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Whoever Finds a Friend, Has Found a Treasure!
So, for whatever reason, I woke up with the words from the palio "run, so as to win!" in my mind - don't ask why, I have no idea! BUT, they reminded me of a very important fact: the incredible generosity and support that I've been given over the past couple months here in my transition to the NAC by everybody here. See, in the Palio, when the priest is giving the horse that blessing before-hand, he shouts at it to "run" [va! - go!] "so as to win" [per vincere (something like that...)]. But the thing is, that the horse is all on his own - if the jockey falls off, the horse can still win, as long as it just keeps running and manages to get around first. Here, at the NAC, things have felt just about as hectic, just about as fast-paced, and just about as crazy as the three, insane, blisteringly-fast, laps of the Palio. These last couple months have been absolutely packed with stuff to get done, things to complete, places to go, things to do, people to meet, new things to learn, culture to immerse yourself in (not only Italian, but also getting to know how things work here in the seminary) - it's been about the busiest time of my life! BUT, unlike the palio, and that horse, I have not been alone at all. Every single step of the way - from the faculty, the other upper-year men, and the other guys in my class - I've gotten just blown away by how much everybody is willing, and wanting, to help me out.
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| The Opening Banquet, in the NAC Dining Room |
Last evening (now last week, this post is taking longer than I though) was the opening banquet, a pretty fancy meal that they have every year after the first week of classes (for most guys - some of the 2nd-cycle guys, in their 4th and later years start on different weeks) to officially start the year and welcome everybody back. We had had a smaller, but just as fun, banquet maybe a month or two ago (I think it was after we got back from our first month of Italian studies outside of Rome - for me, in Assisi) to welcome all the new men (myself and my 50 or so classmates), but this was the final, official, one, and it marks the moment when everything finally settles down - for the most part - and things get into the usual schedule and whatnot (6:15 AM Mass, then breakfast, then classes, then pranzo, then studying, then sports, the Adoration, then Evening Prayer, then cena, then hanging-out, then bed, etc.!) Anyway, so after a delicious meal (antipasto: prosciutto, buffalo mozzarella, mushrooms, and dried tomatoes; primo: carbonara; secundo: roasted chicken, cooked spinach, and mashed potatoes; and dolche: a kind of cream-filled, powder-sugar-covered cake), one of the men from my class (Colin Jones, who also has a blog) gave the opening-banquet-toast on behalf of the new-men during which he expressed exactly what I'm trying to say here.
First of all, the faculty! The talks that we've had so far - about the different basilicas, homilies during Mass, conferences on life here at the NAC, and in Rome - have been inspiring, beautiful, reassuring, and everything else that I could possibly hope for. I've started taking notes for pretty much every single talk I hear because I know they'll be great! Msgr. Checchio, the rector, gave us our first formation conference this past Thursday, and in it he was completely genuine in his exhorting us to open ourselves to formation here - to allow the priests, the experience, and most of all, Christ, to form us, above everything else, after the heart of Christ. Everything else - academic prowess, physical fitness, even spiritual-ness - only comes after that foundational love, that fundamental openness, to become more and more, day after day, in every single moment and every single way, like Christ. Priests are meant to go [va!] - to teach, to preach, to heal, to help - in the most profound and extraordinary way, like Christ - in persona Christi capitis - and seminary, Msgr. explained, is meant, above all, to form us to be more and more like Him. Of course, he continued, this means that it's not always easy, it's meant to be a challenge because - face it - we're not all that much like Christ at the moment, though were striving for that. The challenge of living a truly radical, completely loving, absolutely dedicated, perfectly generous life is a life-long one (and one that requires that we depend on God and His grace). BUT, getting back on track, Msgr. Checchio reminded us that the seminary is designed - in every single way - to get us on that path of holiness and Christ-likeness. Everyone, himself included, is watching out for us, not - in the words of Pope Francis - because the seminary is a police-state or something - but because they want us, above all, to grow towards Christ during our time here, in faith, and hope, and love, and chastity, and preparation, and courage, etc. He reiterated that all the priests here, and all the formation that we'll be experiencing over the next years - spiritually, pastorally, humanly - will be hard at times, but that we must, like Christ, remain obedient to God's will (as indicated through those He has chosen - our bishops) and stick it out, trusting that all is meant to lead us closer to God so as to love His people better. My synthesis of his talk, incomplete as it is, makes it less inspiring, and more scary, than it actually was. It was an amazing, impassioned, inspiring talk, and it made me ready and willing to throw myself into formation - come what may - to become that holy, healthy, and happy priest that the NAC is striving to prepare and form!
In so many other ways too, the priests have been so very helpful over the past couple of months. From their constant offers to help us, and their constant willingness to direct us, and their constant patience with our mistakes, forgetfulness, and confusion of getting to know a new place, to their inspiring example of being priests just joyfully giving themselves to Christ and His church, to their always-happy greetings in the hallways, there have been so many examples of generosity among the faculty here it's just astounding! I know for myself, they've been an inspiration! Like that time I got hundreds of bug bites, and looked like the panther from "Put me in the Zoo" [yeah, that was a long time ago, even for the youngest member of our class...], a very obvious ailment because the next day was our beach-outing, and several of the priests immediately offered different medicines/creams, and arranged to have the sisters who run the infirmary to come over, and then checked up over the next couple days to make sure I was doing fine. It was awkward, I wanted to "be a man" and just tough it out, but their help meant I itched for a couple days rather than a couple weeks, and it taught me the even more important lesson of learning to look out for, and help, everybody around me. Just last Thursday - another great anecdote - the new priests on faculty made their oath of fidelity to the faith and to the church. It was so cool, and powerful, to see those priests, standing in front of the entire community and commiting themselves to forming me, and the other seminarians, according to the faith! Colin gave some good examples, and some funny ones, in his speech, (and I could as well) but I won't dive into those here (some other time); this is supposed to be a short post (after all, it is [was] like 5 in the morning... on a Saturday) and I'd like to get my ideas down as quickly as possible.
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| The Guys from my Hall (which is called "4th NASA") |
The second group of guys that Colin thanked, and I'd totally agree, are the other men here. A huge thumbs-up to all those guys who have constantly, after I bring up the topic of struggling in Italian (like every day...), given me advise, and encouragement, to stick it out, be patient with myself, and that eventually it will come. Or those guys who've bought us gelato, or cooked us meals, or baked cookies, or told us the best places to eat in Rome, or organized sports, or put tons of free-stuff [regalo] on the halls for me to scavenge and fill my room with (seriously, I've picked up a couple of chairs, books, a bunk-bed, a fan, a carpet, a table, a clock, and some other things), or invited us into their groups during dinner, or welcomed us warmly when we showed up at the lounge that first night, or showed us around the KNAC (a little store they run here with stationary, snacks, soap, and other important little things), or opened the bowling alley for us (yep, we have a bowling alley - the second oldest one in Europe - down in the basement), or helped tutor us in Italian, or came and visited us on the breaks during our first week of classes, or walked us over to our schools for the Italian proficiency test, and helped me retrieve my back-pack after I forgot it during the Italian proficiency test [ho domenticato il mio zaino...], or stopped by our rooms to greet us, to chat, to welcome us (again, and again, and again!), or complemented us on those little things we got right, or put like a hundred different holy cards in our boxes, or talked about places we should visit, or prayed for us during this previous summer... (If you hadn't guessed, I could go on!) Colin again, had a couple of good examples, some funny some seriously eye-opening to just how generous these guys have been, and just how far they've gone to welcome and help us. Again, I'm going to keep it short and move onto the last group of awesome folks I've become friends with.
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| My Class, In Front of St. Peter's |
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| My Class, After our Retreat in Greccio |
And that would be the members of my own class. We were all thrown together there at the airport in Newark a couple months ago, myself knowing very few of them, but ever since that moment I've been enjoying my time with them immensely. They're a great group of guys! Enthusiastic about diving into the next level of seminary, incredibly supportive when I'm feeling overwhelmed by whatever challenge happens to hit me his week (mainly, it's been the Italian), competitive on the sports field, ready and willing to wander around with me, constantly giving a little grin or "hello" as they walk past my room, models for holiness, and perseverance, and discernment. But, above all those superlative adjectives, they are just a bunch of men that are a ton of fun to spend time with, and I'm privileged to count them as friends! Growing together, praying together, struggling together, exploring together, settling-in together; it forms close bonds, and it forms close friendships! Yeah, it's a great class, the next five years will be full of wonderful times and experiences, and - God-willing - in 3 years, I'll be laying down next to them in St. Peter's basilica about to be ordained a deacon!
Yeah, so the NAC is a phenomenal place to be preparing for priesthood, due very much so to the great men that are here - priests and other seminarians! They are all open to God's grace working in their lives, and God's love working through their lives, and it shows! It's a wonderful place to be!
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| Softball! |
Side note: with 250 guys it's really hard to get to know, or even remember the names, of everybody. Literally, I don't think I've met everybody and we've been all back for probably about a month... Still, while that's the challenge of having such a large group, thankfully things are broken down quite a bit into smaller groups. For instance, there's the usual guys who play soccer, or the guys in the choir, or the guys in my class at the Greg, or the guys on my hall, or the guys from Illinois, or the guys who do a Bible Study every Thursday, etc. It's a great way to build those stronger friendships that would be tough otherwise if you just had to jump into the whole huge group of them.
"Faithful friends are a sturdy shelter: whoever finds one has found a treasure. Faithful friends are beyond price; no amount can balance their worth. Faithful friends are life-saving medicine; and those who fear the Lord will find them. Those who fear the Lord direct their friendship aright, for as they are, so are their neighbors also." - Sirach 6:14-17
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