To the Band of Brothers: January 13, 2022

Fr. Willie ‘87
In 1522, Ignatius of Loyola made a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Montserrat just outside of Barcelona, Spain. For centuries devout Catholics had been making their way to this holy place to visit the image of the Black Madonna. Legend has it the image was carved in the year 50 A.D. by St. Luke and later brought to the monastery where it was eventually hidden in a cave for fear of the Moors, only to be discovered years later by a young shepherd. 

The autobiography of Ignatius tells us that when our founder arrived at the monastery he knelt in front of the image of Mary and there, surrendered his sword to her. He promised that from that moment on he would no longer serve any king other than the King of kings, the son of Mary, Jesus. If you go there today, which I highly recommend because it is one of the most breathtaking places you can visit in all of Spain, you can see a replica of the weapon kept close by, while the actual sword can be found at the Loyola castle museum. 

You can just imagine what it meant for a soldier like Ignatius to surrender his sword. It’s like asking Charlie Brown’s friend Linus to surrender his blanket or your older brother to give up the remote control (are you crazy!). For Ignatius, the sword was a symbol of safety and manhood. It was a symbol of his life’s path, a symbol of his profession and work, a symbol of power. And yet, here he was laying it down at the feet of Mary and her baby son. Wow!

This is the image that was intended when we installed a new feature in the Arroyo Quad. Two large oolite boulders previously found in the front corner of our campus were removed to make way for the new chapel. They were relocated to the quad, one placed on top of the other. They drilled a hole right through the middle and inserted a steel plate that looks like a sword in the stone. At the top are the famous wolves and cauldron, the main symbol in the Loyola family coat of arms. If you bend down a little, you see another hole through which you can see the tip of the steel shaft adorned with the IHS monogram in the center of a sun, the symbol of the Society of Jesus.

I don’t know if the designer of the piece has titled it, but I call it “Surrender.” How appropriate. Like every man, woman, and child who claims to be a Christian, we are called to surrender. It is exactly what Belen asks of its students… surrender. Like Ignatius, we are called to surrender everything to Christ, to lay down our swords at the feet of our Lady of Belen and her Son. While to the world surrendering is only what the weak do, for us, it is the ultimate show of strength. That is why a boulder and steel seem so appropriate.

As Belen students, you come armed with so much potential in every field from academics to sports. You arrive with great enthusiasm. Be aware, Belen will ask you to surrender it all to Christ, to lay it down at the feet of Mary. Understand, the surrender is not an impediment to your potential in academics or athletics. No, the surrender is in order for that potential to belong to Christ. So, when you reach it, when you eventually succeed, you succeed for the Greater Glory of God (A.M.D.G.).

So, in the spirit of surrender, let’s remember the prayer of Ignatius:

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will. 
All I have and call my own. 
Whatever I have or hold, you have given me. 
I return it all to you and surrender it wholly to be governed by your will. 
Give me only your love and your grace, that’s enough for me.
Amen.

Auspice Maria.
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BELEN JESUIT PREPARATORY SCHOOL
500 SW 127th Avenue, Miami, FL 33184
phone: 305.223.8600 | fax: 305.227.2565 | email: webmaster@belenjesuit.org
Belen Jesuit Preparatory School was founded in 1854 in Havana, Cuba by Queen Isabel II of Spain.  The task of educating students was assigned to the priests and brothers of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), whose teaching tradition is synonymous with academic excellence and spiritual discipline.  In 1961, the new political regime of Cuba confiscated the School property and expelled the Jesuit faculty.  The School was re-established in Miami the same year, and over the next decade, continued to grow.  Today, Belen Jesuit sits on a 30-acre site in western Dade County, only minutes away from downtown Miami.