Sunday, October 14, 2012

SPOTLIGHT ON LANTERN LIGHT



In an article titled HOPE FOR THE HOMELESS, Sheila Stroup highlights the work of the Presentation Sisters at Lantern Light Ministries where Br. Charles works every morning sorting and handing out mail to the many homeless who have no other home address.  Lantern Light is one of two programs which provide many different services; the article is a worthwhile read and very true to our experience these last five years.  There is a great picture of Sr. Vera Butler, PBVM with a local chef, Matt Murphy, who met Sr. Vera at his restaurant, The Irish House.  Matt Murphy has promised to help with an upcoming fundraiser; did we mention Sr. Vera and Matt are both Irish-born. 


Br. Bob has completed setting up a workshop on the first floor, and is now repairing an outside door that was wrenched off its hinges during hurricane Isaac.  Renovations to the “Map Room” are on hold.

On Columbus Day, Travis Wain came back from a family wedding in the Albany, NY area; John Petrullo returned from a visit to his folks in Staten Island.  While John had alerted his father, he surprised his mother.  Tears [of joy we presume] ensued.  Matt Beben was in charge of the 3rd floor for the weekend.

John was in Henderson, Nevada for the week participating in a School Leaders Retreat for 18 school presidents and principals.  The retreat was titled: “At the Service of the Happenings of Grace,” based on a talk given by Fr. Timothy Radcliffe in 2004 in London Colney, England to province leadership teams from the US, UK, Eire, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

In John’s work with secondary schools aiming to better serve students, [Discovery Walks], the primary attention is on how students are educated.  Students are now much less likely to be treated as sponges, or lectured in a one-size fits all mode.  Individual and small group approaches are made easier by technology, and have always been the goal of good teachers.  Students retain more when they do the work moderated by an alert and well educated teacher serving as mentor to them.  Reynolds Price in ARDENT SPIRITS, [Scribner, 2009] a wonderful reflection on his years at Oxford and first years at Duke University, wrote about one of his teachers: “But he had the born teacher’s gift for identifying ability and authentic passion in a student and for zeroing in on those incipient qualities to produce ultimate results.” p. 157

BLOG 10.14.12

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