Through the Eyes of Babes….

O, wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us!

 — Robbie Burns

This is me in Grade Nine, baby–this is me in Grade Nine.

—   The Bare Naked Ladies

      Grade nine kids come to St. Paul ‘s from varied backgrounds-–socio-economic, religious, ethnic— but they all face the same new challenge: theology. Our grade nine course is a primer in the basics of the Catholic Christian faith and we begin with a unit on the Society of Jesus.

     Kids of thirteen and fourteen are at that wonderful transition between childhood and young adulthood and so they combine a sort of innocence with a sometimes aching desire to be sophisticated. Often they pull it off—but not always on tests and exams!

    Over the years I have collected what we in the profession call “howlers:”  inadvertently hilarious statements students write. I hope you enjoy the Jesuits through the eyes of grade nines.

    The life of St. Ignatius Loyola is filled with the Saint’s perseverance in the face of adversity. But did you know:   after a cannon broke his leg it healed  but he kept on breaking it until it was fixed.  And the Saint often found himself in sticky situations:  he wanted to further his education so he ended up in collage.  Of course, miracles were posthumously credited to his intercession but none so astounding as the following:  he gathered some friends/people and they became his companions ; they were all martyred and then started the Society of Jesus.  And most astounding of all: Ignatius passed away in 1566 B.C,  Ignatius therefore having founded the Society almost 3,000 years after his death. Mirabile dictu!

    The students spend a good deal of time learning about the Society’s history as a missionary order, a Jesuit apostolate from the earliest days. In fact, the Jesuits have been a missionary order since the very beginning of their coming together at the start.   The flexibility of the Society’s rules enhanced the Jesuit availability to do missionary work:  the Jesuits had no mandated religious hours of prayer and they didn’t have any religious customs. Amazing how successful they have been without religious sensibilities! Students are often taken by the work of the North American martyrs. St. John Brebeuf, for example, must have been a skilled wader:  St. John Brebeuf taught about God to the Herons.  Indeed, the privations of missionary life must have cause some to go fugitivus since:  the Jesuits have been a  missing order in many ways.