St. Jude, patron of hopeless cases...

Just a real quick reflection before heading off to bed.

Today at lectures a brief reflection from Fr. Bruce, O.P.: I am not sure why St. Jude has become the patron of hopeless cases. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that he shares a name with the Traitor (in most languages Jude and Judas is the same name). While the Iscariot was hopeless unto death, the one who shares the name of the Traitor will be the "anti-type," and thus even in the most hopeless situations will turn toward the Lord -- and we shall not forget, "for God nothing is impossible."


Saints Simon and Jude are buried under the Saint Joseph altar at Saint Peter in the Vatican. I did not have the opportunity to visit their relics today, but perhaps on their octave day I will make it.

We of course do not know which date they died on, but this day is commemorated as their feast since it is the anniversary of the transfer of their relics to Saint Peter in the Vatican.

Saint Simon...

...pray for us.

Saint Jude...

...pray for us.

All God's Holy Men and Women...

...pray for us!

Got an email today...

I received an email today from Msgr. Rector. It seems like the ordination date for my diaconate ordiantion will be the Feast of the Most Holy Rosary (also know as the Feast of Our Lady of Lepento) on October 7, 2010 at Saint Peter's basilica. Please keep me in prayer. Here is a picture of this year's ordination.

Canonization: Five new saints for the Church.

I recently had the opportunity to attend the canonization of five new saints. Even though I have been in Rome for over two years, and been to a number of Papal Liturgies, this is the first time that I have been a canonization. In short it was beautiful. For the first time I heard the voice of Benedict XVI invoke five as saints of the Church.

I did not know who most the "new Saints" were, except for Damien of Molokia. He was also known as Damien of the Lepers. As a young priest he was sent to the "living hell" of Molokai to minister to the men, women and children dying of Hansen's disease (Leprosy). It was a living hell, since for years these people were allowed to descend into beastly state (think of Hobbes description of life before the state).

He modeled his life on the life of the "One Who Loves Him," Christ, and with no fear "descended" to them -- not because he too wanted to live a beastly state, but rather to life them up to their full dignity as human being. The world literally threw these people away, and he picked them up and took them to the home of his heart as the treasures that they truly are. He opened for them schools and churchs, and a free clinic. He taught them skills, and hobbies. All of this was fueled by the Gospel. A true evangelical zeal. It was a great co-operation with the Holy Spirit; and since it was started by the Holy Spirit -- it succeeded. The "Living Hell of Molokai" became an almost ideal Christian society.

Damien himself so completely gave himself in sacrifice to these people that he eventually contracted Leprosy himself, and died. A true "white martyrdom."

His life was rich in Christ, so rich that we continue to benefit from it. He was prophetic in realization that the greatest resource to the development of the people entrusted to his care, was the people themselves. The men, women, and children, although they were poor, did not depend on handouts, but rather found in the richness of their own souls the spiritual resource to be lifted by Christ out of the misery of the pit.

The funeral catafalgue of Fr. Damien of Molokai

Before school began...

So I arrived in Rome on September 17, and classes did not begin until October 12. So what have I been doing in the mean time? Vacation. Not really, or not like any other vacation like I have had before.

The three weeks in between arrival and the beginning of classes have really been quite busy. Much busier than it normally is, so much so that know that classes have begun, it feels like this is a bit of a break!

Can you find me? (I will give you a clue I am wearing white on top of black).
NAC ordination prayer vigil the night before diaconate ordination

There were three main occupation during the three weeks before school:

(1) Pastoral work-shops: practical courses at the college on pastoral counseling, preaching, and Hispanic ministry

(2) A week long silent retreat (perhaps more on this at a later date)

(3) and the nacho grande of it all: the Ordination to the Order of the Deacon of thirty men from the North American College.

This last may not seem that significant, after all I was not the one getting ordained -- but I was the head master of ceremonies for it. That is quite a bit of work. It was good though. Each day started early: prayer and Mass, than hours of pastoral work-shops (of course broken up by coffee breaks), and than a few hours each day of prep-work for the ordination. Each day I felt like I was on my game. While I was busy, and while I was working hard, it was a very good experience.

I like being all that busy -- each day at Mass as the altar is being prepared -- the linen (the shroud) being unfolded and on it are placed the bread and the wine. To this wine a drop of water, and there is when I join my offering to the sacrifice of the Mass -- I offer you Lord this day... with all its works, prayers, joys and sufferings. Each day, while I was working hard and going to bed so tired, each day I felt that I had something to add to that sacrifice.

I remember it vaguely... (biking in Rome)

I remember it vaguely... Fr. Ben Sember was leaving to return to the States permentently, and I think he gave me a bike, but that was almost two years ago. Well it turned out he did give me a bike, and it laid un-used for most of last year. Mark Payton, a class mate, brought it back to my attention. Wow -- I have a bike! Honestly, I never really forgot this, but was some what scared to take the bike out into Roman traffic (anyone who has experienced Roman traffic will completely understand this). Well...

Not me, biking in Rome

Well... it was time to bite the bullet. It was really busy the week before classes were beginning and I had to go to the Angelicum to actually registrar for classes. Usually this is a forty minute walk one way trip. This is also an experience of Italian bureaucracy (read: at a minimum one hour of waiting in line, just to find out where to wait in line again... well you get the idea). So I was looking at a minimum of a two hour and twenty minutes. We are all busy. I am a busy seminarian. I just don't have time for that. So time to hop onto the bike.

It was great. Not only did I make it there and back, and some how managed to registar all in under an hour, but the experience of riding in Rome is great. I have made it a point to mostly bike to classes now. Forty minute one way walk? - not any more. Now a quick and simple nine minute commute. So next time you end up in Rome, see Saint Peters and hope onto one of the rentalable red bikes.

Back to school, back to school...

The main courtyard at the Angelicum University

A week ago today it started: lectures at the Angelicum University. This is actually one of the most enjoyable parts of being a seminarian. After all when will I have the leisure to study these central mysteries of the faith that I love so much? It is my third year of theology, but my second year at the Angelicum.

The Angelicum -- what I describe as a "happy place." This will most likely be my last year here, since I finish my degree this year, and most likely will be working on my second degree at a different university. That is the usual arrangement for studying in Rome. Most students, seminarians and lay students, earn two degrees. The first is the Sacred Theology Baccalaureate, and is roughly equivalent to a Master of Arts in Theology in the United States. It takes three years to complete.

The student will than pursue a second degree to specialize. There is diversity in this area. Some will complete a proper Masters, which usually takes one additional year. Most will work on a License -- this is usually a two year degree, and sometimes three years depending upon the speciality. Other degrees, like Canon Law are their own breed.

So I will be looking ahead to a specialization next year. The question is: What will it be? Rest assured this has been discussed with the bishop, but nothing is set in stone, and I am not sure how much I am free to discuss. Anyways. I do have my own interests.

The astute reader will notice that I started lectures on Tuesday, but school began last Monday. What's going on? Did I skip the first day? Well - yes, but not exactly. I live in Italy, and I am an American. This logically means that I am an immigrant. This means that I participate in the annual routine of filing papers, visiting the offices of the Italian questera, and than praying that my papers do not get lost (I am not actually joking with that last one). Monday was spent at the immigration office. I have much sympathy for those men and women in our own land, who have to go through the same routine.

Has it settled down yet?

This is a picture of Dcn. Michael Bruno. He lives down the corridor from me. You may be asking: Why do you have a picture of Dcn. Michael Bruno on your blog post? Good question. He preached this morning. He preached very well actually. I thought I should high-light that.

It has been very busy since landing on September 17 (was it really only a month ago?!). So working back wards I hope to catch you all up.

Overall I am very happy to be back. Catching up and re-connecting.

Later.

ROME REPORTS Video News - The home of the Heralds of the Gospel in Rome

I haven't visited this church yet, but it looks like someplace I hope to drop by soon! After all I do have a strong devotion to Saint Benedict (alas -- I am not called to be a Benedictine monk!) and I also study with the Heralds of the Gospels at the Angelicum.

ROME REPORTS Video News - The home of the Heralds of the Gospel in Rome

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Rome: how sweet thou art!

I was going to title this entry: "So after sleeping with 400 people I did not know....,"* but decided against it since such a name may cause scandal. Anyways, after almost 15 hours of travel I have safely returned to Rome for my third year of theology studies. It is actually quite a significant year, since I will be completing my first degree in theology and above all since it is just over a year (one year and 25 days to be exact) until I am ordained a deacon in Rome.

Interior of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, my favorite church for prayer in Rome.

Arriving on Thursday I did not pack right away, but had my priorities in order and paid my first visit to Saint Peter's to pray at the tomb of John Paul II and to attend Mass. Crossing seven time zones in 15 hours leads to a bit of jet lag, and sad to say my "active and attentive participation" at Mass conisisted at attempting to remain awake as best I could. The evening was spent out at a local trattoria, to enjoy the long missed pizza. There is nothing quite like pizza in Rome.

This morning (Saturday) I took a walk to re-aquaint myself with the old friend that the city of Rome has become. It is the eternal city, and I can say that not much has changed. I enjoyed the same cream taste of a cafe macchiato at one of my favorite coffee bars, and spent a significant time in prayer at my favorite church in the city: Santa Maria Sopra Minerva.

An old view of the interior of the Pantheon

On the walk back I also stopped at one of the most popular sites in the city, the Pantheon. It is almost 2,000 years old and it is quite amazing that it has survived for so long -- part of that survival has been that it was consecrated as a church to Saint Mary and all the Martyrs 1400 years ago. Some revisionists would say that the Christians "stole" the pantheon, but in reality, it was saved and glorified by its conversion into a church.

*In reference to sleeping on the plane of course! What else would you be thinking?

Triduum for Mother Teresa of Calcutta (Part III)

Some nationals of India attending the beatification of Mother Teresa

Last of the triduum of reflections for Mother Teresa

On this day twelve years ago Mother Teresa enter her Master's Joy when she died and was accepted into the loving hands of God in heaven. In more crude terms she expired.

In the first reflection we looked at the word inspire, meaning breathing in - in specifically breathing in the Holy Spirit. Expire than means breathing out - in specific breathing out the the Spirit we have received. Mother spent her whole life breathing out the Spirit that she received - she literally spent her whole life ex-(s)piring. She remembered the words of the Gospel:

To those who have, more will be given; and to those who have not, even what they
have will be taken away from us.

She received the Spirit of God, and she breathed it out back into the world, so she was given it all the more. If she had not breathed it out into the world, it would have been taken from her. But God saw that He made "a good investment" in Mother, and continued to invest His Spirit - continued to breath His Spirit into her heart.

We too receive this Spirit, not for our own sake, but so that we can be the eyes, hands, feet and HEART of Jesus in the world. So let us spend our life expiring for:

Only when a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies does it bring forth new life.

Let us pray:

Mary, Mother of Jesus,
Give me your most beautiful heart,
As pure, as immaculate,
As full of love and of humility,
So that I can receive Jesus in the Bread of Life,
So that I can love Him as you have loved Him,
And so that I can serve Him as you have served Him
Under the figure of the poorest of the poor.
Amen.

Prayer composed by Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Triduum for Mother Teresa of Calcutta (Part II)

Two saints: Blessed Mother of Teresa meeting Venerable Servant of God John Paul II

Continuing the Triduum of reflections on Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Soon after God called Mother Teresa to the “new path” of serving Him in the poorest of the poor, Mother made a vow: Never to deny God anything.

Let us reflect just for a second how amazing this is: It is total gift. It is totally a gift of love to Him who first loved us. It is also total Freedom. This may sound odd, after all by never denying God anything, do we not give up our Freedom? This is the amazing part. God is all powerful, He has the might to force and coerce us into doing His will. He does not though. He loves us too much to do that. He allows us to share in His Freedom. So when we give ourselves totally to Him, we share totally in His Freedom.

Mother Teresa found this to be true in her own life. She was now free for God, free to serve Him in a radical way that she could not before. We are called to this same Freedom – I am not saying we are called to do the same things that Mother did, but we are called never to deny God anything. We recall the words of Saint Francis de Sales, “God asks only one thing of us, and that is to be ourselves perfectly.” So when God ask something of us, He is asking us to be more who we are. This could be to be more of a husband or wife, more of a father or mother, more of a son or daughter. This is how we are called to follow the path that Mother took, but in the way that God calls us. This is the basis of what the Church calls the Universal Call to Holiness. We are all called to be saints.

Let us pray:

Mary, Mother of Jesus,
Give me your most beautiful heart,
As pure, as immaculate,
As full of love and of humility,
So that I can receive Jesus in the Bread of Life,
So that I can love Him as you have loved Him,
And so that I can serve Him as you have served Him
Under the figure of the poorest of the poor.
Amen.

Prayer composed by Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Triduum for Mother Teresa of Calcutta (Part I)

Young Mother Teresa of Calcutta

In preparation for remembering Mother Teresa on her feast day I have prepared a short series of reflections on her life.

Before she founded the Missionaries of Charity, Teresa was a Sister of Loretto. She taught young Indian girls, and was quite content doing this. She was not looking to start a new religious order. She was not looking to be sent out on mission. This all changed when she was travelling to her annual retreat. On the way there she was inspired to care for God in His poorest of the poor.

We too are on a journey like Mother was. We too are quite content the way things are. Are we prepared to be lead by God into the direction that He wants to take us? This can be scary, since this direction very often be different than where we would like to go. Mother Teresa also experienced this same fear, but she was inspired. God also wants to inspire us. He loves us and wants to direct us to the deep happiness that we can only find in His heart.

When we look at the word inspire, we can see it literally means to breath into. When God inspired Mother Teresa, He literally breathed His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, into her heart. This is what gave Mother the strength to follow where God was leading her. God also breathes the Holy Spirit into our hearts.

Let us pray:

Mary, Mother of Jesus,
Give me your most beautiful heart,
As pure, as immaculate,
As full of love and of humility,
So that I can receive Jesus in the Bread of Life,
So that I can love Him as you have loved Him,
And so that I can serve Him as you have served Him
Under the figure of the poorest of the poor.
Amen.

Prayer composed by Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

One thing I forgot to mention in my St. Augustine entry

Solemn (?) profession of a canon at the Norbertine Abbey of Sant'Antimo in Tuscany in Italy, which is one of the few Norberite houses active in Italy (perhaps the only one besides the Abbot General's)

Saint Augustine also left us the Rule of Saint Augustine, which is older than the rule of Saint Benedict (it almost hurts me to type that), and is used by a large number of religious communities - Augustian Friars, Augustian Canons (where I stayed during my Christmas trip to Vienna this past year), Dominicans (the fathers of my beloved university - the Angelicum), and also the Norbertines.

Since the Norbertines profess to follow the rule of St. Augustine, by custom they make there professions on the feast of St. Augustine. The local De Pere Norbertines will be professing one Canon this morning at Mass. Congratulations and prayers to them.

Ever ancient; ever new: Saint Augustine

The arrival of Saint Augustine to Milan

What can be said about today's saint? He is a man that seems truly larger than life. His importance cannot be under-estimated. It was to his tomb that Benedict XVI made one of his first pilgrimages after ascending to the throne of Peter. It was five general audiences that the same Pope catechized about St. Augustine(1, 2, 3, 4, and 5). John Paul II devoted a whole Apostolic letter to him: AUGUSTINUM HIPPONSENSEM.

His influence on theology cannot be underestimated -- I know this especially now, as there is hardly a course that I attend that does not go back to Saint Augustine at some point.

He not only left us with theology, but his very own reflections on his spiritual journey in the Confessions. Here his theology meets his personal experience.

In his Confessions, we can see that St. Augustine in his time (the decline of the Roman empire) and his place (northern Africa) faced many challenges that are analogous to what we as Christian of the third millenium face. As a culture we look make many of the conversions that he made on his journey to Christ.

It would me impossible to summarize even a list of the themes that are covered in this great doctor's works, so the following thoughts are necessarily incomplete:

1. The Saint took the words of Christ seriously - I am the way, the truth and the light - for this reason for the saint there could be no disagreement between what he knew from revelation (scripture and tradition) and what he knew from reason (Greek philosophy). For us today this means that there can be no conflict between what is taught in matters of faith and morals and what we learn from science. At a specific level - the fact that science does not consult with moral philosophers, means that science is in moral error. An example: If you find any biology or an anatomy book from before 1973 (the year of Roe vs. Wade) it will clearly teach that human life begins at conception, it is only after the moral error of Roe vs. Wade that the truth about human life becomes confused among the scientist.
2. There is beauty in being a Christian. So often beauty and truth come together. A reflection from G.K. Chesterton: After I had told others that I was becoming Christian they would say, "you poor thing, having to stoop low to enter those old ugly churches," but never did I ever enter something so beautiful as a Catholic church. The beauty of Catholicism is so often lost today, but interiorly it is still there. There is a beauty in Catholicism, because there is nothing more beautiful than love, and Catholics more than anyone believe in the greatest love that there is - the love of the Father, the Lover; for the Son, the Beloved; and this Love itself is the Holy Spirit. As Catholics we trust, without fail, that salvation means being incorportated into this eternal exchange of divine love. What could be more beautiful than that?
3. Lastly would be Augustines view on history, which to be honest I am not well versed on, but it has important political repercussions for today: History begins and ends with God. It flows from God, and will return to him. Even political system that claims to end the drama of history, will always fall short. Many will promise you everything, but only the One, that is God, can fulfill that promise, as Christ says: Come to me all you who are thirsty, and never be thirsty again.
   

We get ten, they get three -- good company all around

For the last two weeks I have been visiting different parish to promote the collection for the seminarians of the diocese of Green Bay (Hope for the Future, Help them today). It is always great to see the different parishes in the diocese, and often think, "One day, this could be my parish." With each visit, I love the diocese and the people of the diocese more and more.

I good part of the talk centers on celebrating a simple and pronounced fact: God is answering our prayers for more priests, in fact he has called ten men to enter seminary for our diocese this fall. Adding to the twelve we already have, this means we have twenty-two seminarians. This is great news!

Today we look at another group of priest that serve in the diocese of Green Bay: the Canons Regular of Premontre, a.k.a. the Norbertines. They arrived in the diocese in 1893, with only three Canons, and they have since they built two abbeys, established a national shrine to Saint Joseph, founded my alma mater Saint Norbert College, a number of high schools, and help the diocesan clergy in parish ministry. It is great to have them as co-workers.

God is also answering their prayers for more vocations: this evening three young men will be receiving the habit of Saint Norbert, and will start formation to be Norbertines. We wish the Norbertines many congratulations, and they are assured of many prayers.