Memento Mori

“Day by day remind yourself that you are going to die.”

–The Rule of Saint Benedict, Ch. 4

The past few months have been rough here on the SBP community. This past December, a beloved alumni, coach, and teacher passed away at the age of 29 after a long battle with cancer, shaking the community deeply. While I never got to meet him, I could tell that his passing had a deep impact on the students and staff here. 

On January 23rd, Bill Petrick, a freshman english teacher that taught at St. Benedict’s for decades passed away suddenly on his way to school that morning. I hadn’t known Bill for very long, but Bill and I were in charge of a Group (combination homeroom/leadership class the students have every day) together. As the main freshman English teacher, every student in the school has taken one of his classes at some point, and the loss has been deeply felt for weeks now. 

The one bright spot in this whole experience was getting to see how the Benedict’s community handles tragedy. On the Tuesday after his death, classes were cancelled for the entire day. Students came to school in the morning, and to my surprise, the administration planned on bringing the entire student body to Bill’s funeral. In a feat of logistics, 550 students boarded 14 buses to make the 30-minute trip to Jersey City.

Since these are old cities with narrow streets, the school called in a few of its many connections to secure a police escort, blocking off streets to let the students disembark. I sincerely apologize to any commuters that morning, because it seemed to me that we shut down the entire downtown area on our way there and back. 

As foreign as the idea of shuttling the entire student body there and back (something I couldn’t ever imagine happening at a public school), I can tell how much the family appreciated it, and gave the students an opportunity for closure and reflection during a few-month span when two staff members and the parents of several students have died. The word “community” gets beaten to death here, but they really do practice what they preach. 

In the weeks following, the headmaster Fr. Edwin (FrEd as he is commonly called) has had the students reflect heavily on death. He urges them to be the man they want to be today, because there is no guarantee of how much time they have left. The phrase memento mori (Latin ‘remember you must die’) is a common theme in Catholicism/Christianity that reminds us to keep death before us always. We will all die, but we cannot choose when or how– ignoring that reality is like walking through life with blinders on.

On a more positive note, this past weekend I was visited by a friend– current SkyWest pilot and Milaca High School graduate Nicholas Wolbert, and my current girlfriend– Boston College School of Theology and Ministry student and College of Saint Benedict graduate Hallie Douglas. Both got to stay in the guesthouse at the monastery, and explore the beautiful city that is Newark, NJ. 

Since Nick has yet to develop the refined, East-Coast sensibilities that Hallie and I have, we spent a day getting acclimatized, then introduced central-Minnesota Nicholas to the big city. We got to do all the things one must do when visiting New York, including Rockefeller Plaza, dodging garbage and potholes in the street, Central Park, World Trade Center, and riding on overcrowded subway cars. 

On Saturday, we got up early and made our way to Newark Penn Station to board a well-worn Greyhound bus to Philadelphia. Now, at least from my experience, Philly has a very bad impression in Minnesota, and that’s not just because of the 38-7 beatdown the Eagles gave the Vikings in the 2018 NFC title game a week after the Minneapolis Miracle. 

I found myself pleasantly surprised by Philadelphia. The city was clean and well laid-out (at least compared to Newark), and had a lot to offer. We got to see City Hall (the largest municipal building in the country), the largest functioning pipe organ in the US (nerdy, but still cool), the Liberty Bell (bad at being a bell, good at being a symbol), Independence Hall (where the Constitution was written), and the Rocky Steps (Leave it to Philly to put up a statue of a fictional athlete).

We also got to visit Eastern State Penitentiary, a historic prison that held many famous inmates including Al Capone and Willie Sutton. For anybody visiting the east coast, I would definitely put Philadelphia on your list. Bring good walking shoes, take a photo on top of the steps with your arms in the air, and don’t forget to eat a Philly Cheesesteak.

Until next time,

Jack Barsody, Defeated Boxer