From the Heart of the Shepherd
From the bulletin for The Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (2026 Oct 11)
Oct 11, 2026 - 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Brother Alphonsus Martel—the only habited Christian Brother on faculty at the time—was the “business faculty” at my high school until his death my junior year. I had him for two or three courses beginning with Accounting. He was something of an institution, and his classes were like none other. Each period began with an impromptu “prayer” which ran for about ten minutes and involved elements of sermon, social commentary, and thoughts for the day. After that came a whole ritual about returning past assignments and submitting new ones. Then came the lesson itself, which was never very long since there was always time for doing assignments before the end. In his large black cassock and stern classroom demeanor (woe to the one who wandered into his room chewing gum!) Brother instilled fear in his students… until one realized that he was really a big teddy bear. Nevertheless, for both new students and veterans Brother commanded respect. For those who arrived late to his class, there was an inquisition. He had eyes in the back of his head, could throw a pen in a wastebasket from across the room, and when he asked you how you were doing, he never accepted any response less than “Great!” Brother’s classroom itself was also something of a Baroque-style museum of 80s and 90s cultural mementos (a large poster of Rambo comes to mind), which provided rich grazing pastures for the eye when the lesson (or prayer) failed to capture one’s attention. And yet, woe to the student whom Brother caught day-dreaming in class! Truly, I have never since experienced such a classroom culture like Brother Martel’s.
Most memorably, every class that Brother led ended with a collection. A student (this was one of the assigned responsibilities) would pass through the aisle with what looked like a clay chalice. Brother would encourage us to “remember the kiddies.” What he meant (and it might take a student a few weeks to put it together) was to give something to the Christian missions taking place throughout the world. Somewhat begrudgingly, but to oblige Brother, we would all reach into our pockets and produce a few coins, knowing that he was not above passing through the room himself if the collected amount was too meager.
In this, Brother Martel resembled “America’s teacher,” the now-Blessed Fulton Sheen. Archbishop Sheen was the national director of the Pontifical Mission Society in the U.S.A. for sixteen years. In that role, he not only visited many missionary sites abroad, he also worked to raise millions of dollars and foment millions of prayers on behalf of the Church’s missionary efforts throughout the world.
Of course, Sheen’s television show and myriad publications were also a most fruitful missionary effort to both poorly formed Catholics and non-Catholics here at home. In Sheen one heard the Christian faith articulated with conviction and coherence, as well as with wit and wisdom. Not unlike Brother Martel’s witness to us students as he ostensibly taught us the elements of business management, mutatis mutandis.
Next Sunday is World Mission Sunday. As Blessed Fulton would have reminded his hearers, it is the one Sunday of the year that all Catholic parishes throughout the world take up a collection to support the Holy Father’s missionary endeavors worldwide. Granted that we are on mission here at St. Mark’s–to our neighbors, to students, to the next generation–we should not turn a blind eye to the “clay chalice” which the Holy Father holds out to us that weekend. A few coins, if not to say a few hundred dollars, can go a lot further in a foreign land to provide for basic human needs, or to build a chapel or furnish catechetical material, or otherwise facilitate the proclamation of the Gospel to those who have never heard it, or those who need to hear it again. We will be taking up a second collection next weekend at all the Masses. I ask you to have something ready “for the kiddies,” or rather for the little ones who, through the Church, are beginning us for a cup of cool, living water for their thirsting souls. And that Water is Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen!
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