Using the Socratic method (question and answer), he made us read and recite and interpret the poems of e. e. cummings, the sonnets of William Shakespeare and the works of other Elizabethan authors and, best of all, Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven and his short story “The Cask of Amontillado.” He made us write compositions with clarity, brevity and succinctness, if not yet with a certain style and elegance. He taught us to value words. In this day and age when words seem no more than mere utterances, he showed us that words have the power to influ- ence, to transform and to bring about a renewed appetite for reading. To him, words are life-giving and sacred. We started to look forward to his classes, to revel in his humor and humanity, his wisdom and wit, his laughter and zest for life. We adored him. He earned our highest respect. Mr. Cecilio learned the value of reading from his own mentor, the late Fr. Miguel A. Bernad, SJ. I also had the opportunity to learn from Father Bernad. The secret to learning the English language, he once told me, is reading . Read every printed word that you come across: children’s books, scientific or technical articles, fairy tales, newspapers. There is no substitute for reading, he would say. Today we live in a world of multimedia images and visual stimulation and sensations. People can communicate more easily with images rather than with words. Youngsters would rather watch movies than read books. Mr. Cecilio’s campaign for reading was no different from that of his mentor. He told the wife of a friend of mine from high-school days, “Never save on reading materials for your daughter.” We did an exegesis of William Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice. Word by word, line by line, we closely examined the text. It was very tedious—and scary if Mr. Cecilio posed some analytical questions. He acted out some parts of the play when
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