The Spring semester is full-swing ahead! Having just completed our third week of classes, things are really picking up. The reading is heavier this semester than last (Medieval Philosophy and Shakespeare constitute the majority); classes are just as engaging, though, and they fit together well, too.
This past weekend we celebrated Br. Tom's profession of perpetual vows and his ordination to the transitional diaconate (by Cardinal O'Malley; 6 other men from the Boston area were also ordained).
After the festivities on Saturday, we got a good night's sleep before jumping on a bus with about 35 young adults from the Boston area and drove down to Washington, D.C. for the March for Life. We had Mass Sunday evening at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception (about 11,000 in attendance with a 40-minute entrance procession, of which the first 25 minutes were seminarian-servers processing in); Cardinal O'Malley concelebrated. The music at that Mass of Vigil for Life was beautiful, traditional and majestic. Reflecting on the reality of abortion after receiving Communion, I had two images: (1) the blood of the babies whose lives were mercilessly taken, crying out to God as Paul says to the Hebrews: more eloquently than that of Abel; and (2) all their angels (cf. Matthew 18:10), powerful creatures existing since long before their little charges' conception and ordained to protect and guide them, but, their lives having been ended even before their birth, they now praise the Father together, present at every Eucharistic banquet.
Cardinal O'Malley celebrated Mass Monday morning for the 1,000 Boston pilgrims, at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart (run by the Franciscans since before Cardinal O'Malley was first ordained over 40 years ago) - it was very nice to see a bit of the local church before we headed to the Capitol for the march.
We joined a few hundred thousand people to march from the Capitol mall to the Supreme Court building, which includes a decent incline from which we could look both forward and back to see the sea of protesters. There were very few counter-protesters, and it was great to see such diversity present in the march. There were many college-age groups, lots of religious, and whole families.
Upon returning Monday night, we jumped right into the week's classes. Tuesday evening, Fr. Greg Staab, OMV celebrated a Mass of Memorial for the Unborn, including a candlelight procession representative of the 53 million babies lost to "choice" since the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision. It was a very moving service, preceded by the Most Holy Rosary and with simple & beautiful music and great reverence. Fr. Greg outlined the issue of abortion from a natural perspective and then enriched it from our faith perspective. He closed by saying that at the heart of the pro-life movement is an attitude of love for both mother and child and a sense of sorrow and reparation for those who have been involved in abortions, for their conversion and repentance. He also stressed that it is not possible to vote on abortion, because it is objectively wrong and no majority or minority can decide its right-ness for a society. Rather, it is a spiritual battle that must be approached as such.
Let us pray for the eradication of the practice of abortion and the restoration of the culture of life, and let us exhibit such a culture so that the world may see and desire the beauty of living in a way that values life and possesses freedom in the truth that is Christ.
Love the Immaculata!
Mariam cogita, Mariam invoca
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Back in the swing!
It's been a phenomenal week back! After returning from our retreat, we had a break until classes resumed on Wednesday.
We began preparing for a busy week of visiting discerners and a weekend seminar by Fr. Timothy Gallagher, OMV on discerning the will of God, according to St. Ignatius of Loyola (of course). Monday morning we cleaned out 13 bedrooms and prepared them for our many guests, men discerning a call to the priesthood. We dusted and mopped and vaccuumed and did laundry, made copies and stuffed folders and arranged schedules for airport, bus station and train station pickups. Weather (see previous post) interfered with about half of our guests' arrivals; we finally had a full house Friday night. Our guests attended class with us, slept, ate, and prayed according to our schedule, and formed a fairly cohesive sub-community in the few short days they have been here.
It is really powerful to sit around and swap vocation stories and hear how various things influenced our many and varied lives. Wednesday night, Fr. Greg Staab, OMV gave a talk on Consecration to Mary, which was completely full-circle for me in terms of the circumstances within which my particular discernment for the priesthood began - taking a class from him in the Ignatian style (this week has been completely Ignatian for us) in preparation for my Consecration to Mary, which, further, was made on the titular feast of the Oblates, the Holy Name of Mary (September 12). Preparing to share my vocation story and recent developments was also a great chance for me to reflect on how things have been going and look for trends and interesting threads that manifest themselves in my life. The thing that amazes me is how powerful every aspect of our lives is, and how fully we embrace the depth of everything that we do, from classes to prayer to prudence in living and working and dealing with each other, and also how interconnected each of those components are. In a word, seminary formation is comprehensive; it is holistic but not to the detriment or neglect of the constituent parts, that is, it is complete and big-picture oriented while not overlooking necessary details. That is what makes it so amazing!
Anyway, we are also preparing to teach Confirmation again, this time the curriculum mainly consists of the Sacraments, and we are preparing second-year (8th graders) students for their reception of Confirmation this coming May. Next weekend, we begin by celebrating Br. Tom's final profession of vows on Friday night, and Saturday, Br. Tom will be ordained to the transitional diaconate. Dark and early Sunday morning we'll hop on a bus to go to Washington, D.C. for the March for Life, to return the following day.
Needless to say, it will be a busy week!
Love the Immaculata!
Mariam cogita, Mariam invoca
We began preparing for a busy week of visiting discerners and a weekend seminar by Fr. Timothy Gallagher, OMV on discerning the will of God, according to St. Ignatius of Loyola (of course). Monday morning we cleaned out 13 bedrooms and prepared them for our many guests, men discerning a call to the priesthood. We dusted and mopped and vaccuumed and did laundry, made copies and stuffed folders and arranged schedules for airport, bus station and train station pickups. Weather (see previous post) interfered with about half of our guests' arrivals; we finally had a full house Friday night. Our guests attended class with us, slept, ate, and prayed according to our schedule, and formed a fairly cohesive sub-community in the few short days they have been here.
It is really powerful to sit around and swap vocation stories and hear how various things influenced our many and varied lives. Wednesday night, Fr. Greg Staab, OMV gave a talk on Consecration to Mary, which was completely full-circle for me in terms of the circumstances within which my particular discernment for the priesthood began - taking a class from him in the Ignatian style (this week has been completely Ignatian for us) in preparation for my Consecration to Mary, which, further, was made on the titular feast of the Oblates, the Holy Name of Mary (September 12). Preparing to share my vocation story and recent developments was also a great chance for me to reflect on how things have been going and look for trends and interesting threads that manifest themselves in my life. The thing that amazes me is how powerful every aspect of our lives is, and how fully we embrace the depth of everything that we do, from classes to prayer to prudence in living and working and dealing with each other, and also how interconnected each of those components are. In a word, seminary formation is comprehensive; it is holistic but not to the detriment or neglect of the constituent parts, that is, it is complete and big-picture oriented while not overlooking necessary details. That is what makes it so amazing!
Anyway, we are also preparing to teach Confirmation again, this time the curriculum mainly consists of the Sacraments, and we are preparing second-year (8th graders) students for their reception of Confirmation this coming May. Next weekend, we begin by celebrating Br. Tom's final profession of vows on Friday night, and Saturday, Br. Tom will be ordained to the transitional diaconate. Dark and early Sunday morning we'll hop on a bus to go to Washington, D.C. for the March for Life, to return the following day.
Needless to say, it will be a busy week!
Love the Immaculata!
Mariam cogita, Mariam invoca
Sunday, January 09, 2011
Two Days of Prayer and Snow
I came back from a relatively short retreat weekend this evening; the snow in Milton was amazing, and I have pictures to prove it! Don't worry, I didn't spend much time shooting the white stuff.
Our retreat centered around St. Ignatius of Loyola's 14 Rules for the Discernment of Spirits (following the contemporary book of the same title by Fr. Timothy Gallagher, OMV - find it on Amazon). I had some scruples about this upcoming semester coming into the retreat, so focusing on the process of Discernment was very providentially appropriate for me at this time and I now look forward to the new semester with great joy.
And did I mention that there's snow on the ground? I didn't think I would be so excited about snow.
Love the Immaculata!
Mariam cogita, Mariam invoca
Our retreat centered around St. Ignatius of Loyola's 14 Rules for the Discernment of Spirits (following the contemporary book of the same title by Fr. Timothy Gallagher, OMV - find it on Amazon). I had some scruples about this upcoming semester coming into the retreat, so focusing on the process of Discernment was very providentially appropriate for me at this time and I now look forward to the new semester with great joy.
And did I mention that there's snow on the ground? I didn't think I would be so excited about snow.
Love the Immaculata!
Mariam cogita, Mariam invoca
Friday, January 07, 2011
A New Year
My semester break proved to be quite enjoyable, and very eventful, including getting sick in the torrential downpour in sunny So-Cal, spending time with good friends and family, driving more than halfway back across the country to visit my sister, Sr. Teresa (with the Nashville Dominicans), and taking care of business at home before returning to Boston.
I flew back to Boston yesterday, flying East after seeing Venus, the morning star, rising in the East, on January 6, the traditional date of Epiphany. The flights themselves were fairly uneventful and on-time, despite bad weather conditions in the east and an anticipated bumpy ride that we were routed around. It was about 45 degrees in Long Beach when I left, about 40 in Washington, D.C. where I stopped for an hour and a half, and about 30 with snow on the ground in Boston.
Now that I have returned and embark upon another year of which a week has already passed, I consider all that happened last year, from my graduate school search to the decision-making visit to the Oblates here in Boston, good times with friends and family, my undergraduate thesis in Computer Security and a handful of related projects, higher education administration, policy & politics involvement, traveling, swapping stories with my sister about to enter religious life, and my first semester in religious life, of which you may read in my past posts here. There has been so much! Through serious meetings, laughter and tears after hours, periods of noise and periods of silence, triumphs and failures, here I am. I consider the functional-experiential definition of who I am: that consists of what I have done and what I have learned to do. We all have growth here unless we are in a coma, and I surely learned things about computing, interpersonal interaction, my own spiritual life and personality, and had lots of experiences that contributed to that growth and left me with all kinds of memories. There is also the ontological definition of who I am - rather than changing, my conclusion at this time is that I am more aware of ontological aspects of my own definition. I do not become more or less a human being or a Son of God (the necessary relational aspect of my ontology) or of Mary, but my comprehension and spiritual awareness of those definitions surely grows over time and according to my own disposition to receive them.
The pope chose to pray in particular for religious freedom on January 1, the World Day of Peace. For the month of January, he chose to pray "that the riches of creation be preserved, valued and made available to all, as a precious gifts from God to mankind" and "that Christians may achieve full unity, bearing witness of the universal fatherhood of God to the entire human race." These intentions are among some themes toward which I have personally felt an attraction recently. In studying a bit of the ecumenical documents from Vatican II and reading about the Orthodox church on my own, also recalling the Good Friday intentions for Christian unity and the unity of all peoples in the authentic worship of the One True God, I have come to have astrong interior desire for this unity, and I try to paint the church in a favorable light, promoting the quest for the objective truth that is found in Jesus Christ alone and inviting others to find the visible signs of this truth in the Catholic Church. As we see a world torn by all sorts of vice and internal division, let us at least perceive that it is our own solidarity against the forces of evil that is necessary to prevail and achieve the unending bliss of heaven in the life to come, and let us work toward that unity to one day stand together in this way.
In the coming year, I would like to push myself more to rise to the occasions of inspiration and to fully embrace the rules of the Congregation I have joined, ever seeking to discern the Will of God for me through prayer and reflection on the signs He has placed in my life and in my heart, especially in this time of postulancy.
I wish for all of you many graces, a zeal for the truth, and light, peace, and joy in this new year, 2011! Let us stand together and encourage one another in our common journey toward the eternal joys of heaven.
Love the Immaculata!
Mariam cogita, Mariam invoca
I flew back to Boston yesterday, flying East after seeing Venus, the morning star, rising in the East, on January 6, the traditional date of Epiphany. The flights themselves were fairly uneventful and on-time, despite bad weather conditions in the east and an anticipated bumpy ride that we were routed around. It was about 45 degrees in Long Beach when I left, about 40 in Washington, D.C. where I stopped for an hour and a half, and about 30 with snow on the ground in Boston.
Now that I have returned and embark upon another year of which a week has already passed, I consider all that happened last year, from my graduate school search to the decision-making visit to the Oblates here in Boston, good times with friends and family, my undergraduate thesis in Computer Security and a handful of related projects, higher education administration, policy & politics involvement, traveling, swapping stories with my sister about to enter religious life, and my first semester in religious life, of which you may read in my past posts here. There has been so much! Through serious meetings, laughter and tears after hours, periods of noise and periods of silence, triumphs and failures, here I am. I consider the functional-experiential definition of who I am: that consists of what I have done and what I have learned to do. We all have growth here unless we are in a coma, and I surely learned things about computing, interpersonal interaction, my own spiritual life and personality, and had lots of experiences that contributed to that growth and left me with all kinds of memories. There is also the ontological definition of who I am - rather than changing, my conclusion at this time is that I am more aware of ontological aspects of my own definition. I do not become more or less a human being or a Son of God (the necessary relational aspect of my ontology) or of Mary, but my comprehension and spiritual awareness of those definitions surely grows over time and according to my own disposition to receive them.
The pope chose to pray in particular for religious freedom on January 1, the World Day of Peace. For the month of January, he chose to pray "that the riches of creation be preserved, valued and made available to all, as a precious gifts from God to mankind" and "that Christians may achieve full unity, bearing witness of the universal fatherhood of God to the entire human race." These intentions are among some themes toward which I have personally felt an attraction recently. In studying a bit of the ecumenical documents from Vatican II and reading about the Orthodox church on my own, also recalling the Good Friday intentions for Christian unity and the unity of all peoples in the authentic worship of the One True God, I have come to have astrong interior desire for this unity, and I try to paint the church in a favorable light, promoting the quest for the objective truth that is found in Jesus Christ alone and inviting others to find the visible signs of this truth in the Catholic Church. As we see a world torn by all sorts of vice and internal division, let us at least perceive that it is our own solidarity against the forces of evil that is necessary to prevail and achieve the unending bliss of heaven in the life to come, and let us work toward that unity to one day stand together in this way.
In the coming year, I would like to push myself more to rise to the occasions of inspiration and to fully embrace the rules of the Congregation I have joined, ever seeking to discern the Will of God for me through prayer and reflection on the signs He has placed in my life and in my heart, especially in this time of postulancy.
I wish for all of you many graces, a zeal for the truth, and light, peace, and joy in this new year, 2011! Let us stand together and encourage one another in our common journey toward the eternal joys of heaven.
Love the Immaculata!
Mariam cogita, Mariam invoca
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