Open Wide the Doors for Christ!

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!

Yesterday afternoon and this morning was the annual seminarian get-together for all the guys from the Springfield Diocese.  It was a blast!  I always love hanging out with the other seminarians from Springfield, not only because they are from my diocese (and I want to get to know them) but also, they are just an absolutely fantastic group of guys.

The bishop wryly noted that his diocese probably has the greatest percentage of "Dominic" seminarians. (2)

Bishop Paprocki had Mass for all the seminarians (along with many of their families) yesterday at 4 PM, and afterword everyone got to talk before dinner together.  Mass was beautiful, it was fun to chat with some of the other guys' families, and dinner was tasty (roast beef, corn, salad, mashed potatoes, and cheese cake).  During dinner the Bishop recounted some stories from his attending WYD last week in Brazil with Pope Francis. Everyone had a good laugh when the Bishop mentioned that a young priest at one of the parishes in Rio knew (now deacon) Steve Arisman, one of the Springfield seminarians.  The joke has gone around (before) that if you dropped the name "Steve Arisman" in the middle of a tribe of cannibals in, you know, some remote jungle, the cannibals would know Steve.  I guess the joke wasn't too far from reality...  After dinner we had all of our pictures taken, this year with a professional setup (backdrop, umbrella light thingy, etc.), so hopefully those will turn out.

Gosh, last night was so much fun!  After the pictures were done, everybody settled down to talking and stuff.  One moment my abs were hurting from laughing so much (there are some pretty good stories from back in the day at Mundelein) and the next moment we were talking about some awesome topic of the faith.  Some examples:

In ancient Israel they placed coins over the eyes of a corpse while wrapping it for burial, and so, on the Shroud of Turin one can see the image of ancient coins.  Some say this shroud is a medieval forgery, others say it is the true burial cloth of Jesus.  Get this: the coins visible on the shroud were only produced between about 25 and 35 AD and all (or almost all) of this particular type of coin were subsequently destroyed by the Roman empire because there was an error that had been inscribed onto them. Interesting...

The Hypostatic Union, the really awesome phrase used to describe the mystery of how Jesus is fully God and fully man has some really amazing (and hard to explain/understand) implications on the connection between His human knowledge (and intellect) and His divine one.  I don't recall all the intricacies, and even if I did, I try to avoid heresy, so I will just say that it was really fascinating.  Give me a few years and some Theology and I will have to revisit the topic...  (Topics that were mentioned included the passive/active intellect, infused knowledge, and others).

Of course, we talked about much, much more (I didn't get to bed until after midnight, and others were still up...), I just wanted to give you guys an idea of how amazing these other guys are - tons of fun, and totally rock-solid in their faith at the same time!

This morning we had a Holy Hour from 7:30 to 8:30 AM, then breakfast, and then a talk by Bishop Paprocki.  He talked about how we often think of evangelization as this complicated process but that really, at its heart, it is just growth.  Growth in individuals (learning and growing in their faith) and also in people on a larger scale (coming into the true faith).  By using the word "growth" he wasn't watering down the need and importance of evangelization, but was using new vocabulary to make the concept more accessible.  I can't recall his entire talk (unfortunately), but I will note that he boiled down the way we can go about working towards this macro and micro level growth in faith (in Jesus Christ through His church) into several areas.  The Mass is, of course, first; we need to grow in our own knowledge and love of the Mass, and not hesitate to invite others to come [back] to the Catholic Church and experience the Mass.  We believe it is the closest thing to Heaven on earth - why don't we share it with everybody?  Another point He made was becoming familiar with the Bible.  This is the Word of God, why aren't we reading it, meditating on it, living it?  Of course, he said lots and lots more...  Unfortunately, I have both limited time and limited memory, so I will have to leave you with that.

Anyway, after the Bishop's talk, we had Mass (which I had the privilege of serving) - which, of course, was great.  Then we had lunch (where we, at least the table I was at, got to talk with the Bishop about his marathon running).  After lunch, everybody said good-bys and took off for their respective homes/assignments/seminaries.

All in all, the get-together was fantastic.  Being with those guys is such a great opportunity to have fun and grow in my faith at the same time.  I wish I could spend more time with all of them; it is somewhat infrequent that I get together with the guys from the other seminaries, and, wow, its just a really awesome time.

Do you all like these style of posts?  I don't really know, they are easy and enjoyable to write, but reading about my (sometimes) boring life could get a little old.  Let me know in the comments!  

Well, Tuesday was quite fun (and long).  5 of us guys from Bruté left Indianapolis around 9:15 and drove the 3 hours to the Cathedral.  It was an uneventful drive, during which I slept quite a bit and finished Bishop Paprocki's book.  We got the the Cathedral around 11:30 (gaining an hour with the time change) and met with the other Springfield seminarians from Mudelein, Meinrad, and Sacred Heart seminaries.  We went out to a delicious lunch at Maldaners; I enjoyed the pasta bolognese (at another seminarian's recommendation).  5 stars! 


Then we walked back to the cathedral and began to setup and practice for the Chrism Mass.  Fr. Daren Zehnle, who, besides other duties, is the episcopal master of ceremonies, was in charge of trying to give us all roles, teach us what to do, and make sure everything went smoothly.  Needless to say, he had quite the task on his hands.  Anyway, I was assigned the role of holding the Roman Missal for the bishop.  Thankfully, this job, while hard on the arms, is rather simple to actually do, and so, I didn't have to learn a ton during the practice.
 

After practice was over, I had the opportunity to serve for the bishop during the Holy Hour.    This wasn't any different than any other Exposition, though there was the inclusion of a deacon, MC, and the cope and miter bearers.  I was in charge of holding the cope (at Exposition) and the book (at Benediction).  The exceptional thing about this Exposition was that it was the first time I wore the roman collar.  While vesting up before hand, Steve, who will be ordained a deacon in 10 days, noted that I didn't have a collar and promptly outfitted me with one.  I had never worn one, so for all I know it could have been totally askew  but it was a very cool experience nonetheless.  Something about that little white square (and the added pressure around your neck) just ups the ante a little.  Quite the awesome experience!  

 

During the Holy Hour we chanted vespers (evening prayer).  It turned out beautifully; the organ throbbing in the background was spectacular, and the cathedral echoed from all the voices chanting in unison (Bruté just doesn't have that kind of acoustics).  Anyway, Benediction went fine, and my arms weren't wobbling too terribly while holding the book up in front of the Bishop. After the Holy Hour, we had a quick dinner (lasagna, salad, steamed vegetables), and then got all vested up for the Mass.  Again, one of the other guys outfitted me with the collar; really cool!

OK, onto the big event:  Mass started at 6:30, with the procession of all the seminarians, then deacons, then priests.  I was actually in the very back - behind the two vimps (guys who hold the miter and crosier), who processed in after the Bishop.  This meant that I had a great view of the entire procession and could watch the entire operation   After processing up into the Sanctuary (with the organ and choir singing beautifully), I went to my position behind the Bishop's cathedra.  Thankfully, all I had to do was wait to receive the book from one of the deacons and then walk out and held it for the bishop.  Fr. Zehnle had written all the different parts into the worship aid, a project that must have been incredibly time consuming, but, for me at least, was very, very, helpful.  I always knew where we were at in the ceremony and what I had to do next.  

The only tough thing about holding the book is the physical stamina it requires.  I'm not exactly Mr. Incredible, so after a few minutes of holding that missal, especially when you have to extend your arms to get it near the bishop, your arms start to protest.  Actually, the biggest problem that I had was that my hands were sweaty, so my thumbs, which I propped the missal up with, would start to ever-so-slowly slip sideways.  Of course, this meant more pressure had to be applied, and my thumbs slipped a bit more...  Either way, none of the times I had to hold it (Introit through Gloria, Renewal of priestly promises, blessing of holy oils, and final prayer) were longer than a few minutes and all went pretty well (I didn't drop the book or hold it upside down).

Mass was just incredible!  Being up there with all the other seminarians, deacons, and priests (besides the bishop) was inspiring, and everything really went smoothly.  Really great experience!  I saw the family briefly afterwords; they had driven over from Quincy, so that was cool.  We (the Bruté guys) left around 9:30 and got back to Bruté  around 1:30 AM.  The drive back was alright - my legs aren't too long so I fit in back seats better than most - but the drive was long and late.  (On the bright side it allowed me to schedule classes less than 2 hours after they opened at midnight! - always a silver lining!)

Have a blessed Holy Thursday folks!