Thursday, November 3, 2005

Olivia is taking 1st yr Latin at AHN. The classical Latin is appropriate for high school. All parochial schools should teach Ecclesiastical Latin, beginning with prayers and the Mass, which should be celebrated in Latin. Chant and then polyphony should be taught and sung at Masses and school events. By 8th grade the student should be fluent in English, Ecclesiastical Latin, and a foreign language, and be able to sing and to draw. Add math and throw away all the other subjects, including religion. Assumed is that English, Latin, and the foreign language include something of the literature and the culture (in Ecclesiastical Latin, there will be lots of religion), in drawing there will be observation of nature, in math there will be examples from the physical and social sciences, as well as from “life”, and in music the pipe organ will be heard. If the Church were serious about vocations, some such course of study would be mandated.

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In today’s Gospel you speak against statistical living. I think you do not imply that the ninety-nine are righteous or that the nine are not lost; rather, we who love you know that we are not righteous and that without you we are lost. We turn to you and are loved by you and the angels of God.