The Rochesterian Seminarian

Installation of Lectors

2010-03-31T06:35:00.008-04:00

A few months ago (I'm still trying to play catch up here) my classmates and I were formally instituted into the Ministry of Lector.

On January 17th, Bishop Paul Loverde of the Diocese of Arlington, VA celebrated our Sunday community Mass, in the context of which us New Men took this "next step" toward priesthood.

Amidst other elements of the Rite, each man kneels before the Bishop who says:

Take this book of Holy Scripture and be faithful in handing on the Word of God so that it may grow strong in the hearts of the people.

To which we respond: Amen.

Pope Paul VI described the duties of the instituted lector in Ministeria Quaedam:

The reader is appointed for a function proper to him, that of reading the word of God in the liturgical assembly. Accordingly, he is to proclaim the readings from sacred Scripture, except for the gospel in the Mass and other sacred celebrations; he is to recite the psalm between the readings when there is no psalmist; he is to present the intentions for the general intercessions in the absence of a deacon or cantor; he is to direct the singing and the participation by the faithful; he is to instruct the faithful for the worthy reception of the sacraments.

If all goes well, I'll receive the ministry of acolyte next year which, in the Ordinary Form, is the last "step" before Sacred Ordination to the deaconate.

Here's my whole first year class immediately following the Mass.

England - "The Dowry of Mary" - Part 4: Oxford

2010-03-29T02:18:00.003-04:00

Toward the end of my Christmas vacation trip to England we visited some of the sights in Oxford. Here are just a few of the highlights:

1. The Anatomy of a Medieval University
In a courtyard-sort-of-area connected to the main library building stands a series of doorways representing what was once the orginal "core" of Oxford University.

Take a look at the names above the doors...

School of Metaphysics
School of Logic
School of Astronomy and Rhetoric
School of Natural Philosophy
School of Grammar and History
School of the Lanuages of Hebrew and Greek and School of Geometry and Arithmetic
School of Moral Philosophy
School of Music
Now that is a University! They certainly don't make them like they used to.

2. The Eagle and Child
We had lunch at the famous pub, The Eagle and Child. During the 1930s and 40s, the "Inklings" - a literary discussion group - met here at lunchtime on Tuesday afternoons. Numbered among the group were several famous literary enthusiasts and scholars associated with Oxford Univesity, including both J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.

There is a note posted on the wall of the room where they regularly dined which is signed by all the members of the group.

3. The Oxford Oratory
The English Oratorians boast three beautiful Oratories throughout the country: The Birmingham Oratory (founded by John Henry Cardinal Newman), The Brompton Oratory (in London, of Fr. Frederick Faber fame) and most recently, the Oxford Oratory.

Here are some images of the Oxford Oratory, founded relatively recently in 1993. The church was originally a parish by the Jesuits.

And with this, I'm finally concluding my series of posts on England. Only 3 months late...

England - "The Dowry of Mary" - Part 3: Two telling signs of a forgotten past...

2010-02-27T06:07:00.007-05:00

While in England I had the opportunity to visit Canterbury on December 29th, the feast of St. Thomas Becket. Our Diocesan 'Becket Hall,' where I lived last year, takes its name from this saint.

This 12th century Archbishop was martyred in his own Cathedral by the agents of King Henry II on account of St. Thomas' valiant defense of the rights of the Church.

For three hundred years his tomb had a central place in the Cathedral behind the main altar and became one of the largest centers of pilgrimmage in medieval Europe. Now all that is left where the tomb once stood is a small candle.

The sign pretty much says it all about the revolution that took place.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A village formerly known as 'Tyburn,' now in the middle of modern day London near the Marble Arch, served for several centuries as major site for public execution of London criminals. In 1571, the 'Tyburn Tree,' a triangular-shaped gallows, was erected at that locale and it was upon this very gallows that over 100 Catholic martyrs (including St. Edmund Campion) gave their lives in defense of the Catholic faith.

In a previous post about the English College in Rome, I mentioned that English students would study there overseas and be ordained priests in order to journey back to their native land offer the sacraments to persecuted Catholics. This is where that journey ended.

All that is left of this infamous site is a hardly noticeable sidewalk marker in the center of a busy traffic junction.

England - "The Dowry of Mary" - Part 2: A Few That We Lost

2010-02-19T09:30:00.007-05:00

Here are some of the sad stories of England:

Canterbury

Rochester

Salisbury

Wells

Westminster Abbey

England - "The Dowry of Mary" - Part I: London

2010-02-19T08:58:00.007-05:00

Our Lady of Dolours (who graciously housed us during our trip)
Westminster Cathedral - The Metropolitan Cathedral of the Most Precious Blood

A few other random shots:

England - "The Dowry of Mary" - Introduction

2010-02-15T08:39:00.007-05:00

This is the first of a series of posts I'm planning about England, "The Dowry of Mary."

Even before my trip there, I had developed something of an interest in the Catholic history of England, particularly during the time of great English martyrs such as St. John Fisher, St. Thomas More, St. Edmund Campion, et al.

Going there and seeing first hand the remnants of a glorious Catholic past was both painful in an almost nostalgic way, and yet instructive.

One of the other seminarians I was traveling with brought along two texts to read during our travels which I think really help to frame the struggles of the Catholic Church in England during the last 500 years or so.

The first is a document known as "Campion's Brag," written by St. Edmund Campion to the Lord's of Her Majesty's Privy Council during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. At the time of its writing, St. Edmund Campion had just snuck back into the country after having spent years in formation within the Jesuit order in various places on Continental Europe. Now as a priest, St. Edmund would begin clandestinely offering the sacraments to the oppressed Catholics of England. Knowing that it would only be a matter of time before he would be caught, St. Edmund Campion composed this document in which he openly declares his true intentions and attempts to avoid being falsely accused as a traitor of the crown. Here's one of my favorite excerpts from the document:

Many innocent hands are lifted up to heaven for you daily by those English students, whose posterity shall never die, which beyond seas, gathering virtue and sufficient knowledge for the purpose, are determined never to give you over, but either to win you heaven, or to die upon your pikes. And touching our Society, be it known to you that we have made a league—all the Jesuits in the world, whose succession and multitude must overreach all the practice of England—cheerfully to carry the cross you shall lay upon us, and never to despair your recovery, while we have a man left to enjoy your Tyburn, or to be racked with your torments, or consumed with your prisons. The expense is reckoned, the enterprise is begun; it is of God; it cannot be withstood. So the faith was planted: So it must be restored.

The other text we had was the transcript of a sermon delivered some three hundred years later by the famous convert and soon-to-beatified John Henry Cardinal Newman. The occasion of its preaching was the 1852 restoration of the Catholic hierarchy in England. After centuries of persecution leading to the almost total destruction of Catholicism in England, consider then the significance of this event in which new Dioceses and Bishops were to be re-established in England. Again, another amazing excerpt:

Arise, Mary, and go forth in thy strength into that north country, which once was thine own, and take possession of a land which knows thee not. Arise, Mother of God, and with thy thrilling voice, speak to those who labour with child, and are in pain, till the babe of grace leaps within them! Shine on us, dear Lady, with thy bright countenance, like the sun in his strength, O stella matutina, O harbinger of peace, till our year is one perpetual May. From thy sweet eyes, from thy pure smile, from thy majestic brow, let ten thousand influences rain down, not to confound or overwhelm, but to persuade, to win over thine enemies. O Mary, my hope, O Mother undefiled, fulfil to us the promise of this Spring. A second temple rises on the ruins of the old. Canterbury has gone its way, and York is gone, and Durham is gone, and Winchester is gone. It was sore to part with them. We clung to the vision of past greatness, and would not believe it could come to nought; but the Church in England has died, and the Church lives again. Westminster and Nottingham, Beverley and Hexham, Northampton and Shrewsbury, if the world lasts, shall be names as musical to the ear, as stirring to the heart, as the glories we have lost; and Saints shall rise out of them, if God so will, and Doctors once again shall give the law to Israel, and Preachers call to penance and to justice, as at the beginning.

One Semester Down!

2010-02-15T07:06:00.001-05:00

Well, after nearly two months of blogging inactivity, I think I'm finally back in a position where I can get some posts out. As of last Thursday, first semester classes and exams are over!

Pardon the delay, but as soon as I got back from Christmas break in England, I had to shift gears into end-the-semester/exam-period mode.

Now that second semester classes have started right up this morning, I hope to throw down a "no-thrills" series of posts about England and quickly get back up to speed.

Expect more soon...

The "Martyrs' Image" and the Venerable English College

2009-12-26T10:45:00.005-05:00

About a 15 or 20 minute walk from the NAC are our classmates from the Venerable English College, England's seminary in Rome. Founded in 1579, the English College has a very rich history. Like all seminaries, its purpose is the formation of seminarians for the priesthood. However in the early years after its founding, you could almost say that its purpose was to form martyrs.

Put it like this: there is a reason that the seminary is called the Venerable English College. That's because numbered among its alumni are: 11 are saints, 26 are blessed, 4 venerables...all martyred in their attempt to restore the Catholic Faith to England.

Commissioned in 1580 and completed in 1583, the famous "Martyrs' Image" is one of the English College's distinctive features. The painting depicts the Crucified Christ being held in the arms of the arms of the Father with the Holy Spirit between them in the form of a dove.

Below this, an angel holds a banner with the College's motto: Ignem Veni Mittere in Terram, quoting Our Lord's words in Luke 12:49, "I am come to cast fire on the earth." This is reflected in the picture itself as the blood from Christ's wounds is spills down onto the earth behind him and bursts into flames.

At the bottom are two English Saint-Martyrs, St. Thomas Becket (Archbishop of Canterbury) and St. Edmund (King of East Anglia), highlighting England's history and pointing out that both the mitre and the crown had suffered death for the sake of Christ.

One other neat piece of trivia is that the gateway painted in between the two saints is actually the arch in the Piazza del Popolo here in Rome (photo below). At that time, the main northern road out of Rome would have went right through that arch. The younger priests from the English College would have left Rome through that very gate in order to sneak back into England to preach and offer the sacraments.

The road back to England through the Piazza del Popolo
Thus the message to the seminarians is clear: You too must return to England and witness to the True Faith!

Not only did the Martyrs' Image serve as an inspiration for the seminarians, but also when news would reach the English College that another alumni had been martyred, the seminarians would gather around the image and sing the "Te Deum," praising God that another soul had been given the grace to persevere to the end, no matter what the cost.

Here are a few more pictures I took at the English College:

St. John Fisher, one of our Diocesan patrons

St. Edmund Campion (Campion the Champion)

P.S. I leave tomorrow for a trip to London!

Not quite the winter scene I'm used to...

2009-12-26T08:48:00.006-05:00

The orange trees in our courtyard:

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T07:16:00.005-05:00

Here are pictures from the Holy Father's Urbi et Orbi, "to the City [Rome] and to the World," Christmas address.

Our Lady of Good Counsel

2009-12-19T01:57:00.012-05:00

The town of Genazzano, located about an hour outside of Rome, is home to the famous and miraculous image of Our Lady of Good Counsel.

This image is a replica I saw on the street. Unfortunately I didn't get picture of the original.

Various Popes and saints have made pilgrimages to Augustian church where the image is kept in order honor Our Lady and seek her counsel. Who better to seek counsel from than Mary who was the Mother and guardian of Him whom the prophet Isaiah called, "Wonderful Counselor" (Isaiah 9:6)? Who better to ask for guidance than she who herself listens to intently to His every word?

Here are some pictures from a short "day-trip" I made made a few weeks ago to Our Lady of Good Counsel in Genazzano.

In 1953, Pope Pius XII composed the following prayer to Our Lady of Good Counsel:

Holy Virgin, moved by the painful uncertainty we experience in seeking and acquiring the true and the good, we cast ourselves at thy feet and invoke thee under the sweet title of Mother of Good Counsel. We beseech thee: come to our aid at this moment in our worldly sojourn when the twin darknesses or error and of evil that plots our ruin by leading minds and hearts astray.

Seat of Wisdom and Star of the Sea, enlighten the victims of doubt and of error so that they may not be seduced by evil masquerading as good; strengthen them against the hostile and corrupting forces of passion and of sin.

Mother of Good Counsel, obtain for us from thy Divine Son the love of virtue and the strength to choose, in doubtful and difficult situations, the course agreeable to our salvation. Supported by thy hand we shall thus journey without harm along the paths taught us by the word and example of Jesus our Savior, following the Sun of Truth and Justice in freedom and safety across the battlefield of life under the guidance of thy maternal Star, until we come at length to the harbor of salvation to enjoy with thee unalloyed and everlasting peace.

Where did November go?

2009-12-05T04:50:00.008-05:00

Once again, I've been away from the blogging for a while and busy with day to day seminary life. It's amazing how much stuff goes on here and how quickly time passes. I can see how the fourth year deacons, who are thinking ahead just a few months to their priestly ordination, are saying to themselves, "Four years goes by so fast!"

At the beginning of the month, one thing I had wanted to post on was All Soul's Day. Actually, not just All Soul's Day, but also All Soul's Month since the Church has designated November as month in which which we ought to pray in a special way the repose of the Holy Souls in Purgatory.

So I'm a little bit late, but its still not a bad time to encourage you all not just to pray for the souls in Purgatory, but also to consider making a visit to our main Diocesan cemetery, Holy Sepulchre.

Holy Sepulchre's All Soul's Chapel

One of my very first posts on this blog had to do with the All Soul's Chapel at Holy Sepulchre. If you visit, you can also check out the Priest's Plot and the Sister's Plots on either side of the chapel and pray for particular priests or religious sisters who may have had a particular impact on your own life.

For this year's All Soul's Day, I was able to attend Mass at the North American College's Mausoleum/chapel which we own in Rome's Campo di Verano cemetery across the city.

Apparently, before air travel became as efficient as it is today, there were cases where an American seminarian would die here in Rome, and his body would be buried here in our Mausoleum.

Included among these men was Frank Parater, a seminarian for the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia who died in 1920 and was later named a Servant of God in 2002. It was pretty cool to be able to visit his tomb as NAC seminarians and ask his intercession for our own vocations.

Loving Father, your servant Frank Parater sought perfection as a student, scout and seminarian. He offered himself to you completely through the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Through his intercession, may young people answer your call to follow Jesus as priests, deacons and religious.

Grant, as well, the favors I seek, so that your Church will recognize his holiness and proclaim him Blessed.

Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

--------------------------------------

Here's a few other blogworthy items from November that I want to briefly mention:

1. A fairly big change for me in recent weeks was that my DB, Greg, has discerned out of the seminary for the time being. I'd encourage you to read his own well-written and prayed-about post here. Back at the NAC our class certainly misses him, but of course we offer him our prayers and support as he continues his discernment, for now, outside of the seminary.

2. Through one of the spiritual directors here at the College, I had the opportunity to attend Mass on Christ the King Sunday at the Basilica of Santa Cecilia, at the Altar of the tomb of St. Cecilia! Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera along, but the crypt below is absolutely stunning, and St. Cecilia herself is such a captivating and well-loved saint.

3. I had some vistors recently!: some of the students from my Alma Mater who were visiting Rome as part of Franciscan University's study abroad program, the Director of Seminarians from Rochester on his annual visit to the seminary, and two of my aunts who were in Rome as part of a larger trip and stopped by the seminary for lunch.

4. Last weekend was my class' last big introduction into the NAC community...New Man Weekend. We had a class dinner, put on the annual "New Man Show" for the rest of the students and faculty, and got beaten in the famous "Spaghetti Bowl," an annual football game which pits the New Men vs. the Old Men (i.e. all the rest of the above classes!).

5. I experienced my first NAC Thanksgiving. The College does a good job of hosting a Mass and big Thanksgiving meal not only for us students, but any Americans in Rome who happened to be away from home and family during the holiday and want to experience a little bit of America in Italy.

I've got some more pictures I want to get up at some point but I'll save those for later posts.

Naples

2009-11-07T09:25:00.007-05:00

I don't have a lot of time to post anything substantial at the moment, but I did want to throw up some pictures from my trip down to Naples last weekend.

A lot of my time in the city itself was, naturally, spent hopping from church to church. I did, however, have a few good opportunities to sample some of Naples' famous pizza, Naples apparently being the birthplace of pizza after all.

The Cathedral of Naples (shown above) was definitely my favorite stop of the trip. We were there on Saturday morning and then again for Sunday Mass. Unfortunately, since I was pretty sure photos weren't allowed inside, I can't show just how beautiful it was!

Two of the side chapels were particularly memorable. One was really medieval in style, looking like it hasn't been redesigned since that time period...probably because in all actuality it hasn't. The other chapel is lined with silver colored "statues" (their heads) of various saints. I'm told that all the statues are actually elaborate reliquaries, containing relics from each of the corresponding saints. Most prominent among them was the statue of St. Januarius, the patron saint of Naples.*+

*Side note #1: Each year on the feast of St. Januarius in the Cathedral of Naples a vile of dried blood from the saint is brought out, which, when brought near the relics of his body, literally liquefies right there in front of those present.

+Side note#2: In our Diocese, the parish church in Naples, NY is named St. Januarius...obviously in reference to the patron of Naples, Italy.

Here are other pictures of some beautiful churches I passed while walking around the city:

It still always amazes how even the less prominent churches in some of these ancient Italy cities are both historically significant and still really beautiful. Here's just some random church in the city that we stumbled upon for a Saturday morning Mass.

A trip to Naples wouldn't be complete without taking the short ride out to Pompeii! We visited both the ancient city, which was pretty abandoned (as you might suspect) and the modern city of Pompei which is home to the gorgeous Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary.

An Out-stretched Hand

2009-10-26T09:18:00.007-04:00

If you're even a casual observer of the Catholic news-o-sphere, then by now you have no doubt seen the reports from a Vatican Press Conference last week which give a general sketch of some new provisions and structures being put in place to facilitate a reunion with Rome among certain members of the Anglican communion currently seeking full-communion with the Catholic Church.

From the Vatican Press Office News Bulletin:
In this Apostolic Constitution the Holy Father has introduced a canonical structure that provides for such corporate reunion by establishing Personal Ordinariates, which will allow former Anglicans to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of the distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony. Under the terms of the Apostolic Constitution, pastoral oversight and guidance will be provided for groups of former Anglicans through a Personal Ordinariate, whose Ordinary will usually be appointed from among former Anglican clergy.

In short, there are some sizeable groups of Anglicans who, in the words of Cardinal Leveda, "have declared that they share the common Catholic faith as it is expressed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and accept the Petrine ministry as something Christ willed for the Church. For them, the time has come to express this implicit unity in the visible form of full communion."

This is really exciting stuff! There's a lot of canonical, liturgical, historical, doctrinal, etc, dimensions to all this, but at the core this is about UNITY and the Holy Father's role as "the Successor Peter to whom in the first place pertains the guardianship of the unity of the Church." (PA, 3)

You can read more about the details of this from people who are a lot more on the "in" than I am.

However, I haven't yet heard or read anyone who has made the connection I'm about to make...

.............................................

About one hundred years ago in the town of Garrison, NY (near West Point) an Episcopalian priest named Paul Wattson and his "Friars of the Atonement" were living out a communal life according to the rule of St. Francis and working within the Episcopalian Church for the reunion of the Church of England with Rome.

After completing an octave of prayer for Christian unity in 1908, and themselves taking the issue to personal prayer, the community realized that they themselves need to enter the Catholic Church. They petitioned the Holy Father, then Pope Pius X, to be received into the Church, not just as a individual converts, but as a collective religious community thereby keeping the name and structure of the "Society of the Atonement" intact.

Through the Holy Father's special permission, the request was granted for this hitherto unprecedented occurrence. The entire community, both individually and collectively, was brought into Communion with Rome and Fr. Paul was ordained a Catholic priest. Furthermore, Pope Pius X decided to continue the Friars' octave of prayer for Unity by establishing in the Roman calender the Chair of Unity Octave. Today, this same concept continues under the title of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

The Friars then continued to work and pray for the reunion of the Anglican Church with Rome as the focus of their original charism.

The really cool thing is that the exact day that the Society of the Atonement was brought into the Church was October 30th, 1909. Exactly 100 years ago this week!

In some sense, it would seem that the vision and work of Fr. Paul Wattson and his Friars is being reechoed exactly one century later as Pope Benedict extends a hand toward those in the Anglican community looking to reunite with Rome at a corporate level.

And on top of all this...

...these Friars happen to staff the Church of Sant'Onofrio here in Rome, which is so close to the seminary the you could practically putt a golf ball down the hill outside the church and have it end up at the front gate of the NAC.

The Church of Sant'Onofrio

Now how's that for web of interesting connections!

I can't think of anything better to post

2009-10-17T08:46:00.006-04:00

Classes started this week (finally) for us students at the Gregorian University.

To get to the University its about a half hour walk through the city. A couple days ago, I decided to take pictures of some of the sights on the trek between the Gregorian and the seminary.

So, I now present you with: My Walk to School

Whoa!

2009-10-17T05:58:00.003-04:00

It's a good thing that our silent retreat was restful and, well...silent because since then its been one activity right after another.

The big event was last week's Diaconate Ordination. Unlike most seminaries where the men are ordained as deacons back in their home dioceses the summer after their third year, most guys at the North American College hold off for that summer and return to the College to be ordained together as a class.

That whole week preceding the ordination was filled with events and preparations leading up to the Mass. For me, this mainly meant 1.) providing hospitality for the hundreds of family members flying in from overseas to support the deacons-to-be and 2.) choir practice.

The Mass itself was beautiful. Being in the choir, I had a pretty decent view of things, and got to watch as 30 of my "older brothers" knelt before Archbishop Robert Carlson of St. Louis and, through the laying of hands and the prayer for the grace of the Holy Spirit, became permanently and ontologically transformed in the Sacrament of Holy Orders.

It's amazing to see those same men now carrying out the duties of the deacon as they assist at our community Mass. It definitely serves as a healthy reminder to us underclassmen that our own ordination, God willing, is not too far in the future.

If you'd like, take a look at the photos from the Mass on the NAC website.

Return

2009-10-03T15:01:00.006-04:00

Just a quick note to let everyone know that I'm back from retreat. Thanks so much to everyone who offered prayers. Our time in silence and prayer was totally amazing.

I don't have a lot of time at the moment, but here's a few random pictures. The retreat was in the town of Greccio, right next to the site of the original Nativity Crèche organized by St. Francis in 1223.

The Scenery

Our Retreat Center: Oasi Gesù Bambino

Franciscan Sanctuary of Greccio (built over the site of that first crèche)

Retreat

2009-09-26T18:03:00.003-04:00

From Sunday (9/26) through Saturday (10/3) I'll be away from the city with my class on our opening of the year silent-retreat. This means I'll have zero contact with any computer or email during these next days. In your kindness, please keep us in your prayers during this important time.

I'll check back in a week!

"A great consolation to Us, and it should be to you..."

2009-09-26T09:01:00.007-04:00

There's large, carved "thing" (for lack of a better word) on the main floor of our building which has incribed on it the text of a letter from Pope Pius XII to the U.S. Bishops in 1948. In it he expresses his approval of their plans to construct a new and larger seminary building for their students in Rome. The building I live in now was the end result.

Anyway, there's one line in his letter which stood out to me when I read it:

Today as we look about the City of Rome, we see on all sides the flower of the youth of the world, even from the most distant nations, drawn here by a common Faith, sustained by common ideals, being trained in the same Doctrine, sharing the same Divine Sacrifice, and all united by the same bonds of attachment to Us. Surely they are giving to the leaders and the peoples of every land a magnificient example of unity and of the ability of mankind to live together in Christian peace and concord, the concurrence of so many thousands of men, later destined to play such an important role in the salvation of souls over the whole face of the earth, is a great consolation to Us, and it should be to you Beloved Sons and Venerable Brethren.

I wrote a couple emails to people back home this week about how seminary and life in Rome are going, and both times, I made mention of the fact that its been very encouraging to be in the midst of such an awesome group of seminarians. There's something like 56 guys in my first year class alone, and somewhere around 220-230 seminarians here altogether. So many in fact, that rooms which had been used as guest rooms in previous years for visitors to the college had to be re-converted back into student rooms. That's a good trend, though obviously not all seminaries are in the same situation and we are certainly in need a lot more men to step up and answer the call.

Fundamentally, it's not just the numbers of seminarians here that is encouraging to me...it's the quality.

A visitor to the college might look around and say, "Hey, these are some really normal guys," and that's true. My classmates tend to be all around good guys: intelligent, funny, friendly, dedicated, etc. On a human level, they would make great natural fathers.

Yet on the other hand, another visitor could also rightly remark, "These guys are not normal at all," and that would be true as well! "Not normal" in the sense of not understandable through the dim lenses of a culture which has in large part become de-Christianized and confused, a culture which often whinces at the very notion of self-sacrifice. These guys are real men, that is, they, like Our Lord, are ready and willing to lay down their lives for Jesus Christ and His Church. Since Jesus the High Priest offered Himself on the Cross as both Priest and Victim, the seminarian's road to the priesthood (a road of being conformed to Jesus Christ, Head and Shepherd) can be no different. The seminarian must learn to be both priest and victim.

Of course, each and every seminarian here is in no small part sustained in their formation by a small army of "prayer warriors" back in the States. So, for me to mention the quality of the seminarians among my classmates here is also a tribute to all those good people who pray so fervently for good and holy vocations. We are the fruit of your prayers! Thank you! Keep praying, the Church needs you!

Catholics Come Home

2009-09-26T06:49:00.002-04:00

This video has been out and around the internet for a while now, and though I've seen it multiples times, its still nearly gives me chills each time I watch it...it's that good.

If you haven't yet come across it, now is your chance.

The group that put it out has a website here: CatholicsComeHome.org

Do you know your Diocesan History?

2009-09-15T04:46:00.005-04:00

I'm not sure anybody will be interested enough to care, but I thought I'd try this.

See if you can identify the following two well-known priests of our Rochester yester-year whose pictures I've stumbled upon in the halls of the North American College.
------------------------------

Priest #1
This is the North American College graduating class of 1902.

Can you identify this Rochesterian among them?

Priest #2
This is a photo of the first Mass said in the new seminary building after the main building moved to its current location on the Janiculum Hill. The Mass itself was apparrently said in the infirmary chapel, I'm guessing because the main chapel had not yet been dedicated and consecrated.

Anyway, do you recognize this priest of our Diocese who is serving the Mass?

**********HINTS**********

Priest #1, a monsignor, was known for his work at St. Bernard's Seminary. A few of the oldest priests of our Diocese would be very familiar with him.

Priest #2, also a monsignor, spent a period of years in Rome where here held two noteworthy positions before returning to Rochester. He died in the late 1980s.

**********ANSWERS**********

Priest #1: Msgr. John F. Goggin, former rector of St. Bernard's Seminary. I can't find the exact dates he held the position, but I know that he was at least there during the early-mid 1940s.

Priest #2: Msgr. Richard K. Burns, former assistant secretary for the Vatican's Congregation for the Oriental Church and former Vice-Rector of the North American College. Later, he was Pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle parish in Irondequoit and oversaw the construction of their current church, completed in 1965.

Big thanks to those who threw in their guesses.

Jumping on the Blog-Wagon

2009-09-15T04:44:00.000-04:00

Introducing Declina Paulisper, the blog of my brother seminarian in the DOR, Peter Mottola, who is currently in his second year of theology at the Theological College in Washington D.C.

Check it out...say hello...pray for him.

All Blogged Down

2009-09-14T00:36:00.001-04:00

After nearly two weeks of absence from the blog-o-sphere, I attempting to reconnect and update.

My New Man class just got off a very busy two weeks of official orientation. I'm not even going to attempt to recap all the we did. Here are some of the highlights though:

1. More Italian classes each morning

2. Formation conferences

3. Mass at St Peter's tomb!

4. The Scavi Tour This is the tour of the excavations under St. Peter's Basilica, begun during the reign of Pope Pius XII in the 20th century, which culminated in the the rediscovery of the bones of St. Peter and confirmed the location of St. Peter's tomb directly beneath the current main altar.

5. Excursion to the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls

6. Weekend trip back to Assisi This time, we visited with my whole class and the faculty. We had Mass at an old Hermitage called the Eremo delle Carceri which was orginally a site own by the Benedictines and then later given to St. Francis, who enjoyed using the location for prayer.

7. Visit to the Casa Santa Maria The Casa as it's called by the students, is the graduate house of the North American College where American priests live who have been sent by their bishop for further graduate work in Rome post ordination...several Rochester priests have lived here in years past.

Ad Multos Annos, Vivas!

2009-08-31T10:17:00.006-04:00

Yesterday after Mass, my New Man class at the North American College piled onto a pair of buses and headed out to Castel Gandolfo to see the Holy Father.

Castel Gandolfo is the summer residence of the Popes where they spend much of July and August away from the Vatican to escape the Roman heat and to take some extra time for retreat, prayer, study, and writing. It's about a 45 minute drive from the city, so the seminary takes the opportunity each year to visit the Holy Father in a smaller-scale setting, as compared to his larger audiences during the rest of year in Saint Peter's Square. Plus, it allows us seminarians the opportunity to draw closer to our local Bishop in Rome...who also happens to be the Vicar of Christ on earth!

Together we marched up the hill to the Pope's residence and spent an hour or so waiting as people filed into the little courtyard outside his window.

The courtyard itself is not very large, so there's really not a bad spot in the whole place. Even still, we were lucky enough to have a space reserved for us right in the front off to the side.

As the noon-time Angelus gets closer and the excitement builds, that's when all the cheers start. Benedetto!!!....clap..clap, clap, clap........Benedetto!!!

Then, right on time he comes out, we all cheer, and afterwards he begins a short catechesis of some sort. If you're looking for something quick and widely accessible to read from the Holy Father, try reading some of his talks from the Sunday Angelus. They're short, but jam-packed with important and penetrating insights.

Once the Pope came out, I really wasn't taking pictures, so this one below is the best I got. You can sort of see him there.

This was now my third time seeing a Pope in person. I saw Pope John Paul II at World Youth Day 2002 and Pope Benedict once before when he visited New York in 2008 during his first Apostolic Visit to the US. This one was pretty special for us seminarians, not just because the setting was significantly smaller, but because after the Angelus during his greeting of English-speaking pilgrims, he specifically mentioned us!!!

From Catholic News Agency:

Pope Benedict concluded his Angelus message by asking the faithful to seek the intercession of St. John Mary Vianney and the Blessed Virgin Mary in this Year for Priests.
Addressing English-speaking pilgrims and visitors after the Angelus, he singled out the first year seminarians from the Pontifical North American College.
“May your time here at Castel Gandolfo and in Rome deepen your integral understanding of our faith and strengthen in you the desire to be consistent in word and deed, following the heart and mind of our Lord. Upon each of you present and your families, I invoke God’s blessing of peace and joy!”

After the audience we left the Papal residence to eat lunch, but then afterwards returned for a private tour of the Papal gardens.

They were absolutely gorgeous. The Prefect of the Papal Household, Archbishop James Harvey, is an American from Milwaukee, so he graciously offered us American seminarians a guided walk through the grounds.

We even got to see the Papal pond, with the, er...Papal fish!

The Archbishop told us some great stories. Right by this little pond is a large statue of Mary where the Popes seem to frequently stop on their afternoon walks. He told us that Pope John Paul II would come to this spot everyday and sing a Polish Marian hymn. Currently, Pope Benedict walks out here and prays his rosary, then spends some time feeding bread crumbs to the fish. As soon as we got to the pond, the Archbishop reached into a small space in the nearby wall and pulled out the platic bag filled with the bread crumbs that the Holy Father uses! It was crazy for us to think that about two hours after we left the pond, Pope Benedict would be right there himself.

New Technology

2009-08-28T14:47:00.006-04:00

My computer arrived today! In fact, I'm typing on it right now.

Everyone say a big thank you to my Mom for organizing things for me overseas and shipping it out to me so quickly. Thanks Mom!

Back in Rome

2009-08-26T08:44:00.003-04:00

Orientation is about to get started and all of us are trying to get things organized right now before the schedule starts getting really hectic again!

For those interested, here's my regular mailbox address at the seminary:

Peter Van Lieshout

Pontifical North American College

00120 Vatican City State

Europe

***UPDATE***

I found out that if packages are sent to the above address, I'll have to pay a chunk of money just to receive them. Regular letters and things are that sort are fine, its just packages that have some sort of fee attached.

Mary at the Heart of Assisi

2009-08-24T06:49:00.009-04:00

What would you do if the pagan civilation that previous inhabited your town had constructed and left a large temple to Minerva right in the central piazza?

Easy. You build a church right on top of it.

Case in point: the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva. What once was the main center of pagan worship, during the days before the Christian Faith had been brought to Assisi, has been conquered and claimed for Christ, through Mary!

Italy is full of examples of this kind of thing, but what I really like about this one is:
1.) The name of the church itself tells the story. Santa Maria SOPRA Minerva – the word “sopra” being Italian for “above, higher than.” Thus in English, we would say, “Saint Mary above Minerva.”
2.) The church is dedicated to Mary.

From St. Louis de Montfort's Treatise on True Devotion:

The humble Mary will always triumph over Satan, the proud one, and so great will be her victory that she will crush his head, the very seat of his pride. She will unmask his serpent's cunning and expose his wicked plots. She will scatter to the winds his devilish plans and to the end of time will keep her faithful servants safe from his cruel claws.

But Mary's power over the evil spirits will especially shine forth in the latter times, when Satan will lie in wait for her heel, that is, for her humble servants and her poor children whom she will rouse to fight against him. In the eyes of the world they will be little and poor and, like the heel, lowly in the eyes of all, down-trodden and crushed as is the heel by the other parts of the body. But in compensation for this they will be rich in God's graces, which will be abundantly bestowed on them by Mary. They will be great and exalted before God in holiness. They will be superior to all creatures by their great zeal and so strongly will they be supported by divine assistance that, in union with Mary, they will crush the head of Satan with their heel, that is, their humility, and bring victory to Jesus Christ. -Chapter 1, section 54

As St. Louis de Monfort explains, Mary stands in stark contrast to Satan and the fallen angels in large part on account of her humility. It was through their pride that the fallen angels rejected God their Creator saying, “Non serviam – I will not serve.” Mary is just the opposite. When God’s plan for her life was reveal to her by the angel Gabriel, she immediately responds in trust, “Fiat! – Let it be done!”

Additionally, consider the fact of Mary’s patient, humble suffering with her Son at the foot of the Cross. “And thy own soul a sword shall pierce” (Lk. 2:35). Since Mary completely shared in Christ’s sufferings during his sorrowful Passion, so too does she share in His Triumph!

Thus how appropriate it is that Mary is the one to crush the head of paganism here in the Piazza del Comune of Assisi.

The church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva is sort of like those statues in which Mary is standing on top of the serpent --- only in “building-form.”

To See What We Could See...

2009-08-19T14:53:00.003-04:00

Earlier this week, a few seminarians and I climbed a mountain.

Well…by climb a mountain, what I mean is that we walked for several hours alongside an upward curving road to the top of Monte Subasio, a large hilltop which overlooks a wide valley between Assisi, Perugia, and other surrounding towns. Not quite as exciting as it would be if we scaled a bare cliff-face up to the summit of some snow-topped geological wonder.

However, the trip was not without its fair share of dangers.

First we had to skirt past the ferocious, man-eating (probably), guard dogs!

Next we had to escape from the herd of fly-infested cows that shot us some pretty disconcerting, blank stares.

Afterwards, we narrowly avoided sliding back into a nearly-bottomless mountainside sinkhole.

Even the road signs seemed to be warning us of the perils we faced.

You know things are getting intense when you start seeing signs marked with nothing else except an exclamation mark.

In all seriousness though, the view we had at the top was pretty incredible.

From here you can get a bird’s eye view of the whole town of Assisi.

Looking back at the above picture of Assisi, I've thought to myself: “I wonder how many tabernacles there are in Assisi.” Considering all the churches, chapels, and houses of men and women religious that are there, the answer is: A LOT! Our Lord is really, substantially present in the Holy Eucharist all over the town! Looking down on Assisi from the mountaintop is like looking down on a small slice of Christendom, a little village-kingdom where Jesus has planted His throne and reigns as King. May the Heart of Jesus, in the Most Blessed Sacrament, be praised, adored and loved, with grateful affection, at every moment, in all the tabernacles of the world, even until the end of time.

I also zoomed in on a picturesque little shot of the “Sanctuary of Rivotorto,” the church build over the site where the Franciscans first gathered during St. Francis’s life. Soon afterwards they moved a few kilometers away to the more famous Porziuncola church (now housed inside the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli), but technically they started out right here at this spot.

Beautiful stuff.

Major Mechanical Meltdown

2009-08-19T08:51:00.000-04:00

I’ll save you the details, but the short story is: my computer is totally broken. Earlier this week things went from bad to worse and now my laptop refuses to even turn on! Ha, oh well! I knew it was on its last leg before I flew over here, but I tried to stretch it out for at least another academic year. Didn’t work.

Unfortunately before things really fell apart, I only backed up a few of my important folders. The rest of my stuff (including virtually all my pictures) went down with the sinking ship. Soooo, at least until I get back to Rome and see if any of my brother seminarians can recover what’s left of my harddrive, I’m going to be a bit short-changed. Any new pictures I post will have to have been taken pretty recently. I’ve got a replacement computer coming soon, so hopefully things will return to normal in a couple weeks. No worries.

Lesson of the Day: Back up your hard-drive regularly!

Buona Festa!

2009-08-11T14:52:00.003-04:00

This morning was amazing. As you may or may not know, today is the feast of St. Clare of Assisi. All over the world in the Latin Rite, the Church today honors this beloved saint, and as you can imagine, it’s a pretty big day here in her hometown.

There are multiple Masses and other liturgical events taking place at the Basilica of Santa Chiara today. I went to the Basilica’s earliest Mass this morning which was celebrated in the crypt of Santa Chiara. So that means I attended a Mass in honor of Saint Clare, in her Basilica, on her feast day, with her body actually present there! Amazing.

In a way, it’s like the opposite of a Requiem Mass. At a funeral you have the body of the deceased present and those attending the Mass are interceding on that person’s behalf, that if the person died in the state of grace but with some temporal punishment remaining, the Lord might accept our prayers for the remission of that punishment, thus speeding their entry into heaven. Today was the other way around. The body of Saint Clare was present, but it was us attending the Mass who were crying out to her for help: “Saint Clare…Pray for us!”

The Mass itself was quite beautiful, though I was pretty near the back of the crypt. Afterwards however, I got to file right past the window which opens up into the room where Saint Clare’s body is kept. What a blessing: all over the world, the Church is honoring this Saint, and somehow I got to be there at the center.

Today’s feast is actually just the first in a string of important feasts in a Assisi. Tomorrow is the feast of St. Rufinus, the patron of the town, whose relics are found under the main altar at the cathedral. Saturday, of course, is the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which the whole Church celebrates as a Solemnity.

August in Assisi

2009-08-10T08:21:00.006-04:00

At this point I’ve been in Assisi for about two weeks. Between prayer, Italian classes, meals, study, errands, etc. each day, my time is pretty limited. Originally I had grand plans for a variety of awesome Assisi posts all about the city and its associated saints who have effectively catapulted this small hill-top town into the hearts of so many of the faithful. Now, I’m less than optimistic that these posts will ever happen. We’ll see.

In any case here’s at least something of an update:

I need to start by acknowledging how blessed I really am. There are plenty of people for whom a trip to Assisi would be a once-in-a-lifetime, dream pilgrimage. For me, I’m not just taking a trip to Assisi---I LIVE in Assisi! For a whole month, I have the privilege of being able to walk the same streets that St. Francis himself walked about 800 years ago.

Initially the most strikingly thing for me was just how quaint and medieval Assisi is. There’s hardly any buildings that haven’t preserved or constructed a 13th century style façade. I’m still blown away.

Walking around Rome, I was amazed at the amalgam of different buildings which span well over 2000 years of architectural history. That’s amazing, don’t get me wrong. There’s just something fantastic about being able to basically “step into” a medieval world and then go for quiet evening walks and drink in the simple beauty of it all.

My housing accommodations are stellar. We all have rooms at a nice little “family-run” hotel near the Piazza Commune, the main piazza of the town. I’m used to the typical large chain style hotel with a long hallway of completely identical rooms. Here, the building plan of the hotel is more maze-like. It’s almost as though the rooms were carved out in such a way that no two would be the same.

My room seems more like it is designed to fit a small family. I’ve got two beds, plenty of room, and a window that looks out on a nice little Italian style patio. The guy on the other side of my wall has a tinier room with one bed and a window that opens up into a hallway. Strange.

Just above my room is a decent size balcony/patio that opens up to a view of the entire valley below! Last Sunday, I sat up there in the morning while praying the psalms from the Divine Office, occasionally glancing up to gaze over the breath-taking Umbrian country side. Wow.

What’s more is that, just a few kilometers in the distance, we can see the soaring dome of the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli. I’ll talk more about this Basilica later.

The hotel also covers all meals for us seminarians who are here in Assisi for the language program. The food situation is a bit different than we would have it in the States:
- a big bowl of pasta to begin every pranzo and cena (lunch and dinner)
- lunch is the biggest meal of the deal
- breakfast is quite light
- veal and chicken are common, beef is rarely served
- coffee = espresso; if you order “un caffe,” what you get is an espresso, and I’m starting to think that even if you order a “caffe americano,” what you actually get is a watered down version of the espresso

From the hotel, the Accademia is just a five minute walk up the some of the smaller side streets. There we have a four hour morning session in classes of about twelve students going through the grammar, and then come back in the afternoon for another two hours in smaller groups of about three where we review the material with a bit more practical application and practice. The teachers themselves try to use Italian almost all the time, so at least I’m hearing the language a lot. That seems to be where we’ve all made the biggest gains so far- listening comprehension. Speaking Italian itself is coming along more slowly. The trick is to actively seek out occasions to test your speaking skills with native speakers. This is where all the class lessons really hit the road. I mean, its one thing to turn to the seminarian next to you and ask him “What is your name?” even though you’ve known his name now for weeks, but its quite another when someone stops to ask you a question on the street and all of sudden you’ve just been bombarded with a barrage of strange verbs and nouns and about the only Italian that comes out of your mouth is the escape response: “I don’t speak Italian very well.”

When we're not in class or at the hotel, we probably out and about exploring the little vias and vicolos, visiting the holy sites, praying in the various churches, and overall just trying to soak in what this little town has to offer. As one seminarian told me in regard to Italy in general, “you can’t see it all...go for depth, not breadth.” This could be said for Assisi itself. I’ve really got to remind myself to be less the tourist, who tries to visit all the sites “just to see them,” and more the pilgrim who visits the various sites as means of plunging more deeply into the great mysteries of the Faith and the glories of Christ and His bride, the Church.

That's it for now. Look for more later. Also, I recently added my email address to the side column of the page, so feel free to email me directly if you'd like.

SVD Seminary, Conesus

2009-07-30T08:26:00.010-04:00

I originally intended to get this out before I ever left for Rome, but things got pretty busy during those last few days and this post kind of fell by the wayside. Still, I thought some of the Rochester readers would find this kind of interesting.

In the town of Conesus, about a 45 minute drive south of Rochester, lie the mostly abandoned buildings of what once was a booming seminary for the Societas Verbi Divini (SVD).

The Divine Word Fathers, as they are called here in the US, were orginally founded in the Netherlands in 1875 as a missionary order. When they arrived in the Rochester Diocese and started their seminary on the slopes of Hemlock Lake, the Conesus area already had some claim to fame among Rochester Catholics. Just down the road was the former “lake cottage” of Bishop McQuaid and the O-Neh-Da winery which he founded to produce valid altar wines for his parishes (the D&C recently ran a story on the history of this winery). By the time the seminary was up and running, Conesus must have been something of a “hidden niche” of Catholicism amidst a Diocese which was itself growing and expanding.

In addition to the pictures I’ve included below, the seminary had ball fields and other grounds across the street, some other type of workshop down the road (I forget exactly what for) and I’m pretty sure even an outdoor, wooded “rosary walk” with large statues depicting each mystery.

Unfortunately the seminary itself closed in 1965, though I think several SVD Fathers continued staffing the building (for retreats, etc) into the 80s. Today, I think some of the rooms might be used for apartments, though as far as I can tell, the buildings seem almost totally empty.

I actually have something of a personal connection to the Societas Verbi Divini. Two of my great-uncles (my grandmother’s brothers) entered the order in the Netherlands, where they grew up, and were ordained priests some time in the 1950s. Today, one serves in Papua, New Guinea, and how’s this for an interesting side-note: I heard that in recent history, he was working in a local seminary teaching young seminarians how to speak Dutch so that they could be sent over to the Netherlands to serve there. Imagine that, a missionary priest who starts his life as a missionary to New Guinea working amongst the natives, and then lives to see the day when his home country has become the “missionary territory” with the original mission territory supplying the vocations! Sad, but true. It’s a reminder that evangelization never stops. Each generation which receives the inestimable gift of the Faith is also entrusted with the obligation to pass it on to the next. (This is an important lesson we learn from the Old Testament. The nation of Israel frequently failed to teach their children about the True God and His mighty deeds. When this happened, things fall apart afterward.)

The other of my great-uncles in the SVDs did his work in Indonesia. He had been quite sick recently, and actually, we received news just a few days before I left home that earlier this month he died. If you are reading this, would you in your kindness say a Hail Mary or an Our Father for the repose of the soul of Fr. Marinus Krol, SVD?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On another note, just a few miles away from the seminary buildings, there’s a pretty neat little hill that I try to drive past from time to time.

If you look really close, I bet you can faintly see a familiar skyline!

Trying to Catch Up

2009-07-27T16:16:00.003-04:00

Yeah, yeah, I haven’t posted in a while. I’ve kind of got a lot on my plate at the moment, trying to learn Italian and all. Mi dispiace.

Here’s the deal. I’m going to try to catch everyone up on my activities as quickly as I can, but realistically, there’s too much going on to say everything I would like. I could write pages on each of the little excursions I’ve taken throughout Rome and the surrounding towns. If I did though, my Italian studies would probably suffer. So…for the next few weeks, expect less frequent posts. I've got weekends free so maybe that’ll help a little. We’ll see.

Tivoli
One day last week we had the choice between an excursion to the beach or an excursion to a village called Tivoli, about an hour outside of Rome. Going to the beach sounded absolutely exhausting. It’s so hot in Rome and there’s very little air conditioning (you have to get used to sweating pretty much all the time). Knowing that the sun would just beat down on me at the beach, I chose the Tivoli trip.

It was a great day. It turns out that I still managed to get a little burned on my face, but you can’t win them all.

We visited two villas in and around the town. The first, Villa d’Este, consisted of gorgeous gardens with magnificent fountains bursting out everywhere. Real nice.

The second villa, called the Villa Adriana, is basically a whole mess of Rome ruins, the remains of the summer villa of the Roman Emperor Hadrian.

In short: Nice day, good company, happy to get out of the city.

San Clemente
The Basilica Church of San Clemente is really a “package deal.” Not only to you get to see an historic and beautiful 12th century church run by Irish Dominicans (and thus with confessions available in English), but for a few Euro, you can venture down below and see the (circa) 4th century church directly beneath, AND the 1st century house church beneath that one. Wow.

Not only that, but underneath the main altar lie the bodies of St. Clement of Rome (fourth Pope) and St. Ignatius of Antioch. Both men are known as Apostolic Fathers. St. Clement wrote a letter to the Corinthians (the very existence of which gives us an important insight into the early Church in itself because you have the bishop of Rome asserting and exercising authority outside of his See) in which he deals with vary problems that arose in the particular church at Corinth. St. Ignatius of Antioch is famous for seven letters to seven different churches which he penned all the while being led away to his martyrdom. These letters are just gushing with important doctrinal points. I originally planned to post some excerpts from the letters of these Fathers. We'll have to save that for a later post.

St. John Lateran
After visiting the church of San Clemente, we made a brief stop at the Lateran Basilica, one of the four Major Basilica’s of the world.

Just to make sure you know: This is the Cathedral of Rome. A lot of people just assume that St. Peter’s is the “Pope’s Cathedral” because of the clear importance of that church and the fact the Pope’s apartment is above St. Peter’s square. However, the Lateran basilica has the real “Cathedra.” (It actually gets even more confusing because the altar straight behind the main altar of St. Peter’s is known as the “Altar of the Chair” and I think claims to hold a chair actually used by St. Peter himself. All this despite the fact that St. John Lateran holds the real Cathedra.

Orvieto
Last Saturday we piled into a bus and drove about an hour and half north of Rome into the town of Orvieto. Orvieto is perched up on a big hill and fortified by big walls that would make this place extremely difficult for any medieval army to siege. You can’t sneak up on this place.

We had Mass in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel of the Cathedral of Orvieto, which houses an very important relic above the altar. In the 13th century in a nearby town, a priest was saying Mass when at the moment of consecration, the Sacred Host began to visibly bleed. Drops of the Precious Blood dripped down onto the corporeal. The priest informed the Bishop of the Eucharstic Miracle that had taken place, and the message was relayed to the Pope, who happened to be in residence in Orvieto at that time. The corporeal was carried in procession from that town up to the Pope waiting in Orvieto in what came to be the first Corpus Christi procession. This very corporeal can be seen today above the altar in that very chapel we had Mass!

Also in residence in Orvieto at this time was the great St. Thomas Aquinas (Orvieto was really the place to be). At the request of the Pope and inspired by the miracle, St. Thomas then penned the famous Eucharistic hymn “Pange Lingua.” Soon afterwards, the feast of Corpus Christi was spread to the whole Church. To this day, a long Corpus Christi procession is held between these two towns every year on the corresponding feast.

That’s all for now. I’m in Assisi for the month, and though I’d love to tell you all how beautiful it is here, we’ll just have to save that for a later post!

San Lorenzo fuori le Mura

2009-07-22T10:03:00.005-04:00

I was thinking about doing an extensive post on our "excursion" yesterday to the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, but seeing that Greg just finished his own post, I'm just going to direct you over to the blog of my "DB" (this is how guys at the NAC refer to their "Diocesan Brothers") so you can read what he has to say. Here's some of my pictures:

In various talks that I've given during the last year and half or so, I've often made reference to St. Lawrence's martyrdom and his famous remark to the executioners who were grilling him alive: "Turn me over, I'm done on this side!" This made it all the more special when I got the chance to pray before his tomb and ask his intercession for perservance in my vocation. What I didn't know before, but learned yesterday, was that the executioner of St. Lawrence was converted on the spot!

Oh, and let's not forget about Blessed Pius IX whose tomb is found at the far end of the Basilica.

Hometown Historian

2009-07-22T05:45:00.003-04:00

Sitting on our desks when we arrived at the NAC was a pile of information packets, maps, forms, prayer cards, etc. One of these pieces is a small booklet entitled "Historical Sketch of Saint Catherine's Villa on the Appian Way."

Take a closer look at who the author is:

I'm Here!!!

2009-07-21T08:44:00.005-04:00

After weeks of preparation, I'm finally here in Rome. I wish I could explain in words how beautiful things are here. Even if I could, I unfortunately don't have the time right now.

Here's the view from my window. Yes, the actual view from my personal window.

This morning during a break I made the short walk down to St. Peter's. I didn't actually go in yet, but I figure I've got plenty of time.

When I find the time, I definitely have plenty of stuff for posts. Hopefully soon.

Theology on Tap

2009-07-14T21:41:00.004-04:00

Greg and I will be talking at the Theology on Tap tomorrow night. Sometime between now and then I've got to figure out what I'm going say.

Johnny's Irish Pub

1382 Culver Road, Rochester

7 pm

Hope to see you there.

Radix Jesse

2009-07-13T11:24:00.011-04:00

From Isaiah 11:

And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root. And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: the spirit of wisdom, and of understanding, the spirit of counsel, and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge, and of godliness. And he shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord.

I mentioned last week that I would do a post about the ceiling of St. Ann's in Hornell, and though I really should be packing up and running errands, I want to get this post out.

The above verse from Isaiah is taken as the theme of the ceiling. We have here a clear prophesy of the coming Messiah, the Christ, who would come from the line of Jesse and be filled with the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

In discussing how the soul of Our Lord possessed, in absolute fullness, these gifts of the Holy Spirit, an eminent Dominican Theologian of the early 20th century puts it this way:

From His substantial and uncreated sanctity our Lord derived created sanctifying race, and this He received in its fullness. And from grace derive the supernatural virtues and the gifts of charity, wisdom, piety, humility, patience, meekness in a proportionate degree, which is far superior to that of the saints and to that which was realized within the soul of Mary.
Was it possible that the soul of the Savior, which was united in the highest degree possible to God, the source of all grace, should not have been full of grace? Was it possible that His soul, which was to make us participants of all the supernatural gifts, should not itself have been adorned with all of them?
-Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. Our Saviour and His Love for Us, chapter XI

Back to the ceiling...Many artists throughout the history of the Church, particularly in Medieval times, have illustrated this prophesy concerning Christ's "springing" from the root of Jesse (radix Jesse) by means of a flowering plant or vine on which various descendents of Jesse are depicted in a sequence culminating in Christ Himself as the flower from this root. This is sometimes refered to as a Jesse Tree. Basically, the ceiling at St. Ann's is a long, narrow depiction of a Jesse Tree.

I think there is a somewhat related advent devotion called a "Jesse Tree" which is used to count down the days until Christmas. This seems like a nice devotion, especially for children who are anxiously waiting for Christmas, but this version of the Jesse Tree is not to be confused with the painting we see on the ceiling of St. Ann's.

Like all good liturgical art, we can learn a lot just by studying the work. It draws us into the mysteries of the Faith and the events of Salvation History and hopefully we walk away with a greater sense of awe over the workings of Divine Providence leading up to Our Lord's glorious and humble Incarnation.

First, directly above the Sanctuary, we have the root himself, JESSE. Jesse was the father of eight sons and apparently an owner of sheep. It was the Lord Himself who instructed the prophet Samuel to go to Bethlehem to anoint a king for Israel from among the sons of Jesse.

Next we have DAVID, the youngest of the sons of Jesse who became the greatest of the ancient kings of Israel. Throughout 1 and 2 Samuel we see many examples of his virtues: patience, justice, fear of the Lord, etc. Of course David is notorious for his act of adultery with Bathsheba and the subsequent actions by which he brought about the death of Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba, upon learning of Bathsheba's pregnancy. However, David's repentance is complete and admirable: "Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy great mercy. And according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my iniquity. Wash me yet more from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my iniquity, and my sin is always before me...Turn away thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create a clean heart in me, O God: and renew a right spirit within my bowels. Cast me not away from thy face; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and strengthen me with a perfect spirit. I will teach the unjust thy ways: and the wicked shall be converted to thee" (Psalm 51[50]). He is known as "a man after God's own heart."

Ascending the throne of his father David was SOLOMON the wise. So great was the wisdom granted him by God that people sought his counsel even from distant lands, a prefigurement of Christ, to Whom wise men from the distant East came to pay homage to the infant King. Solomon also oversaw the construction of the first temple and sought to give a fitting dwelling place for the God of Israel. Unfortunately we later start to see some of the vices of Solomon and their negative effects. In particular, in looking to expand his kingdom and secure peace, Solomon took many, many, many foreign wives, many of whom were not worshippers of the One, True God. Despite Solomon's sins, God did not take the kingdom from Solomon's hands out of respect for his father David.

Now tragedy strikes Israel. The kingdom divides. The line of David continues in Judah in the south with Solomon's son ROBOAM, also known as REHOBOAM, reigning. When Rehoboam imposed a heavy yoke of labor upon his subjects, the people of Israel went into a rebellion that culminated in the separation of the northern tribes into a new kingdom under the rule of Jeroboam, who re-instituted the golden-calf-idolatry of old.

The next king on the ceiling is labeled as ABIAS. I'm pretty sure that this is just a different rendering of the name ABIJAM who was the son of Rehoboam. The Scriptures record that Abijam followed the example of his father and imitated his sins.

Now we skip ahead several centuries to honor SAINT ANN, wife of Joachim and mother of Mary. For various reasons, it's very interesting that St. Ann is included on the tree. My guess is that the author wanted to honor the patroness of the church, but that raises the question: Is St. Ann of the house of David? It is certainly true that St. Ann is not included in either of the geneologies of Christ (Matthew 1; Luke 3), but there's a lot more in there than first meets the eye. I'm not going to get into all the details about the geneologies, but the following Catholic Encyclopedia article on the geneologies gives some articulate and faithul information about their harmony and how Our Lady (and maybe we can assume in a similar way, St. Ann) fits in. Check it out here.

Queen of Heaven, Rejoice, Alleluia! MARY is next, of course. Our life, our sweetness, and our hope..."our tainted nature's solitary boast"...the Immaculate Conception...the Ark of the New Covenant...Vessel of honor...Gate of Heaven...Star of the Sea...Rosa Mystica...full of grace...(and that's just the beginning)!

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us"

The Invisible Hand and the Pope

2009-07-10T21:15:00.006-04:00

This morning I finally finished reading Pope Benedict’s newest encyclical, Caritas in Veritate. By this point pretty much every Catholic blogger on the internet has already posted up a storm about this document. I just want to throw in one thought.

Anyone who has taken an introductory level course in economics knows about Adam Smith, the founder of modern economic thought. One of the ideas that was so innovative in Smith’s famous work, The Wealth of Nations is what has come to be known as the “Invisible Hand Principle.” Here it is in his own words:

Every individual is continually exerting himself to find out the most advantageous employment for whatever capital he can command. It is his own advantage, indeed, and not that of the society which he has in view. But the study of his own advantage naturally, or rather necessarily, leads him to prefer that employment which is most advantageous to society…He intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was not part of his intention. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it.

My introductory economic textbook rephrases this concept in the following way:

Invisible Hand Principle. Market prices coordinate the actions of self-interested individuals and direct them toward activities that promote the general welfare.

Notice the choice of words. “Most advantageous to society” … “general welfare.” There’s no discussion as to what the actual “general welfare” of society might be, only the assertion that self-interested behavior on the part of individuals is able to obtain it. What these authors mean, of course, is that individuals can unknowingly contribute to the overall health of the economy just by focusing on their own personal gain. However, that’s not what they say. At least at face value, they seem to be equating economic prosperity with the overall health of society.

My intent is not really to offer a critique economic theory or to discuss whether or not Adam Smith actually intended to restrict the concept of "societal welfare" to "economic welfare." That is beside the point. The fact of the matter is that this tendency actually does in fact exist in our culture today. Especially during this time of economic crisis, we need to take a good hard look at our society and ensure that we are not measuring our successes and failures strictly by economic standards. To do so is really to stretch economics beyond its sphere of competency because economics is really as the service of persons, not the other way around.

Does promoting the welfare of the economy (taken as an abstract whole) effectively promote the true welfare of the individual persons of that society? The extent to which we fail to differiente between economic prosperity and a more complete notion of "well-being" is the extent to which we have REDUCED man to a mere economic cog-in-a-wheel, the so-called Homo Economicus.

This is the meat of my argument. Reductionist views of man seem to be ever-present in our culture today. Indeed, the dignity of the human person is attacked from so many different angles. It happens in biology to the extent that materialists attempt to explain away the person in mere material terms. It happens in government when laws are enacted which support and promote the destruction of human life by way of abortion, physician-assisted suicide, and the like. And clearly it can happen in economics to the extent that we come to see ourselves as self-interested actors judging our societal well-being on fluctuations in GDP growth!

Here's where Catholic social teaching has so much to say because the Church is always interested in defending the dignity of the person. I was so impressed with how Pope Benedict treats the topic of integral development in his new encyclical because he is so careful to distinguish and highlight the "human heart" of all economic activity. For example, take the following quote:

(32) Economic science tells us that structural insecurity generates anti-productive attitudes wasteful of human resources, inasmuch as workers tend to adapt passively to automatic mechanisms, rather than to release creativity. On this point too, there is a convergence between economic science and moral evaluation. Human costs always include economic costs, and economic dysfunctions always involve human costs.

It should be remembered that the reduction of cultures to the technological dimension, even if it favours short-term profits, in the long term impedes reciprocal enrichment and the dynamics of cooperation. It is important to distinguish between short- and long-term economic or sociological considerations. Lowering the level of protection accorded to the rights of workers, or abandoning mechanisms of wealth redistribution in order to increase the country's international competitiveness, hinder the achievement of lasting development. Moreover, the human consequences of current tendencies towards a short-term economy — sometimes very short-term — need to be carefully evaluated. This requires further and deeper reflection on the meaning of the economy and its goals[84], as well as a profound and far-sighted revision of the current model of development, so as to correct its dysfunctions and deviations.

And elsewhere:

(76) Development must include not just material growth but also spiritual growth, since the human person is a “unity of body and soul”, born of God's creative love and destined for eternal life...A prosperous society, highly developed in material terms but weighing heavily on the soul, is not of itself conducive to authentic development.

What a breath of fresh air to read Pope Benedict!

...and another

2009-07-04T11:03:00.004-04:00

With only 15 days left before departure, the Church visits continue! Here's St. Ann's in Hornell, NY. My guess is that people in the DOR are less familiar with this one. Maybe I'm wrong. Either way, I'm impressed with it.

I'm not sure it comes out in the pictures, but this Church is large.

The High Altar is quite nice. My guess is that it is not the original. Probably an early 1950s design. The marble and wood combination somewhat reminds me of the altar in the old St. Andrew's seminary chapel (now the chapel in the Pastoral Center).

Question. One either side of the Sanctuary, there are these rooms up above that look down toward the altar. I didn't take the time to really check them out, but I did take this picture. Does anyone know what they are? Are they additional choir lofts used for multiple choirs?

Ok...the ceiling of St. Ann's is SO COOL. I think I'm actually going to do a totally separate post just about the ceiling itself. Here's a sneak peak of the goodness.

Btw, there's an Adoration Chapel at this parish too. It's located apart from the Church itself in what I think is the school building. Fantastic.

Happy 4th

2009-07-04T10:44:00.006-04:00

These are some of the few days of the year when the "Fireworks" setting on my digital camera is actually useful.

Another Beautiful Church

2009-07-03T14:02:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I finally got the opportunity to take a look at St. Stephen's Church in Geneva. What a gem! I'm so happy this is in our Diocese. Here's a few pictures.

Front:

Rectory:

Sanctuary:

Choir Loft:

Nave:

If you're ever in Geneva, be sure to take a look. Don't forget to stop in and adore Our Lord in the Adoration Chapel off to the right of the Sanctuary!

I've Been Discovered

2009-07-02T22:41:00.002-04:00

A big thank you to those who've recently come upon my blog and even posted a few comments. I pretty much assumed no one would ever find this thing except for a few friends and family members! I greatly welcome your support and prayers.

There are so many people in the Diocese who have already been very generous in offering their prayers on behalf of us seminarians as we start down the road "ad altare Dei." Hopefully you can enjoy sharing in some of my experiences along the way, especially as I begin my studies in Rome.

If your interested, you should take a look at the North American College's website. They have pretty large photo archive and a nice virtual tour.

Father Robert Barron's "Catholicism Project"

2009-06-30T12:37:00.003-04:00

A few weeks ago a priest friend of mine told me to check out the trailer to a 10-part video series being put out by Father Robert Barron. Fr. Barron is a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago and professor at Mudelein Seminary.

Basically, his goal is to present instruction on some of the basic and fundamental teachings of the Church, but with the aid of some really fantastic video footage... sort of a "video Catechism" approach.

After watching the trailer, I'm really excited about this. Fr. Barron seems to have the dynamic personality needed for the job, and as far as I can tell, he's visiting some really beautiful places. Most importantly, Father Barron is teaching! The goal of the project is CATHECHESIS, something desperately needed among Catholics today.

Beauty, truth, and goodness. That's what you're getting here. Beauty by means of the rich art and architecture he presents from our Catholic tradition, truth by means of the solid doctrine and detailed explanations (to preach truth is really to preach The Truth, Our Lord Jesus Christ), and goodness by means of our encounter with God Himself, the Summum Bonum, our Supreme Good. We're talking about the transcendentals here. Beauty, truth, and goodness are ontologically linked. Where there is real beauty, therein also are truth and goodness. Where there is truth, both beauty and goodness are found. Where goodness, so to are beauty and truth. You get the picture.

A truly Catholic approach to an authetically Catholic project. Gold star!

Have a look for yourself. The trailer, a must-see, is posted on his website: Word on Fire.
http://www.wordonfire.org/The-Catholicism-Project/Trailer.aspx

Plus, you can watch this less formal introductory video.

Candidacy!

2009-06-29T20:54:00.005-04:00

Yesterday, during the 11:15 Mass at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Rochester, Greg and I were admitted into candidacy by Bishop Clark. This is a Rite which seminarians must celebrate prior to ordination and which the North American College (where we'll be heading for seminary) asks to be completed before we arrive in Rome.

Hopefully I'll soon have some pictures of the actual Rite. I do have a couple good ones from immediately after the Mass.

With my siblings:

With my parents and Bishop Clark:

Summer

2009-06-28T17:56:00.015-04:00

My good friend and fellow seminarian Greg Rupik has recently started a blog of his own: Southern Tier Seminarian. I highly encourage you to follow his posts. You can check it out here.

So...not to be outdone, I've decided to give a brief update and renew my resolve to post with some degree of regularity.

Here's some of the things I've been doing:

1. Back Home- I officially finished my time at Becket Hall in mid-May and since then have been living at home and getting stuff ready for the big trip to Italy.

2. Studying Italian- It's hard to study a language unless you're forced to do so in a formal, classroom sort of setting, but I think I am making baby-steps in this area. For those who don't know, all my classes next year at the Gregorian University. This means that I have about 3 months to become somewhat proficient in "la lingua italiana."

3. St. Mary's of the Assumption- Oswego, NY is home to an amazing piece of Gothic architecture. A few weeks ago and had the opportunity to visit St. Mary's Church (Diocese of Syracuse), which is nestled atop this quaint lake-side town.

The picture here doesn't do it justice. The tower of the church is one of the most visible structures in the town. It is built on a hill which, according to one the parishioners, lays claim to being the site of the first Mass every celebrated within the current boundaries of the United States. Of course, St. Augustine, Florida and I think a few other places around make similiar claims, but hey...

Another cool thing about this church is that it is a "sister church" to St. Stephen's, Geneva in my Diocese. If I understand it correctly, they were built by the same architect and share a similar style. At some point before I take off, I'd really like to get over to Geneva and check it out.

Here's some more pictures from my trip:

A side altar dedicated to St. Joseph.

The Sanctuary.
Wow.

4. Getting my Visa- Greg has a good post about our adventure to the Italian Consulate in New York. Read about it there. Let's just say that it is such a relief to now have my visa in hand! I did have a good to wandering around the city for a day and visiting with some friends. Amazingly, that same night I somehow ended up going to an excellent talk by Fr. Benedict Groeschel, CFR at St. Anthony of Padua's Church in West Harrison, NY and even got to serve at Exposition and Benediction! I'm hoping to soon get some pictures from that night.

Now the packing begins. Flight to Rome: July 19th out of Newark, NJ.

Requiem Aeternam Dona Eis, Domine

2009-05-10T20:22:00.014-04:00

Last week Greg and I visited the All Souls' Chapel at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery off of Lake Avenue.

The building is fantastic...English Gothic architecture, stained glass windows from Holland (!), black and white "Requiem" altar, etc.

The windows along the sides and behind the altar depict the Stations of the Cross. Here's an example...the colors are amazing.

I like this window on the back wall of the four Evangelists.

One of the inscriptions along the side wall of the chapel reads:
Libera me Domine de morte aeterna in die tremenda, quando coeli movendi sunt et terra Dum veneris judicare saeculum per ignem. Miseremini mei, miseremini mei, saltem vos amici mei, quia Manus Domini tetigit me.

My rough translation:

Deliver me, O Lord, from eternal death on the fearful day, when heaven and earth will be moved, while you will have come to judge the age through fire. Have pity on me, have pity on me, at least you, my friends, because the hand of the Lord has touched me.

St. Pius V, Ora Pro Nobis!

2009-04-30T19:52:00.013-04:00

Today is the feast day of Pope St. Pius V who published and standardized the Roman Missal of 1570 throughout most of the Latin rite. The prayer from the Breviary today reads: "Father, you chose Saint Pius V as pope of your Church to protect the faith and give you more fitting worship..."

This is a great reminder for us that Holy Mother Church is always concerned with offering God "fitting worship." Since ultimately we can't give God the true worship He deserves, Jesus Christ, as both Priest and Victim, comes down upon the altar at every Mass and re-presents His sacrifice on our behalf.

Now here's a beautiful image of the Mass this saintly Pope loved so much.

by the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter, available from http://fssp.org

Here's my blog

2009-04-30T11:46:00.002-04:00

I decided to start this blog so that family and friends can keep updated with me, especially after I leave for Rome in July. Hopefully I'll be disciplined enough to keep it updated with pictures, thoughts, commentary, etc. Check back soon and see if I've actually posted anything interesting.