The Charism of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart- Msgr. McClancy High School Version

The Holy Spirit is active in the world today. The Holy Spirit is a Builder and Energizer. In the story of creation found in the Book of Genesis, it is the Holy Spirit who changes chaos into order. In the New Testament in the story of Pentecost, it is the Holy Spirit who changes broken disciples into energetic apostles of the Word, builders of the foundation of the Church. The Holy Spirit is still at work in the world building the vast and beautiful mosaic that is the people of God. "Charism" is a theological term defined as a gift of the Holy spirit to the Church. It is the means by which the Spirit works to build the Kingdom of God. All charisms belong to the Holy Spirit and to the Church, but are manifested through individuals and communities. Each of us by virtue of our Baptism brings our individual charism to the building of the kingdom of God. At McClancy there are mary individual charisms. This article is not about individual charisms. The focus is on the charism of the Brothers or the Sacred Heart, a communal charism manifested through the founder, Father Andre Coindre in 1821. Responding to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he saw a way to help build the Church, and he acted upon it. Later, the Church recognized the work of the Holy Spirit in this group and approved the Rule of Life governing this community. It is important to realize that the Institutional Church did not found the Brothers but approved their way of life. Andre Coindre founded the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, and it is through him that the Holy Spirit worked to build the Church in the special way the Brothers work to educate youth. One might think of CHARISM as an anagram

Charism is special, but it is not always distinguishable from other charisms. It is like a piece of a mosaic. It may look the same as many of the other pieces in the mosaic, but it's not really repetitive because if it were left out, the mosaic would be incomplete. Charism does not need to distinguish us from every other community in the church. It is our particular spirituality that will narrow down that focus. What does the charism look like? It is something we would like to know. What concretely can we say about it? It is somewhat unsatisfying to speak of it in generalities. If charism means that a community has a role in the Spirit's Ministry, we can further define it by asking what role we play. First, the Brothers of the Sacred Heart is a religious community A religious community is dedicated to the following of the values present in the Gospels in a radical way. Hallmarks of the religious life are community, poverty, chastity, and obedience The corollaries of these values in the Christian life are love of God and neighbor, detachment from material things, faithfulness to commitments, and openness to God's will. These are values which will build the kingdom of God, values which are inherent in our charism and which are important to our success as Catholic students and educators. If we want to distill the charism further, we can examine the charism as seen by the founder, Father Andre Coindre. Who was he? What were his intentions? Andre Coindre was a person who dedicated his life to the evangelization of the people of his day. He worked himself to death at an early age of 36 years. In his lifetime, he founded three religious orders, preached hundreds of missions, elaborate retreat-like programs throughout France. He was a rather good theologian whose spirituality was drawn from the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Andre was an educator, not just a do-gooder or preacher. He valued people and knew the importance of development. When he found orphans, he placed them carefully with people who could provide care for the whole person--people who could provide for material needs, but most importantly, people who recognized the dignity of the children, the value of spirituality, of witness to the values of the Gospel. He did a good job; Claudine Thevenet with whom he left two little orphan girls was recently canonized. The early Brothers accomplished miracles as well. Andre Coindre was an educator, but he was not in the business of education. He was not interested in developing highly educated learning machines. He did see the value of educating the whole person, of recognizing the person's need to be accepted and loved; of educating a person for life; teaching him or her how to learn; of providing an atmosphere of growth intellectual and spiritual, of providing freedom from oppression and respect for personal discipline, of recognizing and developing the spiritual dimension, of providing a chance of a better quality of life through education. School students often ask: "How is English, math, history goingto help me? We must ask back "What do you want to be when you grow up? The usual answer will refer to a career. Don’t you want to be a person too? Of, course! English, history, or math will help you to be a better developed person The Spirit worked through Andre Coindre because his values opened him to the influence of the Spirit and he responded. We could further distill the charism by studying he 3500 Brothers who died in the community or who currently live in the community all over the world and the many others who spent some time as Brothers over the years as well as all the associates and colleagues of the Brothers, their students and parents and all the members or the greater community of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart from 1821 to the present and distill from that study an analysis of the impact this group has had on the building of the Kingdom of God. On the other hand, we must remember that the charism does not belong to the Brothers of the Sacred Heart or to their associates, but to the Spirit. There is another way to view the effect all this has had on the building of the Kingdom of God. Let’s look at McClancy as a microcosm of the world of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart’s greater community today. The parents: Do they have the same values mentioned above? They do. Do the parents value McClancy? I have attended well of 100 PTA meetings. Personally, I have never met a parent who did not or does not have the deepest reverence for McClancy. I know there are some, but in all my experience here, the way they reflect McClancy back to me is extraordinarily positive. The parents of McClancy students are the strongest supporters of the school. They supply the future of the Church, their sons. They entrust their children during the impressionable years to the care of the faculty. By and large, it has been my experience that they are generally happy with the results. Alumni: I am very fond and proud of our alumni. I think they show the influence of McClancy far better than our present students basically because they are able to value their experience more. I would like to mention four who represent to me a variety of ways our alumni appreciate McClancy: Father Ed Puleo- learned manly love at McClancy. I heard him say this from the pulpit while preaching the Gospel. Pat O’Neill- In a letter he wrote to me he said he learned to follow his conscience and be at peace with himself under difficult circumstances. Pat was a peace protester who suffered much for his beliefs. He now works with in a job which serves the poor. Carlos Barreda- Now a social worker, Carlos in a talk to our seniors years ago said he found McClancy to be the only stable place in a world of discouragement. Francis Sullivan, a retired high-ranking Nassau County policeman and real estate entrepreneur at an alumni reunion told me that he was able to be successful by working hard and achieving great things even though he was not accepted at first into the school. Our Kids Today- McClancy has always had a good-natured student body. These guys tend to be resilient, generally open to individual differences far more than the general population, forgiving in many respects, genuinely human, often lazy, sometimes difficult, basically happy to be here most of the time, often hurting or broken, needing attention, sometimes spoiled or feeling neglected. The one point I would like to focus on, however, is that manu of our guys are high achievers. Some of our most successful students are naturalsfor them school and tests come easy; others do not get high test scores so easily, but they work hard and get good grades. Often it is these latter students, the high achievers, who do well in life, and they point to a good dimension of McClancy High School: there’s room here to succeed if you are willing to work hard. There is more respect here for what a person is willing to do, than for what he is supposed to be able to accomplish according to a general population test. Persons are important at McClancy. Andre Coindre and the Holy Spirit would like that!