Thanks and enjoy!

1.  How to deal with, look at,
and think about women[1]
Fatherly experience teaches two important lessons: First, boys, from a very young age, want to be with their father, and will model their behavior after his.  Second, Dad’s voice can be heard over and above almost any crowd.  These facts argue for a father’s key role in his son’s forming the virtue of chastity.

Whether it is a toddler who wants to carry his father’s tools as he works around the house, or the six-year-old who insists accompanying dad on his errands, early on, boys obtain their idea of masculine behavior from their father.  As our society more and more tries to pass off hyper-sexuality as manly, one of the first and best antidotes to this is the father’s own chastity.  Although it may seem like a near-lost battle, being one of the few voices singing the virtue of pure love, there is a factor that tilts that balance into Dad’s favor: to a growing boy, there is no greater authority on manliness than his father.  So dads, take heart: you can have a great effect on your son in the area of keeping a chaste heart.  Teach him the precautions one should take to guard the eyes, mind, and heart.  Let him know that you pray daily for holy purity (or, better yet, make that prayer with your family.)  Tell your son, when he’s ready for it, of the beauty of chastity as a fostering of something very good.  Most of all, speak to him with your actions, whether or not he is watching you; if you live the virtue of chastity yourself, he will be more likely to follow you in it.

2.  Confidence
As a colleague of mine points out,[2] the number one factor which influences a boy’s confidence is his relationship with his father.  This is not to minimize the love and care of the mother, for she plays an equally important, but perhaps differently oriented, role in her son’s self-confidence.[3]  Yet, there is no replacing the positive, and necessarily sincere, encouragement of a boy’s father.  Why?  A boy is constantly assessing himself, testing himself, not only with regard to who he is, but with respect to what he will become.  As he will some day become a man, he finds the easiest measure in that regard to be his own father.  For not only is Dad the model of masculinity, but in a very real way, he is the family’s own representative of the outside world.  If the son’s truest boyhood hero thinks he is good, capable, and worthy, the boy himself is most likely to believe it.

3.  Strength, Sacrifice, and Service
As noted earlier, the first and strongest one can be the boy’s own father.  This is especially key of the young man is to learn the virtue of sacrifice.

We may fool ourselves into thinking there is nothing heroic in our daily lives.  After all, our day-to-day is hardly newsworthy, nor does it approach the level of notice reserved for medals and public honor. But just as there is a white martyrdom, the silent and bloodless giving of one’s life for Christ, so also there is an everyday heroic, which often finds itself played out in the silent offering of one’s daily life and work to God.  Although the world’s noise blares tales of its supposed heroes from myriad near-ubiquitous loudspeakers, the father’s quiet giving of himself, day after day, and year after year, is still noticed by the son.  The quiet shouldering of burdens, the anticipation of someone’s needs, the use of strength to defend the weak: these are the lessons sons learn from watching their father’s daily life.

4.  What it means to be loved by the Father
St. Paul reminds us that the first, and truest, fatherhood is not that of men in this life, but is rather that of God the Father.[4]  We fathers on earth are mere imitators of the eternal Father begetting His Son; the primary fatherhood is in heaven, not on this earth.  And yet, the order in which we learn of fatherhood is inverted: our first knowledge of a father comes from our earthly dad.  This makes the role of the human father that much more important.  If Dad is cross, stern, and overly demanding, won’t it be hard for a child to imagine God’s intense and personal love for him?  Yet, if the father can better emulate the loving nature of our Father in Heaven, so much more can the child grasp just how loved he is.

Of course, this is true not only for sons, but for daughters as well – all children need to know the love of their fathers.  Still, there is one son-specific benefit that we cannot afford to overlook: the son who is sure of his father’s love is much more likely to become a loving father, should he have that vocation, to his own children someday.  Hence, all fathers should strive to imitate God’s eternal love for us, and we should all pray for fathers in that regard.

Heights summer programs are staffed by full-time faculty members and are geared toward the classic interests of boys. Summer camps in all the major sports and academic disciplines are offered, as well as one-of-a-kind camp offerings such as the dangerous camp for boys, discovery science camp, Heights knights, jazz improv, computer game programming, junior adventurers, natural history, woodworking, and chess. We think your boys will be both very interested in and very edified by these camps.

Heights summer camps serve boys age 6-18 in the greater D.C. metro area, including Montgomery County, Maryland. One- to eight-week options are available. Summer camps take place at the beautiful Heights campus in Potomac, Maryland.

Visit http://www.heights.edu/summer-camp for more information and for online signups.

All are welcome as we celebrate this remarkable accomplishment.  If you’d like to join us, please RSVP to Rob Wright at rwright@heights.edu.

Donor Day is just the first of many efforts throughout the month of May to acknowledge and thank all the donors who make  our mission possible each year. May is an exciting month full of performances, tournaments, trips, service projects, and more.  It’s a great example of Heights life in action and a wonderful illustration of the experiences gift makes possible for our students.

Hope to see everyone tomorrow, and we look forward to celebrating the generosity of our community throughout the month of May!

Also keep an  eye (or ear) out for the group’s May 3 release of a new cd recorded during their visit to Austria during this year’s Crescite Week.  More details coming soon…

Senior Michael Temple really gets into his presentation!

March 29  James Herrick - Logotherapy: A Path to Humanity and Sanctity

April 16    Ivan Harrangozo -Socialism in America: A Significant Threat to Free Market Principles

April 17    Peter Fairbanks - A Universal Morality

April 18    Kyle McCauley -  Fortitude During the D-Day Invasion: A Historical Review of the Challenges Faced

April 19    Michael Temple - The Progress of Friendship through the Addition of Christianity

April 23    Greg Hadley - Re-examining the Media Today

April 24    Michael Buono - Objective Judgment of Music

April 26    Philip Allen - Alcibiades and the Fall of Athenian Democracy

April 27    Gabriel Pereira -  Clauswitz and Greene: A Fundamental Theory of War

May 1       Frank Cipollone -Why Can’t We Be Friends: The Role of Facebook in Friendship

May 2       Luke Soltero - Natural Law: A Guide for Man’s Life and Society

May 3       Anthony Hadford -  To Kill or Not to Kill: The Questions of Capital Punishment

May 11  Daniel Pluta - The Theatre’s Purpose for Actor and Audience

Oslo
“We met privately with the Bishop of Copenhagen yesterday, and he outlined the history of the Church in Denmark. He asked us to pray for more vocations to the priesthood there. They have about 40,000 Catholics in all of Denmark and Greenland–probably about many as a large parish in Arlington, VA. By the way, we are expecting about 4-5 inches of snow in Norway tomorrow. It should be interesting.”

Scuba Diving
“We have had  a great couple of days down here in FL, and almost everyone is already a certified diver. This means that we can spend the rest of the week exploring. So far we’ve visited seen 4 reefs – including a 100 year-old shipwreck! - lobster, eels, sea turtles, and everyone has seen their fair share of tropical fish. We’re learning a lot about water, weather, sea life, teamwork, and of course, scuba diving.”

Iron Chef
One of this year’s Crescite Trip experiences is a a cooking expedition with Lower School Head Colin Gleason.  Here’s a quick clip of today’s iron chef competition!

Below is a video of our Men’s Chorus performing the communion motet for yesterday’s mass at St. Peter’s Church in Vienna (aka Peterskirche). As you’ll hear in the video, the acoustics are unbelievable.  They’ll be recording a full length album while they’re there!  Music Director Pat Love writes, “Fabulous trip so far. Off to Budapest in the AM. Ciao.”