Requiem Æternam

On the morning of my first day of high school, the principal swept into my homeroom class.

He was an Augustinian friar, and he moved in a precise way, as though every gesture had been planned in advance.

I’d never met a friar. I’d never gone to a Catholic school before. I wasn’t even Catholic.

My academic career to this point had been checkered at best. I aced all the standardized tests, and I’d skipped 7th grade. My marks, however, were abysmal.

The classes were dead boring. In 2nd grade, they’d given me the 8th grade reading book, and I’d swallowed it up. Unfortunately, the following year they gave me the same text I’d already done the year before. Ditto 4th grade.

In 5th grade, we moved and I’d gone to a new school. Now I was working from the 5th grade reading text, the text I’d placed out of three years before.

Dead. Boring.

And then I went to high school. Father Brecht, the principal, was my honours homeroom teacher. To this day I can remember that first class.

When he swept in, we were already all sitting randomly at the desks. He introduced himself and then launched into his talk. Here’s how I remember it.

“You come from parishes and schools all over the south side of Chicago. Some of you are from” – and here he pointed to one of the students – “Saint Simon. Some of you are from” – he pointed to another student – “Saint Clare. Some of you are from” – and here he pointed at me – “Nightingale.”

Just like that, he’d picked out our parishes and schools. From memory.

“The one thing you all had in common was that you were the smartest student at your school.” And then he paused a moment. “Not here.”

My homeroom class was Ancient and Medieval History. It was clear that Father Brecht preferred the ancient to the medieval, but no matter. He planted the seed in me. My love of medieval history can be traced directly to his class.

And our project on the Battle of Lepanto has become something of a legend.

My freshman year was a little rocky, but after that I settled down. It would be difficult to imagine a bigger contrast than the one found between my marks in elementary school and in high school.

I owe an awful lot to Father Brecht.

Yesterday, I learned that he had died. It hit me for a loop.

Rev. David L. Brecht, O.S.A.
(1938 – 2014)

Rev. David L. Brecht, O.S.A. entered eternal life September 6, 2014, following a two-year struggle with a leukemia-like blood disease.

He entered the Augustinian Order as a Novice on September 8, 1956 and professed his first vows on September 10, 1957. He professed his solemn vows exactly three years later in 1957.

Father Brecht holds two academic degrees from Villanova University including a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and a Master of Arts in Classical Languages. He later earned a Diploma in Counseling from Salesian University in Rome. He attended Loyola University Chicago where he also earned a Master of Education and a Doctorate of Philosophy in Educational Administration. Amidst his studies, he was ordained to the priesthood on February 6, 1965.

(full obituary may be found here.)

In his lengthy obituary, there is only a small line for the period of time when he taught at my high school – “He was later assigned to serve as Principal of St. Rita of Cascia High School in Chicago from 1979 to 1983” – but how many lives were changed during that short time.

Interestingly, the letter from my high school alumni association contains a different obituary that also mentions his love of Gregorian chant and time spent studying at at the Palestrina Institute of Music in Detroit. I never knew of his love for sacred music.

Please, won’t you pray for the soul of our brother, David?

Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine,
et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Te decet hymnus Deus, in Sion,
et tibi reddetur votum in Ierusalem.
Exaudi orationem meam;
ad te omnis caro veniet.
Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine,
et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Grant him eternal rest, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon him.
A hymn becomes you, O God, in Zion,
and to you shall a vow be repaid in Jerusalem.
Hear my prayer;
to you shall all flesh come.
Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon him.

Lux æterna luceat eis, Domine,
cum sanctis tuis in æternum,
quia pius es.
Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine;
et lux perpetua luceat eis;
cum Sanctis tuis in æternum,
quia pius es.

May everlasting light shine upon him, O Lord,
with your Saints forever,
for you are kind.
Grant him eternal rest, O Lord,
and may everlasting light shine upon him.
with your Saints forever,
for you are merciful.

Amen.