Before I continue talking about Father Brady, I came across the Saints celebrated today in Father Zuhlsdorf's WDPRS blog. It's interesting that though they died 1160 years ago, the ideology that had them killed still is practiced the same way.
Saints Nunilo and Alodia were sisters, virgins and martyrs. They lived in the area of Navarre, Spain, during the time of the muslim conquests. Their mother was a christian, their father, muslim. They chose to be christians like their mother. When their father died, their mother (unhappily) married another muslim. He was a brutal step-father, and the girls went to live with a christian aunt. However, eventually they were arrested, tried by the Emir Abd ar-Rahman as apostates to the muslim faith and beheaded, in 851 A.D., according to Sharia Law, after all attempts to convert them, some degrading, failed.
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Father Edward H. Brady was born on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8, 1871, in Newport, Herkimer County, New York, ordained in 1907. His pastoral duties lasted from 1919 until his death in 1953.
Yesterday I started to talk about his love for children. He cared about every aspect of their lives, knew what transpired in various households, made home visits and frequent visits to the classrooms.
Every month Father came into each classroom, grade by grade, sat at the teacher's desk and read each child's report card - aloud! Bad grades merited a trip to the desk and an explanation. However, there was a space on the report card next to the word, "Effort." If the "Effort" was an A or B, perhaps even C, Father was understanding and encouraging. He realized that not all intellects are created equal, as well. If the "Effort" showed a lack of - Effort - some stronger encouragement was given, with a little less understanding! Face and voice were quite expressive.
He always took the opportunity to ask whose birthdays were that month. The celebrants went, in turn, to the desk. Father would put each over his knee and give the requisite number of light swats. When we got to the sixth grade, Father then just shook the girls' hands. The boys still got the swats. I always thought that the older boys seemed to get louder swats. Well, by eighth grade, some of the boys were almost as big as Father!
One memory just popped into my head. Father would often hear our catechism as well, just dropping by. He stressed the need for courage as Catholics and to be able to defend our beliefs. On more than one occasion he would have us do an exercise in strength and endurance, recalling Christ's sacrifice on the cross. He would stand at the front of the room and extend his arms as if on the cross. The class was asked to do the same. We sat in our desks, arms extended, to see who could keep them up the longest - a test of strength of will and willingness to suffer for our Faith. No one considered this a punishment or abuse. It was a call to courage and to remember what the apostles and martyrs endured for Our Lord.
Father Brady was a loving Father and cared that "his children" stayed close to God, literally. The 8 a.m. Mass on Sunday was the children's Mass. The first two rows of pews on the left side of the Church center aisle were reserved for children. This was not the so-called children's mass of today. It WAS the Mass. He simply wanted the children to be close to Christ in the Tabernacle. I sang in the school's children's choir at that Mass each Sunday, lovingly directed by Sister Helen Clare, CSJ, a diminutive dynamo.
If he saw children with their parents before Mass, and that included other Masses, on Sunday and any day of the week, he personally walked down the aisle and escorted the children, except babes and toddlers, up to the front pews. As I said yesterday, Father was relentless.
He could be severe with us if he saw behavior that was suspect, especially among the boys. He also chastised the parents of one of the girls who allowed a boy/girl party for sixth graders. They were too young to be "fraternizing." This was the early 1940s, remember. There were stricter rules for young people's manners, dress and morals in general. Father believed that children should be children, and those beginning puberty (around sixth grade for girls, especially) needed guidance and protection. Given what a lot of today's sixth graders - and younger - are doing, he was wise, and the expectations for youngsters in those days were more sensible. Protection in those days consisted of parental and teacher supervision and guidance, not birth control pills and shots to prevent HPV.
Father had one great accomplishment, he thought, in his life. He had been a chaplain at San Quentin Prison before his time at St. Cecilia's. He converted, shortly before his execution, a hardened, convicted murderer. He talked about it at least once a year from the pulpit, to stress God's mercy and the fact that it is never too late to receive His grace. That was a wonderful thing for him to remember and feel gladdened that a soul was saved.
However, to my mind, what he meant to so many children is the accomplishment about which he should have been most pleased. I'm sure the Good Lord sees it that way, as well.
The prayer on the back of his memorial card: O God, Who amongst Thy apostolic priests didst adorn Thy servant, Edward, with priestly dignity, grant, we beseech Thee, that he may also be joined with them in everlasting fellowship.
10/22/11
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