"... the communication
Of the dead is tongued with fire beyond
the language
of the living."
- T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets: Little
Gidding
It is a byword of our tradition that if we can now see further, it is because we stand on the shoulders of giants. Here are some of the giants supporting us, together with just a small sampling of their writings which continue to inspire.
"Yes, we are happy. We have the Lord with us. Only tonight,
we hung up our lovely sanctuary lamp where
none had hung
before....It is shining before our little
altar....They tell us
we won't be able to afford to keep it burning.
But we have a
little olive oil, and will burn it while
it lasts....We can see it
as we come through the woods, and it lights
the humble
home where Our Master dwells. We tell
each other that we
are not alone, that Jesus Christ lives
among us. It gives us
courage."
- Fr. Edward Sorin, letter to Fr. Basil
Moreau (Oct. 14, 1841)
In 1844, two years after founding Notre Dame, Fr. Edward Sorin wrote:
“When this school, Our Lady’s school, grows a bit more, I
shall raise her aloft so that, without asking, all men shall know why
we have succeeded here. To that lovely Lady, raised high on a dome, a
Golden Dome, men may look and find the answer.” Through the intercession
of Our Lady, Heaven was pleased to call around Fr. Sorin good teachers
who would carry on the Catholic tradition of education; others would follow.
Notre Dame’s history is now full of such teachers. Many great Catholic
intellectuals and teachers have filled the ranks of the faculty at the
University of Notre Dame, people who have—in the words of one such
faculty member, Frank O’Malley—helped the university continue
in its mission to “redeem the time.” In the midst of a “deliriously
secular culture,” Notre Dame remains a place true to its foundations,
a place where it is not entirely unrealistic to dream of making the Truth
visible to the world. The light that burned in that first sanctuary lamp
in 1842 has been kept alive through the efforts of many great Catholic
intellectuals and teachers at the University of Notre Dame. Looking to
that golden dome, people may know why the Catholic intellectual and moral
tradition has been kept alive at the University of Notre Dame. It is because
Notre Dame, Our Lady, is our Mother. Enjoy the profiles below of the history
of the university and of some of her outstanding professors.
"Being a Catholic writer is not a
falling away from an ideal;
it is the way to fulfill the ideal completely
-- to see human
acts in terms of the ultimate stakes of
life"
- Ralph McInerny, "On
Being a Catholic Writer"
The language of poetry, of myth, of symbol and of drama best expresses the interior of the human person. The Catholic writer, conscious of the "ultimate stakes of life," uses this language to explore the depths and richness of human action and experience. Enjoy Ralph McInerny's profiles of some Catholic writers and their works.
*All profiles are in PDF format.
