Greetings from Maui!

Shortly before going to Dayton for the meeting of the Provincial Chapter, I visited Brother Joseph Becker in Honolulu. I saw that he was failing, but he still struggled to understand what I tried to say. In earlier visits he had asked me whether most of the Brothers die in their sleep. He also asked whether there were any memorable last words. I told him he had to make up his own. He was amazingly peaceful and cheerful in his stay at Saint Francis Hospice and always appreciated greetings that I brought him from Maui where so many remembered him. I had no more than arrived in Dayton when I received word that Brother Joe had passed away that very morning.

After his retirement from teaching at Chaminade University, Brother Joe had come to Maui. He loved to paint and donated many paintings for sale at the Christmas Bazaar. He designed Christmas cards and sold them to raise money for projects in the Philippines. He also designed the Stations of the Cross for the Church, refurbished the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the courtyard and touched up the Nativity set as needed.

Brother Joe visited the sick and elderly at Hale Makua next door to the School. His specialty was reading to them. He also trained the parish lectors and authored a Lector Prayer for them. He held bible studies weekly. And I was told that his walk around campus began at 5:00 AM. He was a great resource person for many in parish and school.

My personal memories of Brother Joe go back to 1955 when he and I joined Brother Henry Honnert, Brother John McCluskey and Father Robert Mackey in founding what is now Chaminade University of Honolulu.

Year Two - No. 2 - Page Two

At the Homecoming Mass for the High School I noted that Brother Joe was the one who proposed “Life in the Word” as the motto for the school which began so modestly nearly fifty years ago. Appropriately it was the feast of Saint Jerome – one who found life in the Word of God and proclaimed that Word through the translation known as the Vulgate.

I found the meeting of the Provincial Chapter very worthwhile as we reviewed the plan of the Provincial Administration for the second half of their term and then discussed how best to formulate a statement of mission that adequately and inspiringly describes what we are trying to be as the Province of the United States. Prior to the unification of the four provinces, each province had a carefully crafted mission statement, but none of these covers the complexity of the present situation where we are trying to bring together four expressions of Marianist life with distinctive characteristics and history.

Although my time in Dayton was brief I did manage to work in some visits before flying back to Maui. The weather was ideal – crisp and bright. The trees on the Mount Saint John campus were just beginning to take on their autumn splendor. Because Ohio has been targeted by both the Republican and Democratic parties as a “Swing State” the Presidential candidates have made many visits there. One of the rallies for President Bush was near Hamilton precisely on the day when I was visiting there so I had to be careful not to be caught in the traffic and security checks.

In visiting the Brothers at Mercy Siena some of us talked about our recently departed Brother Joseph Becker and Father Jack Kelley. Father Jack and I had been ordained together in 1953. I had heard that Father Tom Stanley had based his inspiring homily at the Mass of Christian Burial on an imaginative letter that Father Jack had written “from the other side!” Brother Joe and Father Don Bracht had been together first in Alameda, California and then in Honolulu.

When I returned from Dayton the news was that the deadly West Nile virus had made its way to Maui. Fortunately, that report proved to be a false alarm. A year ago the news was the sighting of a “big cat” but it was never found. Later there were reports of snakes on Maui – but they haven’t been found either. What we do have are many birds. They fly around the airport and even our church, both of which are open to the fresh and balmy air. So life goes on in the Paradise of the Pacific!

All the times I visited Brother Joseph Becker I noted that he always clutched his rosary. As we begin October, the month of the rosary, may we be one in spirit as we say this powerful prayer.

ST