Kevin's Corner 02-28-10
BLACK HISTORY MONTH: BASEBALL! There is a most enjoyable way to extend your Black History Month from the cold of February through the warmth of August. An exhibit about the legacy of Black baseball in Minnesota opened last Thursday night in the Landmark Center in downtown Saint Paul. The exhibit, cosponsored by the Ramsey County Historical Society, remains open through August 20. The driving force behind the exhibit is Claver member Frank White. A fine athlete and coach himself, Frank is the son of a legendary baseball player. His dad, Louis, still holds the record for highest single season batting average in the Saint Paul City League – not bad when you realize that two Major League Hall of Famers played in the same league. Lou White was at his prime when baseball was still segregated, so he did not have a shot at the official “big leagues”, but he did some barnstorming with Negro League teams, particularly in Minnesota. Frank White was determined to make up for his dad’s relative invisibility, and that of so many other deserving athletes, and the downtown exhibit is the result. Check it out!
HOW’S YOUR LENT GOING? An old joke among a few of my friends – the result of a conversation over thirty years ago – is to ask each other in a sorts of sales-pitchman voice: How’s your Lent going? The background of the joke is unimportant, but the question has a continuing validity. There was a time when a Catholic culture in the USA helped to carry a person along in the observances of Lent: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. We were reminded in various ways not to eat meat on Friday, to attend Stations of the Cross on Lenten Fridays and Vespers and Benediction on Sunday, and to work at “giving something up”. In recent decades that culture has become ever less visible, and so mutual encouragement in the observance of the season – how’s your Lent going? – has become all the more important. Of course, we are hesitant to wear our spiritual disciplines on our sleeve – wearing ashes on our forehead for a day is already ostentatious enough for many of us. So, how do we encourage one another? We are trying something new at Claver School this year. I have asked all the students to take on a common Lenten discipline: they are all fasting from harsh words. And each of the middle school classes is taking on its own corporate discipline, so that they can offer each other some mutual support. The sixth grade decided to “fast from drama”: which means no backtalk to their teachers and a real effort to defuse arguments before they begin. They have made a pledge to remind each other when they get off track, saying something as simple as: It is Lent. How about taking on a common discipline in a family or among a group of friends? Perhaps you can pray for the same intention, or volunteer together at the Homeless Shelter when it starts. Let’s help each other to stay on course for Lent.
MARCH IS ABOUT TO BEGIN: We have already come through the coldest months of the winter. Now, the snowiest looms in front of us. But Minnesota March is even better known as a time of state tourneys culminating winter sports seasons – our own version of March Madness. I would like to call attention to the hard work of Claver-related young people whenever possible, and so I solicit your help. Do you know of anyone whom we should be following in any of the sports or arts competitions? I am currently aware of only one of our young people preparing to make a splash on the tournament stage: Chris Smith-Bond. Chris is a 6’8” eleventh grade starter for Saint Paul Johnson’s number one ranked basketball team. His dad Marvin Bond is at Mass every Sunday, and his grandmother Odessa is one of our religious education coordinators. Watch for Chris to do well. Please let me know who else ought to be watched.
A MONTANA TRIP: This week I went to the lovely state of Montana for the first time in my life. As mentioned here before, I am a board member of the Northwest Area Foundation, and in fact am chair of the Nominations Committee. The Foundation’s president and I drove across a significant portion of the high plains of a large state, with wonderful views of mountain ranges, from Great Falls to Billings and back on Thursday. We went to meet with a potential board member who has been one of our country’s leaders in the preservation of traditional native languages. When one talks about languages in America, most people think only of English. In fact, over four in five Americans speak English as a first language, and 19 out or twenty Americans profess to speak English well. But there are actually over 200 languages indigenous to North America – something that “English only” advocates forget or choose to ignore. It was an honor to get to know someone who has helped our nation recover some of its historic richness, and to see a beautiful part of the country as well. It is a big world out there – discover it!
WORLD DAY OF PRAYER FOR CAMEROON: For more than a century, an ecumenical network of women has united to pray for women in various “hot spots” in the world. That network now extends to 170 countries, and they are focusing this year’s Day of Prayer – March 5 – on the needs of the women of Cameroon. This coming Friday, spend a moment praying for the freedom, respect, health and faith of our sisters in West Africa.
HOW FIRM A FOUNDATION: Saint Peter Claver School began of its third trimester this week. We had an awards ceremony for the second trimester a week ago Friday. In a “new tradition” in the school, each teacher honored students who had committed “random acts of kindness” during the preceding dozen weeks. Missing from this set of awards was any recognition of perfect attendance. In light of the H1N1 flu scare, we decided not to encourage sick students to come to school, and thereby endanger other kids. We gave the usual academic achievement awards and called attention to students who had made significant improvement during the trimester. You would be very proud of your school and its students. Please pray for us.