October 2025: When Faith Becomes Fearless

Dear friends,

We just celebrated Halloween, when young and old enjoy parties, trick-or-treating, and scary things. According to the American Brain Foundation, people enjoy being frightened as long as they know they are safe, because of the physiological effect. The rush of adrenaline and the release of dopamine and endorphins create a sense of pleasure and euphoria, once our minds confirm that we are safe. Being frightened can also help us confront our innate fears and give us a sense of accomplishment having worked through them. I can understand all of that, but I was not the parent who took their kids on the “Tower of Terror” in Disney World, nor the spouse who hunkers down with a bowl of popcorn to watch a horror movie during home date-night!

The origins of Halloween are found in the Celtic festival celebrating the fall harvest, when the days grew shorter and the people believed that the spirits of the deceased walked the earth. Masking their faces and wearing costumes as disguises, people believed that they could “hide” from these evil and unsettled spirits, leaving them food to appease them. This tradition evolved into trick-or-treating, though I think there are more treats than tricks exchanged on Halloween these days.

Masking or concealing the true identity of something is about trickery, and we often talk about people masking their true feelings or in personal or business dealings, “playing it close to the vest (or chest).” In some circumstances, masking seems insincere and dubious. However, at other times, it may serve a critical purpose, as in national defense planning and game strategy. Many of us engage in keeping a secret or confidence - from something very weighty to surprise party plans for family or friends. Masking - in the literal sense - saved many lives during the pandemic. The opera by Giuseppe Verdi, Un ballo in maschera (The Masked Ball), written in 1859, inspired by the true story in 1792 of the assassination of the Swedish King Gustav III, is about a romantic triangle of “masked” affections. While this masking ended in tragedy, it does have value sometimes in managing relationships. Consider the many social situations where we go along with a compliment about something, but really are not fond of the food, music, or entertainment venue selected by the family members or friends hosting. In those instances, we are being polite to mask our true feelings, though the “masking” most often decreases relative to how close we are to family members or friends!

While wearing masks is something we may all do from time-to-time, we value “truth.” In the September 2025 issue of “The Tablet,” John Holroyd, head of religious education at Villanova College in Brisbane, Australia, writes that he attended a conference on Augustinian education in Lima, Peru in 2012, and has a transcript of a talk given by the then Prior General of the Augustinian Order, Fr. Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV. He shared three points that Pope Leo felt should be present in a Catholic school: a search for the truth, the value of community, and the practice of interiority, or in the Norbertine tradition, contemplation. Saint Norbert adopted the rule of Saint Augustine when he founded the community of Norbertine priests and sisters, ordained and lay, in 1120. So much of Augustinian traditions are part of the Norbertine tradition, including these three characteristics that have been a part of the Archmere experience since the Academy was founded in 1932. 

What makes the Archmere academic experience superior is putting the concept of “knowing the truth” into action. This shared goal among students, teachers, and parents requires constant attention and work, meaning that taking “shortcuts” can often result in missing opportunities to learn from an experience or from working through a problem or obstacle (a very relevant message today to students about how to carefully use AI in the learning experience). Pursuing truth involves energy and focus, sometimes making choices and sacrifices. It can be challenging at times, but with the support of a community, we can all advance more effectively to understanding truth. 

However, it is not all about being continually active in pursuit of truth in collaboration with a community of members on the same path. There is a need for personal introspection and contemplation, so that we come to know ourselves and how we relate to and are a part of the collective truth we discover. We become honest with ourselves, “maskless,” in moments of learned silent meditation and reflection. To help us, the Norbertine daily practice of lectio divina  - divine reading - provides a structured approach to reading and reflecting on the Sacred Scriptures, which offer us rich and relevant messages. 

In the class that I am teaching this semester, “Norbertine History and Spirituality,” we begin each class with lectio divina, using the Gospel reading from the Mass of the day. It has been an enriching experience for me to see students reflect and share their prayerful thoughts with one another inspired by a word or phrase of the reading that was especially meaningful to them.

In the class, we are reading, “Man on Fire,” a book written by former St. Norbert College President, Tom Kunkel. In the book, he skillfully summarizes the scholarly work written about the life of St. Norbert and his charism. In Chapter 7, he talks about the “devil stories” that are included in an early written account of St. Norbert’s life, referred to as “Vita A.” These are a series of events in which St. Norbert is confronted by the devil, who takes on various forms in order to frighten and wield power over St. Norbert. However, St. Norbert is unflappable, just as he was in performing exorcisms in other accounts. During the times he was away from Prémontré Abbey, there are accounts of the devil appearing to the community in various disguises. Kunkel posits that these accounts are included in the saint’s biography to underscore the power and holiness of St. Norbert, having been given the divine power of good over evil. Depending on how they are read, these accounts could be taken as literal fact or as a representation of the goodness and effectiveness of St. Norbert in his ministry. Medieval readers would have heard these stories as literal accounts about evil spirits and the devil, more so than many readers today. In class discussions, the predominant thinking was that these devil stories could have taken place, but even if they did not occur as written, the theme of good over evil and its presence in the world, is real. The accounts stress good over evil, truth over duplicity, faith over fear.

Halloween, or All Hallows’ Eve, ushers in the Feast of All Saints, celebrated on November 1 and the Feast of All Souls the day after, and on a Sunday this year, making it even more a center of focus in our Catholic religious tradition. These days of remembering all those who have died is a reminder to us of our own mortality and the promise of immortality through Christ. When I was very young, I remember my Italian paternal grandmother staying awake late into the night November 1 into November 2, saying prayers and lighting candles for deceased family members. That expression of fearless faith made a significant impression on me, so that when I hear the Celtic stories of spirits roaming the earth on Halloween, it is not frightening, but actually comforting to know that the space between those of us who are in this world are closer than we think to those who have passed into another world.

During this month of November, when the Church and all of us in the Archmere community remember especially our family members and friends who have died, may our collective prayer offer comfort and strength for us to pursue truth and goodness through faith, and peace and joy for those who are spirits in God’s house.

In Faith,

Michae A. Marinelli, Ed.D., ‘76

Head of School