Brother André Week

Last week, the school commemorated the birthday of Blessed Brother Andre Bessette of the Congregation of Holy Cross. Brother Andre lived for 91 years from 1846 to 1937. Since his youth he was a chronically sickly person, so when he entered into formation for priesthood in the Congregation of Holy Cross, he was denied admittance because of his precarious health, which would likely mean a short life. He was admitted into the order of brothers. As a religious, he served at the College of Notre Dame (a high school) in Montreal, Canada as a doorman. Some local people suffering from various illnesses came to him asking for his help to cure them. After a few cases of improvements and cures, many people began coming to the entrance to the college to visit Brother Andre and ask for a miracle. As a result, the Congregation gave him his own chapel to attend to these sick people. Obviously, he exceeded his life expectancy by quite a few years. He is known to have denied any role in the miraculous cures, calling himself instead an instrument between the providence of God and the intercession of St. Joseph, to whom he had a particularly strong devotion. The way he would encourage people to ask for a cure was to pray to St. Joseph and rub the wounded area with holy oil. Thanks to his initiative, the largest sanctuary to St. Joseph in the world was built in the early to mid twentieth century just outside of Montreal.

Of course, as a good student at a Holy Cross university, I knew very little of this before coming to Chile. However, at the colegio, there is a very strong devotion to Brother Andre. Some of the kids even have the perception that he founded Holy Cross or was a priest because they talk him up so much. So, during this week to commemorate him, each class participated in a “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?”-like contest answering questions about the life of Brother Andre, the history and government of Chile, current events, and other trivia relating to interests of the students such as TV, movies, music, and popular card games. The contest even included sound effects straight from the TV show. The older grades (7th through 12th, I think) competed for the title of school champion, and the 9th graders won.
Thanks to Brother Andre, many classes were interrupted due to the trivia contest.

Then, on Friday, there were no classes at all. In the morning, the older grades hosted the younger grades for fellowship, food, and fun. John and I, since we usually begin our days with one of the 10th grade classes, stayed with them for the activities. Also, since Fr. Erwin, their homeroom teacher, was out for a surgery, we served as their homeroom teachers for the day. Really, they pretty much handled the day themselves, and were very good about decorating, focusing on their “younger siblings,” and cleaning up after themselves.

Friday before lunch there was a short play about Brother Andre’s life and work. Most of the kids in 10th grade found it boring since they’ve seen it every year for a while now. It being my first time, I found it moving. The actors were mostly students, and they did a very good job. In the afternoon, there was a social for the teachers in the library, complete with hors d’oeuvres and drinks (champagne and pisco sour). The men and women competed in a friendly but competitive game of trivia, much like the students’ version.

On the most basic level, this week helped me learn more than I ever thought I would about Brother Andre. In addition, I witnessed how important prayer to the saints is here among Chilean Catholics and within the colegio in specific. This is true for the students (many, though not all, of course) and for the teachers as well. Personally, it has been a good reminder of the importance of the saints for a Catholic. Praying to the saints that they intercede for us with our petitions is of course laudable and one of the reasons why the church distinguishes them. On the same token, though, we should make an effort to go beyond merely asking for their aid in through petitions. Educating ourselves and reflecting on their lives gives us the opportunity to cooperate in implementing positive change in our lives. The church says these holy people are worthy of being intercessors on our behalf because they were close to God in their lives here on earth and we believe they are among the closest in the kingdom of heaven. Thus, in knowing about the lives of the saints we learn from their tried example of how to do God’s will in difficult situations in this world. In the case of Brother Andre, his example was very simple, cheerfully fulfilling his duties in cleaning and maintenance at the school and dedicating many hours of the rest of his time to listening to the stories of people coming to him for help through their sickness. I can only hope that in my work at the school I can emulate this spirit of duty and selfless perception of time.