Volume 1, No. 1 Lent 2021 Magister To reverence truth, desire goodness, and rejoice in beauty. Bulletin of the Gilbertine Institute Gilbertine Academy, Holy House & WISDOM 2 Magister Why Magister? Magister is a Latin word which can mean a rabbi, teacher, master, or the pilot of a ship. It brings to mind first of all One who was called “Rabbi”, “Teacher”, and “Master”: Jesus Christ. Magister was also the title most commonly given to St. Gilbert of Sempringham as the first Master, or Magister, of the Gilbertine Order. Finally, the word magister pays homage to St. John Henry Newman, that great teacher in the Anglican Catholic patrimony, and to all the great teachers of the Faith through the centuries. Truly, as Newman himself wrote in the introduction to The Idea of a University, “[w]e have a goodly inheritance.” Magister is intended to be both a bulletin and a devotional, published several times a year in preparation for the Ember Days, for the benefactors of the Gilbertine Institute, Gilbertine Academy and Holy House; to communicate by prayer and supplication, to provide news with thanksgiving, so that we may make our requests known unto God (cf. Philippians 4:6). PLEASE JOIN THE INSTITUTE IN PRAYER FOR THE LENTEN 2021 EMBER DAYS: • Wednesday, February 24 • Friday, February 26 • Saturday, February 27 N 3 Ab Clero Fr. Robert-Chas. Bengry GSmp Parish Priest, St. John the Evangelist & Chair of the Gilbertine Institute. (403)-265-5072 fall through the cracks today and are ill equipped to meet the challenges they have ahead of them. Too many fall victim to addictions, unhealthy relationships and too many lose their faith. If we are to make a difference in the world, we must start at home with our own children and give them an education worthy of the Christian heritage we seek to hand on. St. Gilbert of Sempringham has largely been forgotten. He was an English clergyman of the twelfth century. He was a teacher of children— boys and girls. He established the only Medieval Religious Order indigenous to the British Isles; a four-fold community of Nuns, Sisters, Brothers and Priests. St. Gilbert’s monasteries persisted for four hundred years until the brutal suppressions of King Henry VIII during the English Reformation. The Order would die. Gilbert’s work too would fade: he left no great architecture, no great libraries… no great art or music. No great writings. Only a legacy of holiness both of he himself and of his spiritual t is no exaggeration to say that one of my children. But that Gilbertine fingerprint and Igreatest joys in my priestly life has been echo, even five centuries later, can still be found the foundation of the Gilbertine Institute and in the spirituality preserved in the Prayer Book the associated programmes which facilitate the tradition of the Anglican Church (now united to education of young people. So many children the Catholic Church). It can be discovered in the 4 love of education, it can be found in the seeking of a personal holiness through authentic Christian discipleship. The Gilbertine spirit can be found where we seek to build up our young people in faith, hope and love and help them to bloom where they’re planted. Your friendship, prayers and support for the Gilbertine Institute are most appreciated. It is my hope that this organ of the Institute will be a tool for our mutual enrichment as we seek to educate and equip our young people towards a dynamic and life-long Christian discipleship. Gilbert, when his young brothers and priests were wearied by a long journey, appeared to them in a dream saying “Do not be sad my son, or distress yourself too much, because the work is accomplished—it is accomplished—it is accomplished.” The Brothers woke with a renewed vigour and finished their journey and successfully completed the tasks they had ahead of them. We too must remember that everything we set out to ST. GILBERT OF SEMPRINGHAM do in our work is similarly accomplished, because with Jesus Christ, all the big things are already taken care of. And so, let us step out boldly together with good courage as we seek to bring manifold riches to our children and young people. INTENTIONS: • Please, in your charity, pray for children who do not have access to a stable home and a good education. Vouchsafe, O Lord, to prosper with Thy blessing the work of the Gilbertine Institute. Grant that all who serve Thee, may set Thy holy will ever before them, and do that which is well-pleasing in Thy sight, so all may be bettered, and they themselves may finally attain to Thy perfect service, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 5 THEGILBERTINE INSTITUTE Paul Blakeney Vice Chair of the Board of Directors gilbertineinstitute.com Our purpose for the Gilbertine Institute is to cultivate the tree of joy, flip these values and priorities right-side up and harvest good fruit. This means that we teach children and ourselves to pray and love God, to practice virtue and learn about the truth of creation as God made it. For the desires and petitions of our hearts are nothing less than the flourishing of every child in this life and the next. n Evening Prayer we read from St. John IChrysostom: “...Fulfill now, O Lord, the desires and petitions of thy servants, as may be most expedient for them…”(bcp p.35). Yet trusting God is difficult when we do not know what is expedient for us. The world is in a terrible state because people have cultivated the tree of sadness by learning and accepting bad ideas and flipping our values and priorities upside down. None can ignore the taste of these bitter fruits. INTENTIONS: • That the Gilbertine Institute may trust God and be a handmaid for the building up of the Kingdom as may be most expedient. Teach us, good Lord, to serve thee as thou deservest; to give and not to count the cost; to fight and not to heed the wounds; to toil and not to look for rest; to labour and not to seek for any reward, save that of knowing that we do thy will. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 6 HEAD OF SCHOOL Deacon Kenneth Noster H Head of School & Principal H [email protected] 587-579-7810 learly, providing education is of extreme and discouraged, while too much support can draw Cimportance, and it is principally the work of parents into depending so much on professionals as parents. St. John Paul II reminds us of what the to diminish their own much-needed role. Church teaches: ... parents must be acknowledged as Unique in its conception and in its practice, and the first and foremost educators of their children. Their recognizing that families vary in their needs, The role as educators is so decisive that scarcely anything can Gilbertine Institute provides support to parents in compensate for their failure in it. “Ouch,” say most three distinct ways. parents as they reflect upon their shortcomings: perhaps mistakes, neglects, overcompensations, or Our WISDOM staff, themselves home schoolers, discipline that is too firm. Unfortunately, attention are personally engaged and committed to the rich to failure usually takes precedence and many parents, family life provided by home education. They have intimidated by their sense of defeat, are easily drawn into delegating the education of their children to professionals. St. John Paul had something to say about that as well: The right and duty of parents to give education is essential...and it is irreplaceable and inalienable, and therefore incapable of being entirely delegated to others or usurped by others. The Church and society have a duty to provide support to parents in their role as educators, but what all too often happens is that parents are simply replaced. The express reason for the existence of The Gilbertine Institute is the support of parents in their irreplaceable and inalienable role. This is not merely rhetoric but practice, and every initiative of the Institute walks the fine line of avoiding two extremes: the extreme of providing insufficient support to parents and the extreme of providing too much. Insufficient support can leave parents struggling Peter Vilhelm Ilsted 7 HEAD OF SCHOOL Deacon Kenneth Noster, Head of School & Principal experienced the struggles in their own homes, and held fallacy that an adult cannot bring significant they bear witness to the victories. They strive to value to a conversation without knowing the content engage and encourage parents while not stepping in of the subject. This fallacy will be debunked at the and doing too much, and home schooling thrives. Gilbertine Academy. Parents, whether proficient in the subject or not will, by merit of their maturity Holy House is a house of prayer where, two to and life experience, engage and magnify dialogue three times per week, each day’s liturgy becomes with their children and the community as a whole. the cradle within which learning finds its true Add to this the opportunities to read and discuss perspective. Students experience the centrality of common texts, and the role of parents in the high their faith in all things, as parents and staff share the school education of their children will prove to be responsibility for teaching, praying, and celebrating of eminent value. in community. Walking the fine line of avoiding two extremes The Gilbertine Academy also is a house of prayer, is not easy and there will be times when we fail, and high school students engage in rigorous academic but knowing that the line exists and that our task study in the context of their faith and their eternal of maintaining it is guaranteed to be difficult, life.