Faith and Values | North Dakota nuns provided an eduction to last a lifetime

These last weeks, as the bustle of school began once again, I recalled my own days at a little Catholic grade school in Lisbon, N.D.

We had only three classrooms for the 87 students in eight grades. About a dozen boarders lived on the fourth-floor dormitory Sunday through Thursday nights. This arrangement ensured they could get to school in blizzard conditions, when the roads were impassable.

What I recall most of all was the impressive dedication of the five Sisters of the Presentation who ran the school. The founding sisters had come to the United States from France in 1905, driven out by the secularist Third Republic when all religious orders were suppressed (once again).

We were the beneficiaries of these exiled, energetic, hardworking women.

One of the founding nuns, Sister Louise, was the cook and provided a big, welcoming lap, along with a fresh cookie, for a kid in trouble or for someone having a tough time at home. The other four were American. All had studied in France.

I don't know to this day where they learned to teach, but they were great teachers who laid a foundation for learning and care and dedication.

On the weekends they scrubbed and waxed the floors and did the in-depth cleaning to keep the place going. The parish provided some small support. Our parents paid for books and some nominal fees. But there was no tuition.

I relished school. As a sixth-grader, for instance, I could tune in on what the eighth-graders were doing. My love of math, U.S. history, science and grammar was engendered by these dynamic nuns.

Each weekday morning, after a few prayers and the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag, we had a half-hour of catechism class. The core text was the Baltimore Catechism — a couple hundred questions and answers that we memorized.

Sample questions:

Q: What is a sacrament?

A: A sacrament is an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace.

Q: How many sacraments are there?

A: Seven. Baptism, Confirmation, Penance, Eucharist, Extreme Unction, Holy Orders, and Matrimony.

By the eighth grade, we vaguely sensed that our Protestant friends had a different answer, but we were quite content that we had the right answer.

I suspect that any Catholic over the age of 55 who went to a Catholic grade school could still rattle off these answers.

At the beginning of the Catechism was the core question:

Q: Why did God make you?

A: God made me to praise, reverence, and serve him in this life and to be happy with him forever in the next.

Some 60 years later, it's worth expanding on this pithy summary of the Christian life.

Praise arises from a grateful heart. To praise God, we need to "consider the lilies of the field and the birds of the air." Gaze on the color of an oriole, smell the rich soil of a plowed field, or appreciate the way a friend smiles. When we are present to God's creation, we move naturally toward praising its source.

Reverence recognizes the goodness and holiness of the Other. We acknowledge the sacred with our whole being. And this reverence flows over toward reverence of other people and all of creation. The Hindu practice of Namaste: the divine in me recognizes the divine in you, perfectly embodies this practice of reverence.

We serve God by putting ourselves at God's disposal. In genuine service, we trust that God will do what is best. And our love of God naturally flows over into love and service of others. Our service might be a bit less egocentric if we practiced praise and reverence as well.

The nuns who taught me in grade school didn't expand on all the explanations, but their generous lives embodied cheerful praise, profound reverence, and heartfelt service.

Fr. Patrick Howell, SJ, is the rector (religious superior) of the Jesuit Community at Seattle University and professor of pastoral theology. Readers may send feedback to faithcolumns@seattletimes.com