Sister Marie Perpetua Purgatoria

My parents sent me to Catholic grade school, where they taught us a song:

First I must honor God
Second honor His name
Third on His day keep holy
this will be my aim.
Fourth I must be obedient
Fifth be kind and true
Sixth be pure in all I say
And see, and hear, and do.
Seventh I must be honest.
Eighth be truthful in all things I say.
Ninth be pure in mind and heart
And all I do and desire each day.
Tenth I must be satisfied
not be jealous come what may
These are God’s ten commandments
These I must obey.

I never forgot that song.

They also brought in a state trooper who showed us a movie in which two little girls get into some strange man's car and he rapes and kills them. The end of the movie featured real black-and-white crime scene photographs of the dead little girls. When the movie ended and the lights came up, all the kids applauded.

I never forgot that, either.

We had a monk for a principal. Brother Dennis. One day I was ill and was sitting on the leather-covered examining table in the nurse's office, waiting for my mom to come get me. The nurse wasn't there, so Brother Dennis was keeping an eye on me. I was about 13 years old and sporting my first facial hair. It amounted to several scraggly strands of hair standing out from my chin. Brother Dennis put his arm around my shoulders, gently reached up to stroke the strands of chin hair, and softly said to me, "You have to cut this." I didn't know anything about sex, but I knew what was up - he was into boys but could never make any kind of overt advance given that any number of older brothers in the community would kill him. Instead, he was just looking for the right kind of reaction from the kids he had access to. I just smiled and said, "Yes, Brother." He left me alone.

I never forgot that, either. Try as I might.

Comments

[nick paul]

whoa! those Brothers are spooky.

a few years after i graduated from the High school
and got as far away from them as possible, the Principal (a Christian Brother) of my Grade school
was busted for tampering with some of the kids.

turns out he had messed with a fair few over a twenty year period.. the kids he fiddled during
my time were always the 'quiet' ones.

i was a loud-mouthed smart arse (i like to think anyway) so i guess
that explains why i was never approached. i guess..

most of them were violent too.

like i said.. spooky.

[Mithras]

Are you Irish? Most of the nuns and priests we had growing up near Philadelphia were Irish, Italian, some Poles. They grew up in the "Old Country" and were a lot more authoritarian as a result.

[nick paul]

i'm half Irish (isn't everybody?).

most of the Christian Brothers were of Irish descent. can't recall any accents. knew their Latin so i guess that counts as 'Old Country'.

they were all a bit nuts in some sort of way.

i lived about 5 minutes walk from my school, spotted one of the brothers at the local newstand flicking through the 'girlie' mags a couple of times. i was surprised the first time but it didn't change my world.

i wonder if they pooled their stash?

back in the day most kids didn't believe me when i told them about my porn perusal sighting.

ah yes, have faith my son.

[Dori]

I learned that Ten Commandments song in Catholic grade school too. I also still remember it. In fact I'm looking for a resource that can give me the tune or music it is set to. Would you be able to tell me?

[Mithras]

No idea, sorry. There must be some Catholic music resource somewhere on the web.

[Lorraine Hill]

Dori: Did you ever find the music to the Ten Commandments Song? I'm looking for it, too. I have the wordes but need the music. Would like to find it on the internet.
Thank you -
Lorraine