The Lyceum Letter

THE LYCEUM LETTER Newsletter Vol. VI No. 1 ~ Verum Bonum Pulchrum ~ Winter 2008/2009 Puer Natus in Bethlehem Commencement Speech 2008 Articles Alleluia! The Lyceum was honored to have Professor Andrew st Page One: Trew as Commencement Speaker last May 31 2008. Letter from Dear Friends, As a professor of Bioethics at St. Mary Seminary & The Headmaster Graduate School of Theology and at John Carroll Mark Langley– May we at the Lyceum wish you University. Professor Trew’s commencement speech dealt “Puer Natus” a joy filled Christmas and may head-on with the significance of a Catholic classical Page One: the Christ Child born in education for today's student, who will be confronted with Andrew Trew Bethlehem shed abundant blessings on you in increasingly complex life and death questions. His speech Commencement the new year. Speech demonstrates the critical need for all students to prepare themselves through the wisdom of the church, the writings Page Four Looking back over the last month at The of St. Thomas Aquinas and the philosophy and Ethics News and Notes Lyceum, I must tell you that the season of of Aristotle so that they might become effective guardians Advent is a favorite Page Five and champions of the culture PSAT around the school. of life. We have reprinted it Outstanding Scores Despite the threat of in whole below. looming exams Page Eleven Introducing The (appropriate to the As you graduate today Trustees joyfully penitential nature from the Lyceum, allow of the season!), Lyceum me a few minutes to students, and indeed encourage you on your every student who is the way to the next stage of beneficiary of Western your life. Always be Christian civilization, joyful in your Catholic Faculty knows that the Joy of the faith. Be thankful for The Class of 2008 Mr. Vincent Benander Christmas Holidays are the strength and for the Mrs. Jeanette Flood imminent. inspiration that your education here at the Mrs. Jean Henderson Lyceum will provide you in your journey Mr. Mark Langley Every morning, Lyceum students and faculty Miss Caitlyn Murphy through life. Carry with you the strength of Mr. Edward Smith gather in the central hall, the “Giovanni” as Truth. Particularly value integration of Dr. William Waters we call it, and pray together for about 15 Knowledge. You have studied the ‘best that minutes. The leader chants in Latin Deus in has been thought adiutorium meum intende (O God, come to my Board of Trustees or said’ from assistance!) to which the students respond classical times to Michael Dosen Domine ad adiuvandum me festina (O Lord, make Mark Langley our present Todd Montazzoli haste to help me!) Then two Psalms are century. You Henry Peyrebrune recited, alternating between girls and boys, Dennis Rowinski know how to Mark Tripodi one Psalm in Latin and one in English. Fr. John Wessel think about Students grow accustomed to the rhythm of issues, how to the psalms and to the changes of the liturgical reason and year. Every Friday, Psalm 50 is recited Miserere evaluate an Mei Deus– and so Fridays always begin on a argument The Lyceum: penitential note. But lest things get too “To Form Liberally effectively. Most Educated Catholic melancholic after reciting a long penitential of all, you have Ladies and Gentlemen.” Psalm, our “Liturgy of the Hours” text always come to know the gives us the option to recite Psalm Teresa Shumay ‘09 as Luciana (Continued on page 2) and Clare Hogan ‘08 as (Continued on page 4) Adrianna in A Comedy of Errors 100 Jubilate Deo, (more popularly Somehow, although recited every sung under the title “Holy God we day of the school year, Morning praise thy Name”). Afterwards we Prayer with the students never listen to a reading from the gospel grows old. I always trust that for the day or some other reading God is delighted by the prayers especially from St. Paul. Then The of His students, and I always Lord’s Prayer is chanted according imagine that many blessings to the ancient mode (Pater Noster, come through these prayers. Qui Es in Coelis...) A Catholic school ought to At last we pray for everyone in our begin each day with prayer– and community that needs our prayers I know that the students all sense or for whom we are thankful. We that even if there are difficult pray for the Pope and our Bishop. classes or unfinished homework We pray for priests and assignments or other difficulties, religious. We pray for our country, at least we can enjoy a time of that God will shed grace on all peace by praying together as a three branches of government and school. Peace, or the “tranquility bless us with leaders who of order” as Saint Augustine understand the sanctity of human defines it, is clearly a natural life-and will therefore promote result of the formulaic nature of Professor Andrew Trew legislation protecting especially the these beautifully written prayers. pray with us for our needs– and will, unborn but also for all who cannot There is a sense that not only the in turn, pray for us when we ourselves defend themselves. We pray for prayers in the liturgy of the hours are are in need. It is also a great our parents and grandparents. We beautifully written but are also consolation to those of us who would pray that God will bless our arranged in a fitting order. like to help others who are sick or benefactors and anyone who has Quite often this communal school suffering but don’t know what we can asked us for our prayers. We do do– and so we pray for them. not finish without including a prayer provides an opportunity for prayer for the holy souls in someone who has a special intention A Catholic School, naturally, purgatory especially any soul that to invite the whole school celebrates the liturgical year of the might have been forgotten. community to pray for that intention. church, celebrating Advent, It is uplifting to know that others will Christmas, Lent and Easter and the weeks of Pentecost, and of course all major feast days—even making as much as possible of each particular saint whose day the church celebrates. Thus, we help to inculcate in the students a Catholic sense of time. Our prayer reflects the changing liturgical seasons. We sing Rorate Coeli in Advent, Puer Natus at Christmastide, Parce and Attende Domine in Lent, Regina Coeli in Easter, Veni Sancte Spiritus in Pentecost and Alleluia in ordinary time. We do our best to live in accordance with the calendar of the church. Because Holy Days are school holidays, students might become a little annoyed when a Holy day of obligation happens to fall on a Sunday. The Class of 2008: Megan Dougherty, Michael Stack, Elizabeth McFadden, Clare Hogan 2 (Continued on page 3) Each day the Church celebrates the life into learning Latin even while they of some particular saint, and so we, at are praying! Well, we should deny The Lyceum, try to acknowledge that by this suspicion if it ever be voiced. a short reading about his life. There is Nonetheless, one might suspect something very compelling in these daily that praying in Latin regularly has readings. Perhaps it finally occurs to one helped more than one student to hearing these stories to ask himself “if all answer a tricky test question or these diverse men and women, young two— not to mention the power it and old, rich and poor, became saints– has of solidifying a student’s then… why not me?” In any case, if we vocabulary—or it might even aid are meant to build a relationship with the him to remember certain tricky members of the “Church Triumphant,” forms. (e.g. in the famous prayer to it makes sense that we ought, at least, try Our Lady, Memorare is really the to find out something about each one. imperative singular of a deponent And when a particular feast day returns verb as opposed to the present the following year, we can greet the saint active infinitive- which it might whose day it is as an old friend. appear to be to a non-praying student!) Philip Tarr ‘10 as Antipholus The regular recitation of prayers in Latin, especially the Psalms, but also the regular Then, of course, there is the hearing of the short readings from continual question of whether to scripture in Latin help students to pronounce the Latin in the pagan At The Lyceum, we always end our participate in the Life of the Church in classical manner of Cicero, or the Morning Prayer with an invocation an even deeper way. Fortunately our Ecclesiastical fashion of the to “Our Lady, Seat of Wisdom.” texts provide a side by side translation of Church. To us the answer is What more appropriate prayer for the texts, but it does not take long for a obvious. A Catholic school ought intercession can there be for diligent Latin student to be able to piece to prefer the pronunciation of students than to call upon the together a great deal without the Vicissim as “Vi- CHI-sim” and not Mother of God daily, through the translations. When a student asks us why “We KISS him,” as Mr. Chips obedience of whom, Wisdom itself we say the prayers in Latin, we may explained to the headmaster of entered the world and became reply, “So that Our Lord does not need Brookfield Academy. (incidentally, man? And so we conclude, Mary to have our prayers translated.” But even we highly recommend the original Mother of God and Seat of if English is not Our Lord’s first 1939 “Goodbye Mr.

Load more