Showing posts with label Adoration. Show all posts

Day 7 - A week in the life of a seminarian

Good Evening everyone!  Once again, I find myself at the end of the day, and I am just starting my post about what happened...  I hope that you have enjoyed this week of recap. posts - they were fun to write (though they took a while), and you may notice that they have made it to the top of the page - "A week at Bruté".  

Anyway, today began with schola practice at 8:30.  Both guys in charge of the schola decided on this Sunday because it gave us a few weeks to practice up (after parents and pastors day).  We ended up skipping a few practices though, so we weren't quite ready, and had to practice this morning.  I was very glad that we practiced, but I had just recently rolled out of bed, so it was more difficult than normal to hit those high notes (especially in Ave Verum).  I am currently working on the video, so look forward to a post with that.  

Otherwise, Mass was somewhere in between really awesome and just average.  I mean, obviously the Mass is always awesome, but sometimes my participation or perception of it is less wonderful.  This morning, while it was great to be singing and all, it means that half of Mass (more or less) I was thinking about the next song, getting ready for it, and turning my camera on.  Not necessarily bad, but it still kept me from concentrating fully.  On the other hand, Fr. Joe's homily today was spectacular.  As a certain seminarian noted, "that homily was boss!".  The message was simple: who or what is lying at your gate?  Like the rich man to Lazarus, what or who are we ignoring?  Is there someplace that we need to grow, that we need to work on, that we are avoiding?  Is there someone who we haven't taken the time to know, that we haven't been charitable towards, that we haven't shown mercy?  His homily was quite a bit longer and better than this synopsis, but you know, I can't remember everything...

After Mass I had a donut and part of a massive chocolate chip cookie for breakfast (thank you Fr. Joe!).  Perhaps not the most healthy breakfast (OK, definitely not), but there were nuts on the donut, so it couldn't have been that bad.  

I didn't work on much for the early afternoon.  It was one of those rainy, dreary days where you really don't want to do anything...  At 2 PM we had Eucharistic Adoration and a living Rosary over at Marian for religious freedom.  It was supposed to be a procession with the monstrance from the chapel to the football field, but since it was raining they decided to do it all at the football field (I was puzzled too).  Anyway, I helped bring the requisite stuff over to Marian (monstrance, incense, kneelers, bells, etc.), and then I volunteered to be thurifur for the afternoon.  It began with Exposition on the football field.  They had a tent set up with an altar under it, so the Eucharist stayed dry, but myself, the other servers, father, and everybody else, was outside the tent - in the rain.  After a brief prayer for religious freedom (which was just long enough so that my arm was getting ready to fall off from the thurible), another priest read a Gospel passage - in this case the discourse on the bread of life from St. John's Gospel.  He gave a wonderful homily connecting how the truth will set us free, how the truth is found in Jesus Christ (especially in the Eucharist), and how we are led to Jesus through His mother Mary.  He was so enthusiastic about the faith it was phenomenal!  I hope that someday I can have the same fervor and devotion than he did.  

After his homily, this other priest led the living rosary.  I thought it would be kind of cheesy, but actually having a different kid lead each prayer worked out pretty well.  They read a scripture verse in between each Hail Mary, but most of the time I was still kind of distracted just by how different everything was.  It was misting, I was tired, and every so often whichever kid was next would say the Hail Mary in Spanish, or Polish, or German, or Latin, or another language (at which point, instead of thinking how great it was to be part of the universal church, my mind would jump to trying to figure out what the language was...)  You get the picture, I am a weak human being, and sometimes my mind just doesn't want to concentrate.  Something that I thought was really awesome during the rosary, was how the priest, who was walking the microphone around to all the kids leading the mysteries, would gently turn them around to face the altar and Blessed Sacrament.  They weren't being disrespectful per-se, but the way that the rosary stretched around the football field, they had "lined" up all facing inward, and the exposed Blessed Sacrament was outside this circle (off to one side).  It really reminded me where I needed to keep my attention, and helped me refocus   After the Rosary, we chanted the Divine Mercy chaplet, had Benediction, processed out, and the rally was complete.  In total, it took about 2 hours, but it went by pretty quickly.  I am just glad that it didn't ever start raining hard, and that it was warm enough to be tolerable.  (I guess that Father was preaching on how to be martyrs, so perhaps I shouldn't complain about the weather...)

I ate some leftover pasta, salad, and pumpkin pie for dinner this evening - it was wonderful!  Then I worked on the video from the hymns today, took a short nap and went to the community Holy Hour.  It's really funny, a few years back I would have bitterly lambasted doing two holy hours in one day (especially one in the rain), but seminary has given me a much greater appreciation for these intimate moments with Jesus.  Both were wonderful in their own way, during both I struggled to concentrate, but Jesus was truly present to me both times, and just that is amazing.

After the 2nd Holy Hour, 4 of us went over to Marian and played some racquetball   This sport is an absolute blast, if you haven't played it.  Fast, intense, crazy, loud, etc.  I am not that good at it (I run a lot, but usually that is because I am trying to chase down the ball after not being in the right spot to begin with.)  I'm getting better, and I can hit the ball hard, but I still haven't figured out how to track the ball and be in the right spot to hit it back.  We wanted to avoid dwindling away, so after finishing a few games of racquetball, we went to dairy queen and got some blizzards.  I probably ate like 1000 calories of an extreme-chocolate blizzard, and burnt off about 100 playing, but it was a fun evening either way!


And that ends my last "day in the life" post (for the near future).  I hope that these gave you insight into the day-to-day workings of seminary life.  I know that I didn't go into detail very often - I was trying to keep the length reasonable - but hopefully you enjoyed reading (or at least skimming) them, and they make one of you smile.  Keep the prayers coming (please!) - I'll do the same!  Good night, God bless!
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Day 5 - A week in the life of a seminarian

Today, back to the normal schedule, we had Mass at 6:45 AM.  I wore a tie because I am assigned as extra-ordinary minister of Holy Communion for the next few days.  This isn't something required or anything,  but I like to dress up on occasion and this gave me a good excuse.  We had three priests at Mass, so I didn't have to fill that role after all.  Mass today was really, really awesome.  I don't usually know why a certain Mass, or hour of the office, or rosary hits me really well, but today was one of those days.  Fr. Joe Moriarty (our vice rector) gave the homily, and he reminded me of how important Jesus' question "who do you say that I am?" is.  Think about it!  Do you act in a way that shows your answer to this question?  Of course, as St. Peter, we will often end up falling, not believing, or being overcome by fear, but was must always come back to his answer "Lord; you know that I love you" - John 21:16.  In the office of readings I also just loved the passage (link click "office of readings" and scroll down to the second reading) from St. Vincent de Paul.  Partly quoted for your benefit: 

"It is our duty to prefer the service of the poor to everything else and to offer such service as quickly as possible. If a needy person requires medicine or other help during prayer time, do whatever has to be done with peace of mind. Offer the deed to God as your prayer. Do not become upset or feel guilty because you interrupted your prayer to serve the poor. God is not neglected if you leave him for such service. One of God’s works is merely interrupted so that another can be carried out. So when you leave prayer to serve some poor person, remember that this very service is performed for God. Charity is certainly greater than any rule. Moreover, all rules must lead to charity."

This is something that I have begun to also see in Pope Francis - maybe I need to work on it a little...  Love of Christ absolutely must appear in the rest of our life through love of our fellow man.   The question of Jesus, and are affirming our belief in Him as God, must go beyond just saying that we love Jesus.  We must answer with love to Jesus, and then follow His command to St. Peter: "feed my sheep".  

I had a small breakfast (small bowl of oatmeal) because I am fasting today.  One of the guys had a birthday yesterday, so a bunch of guys are going out tonight.  Knowing that, I decided to fast instead of skipping meat today.  I figure fasting is harder than no-meat, so I'm not really slacking...  

My first class, senior seminar, was cancelled today, so I began the school day at 10:00 AM with moral issues.  We talked some more about capital punishment, and how every seemingly clear-cut issue usually can be incredibly complicated when you are actually working on it in the real world.

In psychology we again continued to look at areas where young children are cognitively developing.  We talked some more about limitations, like irreversibility (when a young kid doesn't know what operations are reversible - opening/closing a box - and not - breaking a toy), and only being able to focus on the static state of an object (they understand that the show was untied, and now it is tied, but can't remember the steps along the way), and a lack of the concept of conservation (the same amount of liquid is taller in a skinnier glass).  Basically, their ability to think logically slowly grows from ages 3 to 7 or so.  They can think about objects, but can't manipulate those concepts.

I actually got out of psychology like 20 minutes early because the professor had finished everything he wanted to, so Andrew and I went over to the library.  I chatted with some others who were hanging out there, we talked about calculus (derivatives can be complicated), literature (Chesterton is cool), and philosophy (I finally get why the motion must be simultaneous to prove God through motion).  Then we went over to the Marian "shrine" (also called the Rosary walk) and prayed the Rosary.  I always find this really peaceful, but I struggle to concentrate on the mysteries because people are walking around, or mowing, or whatever...  Anyway, because I was fasting, I skipped lunch in the cafeteria and went back to the library to work on some calculus before class.

Calculus class was complicated today.  Those problems I was struggling with before class - they were the topic of today's class.  Derivatives had been pretty easy for me (If f(x) = x3 + 2x2 – 11 then f'(x) [the derivative] = 3x2 + 4x).  However, today we looked at much more complicated functions, where instead of just moving the exponent around (notice how it works: if f(x) = xn then f’(x) = nxn-1).  But, what do you do if your function is a bit more complicated?  Like: y = (x3)[(4-x2)1/2]  Here you have to use the product theorem.  This basically states that you take the x3 and the (4-x2)1/2 and call them “f” and “g” respectively, then you can find what the derivative of the entire expression by calculating: y’ = fg’ + f’g.  This means you have to find the derivatives of f and g.  f is easy: f(x) = x3, so f’(x) is 3x2.  But, it isn’t as easy for g.  To find the derivative of (4-x2)1/2, you have to use the chain rule.  This, on its own, isn’t too complicated.  You take the term, move the exponent as we saw before and then multiply the entire thing by the derivative of just the “4 – x2”.  So this looks like g(x) = (4-x2)1/2, so g’(x) = ½(4-x2)-1/2.  Thus, the derivative of the entire function, plugging in the parts that we just figured out, is: y’ = (x3)( ½(4-x2)-1/2) + (3x2)[(4-x2)1/2].  Having fun yet?  Yeah…  Now, set that expression to 0, and solve for x…

So after calculus, my classes were done for the day, so I came back to Bruté and played a few pool games with other guys.  I only managed to win one game, but it was fun either way.  After that I wandered over to my room (there didn't seem to be much else going on), and did a few things on the computer (including working on the computer - plugging in all those equations takes a while...)  At 4:15 PM, I went up the chapel where we had a Holy Hour before evening prayer.  The Holy Hour was, once again really, really fantastic.  (I love it when prayer is like that!)  I said mid-day prayer at the beginning, then the Divine Mercy Chaplet, and then I read a chapter out of the book by Venerable Bishop Fulton Sheen, The Priest is Not His Own.  I was debating on reading this book (on the priesthood) versus Forming Intentional Disciples (Wendell) on evangelization, but I eventually went with Sheen.  As it turns out, the chapter that I moved into was about evangelization - God works in mysterious ways!  Best quote (out of many really good ones): 

Our love of souls must be persistent.  We get used to reading the parable of the Good Shepherd, but do we understand that for us priests it is a spelling out of our obligation to seek the lost sheep?  Leaving a dinner, breaking an evening's entertainment, interrupting a siesta - all such efforts are summed up in being willing to leave "those ninety-nine others on the mountain-side, and go out to look for the one that is straying"  (Mt 18:12)"

After evening prayer, a bunch of us went out and played some two-touch football.   It was a lot of fun, but, as always with football, I feel like I'm not doing something right because I rarely get the ball.  I run around like crazy, wear myself out, and often get away from my defender, but I just don't seem to ever end up in an open spot.  Anyway, the teams were really well matched and we ended in a tie (5-5) after about an hour of playing.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, tonight we celebrated Adam's birthday by going to Macaroni Grill.  I ended up getting the lasagna - It was one of the cheaper options on the menu (always a big deciding factor in my choice), and it just sounded really good.  Let's just say that I was disappointed when it came out because it was half the size of a lot of other meals, but I had changed my mind by the end of the meal.  It turned out a lot bigger than it looked!  The evening was a lot of fun!  Right after the waiters sang "happy birthday", the guys in the kitchen (it was open to the restaurant) dumped ladle fulls of grease on the stoves.  So these "waves" of flame roared out lighting up the restaurant - maybe not the smartest thing to do, but it was pretty cool!

Alright, well I'm tired, so this post will come to an end.  Before heading to bed I caught the tail end of "The Hobbit - an unexpected journey", said night prayer, played some pool (actually almost winning!), and ate some ice cream with home-made chocolate/peanut-butter topping.  Once again, an awesome day!
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Weekend Recap - 4-21-13

Well, the weekend isn't quite over, but I wanted to write about something, and nothing spectacular is coming to mind.  So, without further adieu, here's what I did this weekend:

 On Friday I had the typical classes (Theology and Asian Philosophies) after which I stayed at Marian and watched a video for Sociology class, and then headed over to participate in STARR.  Most Friday afternoons a group of students at Marian (including 6-8 seminarians) head out to different places around Indianapolis to do community service.  There is a mix of different things available to do (usually), including hanging out with handicapped individuals, running a day care of sorts for a poorer area in Indy, working at a food pantry, cultivating vegitables for food pantries, etc.  Anyway, on Friday about 20 kids from one of the day cares came to Marian, where we gave them a tour, played some sports, and otherwise just had a good time.  Of course there is a twist to the story: STARR was at 4 PM, rather than the usual 3 PM, and that fact (perhaps along with others) meant that I was the only seminarian available and there were only about 5 other students there besides myself.  Usually STARR has 20+ students each week, so this was quite a small group.  Anyway, I helped out with the tour and all that, got a little bit muddy trying to play soccer with all these kids, and overall had a fun time.  I managed to find a ride back to Bruté, and since a lot of guys were gone to a play or a concert (I managed to miss both), I went to bed early (around 9:30 PM).  

 On Saturday morning I woke up from my awesome night's sleep and after Mass helped give a tour to the altar boys from Fr. Hollowell's parish after Mass.  There were a few of us giving the tour, and since I had little experience with giving them (most groups seem to come on school mornings, when I have class), I didn't say a whole lot.  We finished up in the chapel where we gave our vocation stories and took a few questions.  It was cool to be able to hear the other guys' stories because I hadn't heard (or at least remembered) them yet.  Finally, we had Jimmy-John's with them for lunch (a treat around here).  After this point I proceeded to have a lazy afternoon.  I worked on a paper a little bit (about the musical happenings at the Easter Vigil), watched some videos on YouTube (Air Force One is pretty cool), and then wondered around to see what was going on (not much).  I luckily ran into a group of guys cooking up dinner and collaborated with them to make some sloppie joes, mac-n-cheese, and grilled pineapple.  It was pretty terrific!  A few of us said Evening Prayer together (on Saturdays it is on your own), and then about 8-10 guys went down town.  We ended up going to an ice cream place, where I enjoyed a waffle come with two different chocolaty kinds of ice cream (it was phenomenal), and then a soda shop where I got an orange cream soda.  We got back to Bruté around 9:30 PM and I fully intended to go to bed early, but I got sidetracked and ended up watching the movie The Cardinal.  It actually was a terrific movie about a priest living through both world wars and the different struggles he had to contend with (doubts about his vocation, family disasters, the KKK, and WWII).  It was quite well done, and I enjoyed most of it.  After that ended around 12:30, I said night prayer, a rosary, and went to bed - it was a much longer day than I expected...

 This morning (Sunday), I slept in till 8:30, and then did Morning Prayer and Mass at 9:30 AM.  It's good shepherd Sunday and Fr. Bob's homily was quite good about how we have an innate desire for God (Our hearts are restless until they rest in God - St. Augustine), and how Jesus, as the Good Shepherd, will continue to call us back to Himself when we wonder off the path.  This, of course, wraps back in a special way onto priests, who in Persona Christi must act as shepherds to Christ's flock and bring them to Him.  After Mass, the 4 of us Springfield guys who are running the mini-marathon in less than 2 weeks went for a 9 mile run.  It turned out to be a wonderful temperature (between 40 and 50) after the first mile or so.  We ran a pretty hard pace (7:40min/mile) for the nine miles considering for the longer ones we are normally around an 8:00min/mile pace.  Three of us stuck together until almost the end when Willie just floored it and finished probably 10 seconds ahead.  Overall, it was a very good run, and it's good to see that our pace is continuing to get faster.  After the run, we had a thank-you reception for Arch-Bishop Buechlein OSB, who was the arch-bishop of Indianapolis until 2011 and was the man who started the seminary here at Bruté.  It was a beautiful ceremony which included mid-afternoon prayer, speeches by all the expected people (Fr. Bob, a senior here at Bruté, Arch-bishop Tobin, and Arch-bishop Buechlein).  There were a few emotional moments as everyone expressed their thanks.  Have a good afternoon!

 And now...  I think that I will take a nap, maybe get something to eat, head to Adoration, have a meeting with the Frisbee guys, and otherwise just hang out.  Have a wonderful Sunday everyone!

 *sorry no pictures, I'll try to snag some from one of the guys who took some this afternoon...
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Today's Activities

Well, today has been busy, and it doesn't look like it's getting any easier.  We had Adoration at 8:15 and then Mass at 9:00 (rather than the typical Mass at 9:30) because there is a filming crew here to make a video about the seminary.  They were here about a week ago to get some footage of breakfast/getting ready for classes/a football game, but this was their chance to get the prayerful side of things, so we had to get up earlier.  I'm not complaining; this semester they stopped having Adoration on Saturdays because very few guys showed up, so this was a nice addition.  Of course, after Mass we had the usual cleaning session.  Today it was actually a bit longer than usual.  I (along with whoever else was in the vicinity at the time) swept the laundry room and part of the courtyard and then organized the book closet.  Basically, that is the collection of previous text books for many different classes, but it was almost unusable due to the lack of organization.  Anyway, that is now rectified...
 
St. Vincent de Paul
Next, I went over with some of the sophomores to help out at the St. Vincent De Paul society.  We got there around noon and the trucks that we had volunteered to unload weren't there yet, so the invited us to have some lunch.  Well, a bowl of chili, some mac-n-cheese, a pile of chicken nuggets, and a hot dog later I was definitely not hungry (I had just eaten at like 10).  Anyway, the lady that had made the food came around with the last bit of mac-n-cheese, which I got to finish off as well.  (funny how the smallest guy there - by far - got the most food...)  The trucks finally started rolling in around 1 PM, and we started to unload them.  Last time I volunteered here there was like another dozen people helping out, but this time we only had the six of us and the 2 or 3 guys that were in charge that afternoon.  Thankfully, there were only 5 trucks, and while it took maybe 15-20 minutes per truck there were plenty of breaks (when we happily checked out their vast collection of chairs - some of which were quite comfy.  The pile of mattresses was pretty nice too.) 
 
So we just got back from that expedition, and I am now about to leave for the Byzantine Catholic Church here in Indianapolis.  The Theology class required us to check out some other church, so I decided on the Byzantine rite.  Anyway, I am sure that it will be quite interesting, so expect a blog post later today/tomorrow. 
 
Sorry for the lack of posts, I've been busy (if you noticed), I have a lot of home-work coming up (Essay in Shakespeare - yay! and a test in Asian Philosophies - yay!), and there hasn't been anything all that spectacular going on...  I'll have to post later this evening. 

Stay Joyful!
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Coram Christo

Coram Christo is a Latin phrase meaning "in the presence of Christ" [or "before Christ"].  Currently, most of the juniors here at Brute are doing what is called Coram Christo conferences.  Basically, you meet with the formation staff and talk with them about, you know, how your formation is going.  You are supposed to write yourself some notes on places where you are struggling, places where you are growing, and where you want to be when you graduate from Brute, so that you can talk about it.  (this isn't as scary as it sounds). 
Anyway, I was meditating on the phrase Coram Christo at Adoration tonight and it really struck me how important these two words need to be to us.
Coram Christo could be interpreted in the sense that after this life you will be judged.  When you or I die, our lives, and everything we did (or didn't do), will be placed before God and He will judge us.  We will have to give an account of what we did with the life God has given us, and if we didn't do anything for Him, if we just buried our talents in the ground, we are not going to get a good judgement - if you know what I mean.  On the other hand, if we sincerely tried to know, love, and serve God, guess what, He will reward us.  "Well done, good and faithful servant.  You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much.  Enter into the joy of your master." (Matthew 25:21)
I have always liked the dude kneeling at the bottom of the rock...
And that leads me to the other way of interpreting "Coram Christo".  As Christians we are called to become Christ to those around us.  Priests obviously have this call greater than anyone else because they are acting in Persona Christi [in the person of Christ], but everybody, in a certain sense, is called to the love, sacrifice, prayer, etc. that Christ showed us during His life on earth.  Now, what is the quickest and easiest way to learn to become like Christ?  Spend time with Him.  Spend time in the presence of Christ.  Ask Him to fill you with His love - He met plenty of people that weren't all that lovable (The Pharisees plot to kill Him - Matthew 26:3).  Ask Him to give you the grace to resign yourself to the sacrifices in your life - he had to accept them too (Let this cup pass, but thy will be done - Matthew 26:39).  Ask Him to teach you how to pray - He was distracted too (the crowds follow Him around the lake when He's trying to get some peace and quiet - Matthew 14:13-14). 
So often we forget Jesus' admonition to "ask me anything in my name, I will do it."  (John 14:14)  Jesus wants us - begs us - to ask of Him the grace to become more like Him.  He yearns to enter our souls and dwell in us.  Jesus "humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." (Philippians 2:8)  God loves us so much, but He will never take away our freedom.  He wants to live in us and have us live in Him, but He can only beg, not force, us to love Him.  Read this slowly: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish by have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him." - (John 3:16-17)  God begs us to just ask Him for this grace.  He is waiting with an ocean of grace to give us.  He is waiting for us to open ourselves just the tiniest amount, to remove just the smallest bit of our attraction to sin and pleasure, so that He can fill our souls with Himselves.  Ask Him to do this.  Trust Him.  "And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you" - (Luke 11: 9)
Jesus instituted the Eucharist so that we can receive Him and become like Him.  "Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.  For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.  Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him." - (John 6:54-56)  But what does Jesus say right before this?  "For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life". - (John 6:40)  Please don't think that I am saying that receiving the Eucharist is unnecessary; I'm just pointing out the importance of adoring the Blessed Sacrament too.
Folks, the Eucharist is beyond superlatives.  Jesus humbled Himself not only to becoming a man, not only to obeying Pontius Pilot, not only to dying for sins He didn't commit; Jesus humbled Himself to be contained in a piece of bread.  When a man, Jesus always had at least a little bit of control over the situation - He could cry as a baby, work as a man, decide whether or not to respond to Pilot's questions, say "Behold your mother" on the cross, etc.  But transforming a piece of bread into Himself must be the greatest act of humility ever.  In the Eucharist, Jesus has no power.  He can be left in the tabernacle, adored in the Monstrance, dropped on the floor, consumed by irreverent, sinful, people; He surrenders Himself totally to us!  Jesus giving Himself in the Eucharist is, in that sense, a greater gift than Him dying on the cross (obviously they are intrinsically connected - you can't have one without the other, but still). 
Folks, where do you truly get Coram Christo - before Christ? - In front of the Blessed Sacrament.  It's that simple...  Since Lent is all about becoming closer to God, may I recommend spending a bit more time praying in front of Our Lord, and a bit less time in front of the tv, or computer, or whatever.  I'll be working on this too...  (Maybe ask Jesus for the grace to do this; it can't hurt.)
If you're wondering, I looked up those Bible verses on my kindle; I don't have the New Testament memorized... 

Adoration last night at Brute
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