May 2013 Volume Twenty-Two Number 9
Dear Parents and Guardians,
I wrote my previous letter to you, if you recall (and let’s be honest, why would you?), without benefit of knowing that Cardinal Bergoglio would be elected leader of the Universal Church on March 13, 2013 and make the novel and refreshing decision (the first of many to follow) to call himself Pope Francis. In the six weeks that have followed, Spring finally arrived in the Delaware Valley. So many trees on campus were, for a brief period of time, a riot of white or pink flowers, the petals now mostly carpeting the ground. As I prepare my last letter for the 2012-13 Belcroft, I can hardly believe it has been nearly a year since I arrived at La Salle. If you are a first-time freshman parent, I am sure you are thinking much the same thing. If you are the parent of a graduating senior, particularly an only or a final son, I have no doubt the sentiment gets echoed in an even more intense fashion. These seemingly random musings connect, actually, when you think back on one of the endless series of legends concerning Saint Francis. While wandering the Umbrian countryside with his fledgling friars, Francis came across a bare almond tree. He invited, “Almond tree, speak to me of God.” And it blossomed.
As you look back on this year or these four years, I hope you discern some very clear ways in which your son has blossomed. Recall the nervous child you sent off, number two pencils in hand, for the entrance examination in December of his eighth grade year. Recall the boy you let off before that strange blue covered walk we call a loggia being greeted by seniors and administrators, the musical fanfare barely drowning out your anxious prayer that this choice be right for him. Consider the young man who sits across the table from you on occasion now, progressively more poised, articulate, engaging, humorous, responsible, grounded, and comfortable in his own skin – more accomplished, in short. Does not this transformation speak to us of God, perhaps more compellingly than anything else in our experience? And the great thing is, such a blooming lasts not a week, but a lifetime. I had the privilege to participate as an adult leader in Kairos 37-92 last week. There I saw more clearly than in any other experience this year how God uses La Salle to create those Men of Integrity and Respect, Faith and Compassion that we say our graduates will be – particularly Men of Compassion, the root, as we know, of all other moral virtues. Let us thank God as this year comes to an end for the providential care he shows for your sons, our students, for the explosion of color and design that resulted since they were invited to blossom here at La Salle. Fraternally,
Brother James L. Butler, FSC President