Dehonian Spirituality, September 21, 2018

Fr. Leo John Dehon maintained an enduring interest in every aspect of St. John Institute, the secondary school that he founded. This wasparticularly true of the students, many with whom he kept in contact throughout his life. When writing about the school in his Memoirs, he often references thestudent paper named, The Eagle. He must have kept every issue.

“Let us talk about our Eagle. It began in February [1878] and it had one hundred subscribers in the first year. It usually offered an uplifting story, a literary piece, some general news, and the local news of the house. It was useful especially because it reported who was sitting at the head of the table and who was on the honor roll. It was a means of competition. Families waited for the newspaper to read the names of their children, and so did the students who were working to have their names in the paper.”

With pride, Dehon remembers, “The Eagle took a small part in the social movement.  It protested against the sacrilegious celebrations of the centenary of Voltaire; it encouraged the demonstrations in honor of Joan of Arc; and it refuted socialism.”  In addition to these serious topics, the newspaper also chronicled the pure joy of youth let loose at feast day celebrations.

While noting the festivities in honor of St. Nicholas and St. John, Dehon adds, “But the best feast—animated, lively, and daring—was that of St. Leo [Fr. Dehon’s name’s day] on April 11.  The Eaglehad a large, special number to report on the celebration.  Our young teachers had brainstormed heaven and earth to make the festivities interesting. Mr. Godet lent us a meadow where the children found a merry-go-round and all imaginable fairground games.  There was a great banquet with champagne, and we returned very late.  It was good for a family spirit, but it was a big undertaking with a lot of inconveniences.”

Before the beginning of the 1878-1879 academic year, Dehon had some building renovations completed.  With obvious pleasure, he recalls, “This is the impression of the returning students as noted in The Eagle, in the form of a metaphor: At the start of the new academic year at St. John, the Eagle found its area embellished, and even expanded to the extent possible and necessary;cheerful, soft, and bright colors everywhere delighting the eye; it seems to him that his home is new.  ‘Whom are all these preparations for?’ he asks.  They tell him that he will soon have to shelter under his powerful wings one hundred and fifty young eaglets who come to learn at the school of the well-beloved disciple, and that people will see in this great increasean amazing blessing of God.”

Just before Lent, at the celebration of Carnival, the students performed the comedy, “Rêve et Réveil” [Dreaming and Waking].   In listing the amateur actors, it is clear that Fr. Dehon has never forgotten them.  “Martigny, Courtois, Triquet, Hermance, Vilfort, Lamour-Damey, Lesur, Paille, Cornilus, Guesnon, Lecointe, Boucquey, Alliot, Gagneux, Gamard, Humbert, Fournier, Tampigny, and Herbert—these names express a whole world: lawyers, doctors, farmers, traders, teachers; some favored by fortune, others did poorly in business, one or the other trying the colonies or America.  Thank God, we have seen very few of our students pass over to the anti-Catholic camp.”

Notes on the History of My Life XIII: 31-34,38-39,120, 187-188
Image: Poster announcing the activities at St. John Institute for the Feast of St. Leo

In the Book of Revelation [4:6-8], four living creatures surround the throne of God. This imagery has been applied symbolically to the four evangelists. For St. John, a soaring eagle seems to suggest the heights of theological reflection attained throughout his Gospel. His teaching on love, however, is what attracted Fr. Leo Dehon to take the religious name, “John of the Heart of Jesus,” and to place his school under the patronage of St. John, the Beloved Disciple.

Regarding St. John, “the apostle of love, the apostle of the Sacred Heart,” Dehon writes, “He was the privileged disciple of our Lord, the privileged disciple of the Sacred Heart.  From the moment he heard the Sequere me[“Follow me,”cf. Matthew 4:18-22], he became attached to our Lord.  For three years he heard his words and lessons, and was a witness of his miracles, power, and mercy.  He received from our Lord special proofs of his love, goodness, and kindness.

“When the mother of John and James requests privileges from our Savior for her sons, our Lord says to them, “Can you drink the chalice that I shall drink?” [cf. Matthew 20:20-23].  John drank of the chalice of love and also of the chalice of suffering.  At the Last Supper he drew love from the Heart of Jesus; on Calvary, by his compassion, he shared the sufferings of Jesus, and later had to suffer persecution, tortures, and exile.

“The purity of his heart permitted a most intimate union with our Lord.  On the shores of the Sea of Galilee, where the others failed to recognize our Lord, John discerns him.  ‘It is the Lord,’ he cried.  Let us study John in his Gospel, his Epistles, and his Book of Revelation. All who are called to the apostolate of the Sacred Heart ought to love St. John and imitate his boundless charity.”

The Spiritual Directory of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Part Two, Chapter 4, “St. John and the Apostles,” and Crowns of Love for the Sacred Heart, Volume I, 4^thMystery, Second Meditation, “The Choosing of the Apostles.”

Image: carved wooden plaque of St. John, the Evangelist [the Greek text reads, “The Word of God”], originally in the chapel of Divine Heart Seminary, Donaldson, IN.

Reflection Questions: seeds for personal understanding and growth

What is required of you to follow Jesus?

How can you nurture an intimate union with Jesus?

Read the First Letter of John. What inspiration and what challenge do you take from it?

Prayer: hands lifted in prayer; hands prepared to serve

In your kindness throughout the coming week, please remember in your prayers all the students who attend schools sponsored by the Priests of the Sacred Heart. May they learn that they are loved and learn to be loving. You may find helpful the following prayer, taken from, “Prayers of the Heart,” composed by members of the British-Irish Province.

Heavenly Father,
your grace made me discover that in Jesus,
you have manifested
the unchanging faithfulness of your love for me.
I thank you for your love.
Let the conviction that I am loved by you
be the answer to every question in my life
and my deepest motivation
to respond readily to all you ask of me.

Let my surrender to you
be without any anxiety or fear,
even in uncertainly or darkness,
even in difficulties with prayer
and in the slowness of my spiritual growth.

I want to become like Jesus,
a person who lives for others,
who prefers to serve rather than to be served,
and who likes to be available for everyone.
Grant me this grace,
that through your Spirit
and for your glory
I may become the true image of Jesus your Son.

Amen.