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Happy New Year!
As the title says: Happy New Year! I had a great time on Sunday/Monday hanging out with other Springfield seminarians. They are a bunch of absolutely top-notch guys and an absolute blast to spend time with. As usual, we stayed that the Villa Maria, which is a retreat center that the diocese owns right off of lake Springfield. Everyone arrived around 3PM on Sunday and we spent some time mostly chatting until around 4 when some priests from the diocese arrived. The Christmas gathering is our chance to not only hang out as seminarians but also to get to know some of the priests of the diocese (which I did). We had evening prayer at 4:30, followed by some snacks (more chatting), and then dinner (which was composed of salad, rolls, roast beef, shepherds pie [really good!], mashed potatoes, and cheesecake). There are two new guys who are entering Brute this coming up semester, which is fantastic (they are also brothers, which is even cooler), and I had the chance to talk with them some over dinner. After dinner most of the priests took off, though we still had a good time joking, chatting, and (I'm running out of words to describe spending time together...) hanging out. It was a wonderful time, and I stayed up almost until midnight talking with the other guys. The next morning we had Mass at 8:00, followed by breakfast, and then a talk by the bishop. He touched on many of the topics that often come up these days - gay marriage, Pope Francis, the new evangelization - all things we need to be aware of and knowledgeable about. Many of the guys chimed in with their ideas on each topic and it turned into a really good conversation. Then we had lunch and then everybody drove off their separate ways. And that, at least very summarized, was the Christmas get-together! (I also had some good chances to pray. There is a chapel at the villa, and for whatever reason, I often pray really well in a place that is different than usual.)
I raced back to Quincy that afternoon and got back in time to go over to St. Rose for a serving practice. Unexpectedly (at least to me), the Bishop (along with the Quincy deanery) decided to turn St. Rose into a parish, and so we had to figure out how to do a pontifical Mass. St. Rose is staffed by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, who's charism is to provide the faithful with the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, and so, Mass with a bishop is rather complicated and different than the typical high-Mass that we have each Sunday. Two summers ago the Bishop celebrated Mass at St. Rose, but that also included the consecration of the altars, confirmation, and a Corpus Christi procession, so it was way more complicated than the Mass he said today. (I have the video of that liturgy in 2012 on YouTube if you want to see what it was like...) Anyway, practice lasted nearly 2 hours because we kept trying to hash out how different things would happen. The sanctuary gets pretty cramped when you throw a Bishop, Deacon, Sub-deacon, and a dozen servers up there, so it took pretty long to figure out exactly what each person would have to do, and where they could fit.
That evening my brother, a friend from church, and myself went out for pizza and some bowling. We had a good evening - the pizza was great (pizza buffet = wonderful), and bowling was fun (though none of us even broke 100 in a single game...), and all-in-all it was a good time. We goofed off a bit, trying different crazy methods to roll the ball down the lane - sliding, sideways, backwards, two hands, no hands, heavy, light... We tried them all! I just wish my Wii bowling skills would transfer into real life!
On Tuesday I spent the morning running around knocking things off my to-do list. First it was the eye-doctor, then the bank, then the doctor to get my immunization updated (yay!), and then it was off to noon Mass at St. Rose. After Mass I met up with Corey Bruns, a fellow seminarian from Brute who was born in Quincy (and has family here), but is now a seminarian from Owensboro KY, and we went to Maid-Rites for lunch. It was actually Corey's idea, but I was glad to get the chance to go there anyway. (Besides, how do you beat a maid-rite and chocolate shake for lunch?) We had a good time just chatting about how our breaks had been. Apparently, Corey's was, if this is even possible, more hectic and busy than mine!
I actually don't remember what I did Tuesday afternoon - I was busy, but with what?
And that folks, will have to be all for now. It is almost midnight, and despite my intention to write about Mass today, I do want to get some sleep! I sincerely hope to get that written tomorrow or the next day! (But whenever I say that something always seems to come up...)
Say a prayer for all us seminarians to Mary Mother of God - she must be an exemplar to us all, and certainly is a mother to us all! Think about how amazing it is that God has a human mother - just crazy! May I recommend entrusting 2014 to her care!
Glad you got back before the snowstorm hit...I have been enjoying the Schola Cantorum
ReplyDeleteYep, I'm glad that I got back too! (Though the snow does make everything look beautiful.) Glad to hear that you are enjoying the schola cd - we had a lot of fun making it. Happy New Year!
DeleteSo interesting sharing your experiences. There is indeed something special about chapels. The quiet and peacefulness provides the perfect setting for praying and "listening."
ReplyDeleteDRF - a Dominic Rankin Fan
For sure! The retreat starts in a few hours - should be fantastic!
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