Mr. DeJak's latest: "Living a Catholic Life: What the Ratzinger Family can Teach Us"

March 1, 2012 saw the publication in English of Msgr. Georg Ratzinger’s new book My Brother, the Pope. Media outlets have widely reported this ultimate insider’s view of Pope Ratzinger and have published excerpts from the book. Of particular interest to this writer was Msgr. Ratzinger’s recollections of his childhood with his younger brother. The traditional piety with which they practiced the faith may strike some of us modern Americans as strange, but it is instructive. This type of traditional piety is something that we must rediscover if we wish to grow in holiness in our own families; and it is an essential to prepare for the dark clouds of persecution that gather day by day.

Though we are in the season of Lent, dear readers, indulge me as I quote Msgr. Ratzinger’s recollections of Advent and the Ratzinger family’s participation in the rich liturgical life of the Church:

Generally speaking, our family made a big thing of Christmas. The preparations already began with the First Sunday of Advent. At that time, the Rorate Masses were celebrated at six in the morning, and the priests wore white vestments. Normally violet is the color of the vestments in Advent, but these were special votive Masses that were supposed to recall the appearance of the Archangel Gabriel to the Mother of God and her words, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to thy word” (Lk 1:38). That was the main theme of these “liturgies of the angels,” as they were also called, in which the appropriate passage from the Gospel of Luke was read. After we started school, we used to attend these Masses in the early morning, before classes began. Outside it was still night, everything was dark, and the people often shivered in the cold. Yet the warm glow of the sanctuary compensated for the early rising and the walk through snow and ice. The dark church was illuminated by candles and tapers, which were often brought by the faithful and provided not only light but also a little warmth. Afterward we went home first, ate breakfast, and only then set out for school. These Rorate Masses were wonderful signposts leading us to Christmas.

Read the rest of Mr. DeJak's article at The Wanderer Forum Foundation.

The pope on silence

Silence and Word: Path of Evangelization

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

As we draw near to World Communications Day 2012, I would like to share with you some reflections concerning an aspect of the human process of communication which, despite its importance, is often overlooked and which, at the present time, it would seem especially necessary to recall. It concerns the relationship between silence and word: two aspects of communication which need to be kept in balance, to alternate and to be integrated with one another if authentic dialogue and deep closeness between people are to be achieved. When word and silence become mutually exclusive, communication breaks down, either because it gives rise to confusion or because, on the contrary, it creates an atmosphere of coldness; when they complement one another, however, communication acquires value and meaning.

Silence is an integral element of communication; in its absence, words rich in content cannot exist. In silence, we are better able to listen to and understand ourselves; ideas come to birth and acquire depth; we understand with greater clarity what it is we want to say and what we expect from others; and we choose how to express ourselves. By remaining silent we allow the other person to speak, to express him or herself; and we avoid being tied simply to our own words and ideas without them being adequately tested. In this way, space is created for mutual listening, and deeper human relationships become possible. It is often in silence, for example, that we observe the most authentic communication taking place between people who are in love: gestures, facial expressions and body language are signs by which they reveal themselves to each other. Joy, anxiety, and suffering can all be communicated in silence – indeed it provides them with a particularly powerful mode of expression. Silence, then, gives rise to even more active communication, requiring sensitivity and a capacity to listen that often makes manifest the true measure and nature of the relationships involved.

Read the entire message here. Lots to imbibe. Enjoy!

BXVI on Integrated Education

Capstone Parent Day images

Parents participated in a discussion of St. Thomas Aquinas' Treatise on Law, followed by a slide show of images from our Chicago trip.

One parent "Skyped" in from Israel on a laptop!

Thanks to all who came - it was a fun and edifying event.

Capstone Parent Day

Dear parents,

We cordially invite you to Capstone Seminar Parent Day on Friday, December 16th from 12:45-2:35.

• Read and discuss a selection from St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica (Treatise on Law)!
• Watch the students discuss one of the Great Books of the Catholic intellectual tradition!
• Enjoy the ambiance of the beautiful high school library!
• Drink coffee and eat cookies!
• And finally, watch a slide show of images from our Chicago trip!

Please RSVP to Mr. Adkins.

Hope to see you all on December 16th!

At right, Gozzoli's "The Triumph of St. Thomas Aquinas", 1471

student sayings... [installment #1]

So far, our students have read and discussed the following works:

• Fifty Questions on the Natural Law, by Prof. Charles Rice (a selection on human nature and "personhood")
• Apostolic Fathers (selections such as St. Ignatius of Antioch)
• The Didache
• The Rule of St. Benedict
• The Confessions of St. Augustine
• St. Anselm's "Proslogion" or The Ontological Proofs of God's Existence
• "How the Monks Saved Civilization", by Thomas Woods (from How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization)
• "Address to Ministers of Culture", Pope Benedict XVI (on why the men and women went to the monasteries)
• The Compact History of the Catholic Church, by Prof. Alan Schreck (to give contextual background to the readings)

Below are some excerpts from the students' weekly papers; I believe they are a testament to the value of engaging such rich texts.

Reflecting on the importance and emphasis of the abbot by St. Benedict in the "Regula", Zach writes:

"The abbot is important; there is no doubt about it.  Without him, the monasteries would have never been successes, and thus would never have saved civilization and nothing would exist today as it does."

In our discussions, we noted that St. Benedict's Rule seemed almost "obvious" or common sense.  We wondered why the book had such an impact on the development of western culture.  Marianna reflects:

"[The Rule of St. Benedict] is about things that we already know.  But then I started thinking that in the past, these rules might not have been obvious as they are to us today." 

She also writes,

"...St. Benedict's fourth step of humility: 'He only that persevereth to the end shall be saved, let thy heart be comforted and expect the Lord.'  The phrase connected with me.  [...] It reminds us readers that we need to trust in the Lord no matter what."

We encouraged our students to attend the All Souls' Day Mass at the Church of Saint Agnes, in which is played Mozart's famous "Requiem" liturgy accompanied by full choir and string quartet; on this, Rose wrote:

"... I noticed right away the black vestments the priests were wearing; I liked the color black for it reminded me of the judgment all souls must endure.  Finally, the music registered in my head, and I was blown away.  [...] What truly moved me was the Dies Irae.  The English translation itself is something to marvel at, yet when Latin and the music are added, it is simply stunning.  [...]  The verses that really stood out to me were the ones that read, "The evil-doers have been silenced / Doomed to the bitter flames / Call me with the Blessed".  That struck me as something powerful, and it was even more so when the choir belted out "Confutatis Maledictis" over and over again."

Finally, reflecting upon St. Augustine's Confessions where in Books X-XII the great Doctor of the Church muses upon time, eternity, memory and the Triune God, Rebekah wrote on the mystery of God's being:

"God alone is eternal.  So where then did God begin?  He did not, because nothing was before Him.  [...]  Time is the means by which humans live their day to day lives.  So then is it a safe assumption to say that God, our Eternal Creator, runs by the same concept of time as humans do?  [...]  One cannot understand the fullness of God's eternal being.  It is impossible, and it is almost equally impossible to think of how time does not exist with God.  [...]  But this unsolvable mystery is a stepping stone to finding a relationship with the Lord."

These are mere snapshots of what our students are reading, writing and thinking about.  It is rewarding to see you, dear students, developing your own Catholic mind.

Building a "culture of the word"

The pope instructs "ministers of culture"

After reading The Rule of St. Benedict, we took in the pope's "Address to Ministers of Culture" when he visited Paris, France and Lourdes.  The pope gathered all the intellectual elites, politicians and dignitaries and, gathering them at an ancient Cluniac monastery, sought to teach them to re-discover their roots: in western monasticism.

The address is quite remarkable. 

The pope points out how every Christian is called to live in and develop a "culture of the word" whereby he contemplates the Scriptures and the various other great writings of the Church - precisely what we are doing in the Capstone Seminar.  I hoped to emphasize, dear students, that we are - in our class and in our small way - developing and living in a unique "culture of the word". 

Here's what the pope says [my emphasis]:

"What motivated men [the monks] to come together to these places?  What did they want?  How did they live?

"First and foremost, it must be frankly admitted straight away that it was not their intention to create a culture nor even to preserve a culture from the past.  Their motivation was much more basic.  Their goal was: quaerere Deum.  Amid the confusion of the times, in which nothing seemed permanent, they wanted to do the essential – to make an effort to find what was perennially valid and lasting, life itself.  They were searching for God.  They wanted to go from the inessential to the essential, to the only truly important and reliable thing there is.  It is sometimes said that they were “eschatologically” oriented.  But this is not to be understood in a temporal sense, as if they were looking ahead to the end of the world or to their own death, but in an existential sense: they were seeking the definitive behind the provisional.  Quaerere Deum: because they were Christians, this was not an expedition into a trackless wilderness, a search leading them into total darkness.  God himself had provided signposts, indeed he had marked out a path which was theirs to find and to follow.  This path was his word, which had been disclosed to men in the books of the sacred Scriptures.  Thus, by inner necessity, the search for God demands a culture of the word or – as Jean Leclercq put it: eschatology and grammar are intimately connected with one another in Western monasticism (cf. L’amour des lettres et le désir de Dieu).  The longing for God, the désir de Dieu, includes amour des lettres, love of the word, exploration of all its dimensions.  Because in the biblical word God comes towards us and we towards him, we must learn to penetrate the secret of language, to understand it in its construction and in the manner of its expression.  Thus it is through the search for God that the secular sciences take on their importance, sciences which show us the path towards language.  Because the search for God required the culture of the word, it was appropriate that the monastery should have a library, pointing out pathways to the word.  It was also appropriate to have a school, in which these pathways could be opened up.  Benedict calls the monastery a dominici servitii schola.  The monastery serves eruditio, the formation and education of man – a formation whose ultimate aim is that man should learn how to serve God.  But it also includes the formation of reason – education – through which man learns to perceive, in the midst of words, the Word itself."

Read the entire address of the pope here at the Vatican's website.