Feeling stressed and nervous about your midterm examinations? Well, here is a study tip: ask for the intercession of our wonderful saints! One in particular to be pointed out when taking tests is St. Joseph Cupertino. Here is his story.

St. Joseph was born at Cupertino, in the diocese of Nardo in the Kingdom of Naples, in 1603. His mother considered him a nuisance and treated him harshly. Joseph soon became very slow and absent-minded. He would wander around, going nowhere, his mouth gaping open. But he had a bad temper, too, and so, he was not at all popular. He tried to learn the trade of shoemaking, but failed. He asked to become a Franciscan, but they would not accept him. Next, he joined the Capuchins, but eight months later, they sent him away because he could not seem to do anything right. He dropped piles of dishes and kept forgetting to do what he was told. His mother was not at all pleased to have the eighteen-year-old Joseph back home again, so she finally got him accepted as a servant at the Franciscan monastery. He was given the monks habit and put to hard work taking care of the horses. About this time, Joseph began to change. He grew more humble and gentle, more careful and successful at his work. He also began to do more penance. Now, it was decided that he could become a real member of the Order and start studying for the priesthood. Although he was very good, he still had a very hard time with studies. The examiner providentially asked him to explain the ONLY thing he knew well, and so he was made a deacon, and later a priest. Continue Reading

Written by Martin Sicam ’13, Mathematics Major and  Catholic Studies Minor

When a man and a woman look upon each other, what does each see? Why does the Church exclude women in the Priesthood? Why do we call God “Father” and never “Mother”? In the philosophically based class Woman and Man (taught this Fall by Professor Elizabeth Kelly), we delve deep into questions such as these to arrive at intrinsic truths. On the first day of class, we were instructed to write down what we think it means to be a man or what it means to be a woman. It is a simple task to note the stereotypical characteristics of each. But those answers only satisfy what it means to be like a man or woman. We want to know what it really means to be man and woman, male and female, father and mother Continue Reading