senior did not have all the necessary graduation requirements, he does not participate in the Commencement Exercises. This ceremony is one of the privileges reserved to those who have met their academic and social obligations as established by the school. (2) The senior will redo the course work in an approved summer school program. Once the course work is completed, the senior receives his diploma and resumes his place with his classmates.

Etiquette Point of the Week
It is never inappropriate to introduce yourself to someone. When introducing yourself, stand, look the person in the eye, extend your right hand and say “Hello. My name is John Smith”. When introducing people to one another, always give the first and the last names of the people you are introducing if you know them. When introducing someone to a small informal group, you may say something like “Joe Jones, I would like you to meet the members of our committee. This is Jane Doe, John Smith, and Joe Jones”. If it is a more formal presentation, refer to the people by their last names, such as “Mr. Jones, may I present the members of our committee, Mrs. Doe, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Jones”. Emily Post’s Teen Etiquette, Elizabeth L. Post and Joan M. Coles; Harper Perennial

Athletics
Tuesday: Baseball vs San Jacinto Valley @ Searl Park; 3:15
Thursday: Baseball vs Southlands Christian@ Southlands; 3:00 p.m.

Birthdays This Week:
March 9th Vitalyi Tractenberg

Homily preached by Fr. Benedict Solomon, O. Praem.
Among other things, Fr. Benedict teaches Religion

“At God’s word were his works brought into being.” God’s one Word was sufficient to create all things. And before the Incarnation not an infinite number of words spoken by men could ever do justice to God. “Yet even God’s holy ones must fail in recounting the wonders of the Lord.”

But after the Incarnation, that Word through whom all things were created, was He by whom all creation was recreated and contains all creation in Himself. This Word has a name, and this name refers to the greatest of all God’s wonders-Jesus Christ. Before the Incarnation no amount of words would suffice, afterwards, one word is enough to sum up all the wonders of the Lord. Jesus.

“Bartimaeus sat by the roadside begging” for what this world had to offer. When he heard that it was Jesus, the sound of that name “plumbed the depths and penetrated his heart.” As he sat on the earth, with worldly concerns the name of Jesus grew in His heart and dared him to utter that name with his own lips. “Jesus son of David, have mercy on me.” When people told him to be quiet he called out all the more.

That name which took root in his heart could not be plucked out. And when Jesus called him, Bartimaeus threw aside his cloak, one of his few possessions, and sprang up from the ground. Because he uttered that sacred name, Jesus replied with “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus gives him his sight. And when he receives his sight, he follows Jesus on the way.

By calling on the name of Jesus and asking for His mercy, we will never fail to recount the wonders of the Lord; we will never fail to draw Jesus into our hearts. And when He comes into our hearts He will move us to cast off our attachments to sin and worldly desires and to spring up from our spiritual slumber. Then He will ask us “What do you want me to do for you?” and we will ask only that we may see Him face to face.

To Him be glory and honor for ever and ever. 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
● Giancarlo Medina who is battling cardiac problems
● Francesco Tanzi Grandfather of Mr. Lieggi who is close to death.
● Those who are in the armed forces.
● St. Michael’s older priests and those who care for them.