Hi, Debbie! I got an email yesterday from Debbie Gordon (teacher at San Miguel; first one on left in picture). It was great to know that I'm not the only one reading my blog. Hahahaha. Anyway, Debbie, San Miguel is blessed to have you! I hope Debbie does not mind, but I wanted to share part of her email: "I so enjoy working for the Brothers. It’s taken me 23 years to find the “right” school...I feel that God does have a place for me at SMHS and that he led me there. I feel so at home and I feel that I am growing spiritually."
I must reiterate San Miguel is a powerful place!
Yesterday (Wed., June 20), began with us making it to the correct mass this time at St. Paul's Parish. St. Paul's is about 15 minutes from the Brothers' Community. After mass, we headed home where I had some coffee and toast and even read the paper! It's unusual I do anything besides grab coffee and run out the door. However, one of my goals is to establish healthy patterns.
There was much "academic" work to do so I quickly turned to that. Currently, I am reading four books as part of my preparation for the novitiate. The Work is Yours: The Life of St. John Baptist de La Salle, United States Catholic Catechism for Adults, Traits of a Healthy Spirituality, and Becoming Who You Are. I have not begun the last two yet. However, I must say Br. Luke Salm's The Work is Yours is a powerful book looking at all he and the early Brothers went through in establishing the Institute. One of the recent things I found interesting is all the complaints and lawsuits against De La Salle for doing what he was doing. He was made to close schools, furniture was confiscated, and basically it was illegal to educate in the manner he was educating. Yet, in his own quiet way he persisted with a firm belief that if it is God's work, it cannot fail. What faith!
Anyways, I spent Wednesday morning blogging and reading. After becoming more indoctrinated, I headed over to the school. I basically spent a couple of hours there preparing for my presentation to the Board of Trustees on Friday. I was asked to focus on my journey and its connection to the Lasallian world.
After lunch and a little TV, Br. Dat and I sat down to discuss the first chapter of the Catechism. Chapter 1 discussed "The Universal Desire for God" where there are 3 paths through which every person can come to God: creation, the human person, and Revelation. It describes God as an intelligent, wise, and eternal Creator. We also discussed Thomas Aquinas' views.
Here are a couple of "did you knows" from what I read in the Catechism for Adults.
Doctrinal Statements on longing for God:
- God has planted in every human heart the hunger and longing for the infinite--for nothing less than himself.
- Only in God will we find the truth, peace, and happiness for which we never stop searching. Created in God's image, we are called to know and love the Lord.
- God can be known with certainty from his works in creation and from the spiritual nature of the human person by the light of natural reason, although there are many difficulties in coming to knowledge because of humanity's historical and sinful conditions.
- By our openness to goodness and truth, our experience, our sense of moral goodness, our listening to the voice of conscience, and our desire for happiness, we can discern our spiritual soul and can come to see that this could only have its origin in God.
- We can speak of God even if our limited language cannot exhaust the mystery of who he is.
- While we can come to know something about God by our natural power of reason, there is a deeper knowledge of God that comes to us through Divine Revelation.
After our session, I finally got to doing some laundry, reading some more of House on Mango Street, and worked on some details for the Lasallian Leadership Conference in July at St. Mary's College. 11 students from San Miguel will attend.
Wednesday evening we were invited to attend a potluck at a parish in the next town over, Selah. Our Lady of Lourdes holds a weekly potluck. It was nice to continue to explore the community, and realize how different people are here. I must say it was a very good potluck though. Selah is only about 25 minutes from the community. That's me in Selah!When we returned home I did some more reading. I want to make sure I stay on top of things. Since San Miguel has one of the prayer services at the Lasallian Leadership Conference, I put together a rubric for the students to use as they put the prayer service together. Finally, I concluded the night my putting some finishing touches on the powerpoint for the Board meeting.
Another day in the Northwest!
