Fortibus Parentibus - September 2014 Issue

Fortibus Parentibus

TO THE BRAVE PARENTS

News Year 3 Students Meditate on the Virtue of Order

“St. Josemaria giving a meditation.”

Roses to our Mother The PAREF Northfield community celebrated the birthday of our Lady and Mother Mary last 8th of September by the singing of the Salve Regina after the Mass, and the praying of the Rosary per class during their Religion period. Our Year 5 boys, the graduating batch prayed it in style this time, as each brought a rose for the occasion.

Each handed these individually facing the image of our Lady in their classroom. Rose per rose were offered as they took turns in the recitation of the Litany of the Blessed Virgin.

Photo by Mr. Rommel Trinidad

As the second quarter opened its doors to a new focus in our Brave Students’ Formation—the virtue of Order—the Year 3 students, in collaboration with the Chaplaincy and the class religion teacher, were this year’s first high school batch to attend a Meditation. Entitled “virtue without order, strange virtue”, the 15-minute time of prayer with the help of the preaching of a priest is one of the formative activities now offered in our School. The students considered order in their thoughts, their priorities, and some practical pointers to live material order at home and in school. The Personal Formation Office and the Religion teachers eye to organize the same for all year levels.

September 2014 Newsletter

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Fortibus Parentibus Bishop Alvaro’s Words to Parents, Devotion A homage to Alvaro Del Portillo in NFD wareness of the life, preaching and A writings of soon-to-be-blessed Alvaro is the theme of this year’s Religion

Month of September. The wall of the campus has been newly-decorated each week to highlight his life of prayer, his love for the Church, his social concern, and other human but holy aspects of his life, finding in him a role-model for the PAREF-Northfield community. Some classes are planning to create comic strips, flyers and posters about him.

band wants to do another thing and so you keep quiet with what you were thinking before. And you tell your husband: “Hey, why don’t we do this thing?”, that one which you know he wants to do. And he is very happy.

You have done this so many times. The husbands with their wives. The wives with their husbands. And this is a blessing from God. And so, living the conjugal love as our Lord has wanted it so, you become united in soul.

Bishop Alvaro (or Don Alvaro) was the successor of St Josemaria, founder of Opus Dei. He will be beatified (a step to become proclaimed a Saint in the Church) in Madrid on the 27th of this month. The ceremony would be attended by some of our parents and students.

This year is actually the centenary of his birth on earth and the 20th of his transit to heaven. He died on March 23, 1994, three months before our School started its very first academic year. From heaven, he has seen PAREF-Northfield grow, and most likely, he has interceded to God for many of us. As NFD pays homage to the man, Fortibus Parentibus follows through last month’s issue that featured his parents’ example, by this time letting him ‘talk’ to our parents about marriage and the family: Take care of your marriage!

Matrimony is no obstacle, but rather a way, to holiness. There you will find the path God has marked out for you to grow in divine love. Your human conjugal affection is raised to the supernatural plane of charity and is love for God. (Like Salt and Like Light, 169) Your ‘school’ is a lot better than any other!

Marriage is a school of virtues, of self-giving, of generosity, and of humility.

How many times you may have guessed that your husband has a concrete plan— for example, in the weekend—and you would have thought of another. Yet since love is deep and allows us to guess everything, you have learned that your hus-

You vibrate in unison. And this leads you to love God. It moves the husband to help the wife to be better, and the wife for the husband. Ever since you have received the Sacrament of Matrimony, you have a special grace, a sacramental grace. Since then God is with the spouses ineffably—in a mysterious way— when they love each other. They do love each other when they understand each other. At times, it would be difficult, but they have to, because love is in understanding, more than in giving. It is in understanding that the spouse has a right to have defects, and while these defects are not an offense against God, one has to love the other as he or she is, with the defects.

(Like Salt and Like Light, 170)

What our NFD boys want from you: your example; their education – your most important business The role of example is crucial in the education of children. John Paul II has commented about his own father: “My father was admirable, and almost all the memories of my childhood and adolescence are connected with him...The mere fact of seeing him on his knees had a decisive influence on my early years. He was so hard on himself that he had no need to be hard on his son; his example alone was sufficient to inculcate discipline and a sense of duty” (André Frossard, Be Not Afraid, p. 14). And Cardinal Luciani - later

parents become friends with their children; if children always can open their hearts trustingly to their parents when troubles of any kind crop up. St. Thomas More wrote: “When I have returned home, I must talk with my wife, chat with my children, and confer with my servants. All this activity I count as business when it must be done-and it must be, unless you want to be a stranger in your own home. Besides, one must take care to be as agreeable as possible to those whom nature has supplied, or chance has made, or you yourself have chosen, to be the companions of your life” (St. Thomas More, Utopia).

painting courtesy of celso pepito.

True, the frantic pace of modern times does not seem to foster this calm dedication to children. We have more and more of everything, except time for others. There is a risk that parents may be devoured by work, even though it is done for the sake of their children’s future. But their future well-being depends a lot more on the time parents have generously given rather than on the material comfort provided. Children do not complain so much of not having been given this or that by their parents, as of parents who have not given themselves to the family. (“Light, Salt, and Leaven”: Lay people’s role in the Church’s mission, from josemariaescriva.info) To Young Parents: Be Brave!

John Paul I - wrote: “In reality, the first book of religion that children read is the parents themselves. It is a good thing if the father says to the boy: ‘There is a monk confessor at church, don’t you think you could take advantage of the opportunity?’ Better still if he says: ‘I’m going to church, to Confession; do you want to come along?’” (Illustrissimi: Letters from Pope John Paul 1, p. 223). Example given in all circumstances - loyalty to friends, work habits, sobriety and temperance, joy in adversity, concern for others, generosity - are engraved forever in the children’s hearts.

Then, parents must give generous attention to their children’s education. The founder of Opus Dei used to tell business people: “The most important business you have is raising your children well.” This will come about if

Our Lord delights in large families, which are more necessary today than ever. […] Ask our Lord to bless you with a crown of children, to bring them up as good children of God. As a reward for your generosity, God will see to it that each one of them will try to emulate the healthy cheerfulness and unselfishness of people with an upright conscience, such as they have seen in their parents’ lives.

They will then be ready to respond to what God may ask of them, and they will be your best credentials for entering heaven.

(Like Salt and Like Light, 178) To learn more about Don Alvaro, please visit the page: facebook. com/alvarodelportillodaily

Fortibus Parentibus

The Beatification of

Alvaro del Portillo watch the live coverage at ewtn channel from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. on september 27.

Don Alvaro visits the Philippines in 1987.