I had just left St. Buenos's and was coming through
an archway of one of the colleges at Oxford University when I
bumped into two Jamaicans. They had just come off the plane the
day before. They were the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry
of Education, Reggie Mais, and Dr. Figuero from the University
of the West Indies. They were all smiles and said, "When
we went to the airport yesterday, the superior of the Jesuits
and the rector of St. George's came to see us off. They told us
that, before we get back, they will have announced the opening
of a new boys' school in Kingston, Jamaica, called Campion College."
All I could say was, "Oh, my God!"
The British system of secondary education is
quite different from American schools. Students typically start
first form at the age of eleven. At the end of the fifth form,
students have to get through a certain number of Ordinary Level-or
O Level-examinations to qualify for sixth form. The sixth form
takes two years and prepares students for the university. By then
the students are usually about eighteen years old.
At that time the Provincial, Fr. Bill Guindon,
had started a big change in management systems and structures
in the New England Province. Of course, this influenced our way
of doing things down in Jamaica. This led us to come up with the
idea of a community college for Jamaica that would amalgamate
the sixth form of five Catholic schools: Campion, St. George's,
Immaculate, Holy Childhood, and Alpha.
Then we came to the Feast of St. Ignatius
at Campion Center the day after I returned from long retreat.
I did not go on the altar for the Mass in the main chapel, but
nine others vested. I was planning to go and see my mother, but
decided that first I would go to Mass in the main chapel. I was
seated about mid-church. There weren't all that many people there,
except for the sick and those in wheelchairs, who were up front,
and a few nurses. Fr. Dick Cleary, the rector, was celebrating
the Mass. He gave a terrific homily on the "Suscipe, [which
is a prayer of total self-offering drawn from the Spiritual Exercises,]
and, at the end of Mass, he said, "Let's all sing the 'Suscipe.'"
So we sang it in English. And when he got to the part, "Only
your grace and love on me bestow," I started to cry. And
with "Possessing these, all riches I forego," I was
in tears. I couldn't leave, so I sat down at the back of the chapel
for about forty minutes letting this grace sink in.
