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Manuals
Conduct of Christian Schools:
FIRST PART - Chapter 2
SCHOOL PRACTICES AND THE MANNER IN WHICH THEY ARE TO BE CARRIED OUT
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CHAPTER 2
Breakfast and Afternoon Snack
ARTICLE 1
Things to Which Teachers Must Attend during
Breakfast and the Afternoon Snack
Teachers should take care that the students bring their breakfast and afternoon snack with them every day. A little basket will be set in an appointed place in the classroom, into which the children when they are so piously inclined may put what bread they have left over, to be distributed among those of them who are poor. Teachers will see that they do not give away any of their bread unless they have enough left for themselves. Those who have bread to give will raise their hands, showing at the same time the piece of bread which they have to give, and a student who has been appointed to receive these alms will collect them. At the end of the meal, the teacher will distribute the bread to the poorest and will exhort them to pray to God for their benefactors.
Teachers will also take care that students do not throw either nuts or shells on the floor, but will have them put them into their pockets or into their bags.
Students must be made to understand that it is desirable that they eat in school in order to teach them to eat with propriety, with decorum, and in a polite manner, and to invoke God before and after eating.
Teachers will see that the students do not play during breakfast and the afternoon snack but that they be very attentive to what is being done in school during this time. In order to discover whether they are exact in this, teachers will from time to time make one of them repeat what has been said, with the exception of those who are occupied in writing.
Students will not be permitted either to give anything whatsoever to one another not even any part of their breakfast or to exchange it.
Teachers will see to it that the students finish breakfast by 8:30, as far as possible.
ARTICLE II
What Is Done during Breakfast and the Afternoon Snack
On the first two days of the week upon which school is held all day, the students who read but do not spell will recite the morning prayers during breakfast and the evening prayers during the afternoon snack. For those who are in the writing classes, on Mondays and Tuesdays one student will occupy an appointed place and say all the prayers in an audible tone: during breakfast, the morning prayers; in the afternoon, the evening ones, the Commandments of God and of the Church, and the Confiteor. Students will recite in turn, one after the other. They must learn these prayers by heart and will recite them during breakfast and the afternoon snack on these two days. The Inspector will reprove them when they fail. On the last two days of the week upon which school is held throughout the whole day, they will recite during breakfast and the afternoon snack what they have learned in the Diocesan Catechism during the week. The teacher will see that they recite everything on these two days without a single exception. What they are to learn in each class during the week will be indicated by the Director or the Head Teacher.
On Wednesdays when there is a whole holiday on Thursday or on those days when there is a half holiday because of a holy day of obligation during the week, those who read Latin will recite the responses of Holy Mass during breakfast. This will likewise be done during the first half hour of the Catechism in the afternoon.
If there are in the class in which the responses of Holy Mass are recited any students who already know them or are capable of learning them even though they are not yet able to read Latin, the teacher will take care that they know them well and will make them recite them also.
The students who recite all the above-mentioned items should have learned them by heart at home or during the time that they assemble for school. They do not recite them in order to learn, but only to show that they do know them, and, as for the prayers and responses of Holy Mass, to learn how to say them properly. Those who do not know them, although they have already been a long time in the writing class, will also be made to learn them and to recite them.
All students who recite the prayers and responses of Holy Mass will recite them in turn, one after the other, in an order different from that of the other prayers.
In the lower classes, the prayers will be recited in the following manner. One of two students will announce the titles of the prayers, and the other will recite the Acts or the Articles all in order and in succession from the beginning of the prayers to the end. All students will take turns in doing each of these things in turn.
The student who announces the titles of the prayers and the questions of the Catechism will correct the other in case a mistake is made in anything. In case the first one does not do this, the teacher will give the signal for a correction. If the student does not know what has been said incorrectly, the teacher whose duty at the time is to attend both to those who are reciting and to the order of the whole class will signal another student to make the correction in the same manner as in the lessons.
In the writing class while the teacher is occupied with writing, a student who has been appointed Inspector will do what the teacher should do but only for this recitation. Teachers shall in no way exempt themselves from watching over the general order of the class during this time.
The responses of Holy Mass will be recited in the following manner. Throughout the whole recitation, one student will do what the priest does and will say what the priest says as is indicated in the liturgy. Another student, who will be at his side, will reply as the server should reply and do what the server should do.
The server will do accurately all that is indicated in Le Livre des Prières des Ecoles chrétiennes. Those who are reciting the prayers and responses of Holy Mass will maintain throughout this time a very decorous and pious attitude. They should hold their hands and their exterior demeanor in the greatest control. They should be obliged to recite these prayers and responses with the same decorum, with the same respect, with the same demeanor, and in the same manner that would be expected if they were serving Holy Mass or saying their prayers at home.
Teachers will take care that those who are reciting the prayers and the responses of Holy Mass or the Catechism speak during this time very distinctly and in a moderately loud tone in order that all may hear them. Nevertheless, they should speak low enough so that the other students must keep silent, listen, and be attentive to those who are reciting.
During this time, the teacher will observe very carefully everything that happens in their class, and make sure that all are attentive. From time to time, the teacher will stop those who are reciting in order to question those that appear to be not sufficiently attentive. If the latter are unable to answer, the teacher will impose some penance upon them or will punish them as may be judged necessary.
During this recitation, the teacher will hold either Le Livre des Prières or the Catechism; and the teacher will take care that the students repeat very exactly and very well.
On the first two days of the week and on the two days upon which the Catechism is to be recited, those who are learning their letters from the alphabet chart will learn and repeat only the Pater Noster, the Ave Maria, the Credo, and the Confiteor in Latin and in French as they are in Le Livre des Prières des Ecole chrétiennes.
Those who are studying the chart of syllables will learn and repeat the Acts of the Presence of God, of Invocation of the Holy Spirit, of Adoration, and of Thanksgiving which come in sequence at the beginning of the morning prayers as well as of the evening prayers.
Those who are spelling from the syllable chart will learn and repeat in turn, in the following order, the Acts of Offering and of Petition, which are in the morning prayers; the Act of Presenting Ourselves to God; the Confession of Sins; the Act of Contrition and the Act of Offering of Sleep, which are in the evening prayers; the prayer to the Guardian Angel; and those which follow in the morning as well as in the evening prayers.
If any of those who are studying the last two of these three lessons do not know any of the prayers that they should have learned in this lesson or in the preceding ones, the teacher will make them learn and practice these prayers which they do not know with those students who are studying the lesson in which such prayers should be learned, for instance, with those who are studying the alphabet, if they do not know the Pater Noster, the Ave Maria, the Credo, and the Confiteor. When they know them well or supposing they know them well, they will learn with those who are studying the chart of syllables those Acts that should be memorized by the students who are studying this lesson.
Those who are spelling or reading in the second book will learn and recite all the prayers, the morning prayers as well as the evening prayers. If the teacher notices that anyone who is reciting these prayers does not know them well, the teacher will oblige the student to learn them privately from Le Livre des Prières des Ecoles chrétiennes. The teacher will fix a time for the student to recite them either entirely or in part as the teacher will see fit.
If there are in the same class any students who should recite the Catechism, they will do so on Saturday or only on the last school day of the week. If during breakfast and the afternoon snack on this day there is more time than is needed to have all of them recite it, the time that remains will be employed in having the prayers recited.
On the days of the week on which the others are reciting the responses of Holy Mass, those learning the Catechism will learn to say the rosary and also will repeat it, two together, in the following manner.
They will stand facing each other and will both make simultaneously the sign of the cross. After this, one will say the versicle Dignare me laudare te Virgo Sacrata and the other will say the response Da mihi virtutem contra hostes tuos.
Then, the first one will say while holding the cross Credo in unum Deum, and so forth. On the large bead which comes immediately after, the student will say the Pater Noster; and on each of the three little beads which follow this student will say an Ave Maria; at the end of which the student will say Gloria Patri, and so forth and sicut erat in principio. The student will continue in the same manner to say the decade that follows. When it is completed, the student will again say the Gloria Patri. When the first student has finished, the other student will repeat aloud and intelligibly all that the first student has just recited. They will recite thus in turn only this decade of the rosary. The teacher will explain to them that in order to say the chaplet they must say six decades,2 just as they have said this one.
After this decade they will be made to say Maria, Mater gratiae, Mater Misericordiae, tu nos ab hoste protege et in hora mortis suscipe; and they will be taught that this is to be said at the end of the chaplet.
Those who do not know how to say the rosary will be taught to say it in this manner.
There will be only one group for all the students in these four lessons in memorizing the prayer. They will all repeat one after another what they are to learn, beginning with those who are learning the alphabet and ending with those who are spelling and reading in the second book.3
2 To the five decades that constitute a third part of the rosary and form a chaplet, the Brothers of the Christian Schools add a sixth decade in honor of the Immaculate Conception, which is said for the special intention of the Order.
3 At this point in the 1706 manuscript of the Conduct of Christian Schools, there appears, as Article III, some material on the collection and distribution of bread. Article III can be found as EXTRACT ONE on page ( ) in Appendix B.
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