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Teachers are the experts in the virtue of hope. Any virtue is a gift from God that makes a person good. Hope is the certainty of God’s loving presence even when it looks as if He is missing. Hope has its payoff in the future. A teacher at any level on the educational ladder does his or her work and hopes that the content, the value, and the care in which the lesson is wrapped all will take deep root in the mind, heart, and soul of the student. I was a teacher for a dozen years, a high school teacher at Quigley Seminary North. I taught speech and I was the dean of students or disciplinarian. That means I taught teen aged boys to talk, then I told them to shut up! Within the past month, I talked to one who teaches at Quigley himself while serving as a priest at a parish where I once worked; I spoke with another, also a priest, who is the Vicar General of the Diocese of Ft. Worth; I saw one who has been a cop for nearly twenty years (I taught a lot of cops); I met another who is principal of a school; another visited the Cathedral on a summer trip from his home, family, and business in California. In the next several weeks, I’ll officiate at two of my students’ weddings – one here at Holy Name for a Cathedral regular and the other for a career Marine getting married at St. Joseph’s in Old Town. The seeds of hope that I used in teaching have blossomed strong and beautiful. This week the faculty of the Frances Xavier Warde School gathers again to begin another school year. Frances Xavier Warde is a Catholic elementary school with a terrific tradition of academic excellence that relies on the diversity of its families to help the students reach a rich maturity in their years at FXW. Pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classes are taught on both campuses – Holy Name and the west Loop’s Old St. Patrick parish. 1st through 4th graders go to St. Pat’s; the 5th through 8th graders are here. There will be over 700 students at FXW this coming year. We welcome Mary Reiling, a veteran educator with a variety of experience in Atlanta and in Cleveland; Mary takes over the leadership role as Head of School. This week we welcome back some real masters in working with that virtue of hope – the Frances Xavier Warde teachers. There are great teachers on this faculty. I enjoy watching them work. They remind me daily that the virtue of hope is alive in every Christian heart. The FXW teachers will give their gift of hope and all kinds of additional virtues to the students in their care. Holy Name Cathedral welcomes back the faculty of the Frances Xavier Warde School. Hurricane Katrina was the costliest and one of the deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States. It was the sixth-strongest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded and the third-strongest land-falling U.S. hurricane ever recorded. It formed over the Bahamas a year ago on August 23 and crossed southern Florida as a moderate Category 1 hurricane before strengthening rapidly in the Gulf of Mexico and becoming one of the fiercest hurricanes ever recorded in the Gulf. The storm weakened considerably before making its second and third landfalls as a Category 3 storm on the morning of August 29 in southeast Louisiana and at the Louisiana/Mississippi state line. Last fall, Catholics across the United States took up an emergency collection sponsored by Catholic Relief Services addressing the tremendous human need. Earlier this summer, Holy Name Cathedral participated in a Catholic Extension project which matched us with St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans and raised funds to repair the Cathedral itself. Now the National Conference of Catholic Bishops has asked all American Catholics to help get the Catholic Churches, schools, social services, and other institutions back on their feet in both the Archdiocese of New Orleans and the Diocese of Biloxi. A year later, the devastation remains obvious and cripples the Church. Next weekend at Holy Name Cathedral, we will pass a second basket after Communion at all Masses and will send our money along with funds collected at the other Catholic Churches of Chicago to our Catholic friends in those two ravaged parts of Christ’s vineyard. Please be generous in next weekend’s second collection. An old teaching buddy sent me several “notes to God” written by little ones and posted on the internet. Dear God, Instead of letting people die and having to make new ones, why don’t you just keep the ones you got now? Jane Dear God, I went to this wedding and they kissed right in Church. Is that OK? Neil Dear God, I think about you sometimes even when I’m not praying. Elliott Dear God, I’m an American. What are you? Robert Dear God, Thanks for the baby brother. But what I prayed for was a puppy. Joyce Dear God, I think the stapler is one of your greatest inventions. Ruth Dear God, Please put another holiday between Christmas and Easter. There’s nothing good there now. Ginny Dear God, We read that Thomas Edison made light. But in Sunday School, they said you did it. So I bet he stoled your idea. Donna Dear God, Maybe Cain and Abel would not kill each other so much if they had their own rooms. It works with my brother. Larry Dear God, I bet it’s very hard to love all of everybody in the world. There are only 4 people in our family and I can never do it. Nan Francis Cardinal George continues his recovery from bladder cancer surgery. He was released from Loyola Hospital and returned last week to his Lincoln Park home. Get-well wishes and prayers can be extended most easily through the Archdiocesan website, www.archchicago.org. Keep the Cardinal and the Archdiocese in your daily prayers. Fr. Dan Mayall |
