Christian Brothers High School • Enter to Learn, Leave to Serve
Falcon Family News
It is the spirit of Ubuntu that I witness every day at Christian Brothers High School. Whether it’s a student who sits next to someone who is alone during lunch, a student who holds the door for another (something that anyone who has visited our campus has likely witnessed), or a teacher who just listens to someone who is struggling with something in his or her life, the Christian Brothers High School community truly embodies the ideals of Ubuntu. Leonard Bernstein wrote: “The key to the mystery of a great artist: that for reasons unknown to him or to anyone else, he will give away his energies and his life just to make sure that one note follows another inevitably…The composer, by doing this, leaves us at the finish with the feeling that something is right in the world, that something checks throughout, something that follows its own laws consistently, something we can trust, that will never let us down.” – The Joy of Music. So how does one connect Desmond Tutu, the philosophy of Ubuntu, and Leonard Bernstein? Desmond Tutu, in his book “No Future without Forgiveness”, suggests that “[h]armony, friendliness, community are great goods. Social harmony is for us the ‘summum bonum’ - the greatest good”. His use of the word ‘harmony’ brings the two together. Ubuntu presents the possibility of a world in harmony, in which beauty and greatness is revealed through the altruistic actions of all human beings, and dissonance is replaced with consonance; in which people recognize their contributions as being infinitely valuable, to the benefit of all.
March 2014 Christian Brothers High School Monthly Newsletter
www.cbhs-sacramento.org
I feel truly blessed to be a part of such an amazing community. In a world where it could be easy to overlook the wonder that resides right in front of our eyes, Christian Brothers brings it into focus and magnifies it for the world to see. Each student is infinitely valuable, a physical manifestation of the image of God. It is through this lens that students are seen, and it is through this lens that their gifts are projected. I welcome you to come to one of the performances in our beautiful new facility. It certainly is beautiful. But more importantly, you will have the opportunity to witness our talented, empathic, inspiring students in their element, achieving greatness, discovering their potential, and becoming an outward expression of Ubuntu, for all to live, breathe and experience. In harmony,
Ron Slabbinck Director of Media, Visual and Performing Arts
INSIDE
In less than one month, the George Cunningham Center for the Performing Arts will open, giving many groups of
students the opportunity to learn, discover, create, design, build, perform and display their talents. Musicians will sing and play songs that move audiences and inspire the soul. The sonorities created will leave the audience and performers “with the feeling that something is right in the world”. Artists will allow the contrast and complement of colors and textures to manifest in a visually harmonious way that is thought provoking, emotional and captivating. The beauty and power of word and motion, on stage and in film, in the form of a play, student-written one act, musical, dance, student-created film or student-directed broadcast, will give voice to the gifts each of our students carry in their hearts and minds every day. In short, Christian Brothers High School students will be finding ways to reach their full potential. They will be contributing to the greater good and manifesting the spirit of Ubuntu in their words and actions.
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SPRING SEMESTER
A
ccording to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the African term “Ubuntu” provides an overarching philosophy that in order for any one individual to reach his or her full potential, all others must also achieve their potential. It means that all of humanity is inextricably linked; we are all a part of a global fabric. When one achieves greatness, we all benefit. When one suffers, we all suffer. It suggests that global empathy exists on a cellular, spiritual level.
MARCH ‘14
A MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR OF MEDIA, VISUAL, AND PERFORMING ARTS…