Oblates celebrating Mass at Northeast Catholic High School.
Forty years ago, I experienced my first celebration of the feast of St. Francis de Sales. I was a freshman at Northeast Catholic High School for Boys in Philadelphia, PA. When the entire school came together to celebrate St. Francis on his feast day in January of 1984, I was impressed but not surprised. Francis de Sales and North Catholic were synonymous.
When I started my freshman year in the fall, I slowly began to learn about the gentleman saint I had only heard about in grade school. Whether in the classroom, the lunchroom, or in the chapel, we were told about the devout way of life that St. Francis wrote about and encouraged us to live. On the top of our tests and handouts, the letters “V+J” were placed to remind us to “Live + Jesus.” We prayed the “Direction of Intention” at the beginning of every class to place ourselves in the present moment. We asked for the intercession of St. Francis throughout the day and mentioned him after every prayer. There were statues and paintings of the Bishop of Geneva all around the school. These images portrayed our patron saint as a real person who had lived, learned, and loved like all of us. Francis de Sales was part of the fabric of our school community, and it was no surprise that we would want to celebrate him on his special day.
(Photo credit: The Catholic Historical Research Center of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and CatholicPhilly.com)
The biggest promoters of the gentleman saint were the gentlemen who had the letters “O.S.F.S.” after their name. One of my teachers told us that it stood for “Old Shoes For Sale,” but every student knew it stood for “Oblate of St. Francis de Sales.” As a young man, it inspired me to know that the priests, brothers, and seminarians who walked the halls of my high school were all connected by their dedication to the Church and their common way of life. While many of the Oblates were teachers, others helped in the main office, some assisted in the guidance center and others occasionally stopped by to celebrate mass or hear confessions. All of them shared their gifts with the school community and were a witness to the gentle and positive spirit of St. Francis de Sales. The Oblates, too, were part of the fabric of our school community.
My first celebration of St. Francis de Sales showed me that this 16th-century French bishop still had an influence in the world today and could help us to change the way we see ourselves and our world. His spirit and approach to life could be lived by the priest, the brother, the seminarian, and the student.
Over the last forty years, faith, Francis de Sales and the Oblates have become part of the fabric of my life. They are intertwined in a way I could never have imagined as a freshman in the school auditorium forty years ago. Over the years, I realized that God had a plan and God knew that somehow these three areas of my life would eventually converge. As we celebrate another feast day next week, I pray that the tapestry of your life will also be intertwined with the fabric of faith, Francis and the Oblate community.
Fr. Jack Kolodziej, OSFS
Provincial
Wilmington-Philadelphia Province
