OLG alumni lead teacher in-service
Diego DeLeon and Vanessa Echavarria, 2010 graduates of Our Lady of Guadalupe school in Houston, returned to their alma mater last week to lead a team-building exercise for teachers during their in-service. Among those who took part? Fr. Wojciech Adamczyk, SCJ, OLG pastor, who is pictured above creating art with school staff in the OLG gymnasium.
Continued school openings
Fr. Richard Woodbury, SCJ, wrote to say that Séminaire du Sacré Coeur in Quebec began to open its doors last week. “We resumed school last Monday with the arrival of the personnel,” wrote Fr. Richard. The students’ return is staggered by class. “We hope that COVID-19 will give us a break and let us have a fairly normal school year, but we are ready if we need to adapt.”
In Mississippi, parents of students of Sacred Heart School in Southaven were given the option of either in-person or remote learning for their children. Approximately 75% of the student body is starting the year on-site. At Holy Family School in Holly Springs, the school year also begins with a mix of in-person and remote learning.
“The first day of school looked and sounded a lot different than in previous years for the children at Holy Family School,” wrote Laura Grisham, communications director for Sacred Heart Southern Missions. “Typically on the first day of class, especially for younger students, parents would walk their kids to their classrooms. Due to new guidelines, however, that was not possible as school began this year. In a scene that will play out on a daily basis for the foreseeable future, students’ temperatures were taken before they entered the building for their first day of school; many waving good-bye at the front door.”
Floors of the school halls are labeled with stickers to help students keep a safe distance from one another. “We have to make it as easy as possible for children to follow social distancing,” said Holy Family Principal Tunia Sangster. “The stickers help take the guesswork out for the students.”
Welcome back parade
Staff from every department lined the streets of the St. Joseph’s Indian School campus last Wednesday, to officially welcome back students with a parade. Click here or on the image above to view a short video.
Words of the founder for today
“…Whatever social class he belongs to, every person is endowed not only with a living body but with an intelligent, free, and immortal soul which God alone created, wrote Fr. Leo John Dehon in the Christian Social Manual. “Having come from God, that soul must serve God and return to God.”
“Whether it lives in the body of a mineworker at the bottom of a dark coal pit, or in the body of a rich financier in the gaudy excesses of luxury, it doesn’t matter. In reality, both have the same value. They have equal personal dignity, equal moral responsibility, the same eternal destiny and both have been given an earthly existence in order to strive for immortal life by means of truth, morality, and religion.
“For this reason, every person is deserving of respect and justice; and every person has an essential right to find, here below, the conditions which nourish his intellectual and moral life and religion. He has a right to daily bread for himself and his family. He has a right, equally and even more so, to humane treatment, to an adequate share of education and freedom, and to the opportunity to worship and serve God.”
Click here to read the full quotation from the founder in the August 21 issue of Dehonian Spirituality.
Important publication note: David Schimmel, province director of Dehonian Associates, is preparing for his retirement in October. The August 28 issue of Dehonian Spirituality will be the last edited by him. Click here to access previous issues of the publication.
Newly professed have a new address
When our novices professed their vows, they moved from the novitiate back to Sacred Heart Monastery. Frater Thien Nguyen, SCJ, Frater Thuan Nguyen, SCJ, Frater Hung Pham, SCJ and Frater Truc Tran, SCJ are now at:
Sacred Heart Monastery
P.O. Box 566 (USPS only; use Franklin street address for packages)
Hales Corners, WI 53130
Keep in prayer
Last week Fr. Jim Walters, SCJ, requested prayers for his aunt, Frances Spararo, 87. She was tested for COVID-19 after presenting with symptoms; the test results were negative. Fr. Jim reports that she has since been diagnosed with a bladder infection. Now on antibiotics, she is recovering well. He extends his thanks for prayers and support.
Please remember
Former SCJ Richard Fagon died last week. Several years ago he was diagnosed with acute leukemia. He taught at Kilroe, and is the artist who created the bust of Fr. Leo John Dehon as well as two bas-reliefs and the stations in the Sacred Heart Monastery chapel. He taught art and humanities at Marywood College, Scranton, Pa., and then became Chairman of the Fine Arts Department for Calvert High School in Calvert County, MD, where he received awards as Outstanding Professional Employee of the County and Outstanding Educator in the state of Maryland. In his professional career as a sculptor, he created a wide range of commissions.
Living the vowed life of a religious
Catholic Theological Union is offering an online course titled “The Vowed Life” beginning September 14 and running through December 14. The courses can either be done live via Zoom or at one’s convenience by viewing recordings of the class.
Course description: “The vows of poverty, obedience and celibate chastity are examined in light of their history, theology and contemporary calls. The call of community, prayer and ministry are studied in relationship to the vows. Students will engage these topics in light of charism, contexts, and the call toward interculturality. Join the conversation and audit this course for $600. Participants seeking academic credit and/or auditors who have never attended a course at CTU will be required to complete a brief application for admission.”
The instructor is Sr. Maria Cimperman, a Religious of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She is the author of Religious Life For Our World: Creating Communities of Hope (Orbis, 2020), and co-editor of Engaging Our Diversity: Interculturality and Consecrated Life Today (Orbis, 2020).
Click here to learn more or contact Janet Hoffman at [email protected] or 773-371-5444.
Bird’s-eye view
A member of the Sacred Heart Center staff recently used a drone to take photos of construction progress at the Family Violence Women’s Safe Shelter in Eagle Butte, SD. Work had been delayed by weather and then COVID-19.
“The new facility will have enough space for victims to have their own rooms, including a private bath,” said Greg Fisher, executive director of the Sacred Heart Center. “The common areas will be significantly larger. There will be an indoor play area for the children of victims. In addition, all staff will have private offices. Plus, there will be a conference room as well as a small meeting room which can be used for meetings with victims, such as when a victim needs to meet privately with the police department.” Traditionally, most emergency shelters across the country are not able to house male victims, or a woman who has a teenage son. The new building will have rooms located separate from the main shelter which will allow the center to house these victims.
SCJ performs on music video
Fr. Vincent Suparman, SCJ, superior of the Sacred Heart Community in Pinellas Park, FL, shares a video produced by “Anglung Indonesia,” whose mission is to introduce and promote the Indonesian Angklung to people in the United States, especially Florida. Fr. Vincent (pictured above) is originally from Indonesia. The video was filmed on the Sacred Heart property. Fr. Vincent can be seen at approximately 4:20 into the five-minute video.
The anglung is a musical instrument from West Java, Indonesia, made of a varying number of bamboo tubes attached to a bamboo frame. The tubes are carved to have a resonant pitch when struck and are tuned to octaves, similar to Western handbells. Click here or on the image above to view the video.
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