Celebrating the 'Top 50' award

Welcome back! Saint Agnes kicks off 2012-13 school year with a bang...

Welcome back to you, students, parents and friends of Saint Agnes School and the Capstone Seminar! Saint Agnes is blessed to report that enrollment continues to rise (up 5% from last year) and we were recently named by the Cardinal Newman Society as one of the "Top 50" Catholic High Schools in the nation! The Capstone Seminar is also stronger! We have more students in the course this year and students have started the year off with excellent conversations. This semester we will read: "On the Reading of Old Books" - C.S. Lewis (NOW DONE) De Incarnatione (On the Incarnation) - St. Athanasius (NOW DONE) The Confessions of Saint Augustine (Currently reading) The Rule of Saint Benedict The Consolation of Philosophy - Boethius Proslogium / Fides Quaerens Intellectum (Faith Seeking Understanding) - St. Anselm "Treatise on Law" (from the Summa) - St. Thomas Aquinas Please check back for more updates soon! -Capstone Faculty Mr. Blonigen Mr. DeJak Mr. Adkins

Capstone Summer Dinner

Saint Agnes School's annual Red & White Benefit Dinner offered an evening of edification whereby Capstone teachers Mr. John DeJak, Mr. Fred Blonigen and Mr. Michael Adkins prepared and served an Austrian themed meal. Dr. DeJak prepared the entire dinner from scratch, revealing his culinary prowess. We were graced with the presence of Fr. Mark Moriarty, new Pastor and Superintendent of Saint Agnes! Fr. Moriarty was doing some last-minute moving and we had an extra plate of veal for him. He began his tenure as Pastor of the Church of Saint Agnes on Sunday, July 1st. We are very excited and blessed to have him. Many thanks to all who attended!

"The Ethics of Elfland"

It is a great joy to read G.K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy with our seniors.

Today we discussed Chapter IV: "The Ethics of Elfland" which is quite possibly one of the richest 20 pages of non-fiction text one may ever encounter. One will find himself pleasantly surprised, laughing, agreeing, imagining, remembering, nodding and feeling an overwhelming gratitude toward God and His goodness.

I found myself on the verge of tears: tears of sadness for those who have lost - or are in danger of completely losing - the wonder of childhood (people like me!), that wonder which allows us to see the world as it is: a fairytale (e.g. "God chose to paint the grass green and the sky... well, He's changing it all the time!" vs. "Photosynthesis, a very predictable and knowable scientific process, has caused the grass to be green through..."); and tears of joy at Chesterton's golden line: "...perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony" (pg. 65 of the Ignatius Press edition).

The chapter reminds me of the wonderment of my own little ones and how I'm often "so busy" and serious about the work of the house or my school work... I have no time to stare at the moon with two-year-old Jude! No, Jude's right: work can wait; gazing at the moon for this fleeting moment cannot.

It is fun to see you, dear seniors, mull Chesterton's words of wisdom. Only he can say such things as:

"Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors."

"Fairyland is nothing but the sunny country of common sense."

"The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical encore."

Memorabilia

 

Everything's Amazing & Nobody's Happy (a commentary on our culture)

This video is absolutely hilarious [pardon the brusque expression at the end]!  File it under "Our Dumb Culture"!

"I told him his name was in the ledger too."

While at brunch we were amazed to meet and greet Tony Mockus, an actor who has played in several famous movies and is a parishioner of St. John Cantius.

This is a memorable scene where he plays the judge in "The Untouchables", a Chicago mob classic about Al Capone and Eliott Ness.  Click on the You Tube image to view...

Mr. Adkins and Tony Mockus

Mrs. Houghton and Tony Mockus

Chicago Trip Installment 1: How to Pass the Time on the Train

In order to prepare for the trip to Chicago via train (especially during this season of Advent), I submit to you the following training video. I expect all to pass the time thusly, especially between St. Paul and Milwaukee.