Page 78 - March On! God will Provide by Brother Aubert

LIFE AT HET WALI"ETJE 57

ordinate part of the Xaverian story. What a Founder
accomplishes as an individual is not nearly as significant
as what he achieves through the instrumentaliry of his
foundation. He is part of the whole.
On October 4, 1841, one month to the day after the
Bishop had given his approval, the little community of
five gained its sixth member, the first accepted in their
new home. The newcomer was nineteen-year-old Leo-
pold Seghers, a Fleming from Lapscheure in the near
neighborhood of Bruges. Since he was rhe only one to
persevere o[ all those who arrived in a fifteen-monrh
period, he ranks as number three on the Xaverian Reg-
ister, immediately after Anthony Melis and Dieudonne
TombaIIe.
Seghers serves as the link between two eras in things
Xaverian. Entering in 1841, he died in lgll in his
eighty-ninth year as Brother John, the beloved patriarch.
As an old man he obliged his Superior and obligated
his Xaverian posterity by setting down his recollections
of the early days. He was reminiscing but he was dili-
gent enough to stick to the facts and check on the dates.
Brother John went into great detail in recalling the
horarium he knew at "flet Walletje." The community
rose at 4:30 and had an hour's meditation from five to
six before attending Mass at some nearby church. They
breakfasted in silence at eight. Afterwards each in turn
described the method he had follorved in making his
meditation, and then Mr. Ryken gave an instruction.
During the day each recited privately the Office of the
I$U Virgin.* A bell ringing on the hour was the
*
In 1847, when the Brothers had to spend a long day in the
classroom, the meditation-time was reduced to MU an hour
and the Little Office of the Immaculate Conception was sub-
stituted for the Office of the Blesed Virgin.