Bright and Cheerful Homes by Rev. Jesus Urteaga, first published by Scepter in 1965, is a helpful booklet adapted from God and Children. Among other things, Fr. Urteaga reminds parents of the necessity of being fully present to their children and modeling positive behaviors.

You might find the article, "The Tale of Two Churches", helpful for two reasons. #1 It may help you to evangelize, and #2 You may want to run it by your teens just to make sure, they have the right understanding of the purpose of the Church. Sometimes the culture has infected us more than we realize.

Congratulations to all of you – and many thanks for honoring me with the degree of Doctor of Laws and Letters honoris causa...

         ...before you move on to the next phase of your lives, you must submit yourself to the discipline of the commencement address.  I shall try to make this as painless as possible, suggesting only that you remember one word.  A single word.  And that word is “beauty,” the beauty of the truth.

          Let me be clear that I understand a university to be first of all about the business of cultivating the mind; and for a Catholic university such as UD to do that in light of the Church’s faith.   UD’s strong commitment to the Catholic intellectual tradition embodied in its core curriculum, so well known throughout the United States and around the world, has inculcated in you the sentiment expressed by St. Augustine: “love your own mind with fierce intensity.”¹  You have, I hope, been consumed by the desire to know without bounds, and have experienced the joy of searching for, discovering and venerating the truth in a wide variety of disciplines.²

Beauty and Truth

          The passion for truth that informs the curriculum at UD opens to beauty.  Truth is beautiful in itself.  Indeed, in the words of our late and beloved Pope, John Paul II, it is “splendid” and “shines forth deep within the human spirit.”³  Truth in words rationally expresses knowledge of created and uncreated reality.  Such truth is necessary to men and women endowed with the precious gift of intellect.  But truth can also be expressed in other ways, especially when it evokes what is beyond words: the depths of the human heart, the ecstasy of the soul, the mystery of God.  These experiences of the beauty of truth involve our whole being: our emotions, our imagination, our creativity and our intelligence.  Even before revealing himself to us in words of truth, God reveals himself to us through the universal language of his wondrous creation, the grammar of the natural law which is his work of Wisdom.⁴

          Whenever we discover the beautiful “what we find shining forth is the truth.”⁵  Beauty has a pedagogical power that introduces us to the knowledge of the truth.  That is the heritage of your UD education.  That is what you must carry with you into the marketplace.

          While our contemporaries are often little moved by the claims of truth, they respond to the summons of beauty, whether this is expressed in nature, art, music or especially in the experience of human love.  Even the post-modern heart is captivated by beauty.

          I think that it is precisely because of this power of beauty that our present Pope, Benedict XVI, in preparing the recently published Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, insisted that a series of artistic images, drawn from the heritage of East and West, be included in every edition.  “Artists of every age,” he wrote, “have offered the principal facts of the mystery of salvation to the contemplation and wonder of believers by presenting them in the splendor of color and in the perfection of beauty.”⁶  An artistic expression of a truth of faith – in painting, sculpture, music or architecture – can often do more to enhance the intellectual grasp of a proposition than even the finest exposition of it, no matter how clearly it is presented.

Crisis of the Beautiful

          Dear graduates: As you leave this alma mater, you will be facing a world where the curtain seems to have been drawn on authentic beauty.  We have “downgraded beauty to a mere appearance, an adjunct to be at best quality-controlled, at worst exploited; and we despise reverence for beauty as a relic of an outworn bourgeois past.”⁷  People and things are reduced to a superficiality without depth, and enjoyment becomes merely passing pleasure.  This counterfeit is dazzling, but it is a beauty that does not bring human beings out of themselves; it does not open them to the ecstasy of rising to the heights.  Instead, such fleeting beauty locks them entirely in themselves.   This false beauty fails to awaken any longing for the Ineffable, any readiness for sacrifice, any abandonment of self, but rather stirs up the desire, the will for power, possession and pleasure.⁸

          If we deny the invitation present in every beautiful thing to go beyond it, we negate beauty’s value as a sign, pointing beyond and deeper.  St. Augustine refers to this bitter experience when he wrote about an early stage of his pilgrimage: “I threw myself on the beautiful things you created.  Your creatures, which would not have existed except in you, kept me apart from you.”⁹  He was seduced by the appearance of beauty, not by Beauty itself.

          The beauty of created things can, then, never fully satisfy human desire.  Rather such beauty is to stir the hidden longing for God, a nostalgia perceived by those who recognize in beauty “a summons that we cannot easily ignore.”¹⁰

          Whether beauty or ugliness leads us to the deepest truth of reality is a question frequently asked today.  Cardinal Ratzinger framed this question well:

Can the beautiful be genuine, or, in the end, is it only an illusion?  Isn’t reality perhaps basically evil?  The fear that in the end it is not the arrow of the beautiful that leads us to the truth, but that falsehood, all that is ugly and vulgar, may constitute the true “reality” has at all times caused people anguish.¹¹

Looking at Creation

          A response to this despair about the beautiful can be found by looking to the opening pages of Sacred Scripture.  The Book of Genesis describes the work of the Creator as “good” or, as is evident from the Hebrew word tov, as “beautiful”: “God saw how good – how beautiful – it was.”  In perceiving that all that he had created was good, God saw that it was beautiful as well.  This divine commentary on creation tells us that the goodness and beauty of creation are inseparable.¹²  “In a certain sense, beauty is the visible form of the good, just as the good is the metaphysical condition of beauty.”¹³ 

          Recognizing beauty and rejoicing in the beautiful, then, is a key to unlocking the world’s mystery and a call to transcendence.  It is an invitation to contemplate the goodness and wonder of life.  For this to happen, we need to foster in ourselves and in our colleagues a contemplative outlook which savors the beautiful.  Such an outlook

is that of those who see the deeper meaning of life, who grasp its utter gratuity, its beauty and its invitation to freedom and responsibility.  “It is the outlook of those who do not presume to take possession of reality, but instead accept it as a gift, discovering in all things the reflection of the Creator and seeing in every person his living image (cf. Gen 1:27; Ps 8:5).”¹⁴

From the Beautiful to the Beautiful One

          At UD you all know Dostoyevsky’s often quoted, yet enigmatic, sentence in The Idiot: “The beautiful will save us” or, in another translation, “Beauty will save the world.”  Reflecting on this statement, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn asked:

What does this mean?  For a long time it used to seem to me that this was a mere phrase.  Just how could such a thing be possible?  What had it ever happened in the bloodthirsty course of history that beauty had saved anyone from anything?  Beauty had provided the embellishment certainly, given uplift – but whom had it ever saved?¹⁵

          What Solzhenitsyn might have forgotten is that Dostoyevsky was referring here to the beautiful reality of the Word made flesh, to the saving beauty of Christ.  Here we face a paradox at the heart of Christianity.  Christ, who is “the fairest of the children of men” (Ps 45:3) is also the One who “had neither beauty, nor majesty, nothing to attract our eyes, no grace to make us delight in him” (Is 53:2).  In the suffering Christ we learn that “the beauty of truth also embraces offence, pain, and even the dark mystery of death.”¹⁶

          To be enamored of beauty, then, does not close our eyes on the world’s suffering – a suffering which, as graduates of a Catholic university, you must embrace as your own.  You will be called, regardless of your chosen profession, to wrestle with the long and almost overwhelming list of the world’s woes.

          Your UD education should make you uncomfortable with the front pages of newspapers and the sound bites on television: starvation and genocide in Darfur; terrorism in the Middle East; political and entrepreneurial corruption; defenseless children and vulnerable people of all ages whose lives are casually ended, often justified by the cloak of compassion; countless homeless and abandoned who wander our streets; and the widening gap between the wealthiest 20 percent of the world’s population who receive over 86 percent of its annual income, and the poorest 20 percent who share in only one percent.

          The world situation at the dawn of the Third Millennium is a gathering storm.  But it is your time and your challenge.  It is your kairos.  Fortunately you have learned here at the University of Dallas that serious attention must be paid to the religious and ethical dimensions of problems if enduring solutions are to be found.  As Pope Benedict wrote in his recent encyclical Deus Caritas Est, “Building a just social and civil order, wherein each person receives what is his or her due, is an essential task which every generation must take up anew.”¹⁷  You are that new generation with the responsibility of understanding the requirements of justice and ensuring that they are achieved in practice.  But in whatever you do, above all you are to bear witness to beauty and to the memory of the Beautiful One. 

Conclusion

          Beauty – authentic beauty – is to be revealed in your life, in your being and actions.  The Gospel injunction: “Let your good deeds so shine before others that they give glory to your Father in heaven” (Mt 5.16) can also be translated as “Let your beautiful deeds shine.”  Blessed Teresa of Calcutta got it right when she said that we can have no higher aspiration than making of our life the “doing of something beautiful for God”  Wise words of a saintly woman for those of you embarking on the next stage of your journey.  You are entrusted, like an artist, with the task of crafting your  life.  You are to make of it a work of art, a masterpiece¹⁸ – something beautiful for One who is Beauty itself.

          As you leave the UD community which has sustained you so mightily, I encourage you to foster all that is beautiful – the splendor of truth and goodness in all their manifestations.

          May God bless the graduates of the Class of 2006; and in the richness of his mercy may the good Lord ever bless this, our University of Dallas!

          Thank you.

+J. Michael Miller, CSB

Secretary

Congregation for Catholic Education

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         ¹ St. Augustine, Epistola, 120, 3, 13: PL 33, 459: “intellectum valde ama.”

            ² Cf. Pope John Paul II, Ex Corde Ecclesiae, 1.

            ³ Pope John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor, 2.

            ⁴ Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2500; Giancarlo Vecericca, Pastoral Letter, Diamo forza alla bellezza (2006), 3.

            ⁵ John Paul II, Message signed by the Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, to the Participants in the 23^rd Meeting for Friendship among Peoples held in Rimini (24-30 August 2002).

            ⁶ Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, “Introduction,” Compendium: Catechism of the Catholic Church (Washington, DC: USCCB, 2006), xvii.  Cf. the homily of Pope Benedict XVI: “The fourteen images associated with the various areas of faith are an invitation to contemplation and meditation. In other words, a visible summary of what the written text develops in full detail” (29 June 2005).

            ⁷ Aidan Nichols, “The Word Has Been Abroad,” www.christendom-awake.org/pages/anichols/trilogy/aesthetics.html, p. 1.

            ⁸ Cf. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Message to the Communion and Liberation Meeting at Rimini (24-30 August 2002).

            ⁹ St. Augustine, Confessions, X, 27,38.

            ¹⁰ Timothy Radcliffe, “Mission to a Runaway World: Future Citizens of the Kingdom,” SEDOS (2000).

            ¹¹ Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Message to the Communion and Liberation Meeting at Rimini (24-30 August 2002).

            ¹² Cf. Bruno Forte, “Trinitarian Holiness of the Priest,” International Convention of Priests (19 October 2004).

            ¹³ Pope John Paul II, Letter to Artists, 3.

            ¹⁴ Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, 83.

            ¹⁵ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, “Beauty Will Save the World,” in The World Treasury of Modern Religious Thought, ed. Jaroslav Pelikan (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990), 625.

            ¹⁶ Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Message to the Communion and Liberation Meeting at Rimini (24-30 August 2002).

            ¹⁷ Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, 28.

            ¹⁸ Cf. Pope John Paul II, Letter to Artists, 2.

TIPS FOR TEACHING PRIMARY MATH

When I was getting my teaching credential, my Math Methods professor provided the class with some wonderful ideas for teaching and reinforcing mathematical concepts. The following ideas have proven useful in our home classroom:

1. Provide children with plenty of opportunities for free exploration of Math materials such as, unifix cubes, attribute blocks, cuisenaire rods, geoboards, placement value blocks, and Judy clocks.
2. Unifix cubes or Lego Duplos provide an easy means of teaching children color patterns.  My children, starting around age two, enjoy showing me the color patterns they use when building Lego towers or houses.
3. A classroom size calendar is a great way to teach children to count and recognize numbers up to 31.  Each day my children and I do the calendar, I ask one of them, “What is the weather like?” and then, “What is the date?”  Before the designated child answers, I might say, “6, 7, 8” and my child responds, “9.”   After the correct response is given, the child who answered gets to put the number (which is written on a sun, cloud, umbrella, or snowflake) on the calendar.  We then say the complete date, “Today is Thursday, May 27, 2004.”  In addition to helping with number recognition, this exercise teaches a child to start counting from any number, he doesn’t always have to start with 0.  (The calendar ideas came from a Special Education classroom in which I assisted).
4. When teaching skip counting I incorporate various senses.  When counting by fives, we sometimes do the following:  As we all say “0”, we sit; when we say “5”, we stand; “10”, sit; “15”, stand; etc.  The above can also be applied to counting by twos, tens, or distinguishing between odd and even numbers.  Clapping and snapping (or any movement pattern) may be used instead of sitting and standing.
5. Popsicle sticks can be used to reinforce the concepts of counting (especially by tens) and place value.  We count how many days we have been in school with popsicle sticks.  One stick is placed in a designated ones cup for each day we have been in school.  When we have ten popsicle sticks, one of the children places a rubber band around the ten sticks and puts them in the tens cup.  We then count our days, “10, 11, 12,” etc.  As we add more groups of ten to the tens cup, we count, “10, 20, 30” and then the ones, “31, 32,” etc.  When we have ten groups of ten, one of the children puts a rubber band around them and places them in the hundreds cup.  We then count, “100, 101, 102,” etc.  Eventually we are counting our days “100, 110, 120, 121, 122,” etc.  My five or six year old writes the number of days we have been in school on our dry erase board.                  
Christine B.

THE THREE-PERIOD LESSON

When my husband and I decided to homeschool, I began to read books by Maria Montessori and about the Montessori Method. One of the ideas that I embrace in our home classroom is the three-period lesson.  The three-period lesson is based on the following principle: If something is repeated three times, the student is more likely to understand and retain the information.
When using the three-period lesson with young children, it is broken into the following three consecutive lessons:
      First Period: Recognition of Identity
      Second Period: Recognition of Contrasts
      Third Period: Discrimination between Similar Objects
Below is an example of how I use the three-period lesson with my children:

Colors

Preparation:
      Cut circles from at least 6 colors of construction paper.
Optional:
      Place color name labels on one side of each circle.
      Laminate each circle.
Other Materials Needed: Mat or piece of fabric placed on the floor.

First Period: Recognition of Identity

Show the child the red circle and say, “This is red.” Place the circle on the mat. Show the child the yellow circle and say, “This is yellow.” Place the circle on the mat. Repeat until the child understands.

Second Period: Recognition of Contrasts

In order to make sure the child understands, say “Give me the red circle.” or Give me the yellow circle.”

Third Period: Discrimination between Similar Objects

The purpose of this step is to see whether the child remembers. Point to each color and ask, “What color is this?” Assist the child and repeat as needed.
When the child knows these two colors, I add 2 more colors and follow the same steps. Each time I do the second and third periods, I include the previous colors learned.
The above information was gathered from Elizabeth Hainstock’s Teaching Montessori in the Home: The Preschool Years. Some other helpful Montessori resources include: Dr. Montessori’s Own Handbook by Maria Montessori, The Montessori Method by E.M. Standing, Montessori Play and Learn: A Parents Guide to Purposeful Play from two to six by Leslie Britton, www.michaelolaf.net and Mary L.

Christine B.

2002
Remember Jesus
in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar
A Holy Hour with Jesus is divided into four parts. During each quarter of an hour we can honor our Lord by one of the four ends of sacrifice, that is, by: Adoration, Thanksgiving, Reparation, and Prayer or Supplication. These elements can be found in all Holy Hour prayer guides. When we see the hour divided up this way it is easier to think of what we can pray and sing as we spend time with Jesus. An Angel taught the following “Pardon Prayer” to the children at Fatima:
My God, I believe, I adore, I trust, and I love You. I beg pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not trust, and do not love You.
(say 3 times)
This Fatima prayer is good for Holy Minutes with Jesus, when you have limited time or children who can stay only a minute before the Blessed Sacrament. The following prayer is good for a few Holy Moments. As we go “flying” down the freeway, we often pass a Catholic Church. To say “Hello” to Jesus, we make the Sign of the Cross and say:
O Sacrament Most Holy, O Sacrament Divine, All Praise and all Thanksgiving be every moment Thine!
Now, if you sing this it counts twice (so we’ve been told). Remember, when you see the spire of Holy Rosary that St. Joseph’s is just on the other side of the freeway. And we mustn’t forget little Sts. Peter and Paul down in that little valley. St. Martin of Tours is just a skip off the freeway in Fife… Jesus, our Love, is everywhere!
Mary L.