ABOVE ARE VARIOUS WORKS OF IMAGINATION FROM PREP SENIOR ARTISTS. THESE WORKS ARE NOW ON DISPLAY IN THE PREP FOYER.

LAST EVENING I HAD THE PLEASURE OF ATTENDING THE PREP'S "CAPE AND SWORD" PRODUCTION OF "URINETOWN." IT WAS A SPECTACULAR PRODUCTION, A SATIRICAL COMMENTARY ON THE CHALLENGES WE FACE WITH OUR NATURAL RESOURCES. LIKE SOME STYLES OF COMEDY, IT PAINTS A BLACK PICTURE OF HUMAN NATURE. THE MEDIUM, HOWEVER, IS ALWAYS THE MESSAGE AND THE CREATIVITY OF THE ACTORS PUTS THE LIE TO THE PAINTED PICTURE.

OUR PLAYERS FILLED THE STAGE WITH TALENT, ENGAGING THE AUDIENCE IN A FAST PACE FROM BEGINNING TO END.

I ALSO CELEBRATED MASS FOR THE PLAYERS BEFORE THE PERFORMANCE. I HOPE MY WORDS ENCOURAGED THEM IN THEIR SUCCESSFUL EFFORTS.

CAPE AND SWORD MAY 2009 "How fortunate for the Prep community that Cape and Sword blesses us with its masterpieces of imagination. The greatest imagination, Imagination with a capital I, the Imagination of God, creates the world. The imagination of Jesus Christ sustains him in his mission and in his suffering. The imagination of Saint Ignatius of Loyola led him to his friendship in the Lord with thousands of companions in the Jesuits.
First of all: Some of you know from your English classes that the first English poet, the ancestor of all English verse was the poet Caedmon some fourteen hundred years ago. He had a dream in which a man appears to him and says, “Caedmon, sing me something.” And the dream yielded a hymn that is recognized as the first surviving English poem:
“Now we must praise heaven-kingdom’s Guardian, the Measurer’s might and his mind-plans, the work of the Glory Father, when he of wonders of everyone, eternal Lord, the beginning established.”
Caedmon sings of mind-plans. God has mind-plans, images of us, images that create us and everything we see and touch in this extraordinary world.
Secondly: the writers of the New Testament record the imaginative language of Jesus Christ that sustains him on his mission. He hears the voice of his Father proclaiming that he is a beloved son in whom the Father is well pleased. He has an image of himself as one with his Father. This imaginative unity sustains his compassionate heart.
Thirdly: The proud and vain Ignatius, on his sick bed at a time when his manner of life is changing imagines that he can be as great and even greater than the saints about whom he is reading: Francis of Assisi, Benedict or Dominic. It is that imagination and the thrill he experiences from imagining himself in competition for sanctity, in competition for the companionship of Jesus, which changes his life.
These imaginations, these mind-plans, these creative and sustaining pictures are the true forces that shape and change life. That you here in Cape and Sword, by the work of stage crew and house managment, by the work of voice and gesture, by the work of costume and makeup, commit yourselves to the creative and sustaining works of imagination reveals to you an understanding of its power. Yours is an imitation of God’s creativity. To have a creative experience is to gain the ability to appreciate God’s creative desires for us, desires that conquer even death itself.
In the spirit of Saint Ignatius, the works of the imagination are present in our Jesuit schools everywhere. I pass over the children of lepers that danced for us when I was among visitors to their school in Dhanbad in India. I pass over the circle of guitarists who played and sang for us when I was among visitors under the propane lanterns in a remote community in southern Bolivia. Right here in Philadelphia the works of Cape and Sword’s imagination have counterparts at Saint Joseph’s University and at Gesu School. I was sorry to miss the plays this year at the University. But I did see the 24 eighth graders of Gesu School present themselves on stage in formal ball room dancing just this past week.
My Prep brothers, your work of creativity is a divine work. God loves to be imitated and praises you for your commitment. May your work in Cape and Sword continue to give you joy and may it help us all appreciate how God loves and sustains us, even redeems and saves us, with the images held in the divine heart."

Prep parents and volunteers have transformed the Kelly Fieldhouse for our "Hawktion" fundraiser tonight. The photo is just a small corner of the gym illustrating some of the creative art works. The theme is GREEN.

I look forward to dining tonight at these tables with five hundred guests.

The new Episcopal Academy in Newtown Square

I enjoyed a visit to the new site of Episcopal Academy, now coming to the end of their first academic year in Newtown Square. We Preppers may be envious of all the green grass, the beautiful view from the center-piece chapel (the view extends over a valley and woods behind my right shoulder), the several academic and recreational buildings and the five or six playing fields, all of which were in use on Saturday afternoon.

The occasion for my visit: watching our lacrosse team beat them!

The differences between the mission of the Prep and the mission of Episcopal seem evident in the setting and architecture. But I do believe that it is possible for the Episcopal campus, too, to nurture men and women with and for others

Early spring at the Willows in Radnor Township

I always like to think of the plaza in front of the Church of the Gesu as a gathering place and not, as we usually use it, a parking lot. Yesterday this basketball team gathered there on the church steps. They had just come from the Kelly Fieldhouse to the right of the church and I caught them as I walked by. Their heads are hanging and it appears that they lost their game. But they will recover and be as strong as the columns under which they review their play.

Holy Thursday-Good Friday April 2009

We have very limited knowledge of the kingdom of God to come. We have an image of that kingdom taken perhaps from imaginative pictures of Eden before the fall of Adam and Eve. Or we craft an image taken from our favorite experiences. But Jesus provides us his leading image, with frequent mention in the gospels, the image of wedding feasts and other meals of celebration. And this evening we commemorate how Jesus put his own stamp on the meal above all others, the Passover meal that celebrates freedom, a memorial of the Exodus of the Israelites from the slavery of Egypt. For us who have not known slavery in any civil or political sense, the meal celebrates the power of God through Jesus’ death and resurrection to forgive our sins and free us for the works of love.

Adopting Jesus’ image of the meal as the experience of heaven might lead us to imagine ourselves sitting in luxury at an elaborately set table surrounded by our favorite foods and our best friends and family. And a gospel story or two confirm that God reserves some such places but for the poor Lazarus and for other poor and hungry. In our own images of God’s kingdom, however, it is useful for us to consider the whole picture. Maybe God would rather we wait on table or prepare the meal in the kitchen or be the rancher presenting the choicest meat or the farmer the choicest fruits or vegetables. Images of waiting on table or cooking can take the place of the usual ones we make up for ourselves: heaven’s champion tennis player or lead singer in the heavenly choir. What a pleasure to take some of these banquet positions without the danger of running out of joy and energy and with perfection of service and product always within reach.

In this evening’s ideal setting for a heavenly banquet, Jesus, as he celebrates Passover, provides us with the image of how he himself will always behave. It is so humbling to watch him. He takes the role of a trusted household servant and bathes the feet of his friends. This action appears at a moment in time but it is a gesture that informs all of human existence. It is the gesture that defines for Jesus his love for us and his deepest desire to be of service to us. It is the gesture that defines how we ourselves are to live.

My friends Maryann and Joe Farrell invited me to be part of the wedding party for their son Peter who married Stephanie Wong on April 4 in Newton, MA. Stephanie is pictured also here with her brother Michael after she had changed into her "goodluck red" dress, her one concession to Chinese wedding customs!

I enjoyed seeing the three other Farrell kids and their families, seven children in all. And I was able to tell Maryann that I meet graduates here at Saint Jospeh's Prep that fondly remember her brother, Bill Moody, SJ.