Open Wide the Doors for Christ!

So, I've come to the conclusion that gazillion-word blog posts are not a good thing (primarily because they take forever for me to write - so I don't often write them - but also because they take a long time to read - and most of you folks don't have an over-abundance of time, so here's a short post about my serving for the Pope this past Christmas).  I'm currently  in the midst of 2-3 weeks of oral finals (the 6 of them are spaced out pretty well - which is nice because there's less stress, but not-so-nice because it means I'm doing finals for 3 weeks...), but since my next one isn't until Friday, I decided to get an update out...

 

Background: a group of guys from Brute were going to be coming to Rome after a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and so I stuck around here for the first week of Christmas break so that I could show them around and hang out with them while they were here.  Obviously, I wasn't going to miss the chance to spend time with them, and I was also pretty pumped to be able to experience Rome around Christmas and show them around the city that I had been enjoying for the past few months, but those reasons would quickly be over-shadowed by a certain even-more-amazing blessing that was given us...

 

My task, in the months leading up to their trip here, was to line up the things we'd be seeing/doing while they were here, so - besides tours of St. John Lateran's, St. Mary Major, St. Peter's, the Scavi, a trip to Assisi, different walks around Rome to see other churches, and the coliseum, and stuff like that - I also wanted to get them tickets to attend Midnight (actually 9:30 PM) Mass on Christmas at St. Peter's.  So, I contacted the sisters at the Casa Santa Maria (located right next to the Gregorian, it was the NAC before it moved up here on the Janiculum, and these days it's the house of further studies for American priests, and the place where the sisters work to line things up for American pilgrims/tourists in Rome).  Basically, I contacted them to request tickets for the 9 of us seminarians and to check into how Fr. Bob (the rector at Brute) could be able to concelebrate at Christmas Mass.  As it turned out - a couple of weeks later - the sisters were unable to get tickets for us to attend Mass (they didn't get very many this year), but Fr. Bob, who had meanwhile contacted the liturgical folks over at St. Peter's, had gotten a ticket to concelebrate and permission for us seminarians to attend Mass.  The letter, though, was in Italian, and it also - intriguingly - asked that us seminarians show up to St. Peter's the day before for a prova [Italian for "practice" or "meeting"].  I didn't know why we would have to show up for something the day before (it wasn't specific) - surely we weren't serving or something... - but the more I asked around, the more I found that there was no other reason for us to be there the day before unless we were going to be serving. 

 

So, long story short, we made our way into St. Peter's on the morning of the 24th, found Msgr. Cihak, who we were supposed to meet up with, and - after he asked if we were the group from Indianapolis - he immediately started assigning us different things to do during the Mass.  I was picked for carrying the 7th candle (indicating the presence of a bishop - in this case the pope), to hold the microphone for the deacon (prayers of the faithful, "the Mass is ended, go in peace", etc.) and to wash Pope Francis's hands during the offertory.  We were all looking at each other like - wait, so we're serving for the Pope! - and sure enough, we were!  We then had a practice to run through everything we'd be doing that evening (all the MC's made it super easy, literally, you just waited at your spot until they came and got you for your next task), and then we were asked to show back up that evening early enough to run through everything again, oh, and so we could meet, and help vest, the Pope before Mass!  Needless to say, we were on cloud nine for the rest of the day! 

 

 

We arrived back at St. Peter's around 8 PM, had our practice, and then spent 30 minutes anxiously in the chapel of the Pieta (which I hadn't ever seen anybody inside of, it is all behind glass) for the Pope to arrive.  20 minutes until Mass, in walked the Vicar of Christ, and moments later he was walking around greeting us and shaking our hands!  What a moment!  Looking back, even after a month, I can't quite wrap my mind around it.  It wasn't just a cool moment because I got to greet the pope - you know, he's pretty famous, the head of the Church, directly connected with St. Peter, and Christ's chosen vicar here on earth - gosh, it was so much more than that.  But, so much more amazing to me than that, was the realization that Pope Francis is a human being like the rest of us.  Maybe that should be obvious - ok, it definitely should - and don't get me wrong - he's definitely been given a position, and a responsibility, way beyond mine, and I'd guess most of yours...  But, as I shook his hand and looked into his eyes I saw a man that was excited to celebrate Christmas, and tired from a long day in a hard "job", and happy to see us serving for him, and - in so many ways - a person a lot like myself.  I don't want to underplay his role in the Church by any means, but it was such an eye-opening experience to realize that he's not just a person that shows up on TV, or gives an angelus address each week, or writes encyclicals that I try to read.  He's a person with strengths and weaknesses, joys and sorrows, favorite

 

 

A couple months back we had the opportunity to go on a tour of the Swiss Guards' barracks, and the guard giving us a tour mentioned that from time to time he got to be stationed outside of Pope Francis's apartment, and so he got to know the Pope fairly well, including the fact that he really liked candy but had been told by his doctors that he'd have to cut back on sweets for health reasons.  At the time I chuckled with everybody else, but that little detail didn't actually sink in until I had the chance to meet the pope and serve for him.  Seeing him - up close - during that Mass reminded me again and again that he's a man like the rest of us -  and weak like the rest of us.  Yet, he's been given a responsibility - to feed Christ's flock - that's absolutely tremendous.  Basically, I saw that he wasn't some sort of super-human character, but he still has a super-human job to do!  He didn't look invincible, or for that matter terribly weak, he just looked really normal!  What I realized during that Mass was that - above all else - he needs our prayers!  How quick we are to complain about Pope Francis - he's too vague, he's too critical, he's too liberal, he's too conservative, whatever - but how often we forget to pray for him: for his health, and strength, and holiness! 

 

So yeah, it was an amazing experience to be able to serve for the Pope!  I was thrilled while I was doing it, it'll probably be one of my top-10 experiences for the rest of my life, and it's bound to make good homily material one day (God willing).  But, as so often is the case, there's so much more to each experience than meets the eye!  This is why I love blogging about these things, it makes me reflect back on them and see the deeper meaning.  Serving for Pope Francis means serving him in so many more ways than just holding a candle and pouring water over his hands!  It means serving along-side of him in the Church, in praying for him and for the Church that he is leading, and I am also a part of. 

 

Yeah, so it was incredible, and eye-opening, and inspiring, and profound, and awesome!

Today was the first day of classes, but, instead of just running through the day as I usually do, I want to connect the day with faith.  I mean, I'm in seminary, but often my posts, at least when I don't have a lot of time, just tell you what happened and leave it at that.  That, I think, isn't enough.  The point of this blog is to show seminary life, but seminary life is so much more than what happens to me each day, it also involves what God does to me each day.  It is learning to depend on God, and that is the topic of this post.

In my last class today, the mission and history of Catholic schools, which is the only evening class that I have taken at Marian (it goes from 6:30 to 9:30), the teacher ended class with a prayer from Thomas Merton.  The rest of the prayer is at the end of this post, but for now I just want to concentrate on one line: I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.  

Now, having said that, lets look at the rest of the day.  I woke up tired because I went to bed late last night (after midnight).  I was trying to get things ready for today - order books, figure out my schedule, write a blog post, etc.  However, while it isn't a big deal when I would go to bed at midnight at home because I could sleep until 8 or so, here I am getting up at 5:45, which means I only had about 5 hours of sleep.  (Side note: I'm the type of person that really wants 8 hours of sleep, maybe 9, so 5 is not cool at all...)  

Anyway, today my classes started at 10 AM with Philosophical Themes in Catholic Authors, then at noon Logic, at 1 God and Philosophy, and the one on Catholic education at 6:30.  Don't get me wrong, philosophy isn't easy, but I still have been learning a ton in my philosophy classes and have started to look forward to them.  Well, this morning I wasn't quite as enthusiastic (I'll blame it on the lack of sleep), and so I went to class hoping that whatever the professor said would get me interested.  

Well, in the first class, Philosophical Themes in Catholic Authors, the professor opened class by lambasting students who don't read everything from the works they are assigned, and proceeded to explain that we would have a quiz every day so that he could ascertain that we had read everything and had thought about it.  Now, again, don't get me wrong, I always intend to read what I am assigned, but I was really hoping that this class wouldn't be the hard kind - I know, it's philosophy, how would it be easy? - but still, I was really hoping that despite my taking 19 credit hours this semester it would turn out easier.  On top of this, the teacher explained that we would have a 7-9 page paper due at the end of the semester, which I really did expect, but for whatever reason was really hoping I wouldn't hear this morning.

I had a break of 1 hour before my second class which I spent in the library, mostly just wasting time (I had nothing I could do just yet in class and I didn't force myself to do something else productive - you know, finish my application to the NAC, or write a blog post, or something).  Then I grabbed a bite to eat and headed over to logic.  Now, this is the same professor as Metaphysics last year - and his classes are always rock solid and just plain fantastic, so I was really hoping he could get me fired up for this semester.  Well, as you might guess, it didn't quite happen.  The little things, like the fact that the room was packed, or I wasn't concentrating too well, or the joking around that would normally have been a lot of fun, but instead was distracting, just annoyed me I guess.  I mean, I wasn't mad, I just wasn't very happy...

Alright, well the same pattern continued into my third class, again, one I was sure I would enjoy, God and Philosophy.  This was the topic that finally got me interested in philosophy last semester - how we can understand something about God, how faith and reason can overlap - and it was a teacher who I had only heard stellar things about.  Guess what, again, I failed to get enthused.  I guess I was just a bit tired or something, but for whatever reason I was only concentrating on how difficult the class could be - all that reading, the quizzes, the paper, whatever - and not how awesome, or fun, or educational it could be.

So, back to my final class, the dreaded Mission and History of Catholic Schools.  It is a 5 week class that meets on Monday evenings - so I was thinking it couldn't be too hard - but it was still in the evening, I was still tired (despite a short nap this afternoon), and I was still a bit glum from not having a great first day.  So, basically, I was pretty unexcited.  I didn't even want to offer the difficulties up - it was just an off day.  Anyway, I sit down around 6:30 and a few minutes later the teacher walks in and proceeds to spend the next hour introducing the topic (which I was happily surprised, looked to be pretty solidly Catholic) and then having the rest of us introduce ourselves (myself and another seminarian are in the class along with 5 young ladies, all of whom seem to be pretty strong Catholics, and most of whom are planning on becoming teachers).  I was starting, in the class I least expected to, to become interested.  We continued to run through some basics, she outlined how the 2 fundamental differences of Catholic schools are the fact that it is meant for the furthering of the Church and the faith (seems pretty solid) and is funded by the Church, not the state (which is partially accurate, but certainly still a big differentiator).  Finally, she ended with that prayer.

Bam, it hit me.  I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.  I went back to Brute and got to catch the last 10 minutes of Adoration, after which I prayed a rosary, and what kept running through my head was the fact that anything, even if it is tough, not what I want, or not what I expected, can be offered up to Christ and transformed by Him so that it brings me - if only because I have to pray more to get through it - closer to Him.  Just wanting to do something for Christ is doing something for Him.  While praying about this, I started thinking about all this and I was trying to see how I could say that joy could be found, even in things you don't like, just by doing them for God, or maybe even seeing them as part of His plan.  I settled on the fact that doing anything for God brings us closer to Him, where true joy and peace and love is found, and so, wham, you are better off (even if you didn't like whatever you were gonna have to do).  

But, the amazing thing is that as I write this post I have become more and more excited about all these classes.  I, right now, can't wait until Wednesday to dive back into this stuff.  You know that rush of adrenaline that happens when you are excited - yeah, that just hit me!  Oh man, this is going to be a great semester.  Those Catholic Authors - come on, it's Flannery O'Connor and C.S. Lewis, bring it on, quizzes or not!  Those dry logical arguments - forget the boring stuff, I'm in a class with 20 other seminarians and one of my favorite teachers, this is going to be a blast!  That work-intensive God and Philosophy class - this stuff is the absolute epitome of philosophy, it's what I loved so much about last semester, it's going to be fantastic!   That Catholic education class - its full of excited, young Catholics, ready to dedicate their lives to the church and to their God, talk about enthusiasm!

Yeah, so God managed to not only get me to offer up the struggles to Him but also completely transform my way of looking at them.  Thank you God!  This semester is going to be great!  And with that, I'm going to bed... Huzzah!  As always, there is so much more to say on this topic, but I really do want to post more often, so I think I may just stick to a big point or two and try to show how seminary life connects up to them.  We'll see if it works out.

As with most of my post during the last few weeks of a semester, this will be short.

 

Advent is wonderful.  The readings and psalms are so beautiful in the breviary every day, it is so awesome to read everything in light of the coming of Christ into the world (in Bethlehem, at every Mass, and at the end of time), even the old, familiar things that I say every day take on a new, profound meaning.

 

The metaphysics paper is slowly coming together (meaning I'm a few pages into it, but it isn't by any means in my head yet).  I am really hopeful to get a bunch done tomorrow, but my hopes weren't very accurate today, so we'll see...

 

I'm tired.  Gosh, I thought that the last weekend would push me into the final stretch with tons of energy and enthusiasm, but I am starting to feel the pressure of the end of the semester.  I've got a few things left this week (metaphysics paper being the biggest, but also a psychology test and the senior seminar paper).  Next week should be even more fun, I have 2 finals on Monday (psychology should be easy, calculus will be more challenging), 1 on Tuesday (Augustine and Aquinas, shouldn't be bad if I study enough), 1 on Tuesday/Wednesday (it's the senior seminar take-home, which should be long, tough, and cover plenty of material that I haven't seen yet...), 1 on Wednesday (moral issues, shouldn't be bad.), and 1 on Thursday (metaphysics, should be hard, but I will have time to study, so that's good).  There you have it, the negatives...

 

How about some positives?  I had a fun time this evening going out to celebrate one of the guy's 21st birthday.  I'm not 21, so I didn't participate in any drinking, but it was a fun meal anyway, and a good break from the philosophizing.  On Wednesday we will celebrate the annual Brute Christmas (basically a good meal and a fun time giving each other presents.  On Friday I'll be done with the papers!, and we are also having the first ever Brute talent show - should be quite the evening!  On Saturday I will be going out caroling with a bunch of other guys.  We are going the same place that Ray and I go for our ministry (a Catholic nursing home), so that is cool too!  On Sunday, I'm going over to Cincinnati for a Christmas concert of some sort put on by the seminary over there (Mount St. Mary's of the West).  Basically, the next week will be daunting and awesome!

 

On that note, I'm going to get a decent night's sleep - I feel like I need it right now.  Hopefully the run that I'm going on with a few other guys tomorrow will galvanize me for the rest of the semester.  I'm usually not the guy that wants the semester to be over, I have so much fun and grow so much while here, but this semester has been pretty tough.  Hmmm.  This post isn't overly positive, sorry about that - it's late, I'm tired, and I guess the school work is getting to me...

 

Good Night, I hope that your Advent is a blessed as mine!

Well, I am back home for a brief Thanksgiving break, and since I don't really feel like working on a philosophy paper, I figured I might as well work on some blogging that I am behind on.  After typing up the first day of NCYC, I decided to split the event into a few posts (because, as always, I'm being long-winded and one post with everything would be daunting to read).

So, as I previously have briefly mentioned, NCYC (the National Catholic Youth Conference) was here in Indianapolis on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  I was looking forward to this event ever since I heard it would be happening this semester.  Usually, to be quite honest, I'm more of an introvert.  However, upon entering seminary I have found the courage (let's be honest, it's grace) to be a bit more open, outgoing, and willing to talk with people.  Anyway, I was greatly looking forward to the opportunity to hang out with 25,000 (!) young Catholics.  I remember how great of a time I had just a few years back when I got to hang out with other young Catholics (though not nearly as many) and seminarians - it was awesome!  Thus, though I am now on the other "side" of the exchange, I figured it would be pretty cool. 

Thursday was the first day of the conference, and the kids started showing up at the conference center mid-afternoon.  The Springfield and Knoxville seminarians, because groups from our dioceses hadn't shown up yet, were assigned to serve Mass for the Jefferson City, MO diocesan group at 2PM.  We showed up at the convention center (which, by the way is enormous - like probably 1/2 a mile long) somewhere around noon, got registered with the volunteer people, and picked up our name-tags (enormous and kind of gaudy, but everybody wore one so it wasn't weird I guess) and t-shirts (which had "SEMINARIAN" printed on the back, so we were very obvious).  We got to the room that this particular Mass was happening in (other dioceses had their own Masses going on throughout the afternoon), and waited, and waited...  The group apparently was delayed because while their priests showed up on time the rest of the folks didn't trickle in until after 3.  We, meanwhile, had walked a few blocks over to the mall to get something to eat.  It was starting to get busy over there as everybody was starting to show up and I felt really conspicuous in my SEMINARIAN garb, but it was pretty cool to see everybody (and chat with a few people).  I didn't get anything for lunch because I wasn't very hungry (and I'm cheap), so we eventually wondered back and waited a bit more.

I guess Mass was my first disappointment - not that Mass itself is bad - but we were squashed into the front row, the altar was just a table on a stage, the music was too "enthusiastic" for my tastes, we didn't [get to] kneel for the Consecration (which ended up absolutely destroying whatever remnant of concentration I had left) - I don't know, it just wasn't a fantastic experience...  There were some bits that were really good: I had a moment after receiving Communion of deep prayer (love it when that happens) and the priests concelebrating Mass were reverent.  Mass itself was great, but the craziness of the environment didn't lend itself to concentration, so I didn't pray as well as I was hoping.

After Mass we wondered back around to the volunteer station. I believe we then wondered through the thematic park, which wasn't open yet (we snuck through a door that someone left open) but was basically a huge open room with tons of booths from different places (religions orders, schools, companies, musicians, etc.). After checking things out we headed over to the mall again to get some dinner (by now I was hungry, those snacks in the volunteer zone were wearing off).  However, by now the mall was absolutely full of people.  I mean, every food-producing-vendor was absolutely swamped.  So, we gave up on getting something substantial and slammed down a few more peanut butter crackers and granola bars.



lots of people!

At this point we were told to report over to Lucas Oil Stadium for assignments, and upon wondering over there I found that I was (along with most of the other guys) assigned to manning the sidewalks and getting people to their buses after the event.  I managed to evade being called on to carry around a phone and be in charge of things (remember, I'm an introvert) and was told to report to my yellow zone by 9:15.  The event had already semi-started at 6 or 7 with different bands and stuff (it was now almost 8 PM), but the program seemed to indicate that the real start would be around 8 with some sort of key-note speech thing.  I was pretty enthusiastic about getting in there and seeing all the excitement and what-not, so I found a spot near the entrance (so I could make an exit later) along with a bunch of other sem.'s and settled in for the event.  Basically, I was disappointed to find that there wasn't ever much of a talk.  Don't get me wrong, the loud, upbeat music was great, but I got tired pretty quickly of jumping out and hollering out the next refrain to whatever motion was supposed to happen for this song.  It was fun to begin with, but after an hour or so I was tired and really just wanted to sit there and listen to a enthusiastic, passion-filled speech.  Music is fine and dandy, but I wanted some meat to chew on and get excited about.  The faith is so much more than music!  Anyway, I was disappointed.  Apparently, this evening was primarily all about getting people hyped up and excited for the next few days.  Anyway, it wasn't working for me (though most everybody else seemed to be having a blast.



crazy lights!

Shortly after 9 I headed down to my spot near the buses and caught up with Jeff who was in charge of that zone.  He had figured out which buses went where - Youngstown, New York, Lexington, Louisville, etc... - so I tried to remember the order while waiting for the even to finish up and everybody start poring out.  A bit after 10 the first people started leaving and over the next 20 minutes or so people began to flow pretty constantly out and head for their buses.  Unfortunately (for us), they all seemed to know where they were going, so our job of directing traffic turned out pretty pointless.  Anyway, our zone ended pretty quickly (most people must have headed out of other doors), so we walked down to another zone to see if they were done.  Unfortunately, they weren't.  So we hung out with the group that was stranded (their bus was late), trying (unsuccessfully) to stay warm amid the slow drizzle of 35 degree rain...  I actually enjoyed this part a bit because I got to talk with a few of the young people.  I had spent the entire day surrounded by crowds of people, but I hadn't really had a chance to interact.  All the kids that I talked with were really cool - they had really strong faith, were discerning where God wanted them to be, and were a lot of fun to spend 10 minutes or so chatting with.  It was great!

Lucas Oil Stadium - Tons of Young Catholics!

Well, the rain wasn't so great, but eventually the bus did show up.  After that group was on there way pretty much everything was done - we hiked back over to the car, drove back to Brute, I ate some eggs/sausage shortly before midnight, and then crashed.  It was a long day, lots of fun, very crazy, incredibly exhausting - in other words pretty good I suppose...

Below is a video of some clips that I took at the event Thursday evening - it was pretty amazing to be there!

Today was the ordination to the sacred priesthood of (now) Fr. Hyland Smith.  As was the case with the deaconate ordination, the seminarians were enlisted to serve for the Mass.

Last evening, after I got off work at 4 PM, I filled up with gas and cruised over to Springfield, where Fr. Chris Brey had graciously invited the seminarians out to dinner.  Needless to say, the pizza was great and the abundance of ice cream afterwards was also greatly appreciated.  After dinner (and a lot of socializing with the other guys), we went over to the cathedral for practice.  I ended up with the position I have previously occupied at other diocesan Masses, book-holder, and it turned out that the procedure was very similar to the deaconate ordination.  I processed in at the back (which is cool because I get to see everybody as they process in), and then I sit off to the side of the bishop's cathedra ready to walk out and hold the Roman Missal or Rite of Ordination for a Priest [which took forever for me to find online...] for the Bishop.

The first time I had to hold the book was at the beginning of Mass (right after the procession and incensation of the Altar), when I held the Roman Missal for the introductory rites (confiteor, kyrie, gloria, and opening prayer).  I had been holding the book for a minute or two before the bishop got back from the incensation, but nothing was hurting too bad, so I was feeling pretty confident as the confiteor started.  However, by the time the kyrie had been chanted my arms were starting to feel the inexorable pull of gravity.  The base of Bishop Paprocki's cathedra is a step higher than the floor of the sanctuary, so I am standing on the floor and he is standing a step higher and he is also a few feet away from me because there is probably two or three feet of raised platform between his seat and the edge of this step.  This all means that I am several feet away from the bishop and on top of that I am several inches lower than him (due to both the step and my, um, exceptional, height) - anyway, enough with the excuses, holding the Roman Missal through that Gloria was tough.  I guess the Bishop has good eyesight because I think the book was shaking a bit during the end of the gloria and the opening prayer)  Don't get me wrong, I love the position of book-holder, I am in like the best spot to see what is going on, but it still gets tough at times...  

The next thing that I had to do was hold the rite of ordination for the, you know, ordination.  This book is probably half as thick as the Roman Missal, but I had to hold it longer, so my arms still ended up shaking a bit.  First, was the calling forward of Deacon Hyland - The Bishop asks if the people consider him worthy, which they did, and then he came forward and made the promise of obedience to the Bishop.  It was so cool, because I was right there when he put his hands inside the Bishop's and said "I do", and I was a few feet away when Deacon Hyland lay prostrate on the floor during the litany, and I was a few steps back when the Bishop did the laying on of hands and ordained him a priest...  It was so cool to be right there during all of it - yeah, my arms were hurting, and there was that nagging thought of how to hold up the book any longer, but it was definitely worth it.  OK, so there is the super-quick low-down of the Mass.  I could go into detail on how everything happened, but we are in the midst of packing for vacation and, since I haven't been here the last 2 days, I probably should pitch in a bit.

Last, but not least, a brief look at something pretty cool.  On the brief bio that the diocese has for Fr. Hyland  Smith he notes that his favorite scripture verse is John 21:18-22.  

Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”  Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?”21 When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?”  Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!”

Fr. Hyland explains it pretty well: (I quote):

"Peter is troubled by Christ's prophecy of Peter's future martyrdom, and Peter tries to deflect his fate by focusing on another. Jesus says to him, "What is that to you? Follow me!" Too often I look at others rather than my own walk with Christ. Before I left for seminary the Holy Spirit showed me this verse, which reminds me that the only important thing I must do is follow Christ."

"I am happy here, in this cell, where white mushrooms are growing on my sleeping mat, because You are here with me, because You want me to live here with You. I have spoken much in my lifetime: now I speak no more. It's Your turn to speak to me, Jesus; I am listening to You"

So often we forget that the foundation for anything and everything we do must be in love of Our Lord.  That has to be where we start.  Fr. Hyland and this saintly bishop both emphasize following Christ above everything.  Even when our plans don't happen, or Christ asks us go "where we do not want to go", that is precisely when love for Him must "trump" everything else.  That is exactly what the promises that the to-be priest makes require.  (and I'll quote them here because they are just too cool).  

• Do you resolve, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to discharge without fail the Office of Priesthood in the presbyteral rank, as a worthy fellow worker with the Order of Bishops in caring for the Lord’s flock?
• Do you resolve to exercise the ministry of the word worthily and wisely, preaching the Gospel and teaching the Catholic faith?
• Do you resolve to celebrate faithfully and reverently, in accord with the Church’s tradition, the mysteries of Christ, especially the sacrifice of the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation, for the glory of God and the sanctification of the Christian people?
• Do you resolve to implore with us God’s mercy upon the people entrusted to your care by observing the command to pray without ceasing?
• Do you resolve to be united more closely every day to Christ the High Priest, who offered Himself for us to the Father as a pure sacrifice, and with Him to consecrate yourself to God for the salvation of all?
• Do you promise respect and obedience to me and my successors?

Gosh, the vocation of priesthood is so awesome (in both the sense that it inspires awe and it is really cool).  It is so scary to think that I could be called to that life - to living as Christ for the people...  To discharge without fail the Office of Priesthood, to exercise the ministry of the word worthily and wisely, to celebrate faithfully and reverently, to pray without ceasing, be united with Christ, the pure sacrifice, and consecrate yourself to God for the salvation of all, to promise respect and obedience to the successor of the Apostles. Yeah, awesome but scary...  And, guess what, the only way that any man will be able to live up to these supernatural standards is by totally, radically, completely, utterly, etc. loving Jesus Christ.  Please pray for Fr. Hyland Smith, as he begins a totally new life, and all of us seminarians as we discern if that same life is what we're called to.  Good thing grace is there!

Final note - Fr. Hyland chose "Tota vita mea Iesu Christo" as his priestly "motto" (it's on the card I got at his first blessing...).  My translation: "My entire life to Jesus Christ"  And that pretty much sums up being a priest...  (easy right?)

Please keep in mind that my Latin translation may not be terribly perfect, and also keep those prayers coming!

Sorry for the lack of blogging over the past week or two, I have found it harder than I expected to find stuff to write about now that I am home.  

On Friday, I attended the home school group monthly get-together.  We've been members of it ever since I can remember (I was home schooled from first to twelfth grade), and I can remember many fun times growing up and going to it.  Anyway, we played some Frisbee, I watched all the kids give their presentation (the activity for this month) - some were pretty cool: valence electrons, organic polymers, piano recitals, and other, various, cool presentations.  We stuck around as the mom talked throughout the afternoon, played some soccer in the parking lot (not quite as fun as "real" soccer), and got home around 6.

On Saturday, we participated in the Bridge the Gap.  It is a running race that we have done before, which is pretty cool because it goes across one of the Quincy bridges and back on the other.  It's a fun little 5K, but I always underestimate ho hard it will be.  The first mile is easy: you start going up this steep hill, but it's only about 2 blocks and the rest of the mile is mostly downhill as you cross over the first bridge.  Thus, I finished the first mile in a blistering 6:30 or so.  The second mile, though, entails crossing back over the second bridge.  And, it is all uphill.  Literally, the entire mile is a pretty good uphill climb.  Anyway, I finally finished the second mile (at which point I was right at a 7:00 min/mile pace) and went down the hill after the 2nd bridge and onto the (relatively) flat last mile.  Unfortunately, I was "recovering" from the 2nd mile and didn't ever bump up the pace like I wanted to.  Either way, I made sure to stay up with this other guy who appeared to be near my age and managed to spring the last tenth of a mile or so and pass him.  I got 2nd in my age group and 8th place overall (surprised myself with that one!).  I finished in 21:52 (something like that), which is a 7:04 min/mile, and which also is about as fast as I've ever run a 5k.  I think I may have gone a bit faster in some of the training runs for the half-marathon, but those were probably a good bit more flat.  Ah well, I think I could have gone a bit faster, but in hind site I always think I could have done better, so there you go...  

On Sunday, we did Mass at St. Rose, where I was recruited to serve - no biggie...  That afternoon we started packing for vacation.  As a family, we try to go on a vacation (almost) every year.  This year, which is "bigger" than normal, we are going to Yosemite.  So, we decided to start the fun a week early and begin to pack what we would be bringing.  Of course, seeing it as a challenge, my goal is to pack everything in a bag that can be carried on the airplane (they have a specific size that you can't go over).  Anyway, this gets a bit more difficult when you try to fit a back-pack, hiking shoes, a laptop, and the clothes in the carry on bag...  Have no fear, I'll get it in there, but I sure hope I don't have to open it until we get there.  I can zip it up right now, but still need to fit in another pair of shoes, the computer, and a shirt.  

On Monday, I started my summer job over at Titan Wheel.  It isn't that there is less going on...  The job begins at 7:30 AM, so I go to Mass at 6:30 AM every morning.  So far the job has been pretty good - just getting back into the swing of things from last summer - we'll see how it develops.  I get done at 4:00PM and then we usually have something going on that takes up the rest of the evening.  If we don't have something going on, I typically manage to waste the evening hours before hitting the sack around 10 PM so that I can get several hours of shut-eye before the alarm goes off.  

So there you have it, the last few days have been non-stop stuff to do.  (did I mention I had to sign up for Spanish on Thursday, or the packet pick-up for the race on Friday, or the after-Mass group we went out for lunch with on Sunday, or the mowing I helped out with on Monday...)  Don't think that I am complaining - but I am busy...

OK, all that writing leads me to what I actually wanted to get to.  Today, mid-day prayer, which I prayed during my lunch break, had this as its concluding prayer:

God of mercy,this midday moment of restis your welcome gift.
Bless the work we have begun,
make good its defects
and let us finish it in a way that pleases you.
Grant this through Christ our Lord.
– Amen.

I thought that the entire prayer was such a beautiful thing to say in the middle of a busy, tiring, sometimes annoying and frustrating day.  Yesterday, I was going around to the lock-boxes around the plant and checking to see if all the locks were present and working.  Anyway, this one box was inside an office of sorts and while I was checking out the locks, a few guys came in off the paint line, where they had been working, and the one guy said to me "you have a pretty tough job there don't you" - briefly the thought of how greasy the locks were, or how many different boxes there were to audit, or how long it would take me to type up the results popped into my head - and they I looked over at him sitting there peeling off the plastic suit that he had been wrapped in (it was probably 80 out) while spraying paint, and it hit me that just maybe his job was more tough than mine.  You know, how I got to take the golf cart around to the different boxes, or how I could sit in an air-conditioned office for most of the day, rather than just my lunch break...  You know, how my job was plush compared to his, and I had no reason at all to complain about it...

I thought this prayer was such a beautiful way to remind ourselves of the gift that every day truly is.  How each and every moment, those of rest, those of work, those of fun, those of sorrow, can be seen as an opportunity to grow closer to God.  To thank Him for the good, to ask His help through the laborious, to see His love in the joyful, and find the path to Him through the sorrowful.  "and let us finish it in a way that please you." - It is incredible when you actually pay attention to the prayers that we say each day.  Seriously, I say the prayers of the Mass every day, I (try to) say the prayers of the rosary every day, I say the Divine Office every day, and yet these beautiful reminders of God's love, mercy, aid, generosity, and everything else are so easy to miss.  You know, it's going to be easy to see that when on vacation - when everything is fun, and there aren't any worries - but what happens when I get back?  When Monday comes around and I have to go back to work.  That is when it is more important than ever to see God's presence, and love around us, and use our everyday lives to grow closer to Him.  I think it was in the Gospel today when Jesus says that whoever isn't against me is for me.  I think that that can also be said of everyday live - it doesn't have to lead us to Christ, but it sure can if we let it...  Just a thought.  My hope is that by trying to find Christ everywhere, I can find more to blog about as the summer goes by - we'll see what happens when Spanish gets started in a few weeks...

"Grant this through Christ Our Lord - Amen"