Page 23 - Priorities #11 1999-October Annual Report

Benedictine Letter:
A Personal and Spiritual Reflection
Editor’s Note. As we end the year and the millennium, it seems appropriate to end the annual report with a comment on Benedictine education.
NowthatIaminmy25th year as a member of the Woodside Priory community, I notice that occasional urge to look back to the school as it was when I arrived from Saint Anselm Abbey in New Hampshire in the year 1975.
When I arrived, I was used to teaching on the college level and working with college students. The world of college preparatory education was monumentally different. It took a full year to make the change from east to west, from college to high school, from Benedictine monastery in New Hampshire to new Benedictine monastery on the San Francisco Peninsula.
Memoriesaboundfromthosedays. Iremember my introduction to soccer as the primary sport here, and questioning how anything could ever replace football and the importance it had back on the East Coast. IremembertheveryfirstfamiliesIgotto know - the Cains and the Oswalds - who have remained close and treasured friends over this past quartercentury. MyveryfirstseniorclassthatI served as counselor, the Class of ‘76, comes to mind. To this day I remember all eighteen of them, one of whom, Joe Montero, is now a popular and successful soccer coach and math teacher of the Priory. Another, Peter Chuppity, is the parent of Holly Kabak, one of our junior students.
The transition year was not easy, but discovering the secret of the Priory - the sense of community and respectforallpeople-helpedme. Idiscoveredthat here was a home where I might establish roots and contribute to an enterprise which was truly valuable in the deepest sense of the word.
Many things have changed over these past years,
yet the most important aspect of the Priory has remained steady. That constant is the love and concern for the students we serve, and the desire we all share to challenge them to become truly “human” beings who have a love and respect for God, for each other , and for themselves.
Each graduation we see seniors moveontonewchallenges. Asthey leave we realize that they will never reallybereplaced. Newseniorswill emerge to assume leadership roles, and they will have their own
wonderfulqualities-buttheywillbedifferent. And we will remember each of them as they move on to college and beyond, for we have seen them grow in response to our challenge. We have grown because of them. In this way, the mutual journey continues, as does the Benedictine tradition.
I am certain that Woodside Priory will continue to change and grow as the school moves into the newMillennium. Twenty-fiveyears from now, teachers and students and some of the customs may not be the same, but the foundation will be there. It is good to be a part of this tradition that we all share in various ways.
Alas, with some hesitation, I have to admit that football is still my number one sport - but at least it is 49ers football!
Martin Mager, O.S.B.
Superior of the Benedictine Community Director of Alumni Affairs And Member of the
Visual Arts Faculty
The sign says it all. Dozens of friends joined Father Martin at the Hiller Museum of Aviation in late August to celebrate his 65th birthday. Even the “Pope” was there with some comical advice. Faculty member Mitch Neuger provided the sketch.