Busy-ness!

I can't believe it's been another two weeks since I last posted! What began as a fairly faithful weekly endeavor has now become bi-weekly, de facto, anyway.

I was going to title this post "Thanksgiving and Communion" but, alas, that's what I called my last post! We had a great time visiting with our Oblate brothers in Montreal last weekend. We got to see many beautiful churches and get a feel for the Old City, complete with fire-eating street entertainment. It had snowed the previous day (Wednesday before Thanksgiving), so things looked wintry, though the weather was fairly clear. St. Joseph's Oratory was great as usual; an added bonus was that the lights were on in the upstairs oratory for some kind of children's choir rehearsal, so it turned out that we could see everything well. We also heard the carillon concert and got to meet the carilloner, who is the daughter of a previous cantor at one of the parishes that our Oblates run up there.

But now, we're right back in the swing of things, beginning our dash for the finish line, which is a bit late this year. I won't depart Boston until the 22nd, leaving me just enough time at home to prepare for the festivities. In addition to writing papers, reading, and studying, there are several events that have made their way into our schedule for the remaining weeks:

• Mass for the President's Symposium of Thomas More College (Merrimack, NH) - this afternoon a bunch of us stepped in to serve this concelebrated Mass including Fr. Benedict Groeschel, CFR. It was a beautiful Mass with great music and a very sharp homily by Fr. Robert Reed of Catholic TV.
• Lessons and Carols at St. John's - this was tonight, and it was awesome! Great choral works, some accompanied by piano or woodwinds, a flute quartet, an excellent violin performance, and a very appropriate and uplifting meditative mood really made for a great evening.
• Appreciation Mass and Reception at St. Clement's this week - we'll all pitch in to thank our volunteers and benefactors in the Christmas spirit.
• Day of Recollection on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception - we'll have a couple conferences from a Jesuit priest from BC and take the day off of classes, leaving time for prayer and reflection.
• Lessons and Carols at St. Clement's - I will be involved in this, and can't wait to see how we put ours together. 

On the spiritual side of things, I was struck by something that was shared at morning prayer today - the pope's intentions for the month December. They are the following:

General Intention: Peace among All Peoples. That all peoples may grow in harmony and peace through mutual understanding and respect. 

Missionary Intention: That children and young people may be messengers of the Gospel and that they may be respected and preserved from all violence and exploitation.

Last year, a major theme was the call of Christ to his would-be disciples, to "become like little children" and so enter the kingdom of heaven. I had noticed the theme of growing in humility as a desire that was growing in my heart, and also a call to return to that simplicity of a child's faith - to trust more, and to "de-clutter" my life in so many ways. The line that struck me most from this month's intentions is "That children and young people may be messengers of the Gospel" - not only are all the faithful, including non-children, called to become like little children, but children are called upon to lead them! I think the pope is also calling upon youth to find their faith in a world in which God is violently ripped from public view and so many families are permitting their children to "make their own decision" regarding their religious practices and beliefs.

The phrase calling peoples to "harmony and peace through mutual understanding and respect" also hits home for me now as I begin to write my final paper for Contemporary Philosophy, a class that has focused on the errors of our day in the realm of political philosophy. I plan to write on diversity, both ideological and cultural, and how the Political Liberalism of John Rawls would accept and promote diversity, and also how the Church approaches the kinds of "pluralism" that Rawls suggests are a given element of a society governed by a liberal democracy. This is also an area of particular interest to me, and it is possible that I may undertake an independent study course on the subject of inculturation... but that's just the beginning of a whole new semester.

Please pray for Br. John Luong, OMV, who was recently approved to make perpetual vows by the Provincial Council. He will make them in late January and subsequently be ordained deacon and then priest later that year.

Love the Immaculata!
Mariam cogita, Mariam invoca