Francis Cardinal George - One of Us! We are all Supplicant Lions!

Catholics are supplicants.  From the time we first learn to chatter, we are taught to ask for help, intercession, aid and comfort; we beseech.  We supplicate - ask humbly, earnestly and with faith.  Our prayers are chock-filled with verbs, adverbs, adjectives and nouns rooted in the Latin past participle -supplicatus/supplicare.

Catholics are required to go where help is most forthcoming, through intercessors.  We also pray in Adoration, Confession and Thanksgiving, but intercession and prayers of intercession are recognition of our helpnessess and subordination to others more capable giving aid -beyond our family, friends, co-workers and most certainly beyond Google, MSNBC,  our Advanced Degrees hanging on our walls and the guys at the local bar.

Catholicism runs counter to Thoreau, Emerson and Dewey.  Outcomes can not be determined by data. Nature can not be apprehended by legislation, policy, or desire for outcomes.

Catholics pray not to fix things, but to reconcile ourselves to God and Nature.  We fix things by paying for them whether they be hips, knees, gutters or unpaid parking tickets.  We can not lawyer up with God's Universe.  Catholics asks humbly and earnestly to keep faith. The absolute best prayer is the Memorare*

On the first day of classes at Leo High School, Thursday last, a giant child of a freshman and one of my morning transport lads, Daylon F. of Bronzeville was waiting for his schedule after being fitted for his uniform polo shirt.  Daylon is 6'3" in height and every bit of 300 lbs and change at 14 years old. Daylon got himself a XXXXX(5)L.

This Mannish Boy was staring at the wonderful life size crucifix with attached kneeler that dominates the wait area outside of my Development cubicle.  He asked me, " What's the INRI on the top of the cross mean?"

Daylon, like so many Leo Men, is non-Catholic.  More so , there are too many Catholic kids who do not learn that theological-historical tidbit in their eight years of Catholic grammar school anymore.

"INRI??? What's that?"

The Romans did not have the letter J and they used I instead.  Jesus was IESUS pronounced Yeah Sus, or something like that.

"What's INRI mean?"

That was the charge Jesus found guilty of violating by the Roman Court - Iēsus Nazarēnus, Rēx Iūdaeōrum Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.

" Damn, that's a crime ?"

A capital crime to the Romans - no king BUT Caesar and the Caesar at that time was Tiberius and he was real piece of work.

"Why a crime."

The Romans wanted nothing but attention to government -everyone and everywhere and the Romans did everything according to law. There is no wiggle room. It says, on that plate in no uncertain terms that Jesus of Nazareth, IS King of the Jews and only Caesar can make a King - like Herod and his old man.  This execution settled it.

" But it didn't."

No it certainly did not.  Jesus rose from the dead and over turned the court's ruling.

Daylon gets it.  He said Jesus "prayed to His Father and Father rose Him from the Dead."

No one does it alone, pal.

Daylon is at Leo because of Mike Holmes, Mark Lee,  Dan McGrath, Rich Furlong, Jim Furlong, Jim Arvetis, Andy McKenna, Frank Considine, John Gardner, Bill Koloseike, Bob Sheehy, Jackie Schaller, Bernie Pepping, Jim Corbett, and seven thousand other Leo Alumni who give money all year.  Even guys who might not have enough money to give volunteer, come to games and most of all pray for Daylon, whom they have yet to meet.  Daylon has Francis Cardinal George backing his play; Cardinal George is a Leo Alumnus.  He is one of us.

We take care of each other.  This summer, one of us, a classmate of Daylon was murdered -

Chicago police said Antonio Davis, 14, was shot and killed Friday night near 69th and Union around 8:40 p.m.A day later, a 13-year-old boy was shot and killed in the 6200-block of South Rhodes. Neighbors said there was a large party at the home where the boy was shot that spilled into the street.Also, a 14-year-old and 15-year-old are recovering from being shot while playing basketball near their home Saturday night. It happened around 8:43pm in the 2400-block of East 74th Street. The two victims were playing when a gunman approached on foot and opened fire, striking the two.Davis' family said he was an A and B student at Leo High School and had dreams of becoming a basketball player."I just know that he was walking to the store to get my niece's baby water and a car pulled up and jumped out at him and shot him" said Davis' aunt, Latrice Strong

Dan McGrath called the Leo community.  Leo paid for the gravesite and the repast held at the school.  Mr. Leak of the Funeral home handled the funeral, Dwayne Wade's mother preached the funeral - Dwayne Wade was coached and mentored by Leo Man Jack Fitzgerald. Antonio Davis attended one week of summer school - he was a Leo Man.  Cardinal George is a Leo Man, Daylon is a Leo Man and we are all supplicants.

Cardinal George has cancer. He is one of us.  We are all supplicants. There are seven thousand and change Leo Men saying the Memorare - a prayer of intercession and supplication,  Help and provide, Mary Mother of God, one of our own - old school and new school versions.

MEMORARE, O piissima Virgo Maria,
non esse auditum a saeculo, quemquam ad tua currentem praesidia,
tua implorantem auxilia, tua petentem suffragia,
esse derelictum.
Ego tali animatus confidentia,
ad te, Virgo Virginum, Mater, curro,
ad te venio, coram te gemens peccator assisto.
Noli, Mater Verbi,
verba mea despicere;
sed audi propitia et exaudi.
Amen.

Remember, O Most Gracious Virgin Mary,
that never was it known that anyone who fled to Thy protection,
implored Thy help or sought Thine intercession,
was left unaided.
Inspired by this confidence,
I fly unto Thee, O Virgin of Virgins, my Mother;
to Thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful.
O Mother of the Word Incarnate,
despise not my petitions,
but in Thy mercy, hear and answer me.
Amen.

*A prayer beginning, "Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary." Of unknown authorship, it has been attributed to St. Augustine, to St. John Chrysostom, and with more reason to St. Bernard or to Claude Bernard, "poor priest" of Paris. Passages in sermons of St. Bernard echo the theme (PL 183:428), but none comes close to the actual wording of the Memorare. The manuscript tradition can be traced only to the 15th century. It appears as a section of a longer prayer in the Antidotarius animae of Nicolas Salicetus (1489). J. Wellinger included it, possibly as a separate invocation, in his Hortulus animae (1503). Claude Bernard (1588–1641) …