Mother's Day after days of rain at the Azalea Garden ...more laterMonday, May 11, 2009
Sunday, May 10, 2009
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."
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."
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