Marian College Graduationa€"September 20, 1946
We had worked so hard and prayed so long to get the approval for our Marian College that when it did reach us,
it did not take us by surprise. Naturally the whole campus was delighted and very much excited about our
success. We made it a point to contact at once the people who had helped us to make it possible. I telephoned Dr.
Roy
J.
Deferrari of Catholic University and also decided to notify our General House in Rome. At that time we
were having a General Chapter in Rome with the Superiors of all of the countries where our Marists were
working. We notified them of our success and invited them to feel free to send us candidates from their countries
upon their return home. And that was exactly what some of them did, accounting for the variety of nationalities
present in our first years.
We held a special prayer service that evening and I decided that we would celebrate by enjoying our supper al
fresco outside the Greystone uilding where Brother Nilus had built a special table for us to be able to have our
Sunday and holiday suppers outside on the lawn. I had gone to Esopus that afternoon in order to get an eight-
inch-long baby Japanese maple that we planted on that spot after our supper. We said our evening Office with
special gusto that night, for we had so much for which to thank the Lord, who had indeed come through for us.
We did concentrate on keeping it a low-key celebration and enjoyed our supper out in the open on our campus
grove, planting the small Japanese maple and then closing with the singing of the Salve Regina. The Brothers
were told that they were free for the rest of the evening, and I took the four graduates in our community car and
drove them to Connecticut to a special place where we knew we could get the best in ice cream servings with all
the toppings imaginable. Our community would further celebrate together the following Sunday with a special
movie that the Brothers had long been waiting to see.
In the spirit of Champagnat we intended to keep the celebration low-key as he would have liked it, and the four
graduates were allowed a visit home with their families on the following Sunday. As already explained, it would
only be later that the name of the college would become Marist College, once the Marist Fathers had released
the name for us and they agreed to call theirs a Marist seminary instead of Marist College. In the spirit of
Champagnat we would continue to do good quietly in keeping with our special Marist spirit. The names of the
first four graduates were Bro. Bernard Frederick Twomy, Bro. Christopher Emile Connelly, Bro. John Bosco
Normandin, and Bro. Patrick Eugene Magee, the only survivor. He is the Director of our community at Marist
High School in Chicago, Illinois.
In the life of a religious Brother it is a normal procedure after a number of years for the candidate to make what
is called the Second Novitiate. It is usually offered to a Marist Brother after some ten years or so of profession of
the vows. He now is mature, has had experience in the religious life, has been active in the apostolic, and is quite
knowledgeable of the professed life he has undertaken. It is a time to get away from the distractions of everyday
life, and to have some quiet spiritual time reevaluating his life thus far. It is time to see whether or not he is
satisfied with his dedication, or if there is some need for adjusting, and whether or not he is ready to face a more
demanding assignment.
The Brother takes his initial vows for one year and renews this same consecration each year for five years. After
the five years, he is then invited to make his vows for life. The experiment has been completed, and he is now
mature enough to realize whether this is the life for him, or whether he should look elsewhere. It is a chance to
evaluate his consecration to the Lord by his vows, and also to check on his dedication to his task of being a
teacher, trying to help youth to find their place in life and directing them towards a happy and prosperous future.
He is a Brother who has been teaching for at least five years, has taken the three vows of poverty, chastity and
obedience, and has lived a life of community with his confreres. He should have completed his degree fields by
this time. It is now that he may need some reflecting; he may have problems to deal with and should be given the
time and help needed to carry on towards a different apostolic with maybe less work to face. It is a sacred time
to see what has to be improved, altered, or maybe faced with even greater generosity. After this he may well be
called upon to become Director of a community or assume special obligations that will help him as well as the
work of the Brotherhood. At this time he knows the religious life quite well, and may well be invited to take a


fourth vow, that of stability. The essence of that vow is a two-fold pledge never to leave the Marist Brothers
under any circumstances and to live the life as an example, which will be an invitation to young people to join
and come to serve. It is intended to guarantee the quality of our Marist Brotherhood, and also is a beacon calling
others to come and do likewise in the service of the Lord.
The Second Novitiate is a five-month time of renewal. It is done usually in a place close to where the Order was
started, and where the religious can go to the Founder's grave and travel through the area that he worked. The
Brother tries to recap some of his initial fervor and dedication in this work for the Lord.
I was invited to go to France for this, and my companion from the States who was to come with me was Bro.
Arthur Xavier, who was then the librarian at Marist College. It was going to be my first voyage and we were to
head there for the program, which was to start on January 20, 1949. We left a little earlier in order to have some
time to visit, as we had planned to make a stop at the grave and place of work of the saintly Cure of Ars. He had
been a slow learner who had been accepted mostly because of his saintly life of edification, and more especially
his saintly influence on sinners in the privacy of the confessional. There were all kinds of stories of the great
good he had been doing for souls to the point where the devil had twice tried to intervene by burning the
confessional.
It was after our visit to the good Cure of Ars that we stopped for lunch in the bitter cold and were pleased to taste
the French cooking that we had heard so much about. While we were at lunch an old lady in her eighties came in
with a little girl of three to get out of the cold and to have a warm drink. It was when she spoke to the waiter that
we were surprised to hear her ask for a€reDeux St. Genis, oui l'arquebuse des Freres Maristesa€ (a€replease
give us two St. Genis, the after-dinner drink of the Marist Brothersa€ ). The waiter then brought the two cups
with a cube of sugar in each and poured a small glass of the arquebuse in each and then poured the boiling water
in the cup and stirred. a€reVoila! et bonne sante Madame.a€ The old lady saw our surprise and assured us that
this was the best medication for the start of the flu, and it was assured to be so because the Marist Brothers made
it.
We were some eighteen or twenty from various countries who had come to follow the course. It was an
introduction to the international aspect of our religious family, which would mean so much to me in my future
life. We prayed together, the same prayers as we had prayed in the United States except that these were in
French. We had two conferences per day, along with periods of discussion and many adequate assigned readings.
It was a mirror of the life together that we had lived in our first Novitiate, but this was with international Marists,
and I found it fascinating. Two Brothers provided our instructions, whereas another two French Brothers were in
charge of the food service and were ready to provide travel to the doctors if needed. We played various games
and went on weekly walks in the countryside, where we were fascinated by the country life as lived in France.
Some of our Major Superiors came from St. Genis Laval, which was then the Mother House of the congregation.
They came to visit and interview.
It was a time of peace, quiet, and closeness with the Lord, and was an ideal occasion for renewal, but what
struck us most was that it was a time to experience the vastness of our religious family, which extended around
the globe. This was also the time to do what we were called upon to do that was special to our Marist life in
America. We visited the sacred shrines of the congregation both at St. Genis and at the Hermitage, which made
us feel so close to our beloved Founder and wanting very much to be like him in our dedication.
The Brother Master of the Second Novitiate was a small thin Frenchman, Bro. Henri Noe, who was quite
experienced and most kind to all of us grand Novices who were physically much bigger than he was. He was not
only young but also capable and friendly. We had several interviews with him as he helped us along in our path
of closeness to Our Lord and Our Lady. We also had several talks given to us by the various Assistant Generals
who came from the Mother House on a weekly basis to lecture on some aspect of our religious life. Thus, we
came to know most of the leaders of our religious family. Besides, on our long weekly walks, we made close
friends with the various young Brothers from a variety of countries. It was especially pleasing to me, for I had
already received a number of foreign young Brothers who had come to register for a degree at Marian College.
Young Brothers from many of the countries represented had attended Marian College in the past three years, and
this provided a new attachment for me.


We had come with awe to make this Second Novitiate; we would return with greater affection for our worldwide
Marist family. It was a grace that would prove most useful for my future apostolic life that I was then totally
ignorant of. After five months we left having made many new friends, being very much more attached to our
Marist family and much closer to our saintly Founding Father. Little did I know then that I would be present at
his beatification six years later in Rome. We had been right at home in a strange country as we headed back to
our own real home in the U.S.A.