HYPE Conference

Each year, Souhegan High School in Amherst hosts a philosophy conference titled HYPE (Hosting Young Philosophy Enthusiast).  HYPE evolved from the school's Ethics Forum, a group that meets to to plan events at the school in order to develop student leadership.  I just heard about this conference last fall and luckily we were able to participate in this year's conference.

The conference was held at UNH in Durham last Thursday, March 17 with the theme "To what extent is freedom of speech influenced by power, control, and fear?"  The conference piggybacked off of a event sponsored by the New Hampshire Humanities Council on political cartoons which was held the night before at Saint Anselm College.

Over 1,000 high school students from across the state attended HYPE 2016 including 21 from Trinity High School.  The morning began with a panel discussion on political cartoons with some discussion on how even the most incendiary ones are entitled to be published.  The panelists, which included two political cartoonists, a former editor of "The Nation", and a professor from Brandeis, spoke of their experiences with attempted censorship.  The discussions focused on drawing cartoons of the prophet Mohammed to a controversial Henry Kissinger cartoon from the 1970's during the height of the Vietnam War.

From here the students went into small groups for ice breakers and discussions about the topic of censorship and freedom of speech.  The teachers heard a presentation from students from Souhegan on leadership and their Ethics Forum followed by a Q & A with the panelists from earlier in the morning.

We hope to add this conference to our calendar going forward.  It was a great opportunity for our students to go outside of their comfort zone and to learn that we might not agree with everyone but we should always defend our rights to believe what we want.

Sophomore class Mass

Father Richard with the Class of 2018

Throughout the season of Lent, our chaplain Fr. Richard Dion has celebrated a Mass for each of the four classes.  Today he celebrated the last of the four Masses, this time for the sophomore class.  I was a little nervous when I looked at the first reading for today as it is the longest reading in the Catholic lectionary!  Luckily there is a shorter version which we choose.

We are so grateful to Fr. Richard for taking the time to be with our students and to help them enter more deeply into the season of Lent.

Baby shower

Each Lent, we hold a baby shower to benefit the good people of Our Place, a New Hampshire Catholic Charities organization here in Manchester.  Our Place provides educational and material support to young parents (up to age 25).  As I tell our students, I became a father when I was 30 and had never changed a diaper or taken care of a baby.  Those first few months left me shellshocked and when my wife first asked me to change the baby's diaper, she might as well asked me to split an atom.  Imagine, I tell them, being a father at their age or in your early 20's, and perhaps without any support.  Without the support of a place like Our Place, young parents might be scared enough to choose other options so it's important we support them in their ministry.


As always, our school community came through with the baby shower on Friday, even donating some expensive items like car seats.  We filled up Mr. Sheehan's truck and he and I will bring the items over this afternoon.

As is our custom when we conclude a drive like this, our morning prayer on Friday came from Matthew 25:

‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.35For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me,36naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’37Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?38When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?39When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’40And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’

Freshman Class Mass

Father Richard with the Class of 2019

Throughout the season of Lent, our chaplain Fr. Richard Dion has been celebrating Mass for each of the four classes.  This past Tuesday he celebrated Mass for the freshmen.  I mistakenly doubled booked myself and was away at the New Hampshire Food Bank that morning. I am grateful to Ms. Zolkos P'15, '19 of our theology department for helping coordinate the Mass for the students.

Pioneers of Mercy

A few months ago, my alma mater BC High sponsored an alumni day of service at the Greater Boston Food Bank.  I was happy to participate...and to steal the idea!  This past Tuesday we sponsored a morning of service for or parents at the New Hampshire Food Bank here in Manchester.  Six parents and two siblings joined us for a morning of sorting frozen meat.  Mr. Connell '90 of our development office made some nice t-shirts for everyone with "Pioneers of Mercy" on the back.




The Food Bank receives donations of frozen meat and we spent the morning sorting it all into various categories.  We would then weight the boxes and stock them on pallets.  In all we sorted 7,465 pounds of food which translates into 6,221 meals.  I must say it was quite a workout and I was pretty wiped out by the end of the shift (not sure if that's a commentary on the type of work or my horrible physical condition!).

I am grateful to everyone who joined us and I hope this make this a regular event with different groups - alumni, students, etc.

St. Casimir...pray for us

This past Friday was the feast of St. Casimir.  I admit that I don't know a lot about St. Casimir but whenever his feast comes around, I think of our late English teacher Mr. Gorski '58.  St. Casimir was from Poland and is revered in that country.   Mr. Gorski was a proud Pole and a graduate of St. Casimir School here in Manchester.  The legend goes that Mr. Gorski was too fat for the desks in the lower grades at St. Casimir so they moved him up two grades.  Thus, he graduated from our school when he was 16 and from Saint Anselm College when he was 20.  It was also at St. Casimir that Mr. Gorski got his lifelong nickname, "Tiny."

During our morning prayer on Friday, I made the connection between St. Casimir and Mr. Gorski and our prayer came from a prayer of St. Casimir:

Obtain perpetual peace for me,  
And save me from the misfortune of the flames of Gehenna;  
Obtain for me to be chaste and modest, gentle, kind, sober, pious, prudent, upright and the enemy of all falsehood;  
Grant me meekness, love of harmony and purity;  
Make me strong and constant on the path of righteousness.

When you pray...

Throughout this season of Lent, we have placed a heavy emphasis on prayer and making prayer opportunities available to our students.  On Monday of this week, we came back from February vacation with morning prayer at 7:30am in our chapel.  We continued our praying of the Penitential Psalms, this time praying Psalm 32 and listening to the second reading from this upcoming Sunday Mass (we usually listen to the upcoming gospel but it's very, very long next Sunday).

Father Richard with the Class of 2017

Yesterday, our chaplain Fr. Richard Dion celebrated Mass for the junior class in our gym and today I am meeting with all of the sophomores and praying the Seven Sorrows of Mary with them during theology class.  We conclude by listening to the Marian hymn Ave Regina Caelorum, a hymn sung at the end of Night Prayer during Lent.

On Friday, we are heeding the spirit of Pope Francis' call for 24 Hours for the Lord by having eucharistic adoration in our chapel all day.  We are inviting the students and staff to sign up for adoration in 15 minute increments.