Special Xmas Edition!*

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Sorry. I was trying to come up with a catchy title. I went with the sales pitch.

Well, break has arrived for Kevin and I.  Praise God! Christmas is around the corner!  Yet, this year that doesn't  mean going home for us.  The seminary here in Rome doesn't allow us to go home for break, which is partially due to the fact that it's only three weeks off and a flight home would be out of our budget.  Yes, this means no family trip down to see all my extended family in Mexico (guaranteed full of fun, joy, food; Mexican style).

While family Christmas memories can't be replaced, the Lord has given us a new opportunity of growth.  Here in Rome, there is a great sense of distance from family, country, and all things familiar which brings about a new, deeper bonding experience between brother seminarians and, more particularly, with our Lord.  In sharing the sadness of being away with friends, we become more like family.  In sharing our struggles with our Lord, we become more dependent on Him.  Ultimately what occurs is essential to continued growth as men pursuing the priesthood: an increase in Love.

That said, both Kevin and I will be traveling throughout Europe during the break, getting to see how the Christmas season is celebrated in different nations and cultures.  Please keep us in your prayers as travel is wonderful experience while at the same time challenging and stressful.

Also during break we will be visited by seminarians from the Josephinum, the college seminary Kevin and I call alma mater.  In this group will be Kurt Perera and Chris Axline, two of our Phoenix seminarian brothers. We look forward to seeing them and our other friends! (Consider this a shout out!)

I will end with some photos of my hallway's Christmas decoration.  However, of particular interest is Kevin's hall way. Their theme was Christmas on fourth of July, essentially an over-the-top American pride celebration of Christmas. Here's Kevin in a Captain America outfit with some of his hall mates. By the way, they didn't win the hall competition for best decorations... my hall did   : )

Already, But Not Yet

The Christmas tree is St. Peter's Square is up,
but the Nativity scene is still under construction

There is a particular tension in Advent.  We are in wait for the coming of Christmas, the coming of Christ into the world, the incarnation.  But Christ has already come, his saving work complete.  Yet we are still waiting, there is a real anticipation, and not just for the celebration of Christmas.  Advent also brings to mind that we await Christ who will come again, and establish his kingdom on earth.  But this kingdom is already present; Christ is already present, in His Body, the Church.  Yet not fully, we still await the completion that will come with Christ at the end of time. 

Here are some picture from the Pope's Angeles Address today.

This is a tension that I have not experienced before quite as well as I have this semester.  Fernando and I have been in Italy for almost 5 months now, yet we just past the half way point of the semester last week.  Now obviously that’s because we didn’t start actual classes for a couple month into our time here, but that kind of logic unfortunately doesn’t work with my attention span.  It seems my whole body is just itching for Christmas and the end of the semester.  And with Christmas only two weeks away I see the light and the hope.  But because the semester is so late, unlike every semester that I have experienced before this, Christmas does not mark the end of the semester.  Now we still get a break, but we will return to three more weeks of classes plus finals. 

Already, but not yet.  Coming on these finally weeks until Christmas, in a special way, we can rejoice in the coming of Christ as man and the end of the beginning of our time here in Rome with all the good things that have happened and have been brought into our lives in these first months.  Still, while embracing that joy, we live in the tension that our time is not yet done, our work still needs to be completed. 

Image of Mary Immaculate in our chapel.

We just celebrated, on Thursday, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.  This celebration of God’s special grace giving to Mary was a beautiful celebration here at the NAC.  Mary Immaculate is the patroness of the College as well as the whole United States.  So it was a special time for us to remember the people from whom we came, and to whom we will return, and hold them close in prayer.  It was a joy to celebrate that God saved Mary, a symbol of the Church, from sin from the moment of her conception.  Yet here too we see this tension.  The Church is Holy, like Mary, for Christ has already come to her and dwells among us.  But, those of us in the Church, like Fernando and I in this semester, still have work to do, for the kingdom is not yet complete, and we still struggle with our own sinfulness; we still await Christ coming with his loving gaze to make us holy and pure like Mary, His Mother. 

Let us pray for one another in this tension, that when Christ does return we will welcome it will all the more joy!

December Rain

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Almost five months since arrival.  It's December and we're only midway through the semester.  That's weird.  

Along with the new translation of the Roman Missal, the liturgical season of Advent has begun and there is much anticipation that accompanies it. Roman rite Catholics throughout the world enter into a spiritual waiting for the Lord's coming celebrated in the Christmas season. (This includes a renewed practice of patience in prayer and trust in the Lord)

Here in Rome, that anticipation is accompanied by the waiting for the unveiling of this years nativity scene in St. Peter's square. The above picture shows its veiled construction that will continue until its opening on Dec. 24th. There is also a huge Christmas tree put up in the square that has arrived and still lays in the bed a semi-truck. From what I've heard of years past, the whole display is something to look forward to.

In the meantime, we will take on a weekend retreat to prayerfully begin the season of Advent and reflect on how we will orient ourselves to the mystery of the birth of Christ, Emmanuel, God-among-us. It is no simple thought to reflect on how the reality of Christ's presence among us, so emphatically anticipated in the Old Testament, is now made really and truly present to us in the Eucharist.

Backing up a week, to end our Thanksgiving weekend festivities, we had the annual Spaghetti Bowl flag-football game. It consisted of the first year seminarians (the "New Men") versus the "Old Men," a little bit of american tradition and manly competition to finish off a weekend of gratitude. Also good way to make us feel a little bit more at home and part of a good community as our fourth month in Rome came to an end.

The game also highlighted one of the important aspects of seminary life and formation: fraternity. Now I'm not talking about the college "frat house" type of fraternity. I'm talking about the classic idea of fraternitas, that is, the familial community in which the individuals build each other up in the practice of virtues and the striving for the Truth.

It is in the spirit of fraternitas that each person is called to encourage others to transcend their own wants and desires in service for the community for the sake of the love of God.

Precious in the Eyes of the Lord

 Happy Thanksgiving to all.  I hope it was filled with many blessings.

A final toast.  You can see Fernando and me in the background

Here at the College there was quite the celebration.  Because it’s the first major holiday of year, and the uniquely American holiday, we make Thanksgiving as big as we can.  Everyone is keep busy getting ready, partly to ward of homesickness and partly to build a community around this privileged time of being countrymen in a foreign land. 

Though it’s by no means a holiday for the Roman universities, we take the day off which

starts early with the Turkey Trot race around the Vatican – as the t-shirts said “The only 5k around an entire country”.  Those not participating in the run, work to ready the hall breakfasts on the 8 corridors of the NAC.  The breakfast for my floor was a ridiculous amount of food that I think we are still eating.  After breakfast (and for some a nap) we had mass. The Eucharist is really the core of a day dedicated to giving thanks; the word itself, Eucharist, is Greek for thanksgiving and so it was a beautiful moment to gather around the table of Christ body as brothers to give thanks to God for all the good he has brought us.

 

And finally comes the big turkey dinner.  The whole event was just an amazing.  The newly ordained priests that have returned for a final year of study served and even at times entertained.  We sat by states and it turned into a real competition to see who can decorate their state table best.  Now Fernando and I didn’t know about this until the day of, so our decorations were pretty meager, but we are looking to acquire as much Arizona paraphernalia as we can over the next year (especially as our centennial is coming up) to be ready for next year!  The food was great- though I was still full from breakfast.  Of course, the cooks were still Italian, so we had to have a pasta dish before getting to the turkey, but at least all the pumpkin pies were seminarian made.  

Yet this week of fun was marked by a tone of mourning.  Early this week a priest, Msgr. Bill Lyons, who worked as a spiritual director here at the NAC for years, died.  He was about 81 and a cancer, which he beat when young, finally over took him in the past month.  He was an inspiring man.  He had been a priest for 55 years in which he worked mostly with youth and seminarians.  He was the first faculty member we new men really got to know.  He came to our Italian immersion program in Assisi to get to know us and help us with the crazy transition we were going through.  He said mass, help holy hours, and heard confessions daily; like a true spiritual father, he did all he could to meet our spiritual needs.

 

We were blesses this week to have a number of American bishops here on their ad limina visists with the Pope, including Archbishop Dolan of New York.  The archbishop gave the Thanksgiving homily, in which he recounted his last conversation with Msgr. Lyons.  After it was determine that there wasn’t anything else to be done for the holy priest at the hospital, they were moving him to a religious house run by the Little Sister of the Poor, and the archbishop said Msgr. Lyons was very happy about that, because there “the seminarians could come for spiritual direction and confession.”  A true priestly heart.  Literal on his death bed and Msgr. Lyons’ life is still given to minister to those God has given to him.   His life was a beautiful sacrifice of thanksgiving, a life poured out in love. 

We have had a lot to be thankful for in the model that this priest gave us in his life and, if not more importantly, in his death.  Please pray that he may find his reward in the arms of the heavenly Father

 

Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his faithful.  (Ps 116)

Committal of Msgr. William Lyons at NAC Mausoleum in Campo Verano

Eternal rest, grant to him O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.  Amen.

House of Prayer

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During the week at the seminary, we pray Morning Prayer, Mass, and Evening Prayer as a community (in the chapel pictured above). Morning Prayer, followed by Mass, Mon-Fri begins at the night owl's worst hour: 6:15 AM! (This is the part of the day where one is most grateful for the invention of coffee!) Each day then concludes with Evening Prayer at 6:45 PM. Thus, everyday begins and ends with prayer in community. These are the "bookends" of our day that keeps it all together.

After a week like this, Saturday, which is a "free day", is a wonderful rest day.  For us, this means we don't have classes, we can pray morning and evening prayer on our own (at the hour of our discretion), and we are allowed to go out for Mass.

Prayer is still marks the beginning and the close of the day. However, I try to use every Saturday as a chance to visit a different church around Rome.

Every church I've been to is stunningly beautiful and incredibly large, full of awe-inspiring art. Within these churches, the architecture and art can leave on feeling quite small. And that's kind of the point of it all.

These are "houses of prayer" where we kneel before the infinite God present in the mystery of the Eucharist housed in the tabernacle. Thus, every Catholic Church is God's home to which He has invited us. The passage below from Isaiah


I will give them, in my house/ and within my walls, a monument and a name/ Better than sons and daughters;/ an eternal name, which shall not be cut off, will I give them. (Is 56:5)

Through the prophet Isaiah, God is telling us that He invites us into heaven, eternal life, united with Him. The union that we have with Him this side of heaven in prayer is the path to a transforming union where God will make us "better than sons and daughters" but indeed we shall have a share in Christ's life (c.f. Hebrews 3).

The Caravaggio's "Madonna dei Pellegrini" (Our Lady of the Pilgrims) captures the "smallness" with which we approach prayer. It depicts a poor man and women wearing rags, visibly dirty from their daily work. They kneel at the door of the kingdom to which they are welcomed by Mary, holding the small baby Jesus.

That said, let us keep praying and conforming our lives to Christ. This is the path to the fullness of life, found not in ourselves, but in the Creator, the God who calls us to Himself.

Roamin' in Romania

So last week, I was able to travel to Romania with three friends.  It was a pretty amazing experience.  This part of Eastern Europe was just absolutely beautiful.  We flew into the regional capital of Transylvania, call Cluj and drove to various cities around the region.  Though Romania is a heavily Orthodox country, there are some Eastern Catholics and there is significant Hungarian minority in region, which is mostly Roman Catholic.  Thus we did had no trouble finding mass throughout our trip, yet were exposed to new kinds of beautiful architecture and stunning religious art.  In Cluj itself, we were able to walk to three different cathedrals (Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, and Greek Orthodox) in one afternoon.  We all commented on how uplifting it was to see such bold faith in a country that was severely damaged by the Soviet communism. 

One of the most memorable things about the whole trip was just driving through the country side.  They only have one expressway in Transylvania, which only extends about 50km, then it’s all winding road that pass through every small town on the way.  So, besides the beautiful landscape, we got a close look at the average town and its people.  It almost felt like something you would see in the move:  traditional dress and horse and wagon and all. 

But I think what struck me most was that each town, which only took a couple minute to drive though at a significantly slowed down pace, had a small church – small but gorgeous.  It naturally got me thinking of the priests that serve in these parishes.  Now just coming from Rome, the point of Catholic connections and business (that is busy-ness), it was easy to almost recoil with how small and isolated each church was, and to ask what could they possibly do of real significance in such a place [see rant at the end if you want further thoughts on this].  But as we kept driving and we saw more and more towns and I began to notice the people more and more, just going about their daily activities.  They weren’t worried that they were missing something by not living in a big city like Rome; they were simply living their live to the best way they knew, living lives of love and fulfillment. 

Now I may be assuming a lot about these people that I never talked to, but it brought me back to my desire to be a priest- to be with the people and grow with them in love of one another and in praise and love of God.  It is the marvel of a life of simple fulfillment, to be a priest and live each day doing ordinary tasks for the love of God and love the parish.  What more could one want?  What more could one do?  If you do that, the day is completely filled! There’s not time for anything else. 

It’s after experiences like this that my time to return to Phoenix seem so far away.  Though….there is no reason why I can live with this simple love now… I should get my act together….This is why I’m still in formation.  Keep the prayers coming!

St. Martin of Tours, pray for us.

ALERT- THIS IS NOT PART OF THE REST OF THE POST- PHILOSOPHICAL TANGENT DON’T READ UNLESS YOU REALLY WANT TO:  Ok with that said, I had this tangential reflection during my Ecclesiology (study of the Church) class the other day.  Right before classes started this semester, I finished a book by a French philosopher that I thought had some very relevant reflections for the contemporary world (I know I read French philosophy in my spare time, whatever, I told you not to read this unless you really wanted).  In this book he talks about the temptation of numbers, that is giving statistics about a movement or group to express their strength and prove points (see 2 Sam 24).  Yet the over use of numbers degrades the people included in such movements or groups in to mere units, just an indistinguishable point in a mass.  I can see this temptation embrace in the Church often- after all Catholics make up 25% of the population of the United States, if we all voted together we could completely change the country.  Even still this can happen even around vocations.  We can get so excited about a number of seminarians or priests we have - then we have a large army with which to implement truly Catholic things.  But we are not raising army, we are not making cogs for the great Catholicism machine.  No we are raising priests; and this is what all those little churches throughout the Romanian country side mean for me.  The beauty of the Church, of being Catholic, is that the universality of the faith never destroys the particularity of that faith lived out in the local churches around the world.  A priest when he lives the gospel, builds up the Kingdom of God, and a Christian follows their vocation of love, builds the Kingdom of God.  Yes we pray that we may “be of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking of one thing” (Phil 2:2); but we are not united in heart with one another because we work with each other for one goal,  we are united because of the same Spirit that works through us for each other.  Our hope does not rest on our growing numbers (for when they stop growing, or fall, what happens to us and our hope); our hope is in Chirst, and Him crucified.  The beauty of the Christian life in general, and the priesthood in particular, is that by living personally in the life of Christ we form a universal community (the antithesis of a mob) the power of which this world of political movements has no knowledge.  Thus, the pitiable impotence that the world of “busy-ness” might read into this isolated little churches, is exactly where the gospel is lived, is exactly where Christ and His entire Church acts together daily, is exactly where the world is changed; and that’s the only place a priest should want to find himself.  

Saints up close

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Thanks to the Solemnity of All Saints falling on a Tuesday, this last weekend was a 4 day weekend for Kevin and I.  So Kevin and I had the opportunity to do some traveling.  Kevin went with some seminarians to Romania (including Transylvania) and I stayed in Italy and visited Venice and Padua with two other guys.

Venice? Padua?!  They are beautiful each in unique ways.  In Venice, as soon as one gets off the train the water is right in front of you.  After riding a boat-bus (vaporetto) on the Grand Canal for about 20 minutes, one arrives at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Mark.  This is where St. Mark is buried... St. Mark, the Evangelist, the one to whom the writing of the Gospel of Mark is attributed!

Our first morning in Venice, we went to Mass at the Cathedral Basilica and prayed for an hour before the exposed Eucharist in a monstrance (a.k.a. adoration) in its tiny adoration chapel.  Every part of this church is incredibly ornate with over 4,000 square yards of mosaics covering the ceiling.

St. Mark is buried under the main altar, front and center.  It is quite amazing that the Catholic Church has held on to and venerated the remains of such an important saint with great respect.

"Corpvs divi Marci Evangelistae" = The Blessed Body of Mark the Evangelist

Padua is where St. Anthony of Padua is buried.  His remains are also in a grand basilica.  By the basilica there is a museum filled with local artwork that depict hundreds of miracles attributed to his intercession.  He was known for his extraordinary gift of preaching.  Definitely someone I want to pray for me as I prepare for ministry.

The artwork in all these churches is very vivid and uplifting.  They all tell the stories of the Old and New Testaments with great detail bring them to life. I wish I could have taken more pictures of the insides, but you can look up these churches to find more details.  In the meantime, click here to have a look at some more pictures of Venice and Padua.  And read Pope Benedict XVI addressing how, by our baptism, we all have the vocation to be saints.