Denver Catholic

DC_January 27, 2018

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23 DENVER CATHOLIC | JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 9, 2018 Second, Gene Veith Jr. and Andrew Kern pro- vide a more in-depth introduc- tion in Clas- sical Edu- cation: The Movement Sweeping the Nation (Capital Research Center, 3 rd ed., 2015). The authors o„er an ecumenical per- spective, but also note that "Catholic education has always contained a classical element, and today there are a variety of classical forms within the orbit of Catholic education, including home schools, home school cooper- atives, parochial schools, and private schools" (59). As they note, the clas- sical movement has started small and has been building steady momentum. Third, for those interested in a more substantial treatment, Fr. Francis Bethel, O.S.B traces the power of classical education through the life of one impactful teacher, John Senior (John Senior and the Restoration of Realism, Thomas More College Press, 2016). Senior co-founded the Inte- grated Humanities Program at the University of Kansas with the goal of awakening wonder and helping students to open their eyes to real- ity. Fr. Bethel summarizes Senior's education philosophy as "poetic" in that we "must ground all intellectual and e„ective life on the experiential and imaginative level. This concrete way of nourishing Realism underlay everything he taught and the way he taught it." Senior's approach pro- vides a model for classical teaching in grounding education in a direct expe- rience of what is taught. The classical approach provides Catholics an opportunity to rethink education in a time of transition. As many public schools experience fail- ure and Catholics schools continue to close, it may be time to look back into our own tradition in order to move forward in a fresh and creative way. The Catholic tradition o„ers the light of wisdom, described by Aquinas, that can enlighten the minds of our children. For the New Year, a little silence, please L ast year, I spent a raucous New Year's Eve in San Francisco, cel- ebrating with some of my oldest and dearest friends against the back- drop of one of the most exciting cities in the world. This year, I rang in the New Year alone. On my sofa. In my jam- mies. In prayer. It was wonderful. For some reason I felt very drawn to spending this holiday with the Lord, in silence. "Silence" was in fact the theme of my little New Year's party. Not only was my house completely silent, but I spent a good part of the evening reading Cardinal Robert Sar- ah's new book The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise. It's a wonderful book. I am only perhaps 1/3 of the way through it, but I already highly recommend it. It stirred in this extrovert a longing for silence, and a hunch that God may be calling me to more of it in 2018. The good Cardinal wastes no time in getting to the heart of the matter. He begins thus: "There is one great question: how can man really be the image of God? He must enter into silence . . . [w] e encounter God only in the eternal silence in which he abides." As the meditations continue, Car- dinal Sarah makes it clear that this silence is not absence, but "it is the manifestation of a presence, the most intense of all presences." It is in quiet- ing our hearts, in shutting out all of the noise that competes for our attention and our a„ections, that we encounter God, that we hear His voice. And so, how do we do this? Where do we go to find His Presence? Cardinal Sarah says that His Pres- ence is found in particular in the Blessed Sacrament, " where the Pres- ence of all presences awaits us, Jesus in the Eucharist." He goes on to say that we find that Presence in " . . . the houses of God that are our churches, if the priests and the faithful take care to respect their sacred character, so that they do not become museums, theaters, or concert halls, but remain places reserved for prayer and God alone." This hit close to home for me. I crave silence in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. I think part of this is because I have a harder time than most achieving silence in my heart. I am easily distractible. Case in point: I spent a good part of a daily Mass last week wondering if Orange Pledge is safe for use on leather. When it comes to recollection, I need all the help I can get. In a silent church, in silent adora- tion before the Word Made Flesh, I can often feel His presence. St. John Paul II said that "Jesus waits for us in this sacrament of love." That becomes real to me in those quiet moments, where the Tabernacle light reminds me that He is indeed present. Finding that silent church, how- ever, can be easier said than done. We seem to have lost any sense of the church being a sacred place. Rather, the sanctuary has become just another place — for conversation, for texting, even for eating lunch. (Yes, eating lunch. I was praying recently in a small chapel when I heard the rustling of a fast food bag a few pews back. It smelled good. But not the place for it.) So often, before or even long after Mass, we see mostly empty churches with a handful of people focusing on the tabernacle in silent prayer, while one or two conversations about politics or last week's cold snap echo throughout the sanctuary, destroying any hope of recollection. Or people attempt to pray silently, while one or two people take it upon themselves to recite their own personal prayers aloud, again shattering the silence and making personal prayer impossi- ble for anyone else in the space. Of course, finding a place for rec- ollection is easier at a parish with a dedicated adoration chapel — which I hope we all agree should always be places of silent prayer. But not all parishes are so blessed. And as Cath- olics, we believe that our sanctuaries — not just our adoration chapels — are sacred spaces. They house the the body, blood, soul and divinity of the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. He is there, in his physical body. That is why there is a candle perpetually lit next to the Tabernacle — to remind us that this place is di„erent. It is holy ground. A place where — outside of the Mass or organized public prayer events — anyone can come to encoun- ter the God of the universe, in silence. I'd like to challenge you to do what I'm doing in 2018. To seek God in silence — in the silence of your heart, and in the silence of the Tabernacle. And to allow others a space to do the same. Guest Column Bonacci is a syndicated columnist based in Denver and the author of We're On a Mission from God and Real Love. MARY BETH BONACCI The Denver Catholic would like to apolo- gize for misspelling Mother Frances Cabri- ni's name in the 12/23 edition of the paper. We would also like to recognize the role of the Order of the Servites of Mary in the founding and ongoing operations of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Denver. CORRECTIONS

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