Blueletter: March 20th, 2009
Saint Photina (The Samaritan woman at the Well.)
First day of Spring!
WASC VISIT! BEGINS THIS SUNDAY!
Please come this Sunday, from 4:00 – 5:00 PM, in order to participate in the session with the WASC Visiting Team. Since we do not have specific parent “teams”, given our kind of school, we operate using open door and open forums, or as some people call it, “committee of the whole.” Consequently, if we can end up with 25-30 parents, it will be a great representation of the school. Thank you.
(Please bring a snack to share.)
Beauty or a Bum?
A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.
Three minutes went by and a middle-aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule. A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in his case and without stopping continued on. A few minutes later someone leaned against the wall to listen, but looked at his watch and headed off. Clearly he was late for work.
The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year-old boy. His mother tugged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.
In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk at their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition. No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars. Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston, and the seats averaged $100.
This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. The experiment’s outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour? Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context? (Check out the Post’s video.)
Fr. Donlan’s St. Patrick’s Day Sermon: Father preached a two-part homily on:
1. The Gospel – if anyone is holding onto any gripes, shred it. Forgive everyone, NOW!
2. St. Patrick – one man converted many. Those people now have descendents in the hundreds of millions, who all share the Faith! You never know what your efforts will produce – maybe you will be another St. Patrick – so share the Faith boldly and gladly, befriend Catholics and non-Catholics alike, and be Christ to them.
GOLF-A-THON – (The economy is pinching us, we need help!)
We are now over $100 per hole! That is over $10,000, which puts us 1/6th of the way to our goal. Please keep making those calls! Remember: Golfer or not, everyone can do this – you can give the golf a whirl or be a pledge partner, raising pledges for a teacher, or headmaster or one of the two priests that play, or one of the other parents that play. The two things that make me able to pick up the phone and get past the uncomfortableness of “ASKING” is remembering that
1. People give to people and,
2. Everyone gives to charity, so I want to give people a chance to include our charity in their giving. Therefore, I let them know how great the school is (Catholic, family, classical, Top 50, etc.) and our need – especially these days.
Please call the school office at 672-0411 if you have ANY questions. We are over $40 per hole – or $4,000…..not quite 10% of our goal.
March Madness! Basketball Invitational Tournament - St. Augustine basketball will be back in action this weekend, in a
tournament hosted by Coastal Warriors Basketball at the Santa Paula High School gym. The team will play on Saturday to determine their ranking, and then will play on Sunday until they win it all or are eliminated along the way. Games times are Saturday at 11:15 AM, 3 PM and 5 PM. Sunday’s game times will be announced at the conclusion of Saturday’s games.
LENTEN CHARITY DRIVE - Keep filling your Charity Envelopes or jars! “We must love our neighbor as being made in the image of God, and as an object of His love.” And, “It is from your hands that our Lord, in the person of the sick, seeks relief.” St. Vincent de Paul
PRAYER ALERT – ACTION REQUESTED: I will send an email in this regard, later today. The little boy for whom we have been praying, Thomas, age 8, has battled brain cancer since July. He passed away at home yesterday, on the Feast of St. Joseph. As expected, his family is devastated. We would like to collect prayers for the gift of consolation for this family. Mrs. Scanlon will be putting together a Spiritual Bouquet album of prayers and notes. Please send in a page on Monday, or reply to the later email and I will forward them all on to Mrs. Scanlon. Thank you for coming together as part of the Mystical Body of Christ and offering help to this suffering family.
Ora Pro Nobis: For consolation for the W family whose baby, C, died in utero – the funeral was Wednesday. For K, an 18 year old, whose cancer has returned, aggressively. For a MDG student who appears to have cancer. For B, the Ss grandpa, who is recovering from eye surgery. For the soul of little Thomas and for the consolation of his family. For KL’s grandmother, AA, who is dying. For R, A, S and J. For an end to abortion and FOCA. For the continued grace of generous benefactors. We pray for all those who serve our country to protect our freedom. We also thank God for all priests and religious. We pray for one another.