CowPi Journal

Today marks the 100th aniversary of the laying of the cornerstone for Mount St. Mary High School.

Back in 1884 (five years before the famous land run), Sister Mary Catherine Troy and four other Sisters of Mercy arrived at the Sacred Heart Mission in Oklahoma Territory to setup a school to educate young Indian girls. Realizing the importance that Oklahoma City would play in the future growth of the territory/state, they decided to build a girls’ high school and convent within three miles of downtown. They nicknamed the school “The Mount” because it was built on top of the highest hill south of downtown. With the top floors of the new four-story school not yet completed, the school opened on September 5, 1905 with thirty-five girls.

Mount St. Mary, 1916

In 1950, at the request of the local bishop, the school opened its doors to co-education. In 1961, a new annex wing was opened to add much needed classroom space. During the 1980s, the girls’ dorms on the fourth floor were closed, and after much renovation, the interior was modernized. Fortunately, there still remains much of the original woodwork in the entrance way, main hall, and in several of the rooms, now offices, in the front of the building.

In the 1990s, the remaining sisters in the convent moved to new facilities at Mercy Hospital. The old sisters’ rooms on the third floor along with half of the second floor have been turned into a retreat center that is busy nearly every weekend of the year.

Mount St. Mary, 2003

Today, Mount St. Mary High School can boast of being a faith community, serving over 230 secondary school students and their familes with mercy, compassion, and an exceptional Christ-centered Catholic education. Sister Cathrine Troy and the other founding Sisters probably never dreamed of the lasting effect their vision and effort would have.

I normally do not directly write a reaction to what I read on other weblogs, but something prompted me to write this one. In the process, I learned something deeper and more visceral about the nature of sin.

The Mystic Cowboy made a parenthetical comment against the Roman Catholic position on contraception:

I have no sympathy for the Roman Catholic stance on contraception - moral relativism, hell, it’s cruel and irresponsible, especially in an overpopulated world.

I am not exactly sure why he slipped this opinion in the middle of a piece on moral relativism from a postmodern perspective, but it demonstrates a lack of understanding of the Church’s position on marriage, sex, and sin. I suspect that he is mixing worldly pragmatism with theology.

(more…)

I do not need to seek God.
God is already here
waiting to be found,
soaked in my reality.
My journey is to be one
of recognizing God, always,
already present,
and surfacing that presence
in my daily life.

— Edwina Gateley, from A Mystical Heart

Father of mercy,
like the prodigal son
I return to you and say:
“I have sinned against you
and am no longer worthy to be called your son.”

Christ Jesus, Savior of the World,
I pray with the repentent thief
to whom you promised Paradise:
“Lord, remember me in your kingdom.”

Holy Spirit, fountain of love,
I call on you with trust:
“Purify my heart,
and help me to walk as a child of light.”

Amen.

I found the above prayer and image on a prayer card on the floor in an empty hallway at school. I wonder if it is one of those seeds for contemplation. It is a beautiful prayer for an act of contrition—it speaks to the whole Trinity.