Blow it. Classroom Prayer.

When inaugurating the first Catholic school system in Australia. He wrote of the importance of not judging a schools by the perceived presence of any particular virtue if the school day was not punctuated by prayer - because there is no guarantee that the virtue would be lasting if it isnot underpinned by prayer and the sacraments.

The school should unmistakably witness to the importance of prayer in the life of the Christian. By succumbing to the temptation of making prayer hit or miss, perfunctory or giving a grudging amount of time or no time at all to it each day, the school succumbs to the rampant secularism which pervades our time and culture. The pupils are learning then that prayer is not of vital importance, something which can have very sad consequences, especially as temptations abound and many difficulties llie ahead.

For nearly two centuries a carefully thought out programme of prayers punctuated all Chrisrian brothers's schools, the forerunners of schools in the Edmund tradition today. There were slight variations in some of prayers said to meet times of special devotion, such as special prayers of consecration and dedication to the Sacred Heart being said each day during June. However, there were other prayers never changed including the Long Act of Contrition, and long acts of Faith, Hope and Charity, and the Angelus at noon. I mentioned those prayers because I believe the Long Act of Contrition outlines what true contrition implies and needs tobe fostered , the three theolgical virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity are foundational to the Christians's life and the Angelus is a centuries long prayer said at that time every day honouring Our Lady's attitude which resulted in the Word becoming Flesh. It would be a terrible pity if this prayer of such power were lost in our generation.

In the very beginning of the Christian Brothers, every classroom would have a striking clock and every time the clock struck the hour, the brother and his class would say a Hail Mary together.

To ensure that a proper balance would prevail, the prayers were set for every Christian Brothers' classroom. In that way any beleagured brother, or one enthusiastic for the educational activity engaging the students at the time, and inclined for these or other reasons inclined to skimp on classrom prayer would would really have no choice but to uphold the rock-like priority prayer. On the other hand nor would a Brother be able to inflict his own iciocyncrasies on the students.

There were on rare occasions calls for the prayers to be "more liturgical "or "more sciptural".

After Vatican 11, attempts were made by a few brothers along these lines by concentrating daily prayer on "para-liturgies". however, generally attempts along these lines