Praedica Verbum

Lux Arumque and my thoughts on Sacred Music

2011-05-27T17:15:00.005+02:00

I recently was forwarded a youtube post about Eric Whitacre and his "Virtual Choir":

Here is the full version released:

Watching this got me to thinking about Sacred Music. The text of the piece above is a reflection on the nativity of the Christ child.

Lux Aurumque:

Light, warm and heavy as pure gold and the angels sing softly  to the newborn baby.

Lux, Lux
Lux, Lux
Lux Lux
Calida
Calida
Gravis que
Gravis que
Gravis que
Pura
Pura velut aurum
canunt et canunt et canunt

My thoughts came around to the melding of the sound and the meaning and there was something deep present!

Here is then the product of that thought:

In Sacred Music we often settle for “Festal” joy, which tends to amuse the intellect. Rather, Sacred Music should aim at “Sublime” joy, which humbles the intellect through wonder and awe at a mystery beyond itself.

Too often our Church Music is the saccharine expression of popularism that wants to amuse and, dare we say it, entertain. Sacred Music should express itself to a deeper part of the human heart than the appetites. It should penetrate to the core whence love springs from the melding of intellect and will touched by mystery.

(Blessed) John Paul II

2011-02-23T03:00:00.001+01:00

Vatican announces Pope John Paul II beatification events

By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS)—The Vatican released a three-day schedule of events for the beatification of Pope John Paul II and warned against people selling counterfeit tickets to the beatification liturgy, which is free and open to all.

Pope Benedict XVI will preside over the beatification Mass at 10 a.m. May 1 in St. Peter’s Square, the Vatican said. Immediately after Mass the faithful can pray before Pope John Paul’s mortal remains, which will be set in front of the main altar in St. Peter’s Basilica.

The veneration “will continue until the flow of faithful ends,” it said.

Distributing the program Feb. 18, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said the deceased pope’s remains will be in the casket in which he originally was buried in 2005 and will not be visible.

The casket will be reinterred in the Chapel of St. Sebastian on the main level of St. Peter’s Basilica in a “private” ceremony, which will occur only after the large crowds have stopped coming to pay their respects, Father Lombardi said.

The night before the beatification, a prayer vigil will be held in the grassy open space that was the ancient Circus Maximus in Rome, the Vatican said.

“It will be organized by the Diocese of Rome, which had the venerable servant of God as its bishop,” the note said. Cardinal Agostino Vallini, papal vicar for Rome, will lead the celebration and Pope Benedict is expected to watch through a video hookup.

The morning after the beatification, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, will celebrate a Mass of thanksgiving in St. Peter’s Square, the Vatican said.

U.S. Archbishop James M. Harvey, prefect of the papal household, which organizes the non-liturgical side of papal events, also issued a statement Feb. 18 emphasizing the fact that tickets will not be required to attend the beatification.

The archbishop’s statement, distributed in six languages, said he had been “informed of the existence of unauthorized offers by some tour operators, especially on the Internet,” claiming that for a fee they could help people get tickets to papal events, particularly the beatification Mass.

“For the beatification Mass of Pope John Paul II, as made clear from the outset, no tickets are required,” the statement said.

And for events that require tickets, such as the pope’s weekly general audience, the tickets “are always issued free of charge and no person or organization can request any kind of payment,” it said.

Copyright 2011 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Dominican Sisters in Oak Ridge

2011-02-16T18:23:00.002+01:00

A great local news story about our Nashville Dominicans that live here in town.

The Catholicism Project

2011-01-20T14:43:00.004+01:00

Fr. Barron's Catholicism Project looks awesome!
I can't wait for it to come out (Fall of 2011)

But don't take my word for it - watch the Trailer:

For more info go to his website: http://www.wordonfire.org/Home.aspx

Made for Each Other

2011-01-20T14:38:00.001+01:00

The USCCB has an ad hoc committee on the Defense of Marriage. They have produced a series entitled: "Made for Each Other: A Catechetical and Educational Aid on Sexual Difference and Complementarity".

I think it looks promising.

Here is a link to the first video of the series: http://www.usccb.org/marriageuniqueforareason/

I look forward to the rest!

The Vocation of the Laity at its finest!

2011-01-08T17:03:00.000+01:00

The Phoenix Case

2010-12-30T15:12:00.003+01:00

I repost an article here about a decision of a Bishop in Phoenix, Arizona. It is an excellent dress-down of the situation and the media storm surrounding it. The bottom line: You are either Catholic or you are not!

Catholic Bishop Right to Push Back Against Culture of Death
by Gerard Nadal | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 12/28/10 12:25 PM

The measure comes after last May’s confrontation between Sister Margaret McBride, the hospital’s administrator who gave permission for an 11-week pregnant woman with a severe case of pulmonary hypertension to have an abortion, and Bishop Olmsted who notified her in private that her actions were formal cooperation in the child’s death, and therefore incurred a latae sententiae (automatic) excommunication.

Much confusion swirls around this case, and needs to be cleared in the interest of defending the good name of a good bishop.

First, a recap of the initial controversy last May. Pulmonary hypertension is a gravely serious condition that is exacerbated by pregnancy. Testing done at Saint Joseph’s indicated a fairly advanced stage of the disease, and it was deemed that the 27 year-old mother of four would in all likelihood not make it to term with her pregnancy. Termination of the pregnancy was advocated as the means of saving the life of the mother. Thus, the ethical crossroads.

The moral guide for hospitals and healthcare institutions is spelled out in Ethical and Religious Directives of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (ERD’s). Directives #45 and #47 both spell out the rules for dealing with a case such as this, and Bishop Olmsted, a Doctor of Canon Law, has made it clear that this case did not fall within the parameters of these directives and what is known as the Principle of Double Effect.

In essence the principle states that a lifesaving procedure that cannot be delayed, such as the removal of a cancerous uterus before the baby can be taken in a Cesarean section at viability (~25 weeks gestation), is permissible so long as the death of the baby is the indirect and unintended effect. The life-saving treatment and resolution of a disease with immediate lethal consequence if no treatment is rendered is the good effect. The unintended death of the baby is the bad, or second (double) effect.

Such circumstances are extremely rare, given how early a baby can be delivered before full term at 40 weeks. The mother’s life must be in immediate danger and the treatment of her disease, which would also result in the death of the baby, cannot be forestalled. The case at Saint Joseph’s did not rise to the level of Double-Effect, as the baby was the sole target of intervention.

While the assessment on the part of physicians was dire, no treatment of the disease was even attempted. There are several medications that can be employed to attempt a reduction in the severity of the disease, none of which appear to have been dispensed in this case. From that point on, the actions of the hospital and Sister McBride pointed toward more than an isolated and extreme case where the decision to abort could have been simply dismissed as one bad judgment call.

There are several hospitals within a three-mile radius of Saint Joseph’s, some mere blocks away, where this woman’s husband could have taken her for the recommended abortion. They were no more than ten minutes from any number of facilities that would have performed the abortion, if that was what the couple wanted. All reports of the incident indicate that at no point was the couple told that Saint Joseph’s does not target babies for death as a means of treating a disease. Again, no evidence has surfaced that the physicians attempted to treat her medically.

This is a critical distinction that separates Catholic healthcare from its secular counterparts. Many physicians resort to abortion as a defensive strategy to avoid potential litigation. Others have signed on to the eugenics agenda and aggressively promote abortion for Down Syndrome and other babies with trisomic disorders, spinal tube defects such as spina bifida and anencephaly, and a host of other imperfections.

Patients who seek Catholic healthcare do so because of the assurance that the facility and its clinicians adhere to the ERD’s. They do so because they seek the assurance that they will be told the truth and treated in accord with Catholic moral norms, and not railroaded down the disastrous path American medicine has decided to follow. The Phoenix case is an excellent example of what happens when rebels take charge and deceive their patients and the bishop.

At the time, I remarked to peers in medicine and to groups I was invited to address that there had to be much more to this story than meets the eye. No Catholic hospital faithful to the ERD’s ad the Magisterium, within a stone’s throw of several other hospitals, makes such a decision, especially without consulting the local bishop. I opined, and was pilloried for it, that Sister McBride was presiding over a shadow healthcare system that was active in promoting an agenda that ran counter to the mission of the Church. Nobody commits first-degree murder as a first crime. No Catholic hospital administrator, especially a professed religious, signs off on such an abortion for the first time in the manner in which Sister McBride conducted herself.

There was an arrogance, an independent and defiant air about it that pointed to something deeper and darker, something that would eventually come to light.

This past week, Bishop Olmsted shared with the world the extent to which there has been a shadow system operating for over a quarter of a century, performing abortions, sterilizations, and dispensing all manner of contraception. Sister McBride, as it has now been revealed, is hardly the compassionate administrator who made a good-faith, though horrific decision.

In Part II, how Bishop Olmsted was lied to, lied about, what happens next in his courageous pushback against the rebellion within his healthcare system, and its implications nationally for Catholic healthcare.

http://www.lifenews.com/2010/12/28/catholic-bishop-right-to-push-back-against-culture-of-death/

A Nice Christmas Fireplace

2010-12-22T18:00:00.001+01:00

I actually used this on a continual loop for our staff Christmas Party!

>

Merry Christmas (in the Digital Age!)

2010-12-20T22:34:00.001+01:00

The Pope Speaks to Seminarians

2010-10-19T04:20:00.000+02:00

From the Vatican Information Services:

Monday, October 18, 2010

LETTER TO SEMINARIANS OF BENEDICT XVI

VATICAN CITY, 18 OCT 2010 (VIS) - Given below are ample extracts from the English-language version of a Letter to Seminarians, written by the Pope to mark the end of the Year for Priests and dated 18 October.

"When in December 1944 I was drafted for military service, the company commander asked each of us what we planned to do in the future. I answered that I wanted to become a Catholic priest. The lieutenant replied: 'Then you ought to look for something else. In the new Germany priests are no longer needed'. I knew that this 'new Germany' was already coming to an end, and that, after the enormous devastation which that madness had brought upon the country, priests would be needed more than ever. Today the situation is completely changed. In different ways, though, many people nowadays also think that the Catholic priesthood is not a 'job' for the future, but one that belongs more to the past. You, dear friends, have decided to enter the seminary and to prepare for priestly ministry in the Catholic Church in spite of such opinions and objections. You have done a good thing. Because people will always have need of God, even in an age marked by technical mastery of the world and globalisation: they will always need the God Who has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ, the God Who gathers us together in the universal Church in order to learn with Him and through Him life's true meaning and in order to uphold and apply the standards of true humanity. Where people no longer perceive God, life grows empty; nothing is ever enough".

"In this letter I would like to point out - thinking back to my own time in the seminary - several elements which I consider important for these years of your journeying.

"(1) Anyone who wishes to become a priest must be first and foremost a 'man of God', to use the expression of St. Paul. For us God is not some abstract hypothesis. ... God has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ. ... It follows that the most important thing in our path towards priesthood and during the whole of our priestly lives is our personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ. The priest is not the leader of a sort of association whose membership he tries to maintain and expand. He is God's messenger to His people. He wants to lead them to God and in this way to foster authentic communion between all men and women. That is why it is so important, dear friends, that you learn to live in constant intimacy with God. When the Lord tells us to 'pray constantly', He is obviously not asking us to recite endless prayers, but urging us never to lose our inner closeness to God".

"(2) For us God is not simply Word. In the Sacraments He gives Himself to us in person, through physical realities. At the heart of our relationship with God and our way of life is the Eucharist. Celebrating it devoutly, and thus encountering Christ personally, should be the centre of all our days. ... In the liturgy we pray with the faithful of every age - the past, the present and the future are joined in one great chorus of prayer. As I can state from personal experience, it is inspiring to learn how it all developed, what a great experience of faith is reflected in the structure of the Mass, and how it has been shaped by the prayer of many generations.

(3) "The Sacrament of Penance is also important. It teaches me to see myself as God sees me, and it forces me to be honest with myself. ... Even when we have to struggle continually with the same failings, it is important to resist the coarsening of our souls and the indifference which would simply accept that this is the way we are. ... Moreover, by letting myself be forgiven, I learn to forgive others. In recognising my own weakness, I grow more tolerant and understanding of the failings of my neighbour.

"(4) I urge you to retain an appreciation for popular piety, which is different in every culture yet always remains very similar, for the human heart is ultimately one and the same. Certainly, popular piety tends towards the irrational, and can at times be somewhat superficial. Yet it would be quite wrong to dismiss it. Through that piety, the faith has entered human hearts and become part of the common patrimony of sentiments and customs, shaping the life and emotions of the community".

"(5) Above all, your time in the seminary is also a time of study. The Christian faith has an essentially rational and intellectual dimension. Were it to lack that dimension, it would not be itself. ... I can only plead with you: Be committed to your studies! ... The point is not simply to learn evidently useful things, but to understand and appreciate the internal structure of the faith as a whole, so that it can become a response to people's questions, which on the surface change from one generation to another yet ultimately remain the same. For this reason it is important to move beyond the changing questions of the moment in order to grasp the real questions, and so to understand how the answers are real answers. It is important to have a thorough knowledge of Sacred Scripture as a whole, in its unity as the Old and the New Testaments. ... It is important to be familiar with the Fathers and the great Councils in which the Church appropriated, through faith-filled reflection, the essential statements of Scripture. ... I do not need to point out the importance of knowing the essential issues of moral theology and Catholic social teaching. The importance nowadays of ecumenical theology, and of a knowledge of the different Christian communities, is obvious. ... But you should also learn to understand and - dare I say it - to love canon law, appreciating how necessary it is and valuing its practical applications. ... I will not go on with this list, but I simply say once more: love the study of theology and carry it out in the clear realisation that theology is anchored in the living community of the Church, which, with her authority, is not the antithesis of theological science but its presupposition. Cut off from the believing Church, theology would cease to be itself and instead it would become a medley of different disciplines lacking inner unity.

"(6) Your years in the seminary should also be a time of growth towards human maturity. It is important for the priest, who is called to accompany others through the journey of life up to the threshold of death, to have the right balance of heart and mind, reason and feeling, body and soul, and to be humanly integrated. ... This also involves the integration of sexuality into the whole personality. Sexuality is a gift of the Creator yet it is also a task which relates to a person's growth towards human maturity. When it is not integrated within the person, sexuality becomes banal and destructive. Today we can see many examples of this in our society. Recently we have seen with great dismay that some priests disfigured their ministry by sexually abusing children and young people. Instead of guiding people to greater human maturity and setting them an example, their abusive behaviour caused great damage for which we feel profound shame and regret. As a result of all this, many people, perhaps even some of you, might ask whether it is good to become a priest; whether the choice of celibacy makes any sense as a truly human way of life. Yet even the most reprehensible abuse cannot discredit the priestly mission, which remains great and pure. Thank God, all of us know exemplary priests, men shaped by their faith, who bear witness that one can attain to an authentic, pure and mature humanity in this state and specifically in the life of celibacy. Admittedly, what has happened should make us all the more watchful and attentive, precisely in order to examine ourselves earnestly, before God, as we make our way towards priesthood, so as to understand whether this is his will for me. It is the responsibility of your confessor and your superiors to accompany you and help you along this path of discernment".

"(7) The origins of a priestly vocation are nowadays more varied and disparate than in the past. Today the decision to become a priest often takes shape after one has already entered upon a secular profession. Often it grows within the communities, particularly within the movements, which favour a communal encounter with Christ and His Church, spiritual experiences and joy in the service of the faith. It also matures in very personal encounters with the nobility and the wretchedness of human existence. ... The movements are a magnificent thing. You know how much I esteem them and love them as a gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church. Yet they must be evaluated by their openness to what is truly Catholic, to the life of the whole Church of Christ, which for all her variety still remains one. The seminary is a time when you learn with one another and from one another. In community life, which can at times be difficult, you should learn generosity and tolerance, not only bearing with, but also enriching one another. .. This school of tolerance, indeed, of mutual acceptance and mutual understanding in the unity of Christ's Body, is an important part of your years in the seminary.

"Dear seminarians, with these few lines I have wanted to let you know how often I think of you, especially in these difficult times, and how close I am to you in prayer. Please pray for me, that I may exercise my ministry well, as long as the Lord may wish".

God's Call

2010-09-21T16:33:00.001+02:00

Out of the kitchen, into the priesthood

By Jessica Ravitz, CNN

September 20, 2010 9:25 a.m. EDT

Kenneth Smith, a longtime executive chef in New Orleans, Louisiana, is on his way to becoming a priest.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

In his own words, an executive chef shares his spiritual journey toward the priesthood
Drawn to cooking as a child, he spent years at a top-rated New Orleans restaurant
God and faith have always been with him, he says, as have thoughts of being a priest
At 50, he's hung up his apron and entered the seminary, a logical move, he explains

RELATED TOPICS

Editor's note: Kenneth Smith had been a fixture in the highly rated Upperline Restaurant of New Orleans, Louisiana, where for the past 11 years he served as the executive chef. But after about two decades working there, he has moved out of the kitchen and into New Orleans' Notre Dame Seminary, on his way to becoming a priest. CNN sat down this summer with Smith, 50, before he took off his apron. Below, in his own words, he explains how serving up faith is a logical leap.

New Orleans, Louisiana (CNN) -- My dad died when I was 2, so my mother raised us [Smith and his sister] and exposed us to different things. We took music lessons, art appreciation lessons, and we even went to finishing school. Mrs. Howard's School of Charm.

My sister and I hated it at the time. We just wanted to be normal kids and eat our Frosted Flakes on Saturday mornings in front of the television, watching our Looney Tunes.

My mom was a very good cook. In fact, she was a private cook for an attorney for years. She exposed my sister and I to the same types of food that she was cooking at work. We were basically the only kids on our block that had eaten lobster with drawn butter.

On holidays, we would go to work with her. We'd always sit in the kitchen. I was just amazed with all the cooking ingredients and implements.

I was one of those guys that was never picked to be on someone's baseball team or basketball team, so I started cooking. My mother had always had a lot of cookbooks. I just started playing around. I started baking. We always had butter; we always had flour and sugar and vanilla and eggs. I might have looked at other recipes and didn't think we had the ingredients, and I certainly didn't have money to go buy them.

The first thing I baked was a cake. I was 9 or 10. It was a plain yellow cake. I can remember the icing being a little runny, but it was good.

We went to Catholic school. We went to Mass once a week, while in school, as well as on Sundays. God has always been with me.

I've certainly called on God when I'm in the kitchen, when things are going wrong, when I'm irritated or very upset about something. I've called on God walking up here to unlock the doors and come into work -- to help me at not being quick-tempered or losing my cool. Help me be the person I need to be.

It [becoming a priest] is something that I thought about as a child. It was something I was going to do out of high school, and I put it off. I'm glad now that I didn't go through with it, because I was very immature. I wasn't ready. But now I feel very strongly, and I know in my heart that I'm ready to do it.

I didn't wake up one morning and just sit up in bed and stretch and say, "Well, I think I'll try the priesthood." There's a lot of prayer involved. This prayer process, that's neverending. I have a spiritual director I work with, and I started out with that at first. But this process of thinking about it, it's been all my life.

I developed a very close relationship with the archbishop [Archbishop Gregory Aymond of the Archdiocese of New Orleans]. He was here, at the restaurant, one night about two or three months ago, and I said, "There's something on my mind, and I'd love to talk to you about it."

I met with him, and I wasn't home 10 minutes and the vocation director called. I set up another appointment to meet with him, and the rest is history.

There are parts of it [the restaurant kitchen] that I'll miss and parts of it that I will not miss. I will miss the people. I will miss the guests. The cooking aspects, I definitely will miss. I will not miss the rushiness of it, the overwhelming feeling you get when you're working the line, and it looks like everyone is ordering at the same time.

I'm hoping I can still do things [in a kitchen], but I'm hoping I can do it on a small scale, for fun. I would love to do something for the needy or poor, during the holidays when people really feel their lowest. Not just your typical out-of-the-can, warmed-up meal; I'd like to do it [serve them] just like you'd get here. Top quality.

I'll move into the seminary. I am looking forward to embracing the simple life. That gives me great pleasure to think about. I want to give all of myself, and I don't think you can do that when you have a lot of baggage.

I have this massive cookbook collection -- close to 3,000 books -- that I'm not just going to leave or just throw away. I have thought about, if I passed away, where would it go. I want to donate it to a school.

With baking, you have to follow the rules. I try to be a very good rule player. Play by the rules and work by the rules. The prayer life, the rules that a priest is supposed to live by, that really excites me. And being able to help people and minister to people.

Yesterday at Mass, one of the readings was about the widow who gave all of what she had. I want to emulate her, and I think this is the best way that I can see for me.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/09/20/new.orleans.chef.priesthood/index.html?hpt=Sbin

New Radio Show

2010-09-14T18:50:00.003+02:00

I have been asked to help out with the Holy Ghost Radio Show on WITA 1490 AM here in Knoxville which is broadcast at 4:00 on Sundays and Thursdays each week. I do every other week and Fr. John Orr of Holy Ghost Parish in Knoxville does the others. This is my first attempt at uploading an audio file on this blog so I hope it works. Enjoy!

Sunday, Sept. 12, 2010:

The Catholic Side of Salvation

2010-08-19T14:14:00.002+02:00

An interesting argument to answer a perduring question - If non-Catholics can be saved, why does it matter if we become Catholic, or remain Catholic, or try to convert others to Catholicism?

I think the article is very insightful:

The Catholic Side of Salvation

by Jeff Mirus

If non-Catholics can be saved, why does it matter if we become Catholic or remain Catholic, or try to convert others to Catholicism? After following our discussion here on the possibility of salvation for non-Catholics, one of our readers suggested that it would be very useful to address that question. I agree. If a person can be saved regardless of the religion (or no religion) in which he finds himself, why should we cling to our Faith and attempt to share it with others?

An Initial Catch-22

There is, of course, a Catch-22 here, because once you understand the value of Catholicism, the question is closed. It may be all very well for someone else to remain non-Catholic, but once one knows what Catholicism is, it is clear that to reject it is to turn one’s back on God and His Providence. So those who understand their Faith—but who just once in a while wish it could be otherwise—have eliminated by their own conscious knowledge whatever “hope” for escape they might otherwise have had! If you’re a good Catholic who is tempted by a questionable way to make money, by a romantic dalliance to which you have no right, by a wish that various charitable causes would simply leave you alone (ahem), or by the prospect of lying abed on Sunday morning after having partied all through Saturday evening and Saturday night—well, sorry, but as the saying goes, you’re hoist with your own petard.

In plain English, you’re blown up by your own bomb, and you know it. Ultimately you don’t mind unless you’re really in a personal crisis, because you already understand that the Catholic Church offers the fullness of what God the Father has made available in Christ for our salvation and that, in consequence, the Church is far and away the easiest and most certain road to eternal happiness. Finally, in knowing that, you also know two other things. First, you know that if you turn your back on the Church, you’re rejecting God and the Good you know, which makes salvation impossible in any context. Second, you know that you have an incomparably valuable and wonderful gift which, if you really care about anybody but yourself, you’ll want to share with others.

Turning Things Right Side Up

Now while this is the whole answer in brief, there are much richer ways of expressing it. One of the problems that prevents us from expressing this richness is our preoccupation with the question of personal salvation. I’m reminded of the evangelical Christians who used to walk up to me at college and ask me whether I was saved. Indeed, ever since sectarian divisions arose in the 16th century, even Catholics have thought more about their Faith in terms of salvation than they did before. As recently as the first half of the twentieth century, this preoccupation with the question of salvation too often took center stage in ordinary Catholic life. Thus it has often been said, including by theologians such as Joseph Ratzinger, that there was a strong cultural tendency among Catholics at that time to live the Faithprescriptively: Just give me the rules; tell me the minimum set of things I have to do to get to Heaven; oh, and let me know what it takes to make Purgatory, too.

Yet this almost exclusive focus on the question of salvation actually looks at the Faith from the wrong end, defining it too much in terms of one ego-centric result. I don’t mean to say that personal salvation is unimportant. Certainly Our Lord talked about it. But thinking about religion primarily in terms of personal salvation is an essentially Protestant idea. A religious scholar named Paul Hacker actually turned this problem into an extraordinarily perceptive book about the Protestant Reformation entitled The Ego in Faith. The serious Protestant wants to know if a man has accepted Jesus Christ as his personal savior. In broad terms, the purpose of religion for Protestants is to gain salvation. The essential and far richer purpose for Catholics, however, has always been to give glory to God.

Now as soon as we say this, we grasp instantly that it is true, but how often do we forget! And once we remember that it is true, we suddenly start looking at religion from the right end again; we turn the whole thing right side up. At its very core, Catholicism isn’t about me, or at least not primarily. It’s about God. And secondarily, it’s about my relationship with God, and yours, and every human person’s.

Glory, Love and Grace

God is pure being, without beginning or end, the one whose essence is existence, the only one who can truthfully call Himself “I am who am” (Ex 3:14). He is so awesomely beyond and above us that our only appropriate response is: “Glory!” He is also the Creator of everything else that exists, all of which depends completely and utterly upon Him. Again, “Glory be to God!” And He is a Trinity of burning love, by His very nature impelled to share Himself in love with others, whom He has created simply to be loved, to know what it means to be in love. Once again, “Glory!”

Finally, to draw us into this ecstasy of love, He makes Himself present to us through the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ. And after Jesus Christ came into the world, taught us everything we needed to know about the Father, established His Church and prepared for His final act of obedience to the Father’s will, what does He say to the Father about His purpose and the purpose of His disciples? He says it is all for the glory of God. Read Saint John’s Gospel:

I glorified thee on earth, having accomplished the work which thou gavest me to do; and now, Father, glorify thou me in thy own presence with the glory which I had with thee before the world was made. I have manifested thy name to the men whom thou gavest me out of the world; thine they were, and thou gavest them to me, and they have kept thy word. Now they know that everything that thou hast given me is from thee; for I have given them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from thee; and they have believed that thou didst send me. I am praying for them; I am not praying for the world but for those whom thou hast given me, for they are thine; all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. (Jn 17:4-10)

An Engine of Unity

To give glory to God, we must keep His every word, insofar as we know it; and if we are so blessed as to know all His words through His only begotten Son, then we must embrace and live in the very Word of God Himself. This is not a demand so much as a gift. Remember that the central task of the Word in history is to reconcile us to the Father or, as I said above, to bring us into an ecstatic union of love with Him. To conceive of this as a burden, or to weigh it up in terms of a series of requirements, is to miss the point entirely. But we cannot be caught up in an ecstasy of infinite love merely by offering our own natural and finite love. Thus a central feature of God’s plan is that He should actually share His Divine life with us, not only loving us but enabling us to love Him back with His own supernatural love, now made our own through grace.

At last we are getting somewhere in answering our question of why we should become Catholic, or remain Catholic, or bring others to Catholicism. To respond to God as He so ardently wishes, by drawing into a union of love with Him, we need all the assistance we can get: All the knowledge of Himself that He has provided; all the guidance He has given as to the attitudes and behaviors we need to modify in order to love properly; and as large a share in His very life—that is, as much grace—as we can pack in. These things come to man through Christ and His Holy Spirit operating in and through the Catholic Church—the Church Christ founded and committed to Peter and the Twelve, the leaders of the Church of whom He said so very clearly: “He who hears you hears me” (Lk 10:16).

The Catholic Church is a veritable engine of unity with God. Her structures and sacred hierarchy, her Faith and securely infallible teaching, her sacramental life of grace, and her very members—sinners in flux, with all their faults—are also Christ’s mystical body, the locus of his presence on earth, and the ultimate source and font of every grace to all, even those outside her visible borders. To enjoy the gift of God’s saving love fully, to draw into the fullest possible union with Him, and so to glorify Him to the best of our ability as He wishes to be glorified, we must participate as vigorously in the Church as we know how, and we must share this immense gift with others as much as we can. For indeed it would be churlish on our part, and more than worthy of condemnation, to be willfully satisfied with anything less than all that God has offered—as if to spurn our Lover’s gifts.

The Kingdom of God

This same criterion of willful satisfaction applies equally to all persons, and the Church’s teaching on salvation both within and outside of the Church’s sacramental system depends on this very thing: We must not turn away from whatever Good we know, and we must always seek earnestly to know more of the Good, and ultimately know the Author of all that is good. Because Catholics have the opportunity to participate more richly than anyone else in this knowledge and in the grace to grow into union with the only One who can truly be called “good” (Mk 10:18; Lk 18:19), Catholics possess incomparable blessings—blessings on which they are bound, so to speak, to capitalize. Remember the parable of the talents (Mt 25)!

So far we have been considering this matter from the personal point of view, which is valid enough, but it is also necessary to broaden it to its full scope, and ultimately to the new heavens and the new earth promised to us by Christ Himself (2 Pet 3). For Our Lord came to inaugurate the Kingdom of God, which even now through the Church grows like the proverbial mustard seed in the hearts of men. This Kingdom has, inescapably, a social dimension, an outflowing to others of the love we share with God. Indeed, since the Church worships and grows as a community, its individual members are part of a community of love, a community which extends itself to all in every need, both natural and supernatural.

The reign of God has already begun in Christ: “If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Mt 12:28). It is made present each time we share the love of God that we have received, glorifying Him by keeping His words, by living in Christ—that is, by doing His will. Those of us in the West are beginning again to see, with the decline of Christian influence, what we once took for granted: The enormous decline in genuine care for one another and the immense misguidedness of human efforts to make things better. In other places which are becoming heavily Christian for the first time, people can see this from the opposite side: How much more mutual help there is, and how much better-directed human effort becomes, under the influence of Christ!

The Kingdom of God struggles against the darkness, of course, and appears often to be intermingled with it. But insofar as Catholics become better and more numerous, and insofar as they invest the social order with Catholic teaching and the love of Christ, so does the Kingdom of God penetrate the world more widely and deeply in both its natural and supernatural dimensions. For grace, while it does not replace nature, always perfects it.

Sharing in the Sufferings of Christ

This matter of extending the Kingdom of God brings me to a final point. God wishes to be glorified by entering into a union of love with you and me, and He also wishes to be glorified by this union with every soul. It is for this reason that He has made His Church a font of grace, and for this reason He has also given it a missionary charge: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:19-20). This is a clarion call to make converts, insofar as we are able, for the glory of God, a process of glorification which also includes that other little result, personal salvation.

But there is a deeper mode of participation in Christ’s work than missionary work. St. Paul put it this way: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church” (Col 1:24). By an almost incredible act of condescension, God makes us partners with Christ in doing exactly what Christ Himself claimed His supreme sacrifice would do: “I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (Jn 12:32). This is, if you will, a stunning amplification of the parable of the talents. Indeed, to whom much has been given, from him much will be expected. We Catholics are privileged—yes, privileged—to become so intimately united with Christ that we can enhance in our own lives His very sufferings for the good of the Church. Note that the other side of this rare coin is the supremely high calling to help extend Christ’s salvific power.

We possess, then, by virtue of being Catholic, a share in the spiritual responsibility for all of our brothers and sisters, both within and outside the visible borders of the Catholic Church. We are called to make reparation for sin, to win forgiveness, and to increase the flow of grace available to all those who, in whatsoever condition, are or should be struggling to know and follow the good that must ultimately lead to God through Christ. By our own holiness, which is a deep union with God through the effective appropriation of grace, we are invited—no, we are actually expected—to strengthen and increase the mysterious ways in which the Holy Spirit, flowing out from Christ and His Church, touches the hearts of each and every person in the continuous drama of bringing all of them closer to their Father in Heaven.

Above all we are called to do this by our intense glorification of Christ in the Church, by which we offer everything we have to Him and with Him to the Father for the sake of souls. How was it that Saint Paul described God’s method? To his saints, said the Apostle, “God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27). It is Christ we proclaim, Paul continued, “warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man mature in Christ” (Col 1:28).

Being Catholic is our glory, the glory due to God, and an incomparable potential gift to every man, woman and child whom God calls son, daughter and friend. Here we find glory upon glory. Ultimately, that is why we are to become Catholic, to remain Catholic, and to do all we can to draw others to embrace Catholicism. Ad majorem Dei gloriam. To the greater glory of God!

Jeff Mirus - President of CatholicCulture.org

www.catholicculture.org

A Prayer for Priests

2010-08-13T03:59:00.002+02:00

I came across this prayer preparing for a day of recollection. It comes from Pope John Paul II's Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation "Patores Dabo Vobis" (I will give you shepherds)

PRAYER TO THE

MOST BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

O Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ and Mother of priests,

accept this title which we bestow on you to celebrate your motherhood

and to contemplate with you the Priesthood of your Son and of your sons,

O Holy Mother of God.

Mother of Christ, to the Messiah-Priest you gave a body of flesh

through the anointing of the Holy Spirit for the salvation of the poor

and the contrite of heart, guard priests in your heart and in the Church,

O Mother of the Saviour.

O Mother of Faith,

you accompanied the Son of Man at the temple,

in fulfillment of the promises made to the Fathers,

give to the Father for his glory, the priests of his Son,

O Ark of the Covenant.

O Mother of the Church, among the disciples in the Cenacle

you prayed to the Spirit for the new People and their Shepherds,

obtain for the Order of Presbyters the full measure of gifts,

O Queen of the Apostles.

O Mother of Jesus Christ, you were with him from the beginning of his life

and in his mission, you sought the Master among the crowd,

you stood beside him when He was lifted up from the earth,

consumed as the one eternal sacrifice, and you had John, your son, close by,

accept from the beginning those who have been called

protect their growth, in their life ministry accompany your sons,

O Mother of Priests.

Amen!

Atheists Don't Have No Songs

2010-08-02T16:22:00.002+02:00

Fr. Michael Cummins who blogs over at The Alternate Path just posted an hilarious video by Steve Martin in which he sings the lone example of Atheist hymnody. It is entitled Atheists Don't Have No Songs. I thought I would reblog it here in Praedica Verbum for your enjoyment!

The Roman Collar

2010-08-02T00:40:00.002+02:00

An interesting article in the Homelitc and Pastoral Review that I thought might be good to re-blog:

23 Reasons Why A Priest Should Wear His Collar

Msgr. Charles M. Mangan & Father Gerald E. Murray. “Why a priest should wear his Roman collar.”

The Roman collar is a sign of priestly consecration to the Lord. As a wedding ring distinguishes husband and wife and symbolizes the union they enjoy, so the Roman collar identifies bishops and priests (and often deacons and seminarians) and manifests their proximity to the Divine Master by virtue of their free consent to the ordained ministry to which they have been (or may be) called.
By wearing clerical clothing and not possessing excess clothes, the priest demonstrates adherence to the Lord’s example of material poverty. The priest does not choose his clothes – the Church has, thanks to her accumulated wisdom over the past two millennia. Humble acceptance of the Church’s desire that the priest wear the Roman collar illustrates a healthy submission to authority and conformity to the will of Christ as expressed through his Church.
Church Law requires clerics to wear clerical clothing. We have cited above number 66 of the Directory for priests, which itself quotes canon 284.
The wearing of the Roman collar is the repeated, ardent desire of Pope John Paul 11. The Holy Father’s wish in this regard cannot be summarily dismissed; he speaks with a special charism. He frequently reminds priests of the value of wearing the Roman collar.In a September 8, 1982 letter to Ugo Cardinal Poletti, his Vicar for the Diocese of Rome, instructing him to promulgate norms concerning the use of the Roman collar and religious habit, the Pontiff observed that clerical dress is valuable “not only because it contributes to the propriety of the priest in his external behavior or in the exercise of his ministry, but above all because it gives evidence within the ecclesiastical community of the public witness that each priest is held to give of his own identity and special belonging to God.”In a homily on November 8, 1982 the Pope addressed a group of transitional deacons whom he was about to ordain to the priesthood. He said that if they tried to be just like everyone else in their “style of life” and “manner of dress,” then their mission as priests of Jesus Christ would not be fully realized.

The Roman collar prevents “mixed messages”; other people will recognize the priest’s intentions when he finds himself in what might appear to be compromising circumstances. Let’s suppose that a priest is required to make pastoral visits to different apartment houses in an area where drug dealing or prostitution is prevalent. The Roman collar sends a clear message to everyone that the priest has come to minister to the sick and needy in Christ’s name. Idle speculation might be triggered by a priest known to neighborhood residents visiting various apartment houses dressed as a layman.
The Roman collar inspires others to avoid immodesty in dress, words and actions and reminds them of the need for public decorum. A cheerful but diligent and serious priest can compel others to take stock of the manner in which they conduct themselves. The Roman collar serves as a necessary challenge to an age drowning in impurity, exhibited by suggestive dress, blasphemous speech and scandalous actions.
The Roman collar is a protection for one’s vocation when dealing with young, attractive women. A priest out of his collar (and, naturally, not wearing a wedding ring) can appear to be an attractive target for the affections of an unmarried woman looking for a husband, or for a married woman tempted to infidelity.
The Roman collar offers a kind of “safeguard “for oneself. The Roman collar provides a reminder to the priest himself of his mission and identity: to witness to Jesus Christ, the Great High Priest, as one of his brother-priests.
A priest in a Roman collar is an inspiration to others who think: “Here is a modern disciple of Jesus.” The Roman collar speaks of the possibility of making a sincere, lasting commitment to God. Believers of diverse ages, nationalities and temperaments will note the virtuous, other-centered life of the man who gladly and proudly wears the garb of a Catholic priest, and perhaps will realize that they too can consecrate themselves anew, or for the first time, to the loving Good Shepherd.
The Roman collar is a source of beneficial intrigue to non-Catholics. Most non- Catholics do not have experience with ministers who wear clerical garb. Therefore, Catholic priests by virtue of their dress can cause them to reflect – even if only a cursory fashion – on the Church and what she entails.
A priest dressed as the Church wants is a reminder of God and of the sacred. The prevailing secular morass is not kind to images which connote the Almighty, the Church, etc. When one wears the Roman collar, the hearts and minds of others are refreshingly raised to the “Higher Being” who is usually relegated to a tiny footnote in the agenda of contemporary culture.
The Roman collar is also a reminder to the priest that he is “never not a priest.” With so much confusion prevalent today, the Roman collar can help the priest avoid internal doubt as to who he is. Two wardrobes can easily lead – and often does – to two lifestyles, or even two personalities.
A priest in a Roman collar is a walking vocation message. The sight of a cheerful, happy priest confidently walking down the street can be a magnet drawing young men to consider the possibility that God is calling them to the priesthood. God does the calling; the priest is simply a visible sign God will use to draw men unto himself.
The Roman collar makes the priest available for the Sacraments, especially Confession and the Anointing of the Sick, and for crisis situations. Because the Roman collar gives instant recognition, priests who wear it make themselves more apt to be approached, particularly when seriously needed. The authors can testify to being asked for the Sacraments and summoned for assistance in airports, crowded cities and isolated villages because they were immediately recognized as Catholic priests.
The Roman collar is a sign that the priest is striving to become holy by living out his vocation always. It is a sacrifice to make oneself constantly available to souls by being publicly identifiable as a priest, but a sacrifice pleasing to Our Divine Lord. We are reminded of how the people came to him, and how he never turned them away. There are so many people who will benefit by our sacrifice of striving to be holy priests without interruption.
The Roman collar serves as a reminder to “alienated” Catholics not to forget their irregular situation and their responsibilities to the Lord. The priest is a witness – for good or ill – to Christ and his Holy Church. When a “fallen-away” sees a priest, he is encouraged to recall that the Church continues to exist. A cheerful priest provides a salutary reminder of the Church.
The wearing of clerical clothing is a sacrifice at times, especially in hot weather. The best mortifications are the ones we do not look for. Putting up with the discomforts of heat and humidity can be a wonderful reparation for our own sins, and a means of obtaining graces for our parishioners.
The Roman collar serves as a “sign of contradiction” to a world lost in sin and rebellion against the Creator. The Roman collar makes a powerful statement: the priest as an alter Christus has accepted the Redeemer’s mandate to take the Gospel into the public square, regardless of personal cost.
The Roman collar helps priests to avoid the on duty/off duty mentality of priestly service. The numbers 24 and 7 should be our special numbers: we are priests 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We are priests, not men who engage in the “priest profession.” On or off duty, we should be available to whomever God may send our way. The “lost sheep” do not make appointments.
The “officers” in Christ’s army should be identifiable as such. Traditionally, we have remarked that those who receive the Sacrament of Confirmation become “soldiers” of Christ, adult Catholics ready and willing to defend his name and his Church. Those who are ordained as deacons, priests and bishops must also be prepared – whatever the stakes – to shepherd the flock of the Lord. Those priests who wear the Roman collar show forth their role unmistakably as leaders in the Church.
The saints have never approved of a lackadaisical approach concerning priestly vesture. For example, Saint Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787), Patron Saint of Moral Theologians and Confessors, in his esteemed treatise The Dignity and Duties of the Priest, urges the wearing of the appropriate clerical dress, asserting that the Roman collar helps both priest and faithful to recall the sublime splendor of the sacerdotal state instituted by the God-Man.
Most Catholics expect their priests to dress accordingly. Priests have long provided a great measure of comfort and security to their people. As youths, Catholics are taught that the priest is God’s representative – someone they can trust. Hence, the People of God want to know who these representatives are and what they stand for. The cherished custom of wearing distinguishable dress has been for centuries sanctioned by the Church; it is not an arbitrary imposition. Catholics expect their priests to dress as priests and to behave in harmony with Church teaching and practice. As we have painfully observed over the last few years, the faithful are especially bothered and harmed when priests defy the legitimate authority of the Church, and teach and act in inappropriate and even sinful ways.
Your life is not your own; you belong to God in a special way, you are sent out to serve him with your life. When we wake each morning, we should turn our thoughts to our loving God, and ask for the grace to serve him well that day. We remind ourselves of our status as His chosen servants by putting on the attire that proclaims for all to see that God is still working in this world through the ministry of poor and sinful men.

Msgr. Charles M. Mangan & Father Gerald E. Murray. “Why a priest should wear his Roman collar.” Homiletic & Pastoral Review (June, 1995).

Founded over one hundred years ago, Homiletic & Pastoral Review is one of the most well-respected pastoral magazines in the world. HPR features solid articles on every aspect of pastoral life and eloquent weekly sermons that illuminate through exposition of Scripture. Subscribe to HPR here.

THE AUTHOR

Msgr. Charles M. Mangan has been appointed by His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, to a position serving the Vatican’s Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. Ordained in 1989, Msgr. Mangan formerly served the Diocese of Sioux Falls in several parishes.

Father Gerald E. Murray is a priest of the Archdiocese of New York. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and was ordained in 1984 after completing studies at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Dunwoodie, N. Y. Currently he is studying canon law at the Gregorian University in Rome.

Our Lady of Fatima

2010-05-13T15:58:00.001+02:00

From ZENIT.ORG

BENEDICT XVI'S ACT OF CONSECRATION OF PRIESTS

"May the Church Be Thus Renewed by Priests Who Are Holy"

FATIMA, Portugal, MAY 12, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Here is a Vatican translation of the Act of Entrustment and Consecration of Priests to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, prayed today by Benedict XVI at the conclusion of the celebration of vespers with the religious, seminarians and diocesan priests at the Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Fatima.

The encounter was dedicated to the priesthood in this Year for Priests.

* * *

Immaculate Mother,
in this place of grace,
called together by the love of your Son Jesus
the Eternal High Priest, we,
sons in the Son and his priests,
consecrate ourselves to your maternal Heart,
in order to carry out faithfully the Father’s Will.

We are mindful that, without Jesus,
we can do nothing good (cf. Jn 15:5)
and that only through him, with him and in him,
will we be instruments of salvation
for the world.

Bride of the Holy Spirit,
obtain for us the inestimable gift
of transformation in Christ.
Through the same power of the Spirit that
overshadowed you,
making you the Mother of the Saviour,
help us to bring Christ your Son
to birth in ourselves too.
May the Church
be thus renewed by priests who are holy,
priests transfigured by the grace of him
who makes all things new.

Mother of Mercy,
it was your Son Jesus who called us
to become like him:
light of the world and salt of the earth
(cf. Mt 5:13-14).

Help us,
through your powerful intercession,
never to fall short of this sublime vocation,
nor to give way to our selfishness,
to the allurements of the world
and to the wiles of the Evil One.

Preserve us with your purity,
guard us with your humility
and enfold us with your maternal love
that is reflected in so many souls
consecrated to you,
who have become for us
true spiritual mothers.

Mother of the Church,
we priests want to be pastors
who do not feed themselves
but rather give themselves to God for their brethren,
finding their happiness in this.
Not only with words, but with our lives,
we want to repeat humbly,
day after day,
Our “here I am”.

Guided by you,
we want to be Apostles
of Divine Mercy,
glad to celebrate every day
the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar
and to offer to those who request it
the sacrament of Reconciliation.

Advocate and Mediatrix of grace,
you who are fully immersed
in the one universal mediation of Christ,
invoke upon us, from God,
a heart completely renewed
that loves God with all its strength
and serves mankind as you did.

Repeat to the Lord
your efficacious word:
“They have no wine” (Jn 2:3),
so that the Father and the Son will send upon us
a new outpouring of
the Holy Spirit.
Full of wonder and gratitude
at your continuing presence in our midst,
in the name of all priests
I too want to cry out:
“Why is this granted me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Lk 1:43).

Our Mother for all time,
do not tire of “visiting us”,
consoling us, sustaining us.
Come to our aid
and deliver us from every danger
that threatens us.
With this act of entrustment and consecration,
we wish to welcome you
more deeply, more radically,
for ever and totally
into our human and priestly lives.

Let your presence cause new blooms to burst forth
in the desert of our loneliness,
let it cause the sun to shine on our darkness,
let it restore calm after the tempest,
so that all mankind shall see the salvation
of the Lord,
who has the name and the face of Jesus,
who is reflected in our hearts,
for ever united to yours!

Amen!

© Copyright 2010 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Another great Catholic video

2010-05-06T11:30:00.003+02:00

I found a great blog entry over at the American Papist blog. Once again, in our tech savvy culture and with the instruments of social communications so easily in our grasp here is a good example of some people over in Illinois getting together and evangelizing through mass media.

It is a video advertising the Illinois Catholic Prayer Breakfast but it is a great presentation (in sound-bite form) of the Catholic Faith:

I've always been impressed by the work of Grassroots films who produced the great Fishers of Men video which I blogged about earlier.

But the company that produced this video was Spirit Juice Studios which fills in a void in Catholic PR and visual/web media. I look forward to seeing some of their other products.

Back to the clip itself, Thomas Peters had this to say in response:

"The phrase “Simply Catholic” comes from Cardinal George’s book The Difference God Makes, which I (perhaps providentially) read on my flight into Chicago. The phrase represents the Cardinal’s proposed solution to the struggle between orthodox and liberal wings of the Church, or more accurately, the perversion of orthodoxy which can happen on both the left and right sides of the Church.

Orthodoxy, of course, inasmuch as it represents the objective adherence to the truths of our Catholic faith and applied to our own times, is being “Simply Catholic.” Thus being simply Catholic does not represent a “lowest-common-denominator” approach, but calls all Catholics to fully embrace and live the saving truths contained in the Church’s deposit of faith. It represents a very high standard, not a low one."

What a great message and once again, another great Catholic video!

Nice video made at Kenrick Seminary

2010-04-27T17:41:00.005+02:00

At the end of next week I will be leading a group of priests to the Shroud of Turin. There will of course be a blog entry on that. But as I was searching around on Youtube for video of the shroud I came across this very well done video (presumably by seminarians) of a 'walk-through' of Kenrick Seminary in St. Louis. I think it hits the nail on the head. The video leads you through the doors of the seminary to a deeper look at the face of Christ in a display of the Shroud. It then leads you to the heart of the mystery: a deeper encounter with the living God in the tabernacle of the seminary chapel.

[ The video has since been removed by the user for unknown reasons. But the concept was spot on.]

If there is anyone out there who has ever felt God calling them to be a priest or has ever thought of taking the step to enter the seminary to find out - this closer encounter with Christ is the heart and soul of seminary formation. Do not be afraid to 'cast out into the deep' and to 'seek His face'.

Holy Land

2010-04-14T10:23:00.006+02:00

This past holy week and Easter I was on pilgrimage to the Holy Land with a group of priest friends from the Casa. It was an awesome journey through the places our Lord walked. What made it more special was that we were there at the time of year we commemorate the most important events of His saving work.

We flew to Tel-Aviv and rented a car and drove up to Galilee. There we stayed for five days under the shadow of the Mount of Beatitudes at Tabgah where Jesus feed the five thousand with loaves and fishes.

Galilee is incredibly beautiful:

We rented boats and went out onto the Sea of Galilee:

We went to Nazareth (Jesus' hometown):

There at the Basilica of the Annunciation we offered mass at the place where the Angel Gabriel declared to Mary that she would conceive and bear a son and that she was to name Him Jesus. If you read the latin on the front of the altar you see the faith filled declaration about the incarnation: Verbum Caro HIC Factum Est - the Word was made flesh HERE!

We also stood on the precipice from which the people of Nazareth tried to throw Jesus . . . but He passed through their midst (Luke 4:30):

We even went to Megiddo (i.e. armegeddon), although we didn't see any apocalyptic visions:

On Wednesday of Holy Week we made the journey "up to Jerusalem". We stayed on the Mount of Olives and walked across the Kidron valley to get into Jerusalem. On Holy Thursday we visited the Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu (cock-crow) where Jesus was imprisoned and Peter denied Him:

On Good Friday we did the Via Crucis (way of the cross) down the Via Dolorosa (the traditional route of Jesus when He carried His cross to Calvary.

On Holy Saturday we spent the night in the Holy Sepulcher (the Church which covers the site of Calvary and the tomb of Jesus)

On Easter Monday and Tuesday we offered mass at the empty tomb and at Calvary hill.

The words of Archbishop Fulton Sheen when speaking about the mass seem appropriate to quote here:

"On the cross our Blessed Lord was looking forward to you, hoping that one day you would be giving yourself to Him at the moment of consecration. Today, in the Mass, that hope our Blessed Lord entertained for you is fulfilled. When you assist at the Mass He expects you now actually to give Him yourself.

Then as the moment of consecration arrives, the priest in obedience to the words of our Lord, "Do this for a commemoration of me," takes bread in his hands and says "This is my body"; and then over the chalice of wine says, "This is the chalice of my blood of the new and eternal testament." He does not consecrate the bread and wine together, but separately.

The separate consecration of the bread and wine is a symbolic representation of the separation of body and blood, and since the Crucifixion entailed that very mystery, Calvary is thus renewed on our altar. But Christ, as has been said, is not alone on our altar; we are with Him. Hence the words of consecration have a double sense; the primary signification of the words is: "This is the Body of Christ; this is the Blood of Christ;" but the secondary signification is "This is my body; this is my blood."

This is Fr. Matthew Kauth, one of our group, offering the mass at the Latin altar on Calvary:

The trip was very spiritually fruitful and was definitely the most meaningful of all my travels!

Catch-up blog: Clergy Conference

2010-03-23T21:33:00.010+01:00

Though I didn't post many things for awhile on this blog, many things have transpired in the past year which I thought would be interesting to write about. This entry hopefully will be the first in a series of 'catching-up' to the present.

In January, during the winter break, I attended a priest conference hosted by both the Australian and American Confraternity of Catholic Clergy. They hosted it on the occasion of the year of the priest here in Rome. I took the opportunity to go to something right in my back yard (or the front yard depending how you want to describe the Vatican!).

We had a huge turn out of priests from many English speaking countries. The speakers were all top-notch and included personages such as: Fr. Jospeh Carola S.J., Fr. Uwe Michael Lang, Cong. Or., and even His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI's Master of Ceremonies, Msgr. Guido Marini!

We had a beautiful Solemn High Mass at St. John Lateran celebrated by Cardinal Cañazares and accompanied by a talented schola cantorum who sang Haydn's Missa Cellensis. Here is a picture of me sitting next to the pope's 'cathedra'.

If you look closely enough at this one you can see me getting ready to distribute communion to the faithful.

We also had a nice mass in St. Peter's Basilica with Archbishop Burke presiding. The schola sang Palestrina's Missa Tu es Petrus - How appropriate! After the mass, Archbishop Burke invited us all over the Apostolic Segnatura for a tour. I was intrigued by the office signs designating whose office was who's:

I guess there's no mistaking who belongs in these offices!

While we were in the Cancelleria we passed by the Roman Rota, but we didn't go in. But I did get a photo at the doorway of one of the Rotal Studios:

One of the nights of the conference was set aside for the Banquet. The conference was hosted at the Domus Sanctae Martae in Vatican City where the Cardinals live during a conclave. At that Banquet they set out for us the papal china:

All around, it was a great conference.

It is Finished!

2010-03-19T18:26:00.004+01:00

During this season of Lent when we hear the passion of our Lord, from the cross Jesus declares "It is finished!" meaning the work of redemption and salvation of all humanity and in fact all of creation. Today, however, I uttered those same words in a somewhat lesser light and they became the expression of a decidedly smaller victory. What caused them to be uttered? It was the fact that I have finally finished my License Thesis.

A huge Thank-you to all who have prayed for me as I wrote. I just had it printed today. However, the copies weren't done before 12:30 and so the Secretaria at the University closed before I could get them there, so I will have to wait till Monday to consign :-(. But it is finished all the same!

The only things which remain for me are to finish this semester's classes and to prepare for my Comprehensive exams.

Awesome Priest Video!

2010-03-17T15:40:00.004+01:00

I just came across an awesome video about the priestly ordinations that took place this past year in New York. It includes the words of Archbishop Dolan which are powerful both in content and in delivery.

The video was made by the same people who made the "Fishers of Men" video.

Check it out:

Pilgrimage to Ars

2010-03-17T15:24:00.004+01:00

I recently made a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. John Marie Vianney the patron saint of parish priests. His tomb is located in Ars in South-East France near Lyon. He is affectionately known as the Curé of Ars. It happens that Pope Benedict XVI has asked that this year be dedicated as the "Year for Priests". He named St. John Vianney as the Universal Patron of Priests.

I got to say mass at his tomb

We walked out to the legendary place where the Curé first came into his parish. He was lost in the fog not far from the village to which he had been assigned. He came across a young boy working in the field and asked him, "Which way to Ars?" The boy pointed the way to him. The Saint responded famously by saying, "You have shown me the way to Ars, I shall show you the way to heaven."

On our way back to Rome we stopped just past Mont Blanc (we had gone through the tunnel) and I snapped this awesome picture and had to share it:

Course on the Internal Forum

2010-03-13T17:25:00.004+01:00

I just recently finished a course held by the Apostolic Penitentiary on the Internal Forum (i.e. the forum of the conscience and/or the forum of Grace).

It was a week-long course that will actually give me credit at the University. In the course the topics of confession and absolution as well as lifting of latae sententiae censures (i.e. penalties incurred by an act itself which is considered to be so sinful/scandalous that there is a penalty attached) in the internal forum. The tribunal also has competency for the declarations of indulgences and so they had a conference on that too. They packed in alot of material but in exchange we did get an audience with the Holy Father!

As you can see from the picture I wasn't able to get up close. But it is always nice to spend a little time with the Vicar of Christ on earth!

After the conference we had to wait in line to pick up our certificate, but we waited in pretty nice surroundings!

Finally, here's the certificate!

Long time - no post!

2010-03-13T17:19:00.003+01:00

It's been a long time since I last made a post on this blog. After Christmas last year I just never got back at it. However, many people have asked me about it. Enough so that I am finally getting around to it again!

I may have to do some 'catch-up' blog entries to fill in the more-than-a-year gap! There is plenty of material for that as my life has been anything but boring - perhaps that can be added to the list of excuses why I haven't posted :-).

(I just noticed there is not one post for the whole of 2009! It just skips from 2008 to 2010.)

Italian Way of Life

2008-12-16T23:23:00.007+01:00

Just to give you a taste

of the Italian way of life

I thought I would like to share

a little video I came across

on the blog of

a brother in the house:

d6" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344">

And it's all true!

Tiber Flood

2008-12-16T22:33:00.010+01:00

Many of you may have seen the reports from Rome that the Tiber is bursting at her seams. It has been raining for over a month now. It seems like every other day has brought us another weather system with more rain. It is getting to be, to use a very cliché phrase, of biblical proportions. Here is a picture of the Tiber river at what looks like summer-time (i.e normal) levels:

Here is a picture I took the other day while going to St. Peter's. It is almost the same angle but I couldn't get closer because there are crews tying to dislodge the huge barges that broke loose from their moorings and got caught against the side of Ponte Sant'Angelo:

You can just barely see one of them though the second arch from the right.

Here's another comparison shot:

You can see the work crews trying to dislodge one of the barges.

Luckily for us who live in the former marshland that now is Rome, these retaining walls keep the water out. They were put up in the late 19th century. Before that, the Romans were at the mercy of the weather. And there are many markers to prove it:

When Clement VIII, Pontifex Maximus was in his seventh year,

« ...THE TIBER GREW UP TO HERE
IN THE SAME NIGHT OF OUR LORD'S BIRTH » 1598

« IN YEAR 1495, THE TIBER ON A
FINE DAY GREW UP TO THIS SIGN
ON THE NONAE (5TH) OF DECEMBER
ALEXANDER VI POPE - YEAR III »

the oldest extant flood record (1277)
« THE TIBER REACHED UP TO HERE... »

pictures from: http://roma.freewebpages.org/roma-c4.htm

I think it appropriate here to quote the Sacred Scriptures, lest anyone think that poor Fr. David and the pitiable people of Rome are about to perish:

From the Book of Genesis:

God said to Noah and to his sons with him: "See, I am now establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you: all the birds, and the various tame and wild animals that were with you and came out of the ark. I will establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all bodily creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood; there shall not be another flood to devastate the earth."

God added: "This is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come, of the covenant between me and you and every living creature with you: I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds,

I will recall the covenant I have made between me and you and all living beings, so that the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all mortal beings. As the bow appears in the clouds, I will see it and recall the everlasting covenant that I have established between God and all living beings--all mortal creatures that are on earth." God told Noah: "This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all mortal creatures that are on earth."

Fr. Augustine DiNoia, O.P. - Carl J. Peter Lecture

2008-12-15T22:46:00.005+01:00

The North American College hosts a speaker each year under the title of Carl J. Peter. This years speaker was Fr. Augistine DiNoia, undersecretary for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. It was an excellent talk. Here is a link to the NAC website where the full text of his talk is listed:

www.pnac.org

If you can't find the talk from the main website you can follow this direct link:

Fr. DiNoia's talk

Christmas Caroling at the Greg

2008-12-15T22:41:00.002+01:00

The Students of the Gregorian University have a nice tradition of caroling in between classes. Each class/faculty/college can sign-up to sing in the Central Atrium. The acoustics aren't very good for making out the individual lyrics but I guess it's the thought that counts!

Malta

2008-12-06T17:23:00.017+01:00

Sorry about the delay, once again, in my blogging. Time seems to have a funny way of slipping through the cracks! Anyway, I had an exciting Thanksgiving weekend. I and three other of my fellow priests here at the Casa Santa Maria decided to take a trip to Malta, a rocky little island in the middle of the Mediterranean with a lot of history.

We flew down in the middle of a storm - November/December is notorious in Rome for rainy, nasty weather. It was very apropos though, being that St. Paul was shipwrecked on Malta during his trip to Rome and stayed there for three months (c.f. Acts chapter 28). However, airplanes aren't as forgiving of wrecks, so I am glad we landed safely!

We were able to see several of the Pauline sites. Remember that this is the year dedicate to St.Paul (http://www.vatican.va/various/basiliche/san_paolo/index_en.html)

The statue above is of St. Paul and is located in the grotto at Rabat (just outside of the ancient city of Mdina - and no, that is not a misspelling, the Maltese language is very strange - having phoenecian origins and a splattering of Arabic and latin). This is the location that is known to be where Paul stayed while on the island.

Below is Fr. Matthew striking a match in the grotto - it was literally a bunch of holes in the ground that had been dug out as living spaces. There was not light so we had to improvise:

It turns out we made our own version of Chiaroscuro which was also apropos being that Caravaggio was once a Knight of Malta and lived on the island for a while (you will have to google or wiki that one because this blog entry is going to be long enough as it is) - on a related note the Cathedral in Valletta has a huge Caravaggio painting of the beheading of St. John the Baptist one of the patrons of the order and the namesake of the co-cathedral)

We were able to have mass in the Grotto. The country is almost 95% Catholic and the churches seemed to be filled on Sunday (which is unfortunately a rare site in most of Europe). It was a nice treat when our Taxi driver asked if he could join us for mass! It was a beautiful testament to the faith that they had received some two thousand years ago from St. Paul himself.

One of the days we rented a boat to actually go to the little rock outcropping traditionally held to be the place where St. Paul's boat wrecked.

This is a picture of the huge statue erected on the rock:

As you can see there are blue skies behind - the weather was gorgeous with clear skies and warm temperatures (we were the envy of all the guys back in rainy and cold Rome:-) We even jumped into the sea for a little swim - very nice!

Another one of the reasons we went to Malta was also to see the location of the Great Siege of 1565. What a great story that is! As a matter of fact one of the reasons that Western Europe is still Christian and not Muslim (at least for the time being) is because the Christian Knights of Malta were successful in holding out in their fortifications against the Turkish invasion. The battles of the 16th century were fought to preserve the European Heritage with the Christian Faith being at the forefront of this realty. The Great Siege of Malta is right up there with the defense of Vienna by Sobieski, and the defeat of the Turkish Fleet at LePanto by Don Juan of Austria.

The Valiant Knights of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Knights of St. John for short, or the Knights of Malta after this great feat, held off over 40,000 turkish invaders with only 9,000 men women and children to defend their little island! The Knights of Malta are still in existence today.

This is a picture of me taken in front of some of the forts on the island:

We took a nice Boat Tour of the Grand Harbour were much of the siege took place.

Then we had a nice lunch on a rooftop terrace restaurant overlooking the harbour:

The restaurant is located in the city of Valletta, named after the Grand Master of the Order during the Great Siege who very bravely led the band of knights to victory. This city was built on the site of some of the most brutal fighting where the bravery of the Knights was very much proven. They held out here till the last man perished - in effect saving all the rest of the population across the harbour by slowing down the advance of the Turkish forces.

It was a nice meal too;-)

We also went to the Palace Armory to see all the medieval warfare equipment:

Two suits of armour to go, please!

Finally, I will leave you with a very touching reminder of what our whole life is about. On a little rock outcropping in the middle of the inland sea is a stark scene that reminds us of who we are and why we do what we do:

It couldn't be clearer than that.

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T20:50:00.004+01:00

Today we celebrated the great American Holiday over here in the Eternal City. It's never the same as being back home but it is a wonderful experience. Archbishop Burke came over to celebrate the mass with us and then afterwards we all had a pranzone (huge lunch) with Turkey, stuffing and even cranberry sauce. One thing I always found funny over here at the North American College is the fact that they insist on serving some sort of pasta as a primo piatto (first dish)! We had ravioli before we ever saw the turkey. Not the average Thanksgiving tradition (unless of course your family is Italian!) But the rest of the meal was great and after a nice digestivo (Italian after dinner drinks) and a call home, I took a long nap!

Now I am getting ready to take a trip this weekend to Malta, a little Island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea with a lot of history-including St. Paul, who was shipwrecked and wintered on the island. I will be gone till Monday - I will post some pictures when I get back.

1,000th Visitor to Praedica Verbum

2008-11-25T11:26:00.003+01:00

I just noticed on the bottom of the blog that the hit counter has crested 1,000. I am surprised but happy to know that so many people are checking up on the things I post! Now, I didn't put the hit counter on until a couple of weeks into the blogging so it might not be an accurate number. The number could also be explained by people checking it more often than just once a day (Mom, I told you stop checking it every hour!, Just kidding:-) But anyway, thanks for looking at the blog.

If you have any questions or comments feel free to ask or speak - I will do my best to answer and it might even make for some interesting blogging!

Sincerely yours in Christ Jesus,

Fr. David

to post a comment click below where it says comments. I moderate the comments so they won't automatically show up. They will appear as I approve them. Better safe than sorry these days!

Surprise Visitor in Class

2008-11-24T10:28:00.000+01:00

Today in Class we had a surprise visitor - dutifully arranged by our Marriage Law teacher Fr. Kowal, S.J. He reminded us that November 27th of this year is the 25th anniversary of the effectual start of the New Code of Canon Law in the Latin Church (it having been promulgated on January 25th, 1983, and after a vacatio legis of some 10 months, came into effect on the First Sunday of Advent 1983) One of the major collaborators in that momentous work (which I am now devoting considerable amounts of time to learning) was none other than the Gregorian University's own Urbano Cardinal Navarrete, S.J.

I guess if you're famous enough you get a wikipedia entry:

Urbano Cardinal Navarrete Cortés, S.J. (born May 25, 1920) is a Professor of Canon Law and former Rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University. He was made Cardinal in 2007.

Urbano Navarrete Cortés was born in Camarena de la Sierra, Teruel; his father was named José Navarrete Esteban. He entered the Society of Jesus on June 20, 1937, after his licentiate in philosophy and in theology he obtained a doctorate in canon law. Navarrete was ordained to the priesthood on May 31, 1952, during the International Eucharistic Congress. A world renowned canonist, he then served as Dean of the Faculty of Canon Law at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome until 1980, when he was appointed rector. Navarrete was granted an honorary doctorate by the Pontifical University of Salamanca, in his native Spain, in 1994, and is a consultor to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in the Roman Curia.

On October 17, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI announced that he would elevate Navarrete and twenty-two other prelates to the College of Cardinals. The Pope agreed with Navarrete's request to be dispensed from the requirement of episcopal ordination, and, at the consistory in St. Peter's Basilica on November 24, 2007, he was created Cardinal Deacon of S. Ponziano. As he is above the age of 80, he is not eligible for participation in a papal conclave.

That was a nice treat and a little break from the tediousness of the canons themselves. It is always interesting to get the insight that only a man with such a closness to and amount of time spent with a particular subject can bring. Cardinal Navarette is truly a master of Canon Law and has shaped its understanding for the better part of half a century! This is one of those instances of being at the feet of the master ad liminum Magistri - soaking in the collected wisdom of practical insight and lived experience. He is a humble man who has gained the respect given him not by demanding it from others as a simple 'rite of passage' granted to one's elders. But rather from working diligently and competently in the vineyard producing a consistent, rational exposition of the portion of the universe of knowledge entrusted to him. A rare man, a rare experience and definitely a welcome surprise!

Faculties in Rome

2008-11-19T14:41:00.000+01:00

I just received my 'carta di riconoscimento' (card of recognition) from the 'Vicariatus Urbis' (the Vicariate of the City).

This is kind of like an ecclesial passport recognizing me as a priest in good standing in the city with all of the usual faculties to hear confession, celebrate mass, preach and the like.

I guess now I will stop forgetting who I am!

If I do forget, all I'll have to do is open my wallet:

These are just the one's with my picture on them!

(The one on the top right has my picture on the back.)

I guess I will need a bigger wallet!

Villa Borghese

2008-11-19T14:05:00.000+01:00

This past Saturday, after feeling a bit of the cabin fever from the rain and the books, I decided to go out for a walk in the city. I headed towards the Villa Borghese, the second largest public park in Rome. It is a beautiful park full of gardens and monuments. I entered the park by the Porta Pinciana - the ancient Roman gate at the North of the City (it is just a ten minute walk from the Casa Santa Maria). Here is a picture to show you what the ancient walls look like:

There are plenty of trails and roads to walk around. There are 148 acres in the park! There are some nice overlooks of downtown Rome also, the Pincio hill sitting just above the Piazza del Popolo.

And there are many trees to be seen, but hardly any that have changing colors.

Here is a typical shot that I took at the Piazza di Siena :

And then finally, I saw some fall colors!:

Cool Fall Weather

2008-11-12T19:49:00.001+01:00

Well, the weather is finally starting to turn cool. It is about time, because last week it was wet and muggy from all the rain. This week marks a sharp down turn in the temperature. The weather in Rome never gets too cold and it hardly ever snows. But it is always nice to have the semblance of a change of seasons. I sure do miss the fall colors back home (I am guessing that they are almost gone by now:-(

Anyway, classes are still going well and there is still lots of reading to be done. That's why there haven't been many posts lately. But I did take one picture of the interior of the Gregorian Universtiy where I study and thought I would share that with you:

My classes are on the upper floor (which in Italian is the 1st floor - the 1st floor American being called the Ground Floor)

Libri legendi - pars secunda, et de Sancto Thome More

2008-11-07T17:32:00.000+01:00

As you can tell from the title today was a latin day. Still plodding through the details and precision of the language of the ages!

On top of that, the books and notes never stop piling up to be read!

Here is another shot of my little study corner:

Here is a nice shot of one the 'dispense' that we have been give for Fr. Hilbert's class. It helps to follow his lectures:

Above my desk I have hanging a picture of St. Thomas More:

St. Thomas More, Martyr (Patron of Lawyers) St. Thomas More was born at London in 1478. After a thorough grounding in religion and the classics, he entered Oxford to study law. Upon leaving the university he embarked on a legal career which took him to Parliament. In 1505, he married his beloved Jane Colt who bore him four children, andwhen she died at a young age, he married a widow, Alice Middleton, to be a mother for his young children. A wit and a reformer, this learned man numbered Bishops and scholars among his friends, and by 1516 wrote his world-famous book "Utopia". He attracted the attention of Henry VIII who appointed him to a succession of high posts and missions, and finally made him Lord Chancellor in 1529. However, he resigned in 1532, at the height of his career and reputation, when Henry persisted in holding his own opinions regarding marriage and the supremacy of the Pope. The rest of his life was spent in writing mostly in defense of the Church. In 1534, with his close friend, St. John Fisher, he refused to render allegiance to the King as the Head of the Church of England and was confined to the Tower. Fifteen months later, and nine days after St. John Fisher's execution, he was tried and convicted of treason. He told the court that he could not go against his conscience and wished his judges that "we may yet hereafter in heaven merrily all meet together to everlasting salvation." And on the scaffold, he told the crowd of spectators that he was dying as "the King's good servant-but God's first." He was beheaded on July 6, 1535. His feast day is June 22nd.

http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=324

St. Thomas More pray for us!

Fr. Jaki Talk

2008-11-05T21:34:00.000+01:00

Every once in a while we get the opportunity here at the Casa Santa Maria to have a speaker of note come to enlighten us on a particular subject. This evening we had the privilege of hearing Fr. Stanley Jaki, a Benedictine priest, theologian and physicist. He was a Gifford Lecturer and in 1987 received the Templeton Prize. He has written over 50 books.

Tonight he spoke to us about John Henry Cardinal Newman; a convert to the Catholic Faith through the Oxford movement in the Anglican Church in the 19th century. There is a lot of talk about Newman in many circles and it was interesting to hear this scholar's take on the subject.

Pope Sighting

2008-11-02T19:37:00.000+01:00

Sorry about the long time in between posting. We have begun some of our intensive classes on administrative practices and so it means evenings are taken up for a while! But that doesn't mean that I haven't been able to get out and about!

This past Thursday the Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education said mass in St. Peter's for the new academic year and all the students of the Athenea and Ecclesiastical Universities of Rome were invited. I was tempted not to go because it was raining(and it rained hard -I got soaked to the bone and my cassock weighed a ton because the wool had soaked up all that water!). But that afternoon I was over at Santa Croce for a meeting and one of the priest professors there came up to me and asked me if I was going to the mass - I hemmed and hawed - but then he said, well, you can't pass this opportunity up and handed me a main concelebration ticket of which there were only about 100, i.e. a front row seat! Turns out, these were given only to professors. But apparently some didn't want to go and had done the same thing as this one at Santa Croce. Anyway, what an opportunity! I got to vest and process in for the mass. I even got a front row seat:

Now of course this was taken after mass! But it is where I was seated.

At the end of mass, we all remained in our places because the Pope came to give us a talk. That is what made my seating so awesome! He came and stood not ten feet away from where I was seated:

And no, to anyone who asks - I wasn't able to shake his hand - even though I had a white main concelebrant ticket I didn't have a golden ticket (cue the music from Charlie and the Choclate Factory). Literally, I didn't have the yellowish gold shake-the-pope's-hand ticket. These were reserved to the rectors of the universities. But being that close was good enough for me! And to think, I wasn't even going to go.

To top it all off, afterwards when we divested, we were able to go right up to the Pieta of Michelangelo (i.e. behind the glass wall protecting it).

Notice that there is no glass between me and the Pieta!

That little set of events brought me back up after a grueling week of classes and the rainy weather. Deo Gratias!

Libri Legendi

2008-10-29T14:53:00.000+01:00

Now that classes are in full force (three weeks in) I am starting to feel the weight of study, namely the heavy books I am reading!

Here is a picture of some of the books and dispense I am trying to get through before the middle of the semester.

You may ask what is a dispense? It is an Italian word, pronounced dis-pen-say. They are official - and sometimes unofficial- class notes from the professor that help fill in what the lecture leaves-presumably-to the imagination:-)

Here is a nice shot of my little study corner:

Now with my new room I have room to breath and to spread out a little to do my studying.

And of course there are many more books waiting to be read on the bookshelf!

Visitors and Vespers

2008-10-27T11:02:00.001+01:00

As you might have been able to tell from the blog lots of people come through Rome. I enjoy getting to see people from back home and showing them around this wonderful city! I love to get a chance to go out for a nice meal as well:) Well anyway, Jerry and Ann Bodie from Knoxville came through and I was able to meet them for lunch on Saturday:

On Sunday I got to go to Vespers at St. Peter's Basilica. All priests are invited to sit in choir with the Canons of St. Peter. It is a beautiful liturgy with copes and incense everywhere - all for the Glory of God and for giving Him praise!

Here I am in the Sacristy getting ready:

Here's another picture of the sacristy and all the goings-on:

Vespers take place at the Altar of the Chair:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedra_Petri

To give you some idea of the grandness of St. Peter's, this chapel (the altar of the chair) is just the apse of the Church (apse: normally where the main altar and tabernacle are in your average parish Church). It can seat a thousand people easily!

Classroom and Library

2008-10-24T17:31:00.000+02:00

Classes are in full swing now so I thought I might give you a glimpse of what our classroom looks like. For the Second Cycle Canon Law program (J.C.L.) we all meet in one classroom for all our classes. Unlike most Universities that I know of where the professors have their own classrooms and the students come and go, here at the Gregorian it usually works out that the students have their own classroom and the professors come and go. This makes breaks in between classes nice because you can just leave your stuff spread out on the desk and not have to pack things up every hour. On the other hand, being in the same room sometimes gets a bit tedious!

Here we have Fr. Hilbert our Dean about to introduce Fr. Visioli a new professor on the faculty:

I also included this picture because if you look closely on the right you can see one of the nuns that we have in class - she happens to be a Bridgitine Sister. You can tell because of their distinctive habit: notice the 'crown' on her veil. The crown has marking on it to signify the five wounds of Christ on the Cross. There are all sorts of little things like that that make studying at a Pontifical University fascinating! When you walk through the halls you see all sorts of habits and clothing from around the world - its very colorful. There is the black of the secular clergy, the brown of the Fransicans, the Black and White of the Cistersians, the white of the Dominicans, the blue of an order of sisters from Africa (whose name I can't recall because we just always called them the 'blue sisters':) and many others.

Below is a picture of the reading room of the Library. I used to love going up into the bookstacks and reading when I was here before:

Visitors from Chattanooga

2008-10-22T20:42:00.000+02:00

I haven't posted in a couple of days because school is in full swing now and there isn't much time for leisure posting! But all the same, there is still time to greet pilgrims to the eternal city.

This past weekend Glen and Karen Griffiths came into town. They are parishioners at St. Jude in Chattanooga. I had the opportunity to spend some time with them on Sunday.

Here we are standing in front of St. Peter's:

We took a nice cruise down the Tiber river:

After a nice lunch and a lot of walking we made our way over to St. John Lateran and the Scala Santa:

The Scala Santa are the steps that Jesus walked up when he entered the Praetorium of Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem. They were brought to Rome by St. Helen, the mother of Constantine, and reconstructed. A shrine was built around them that sits across the street from St. John Lateran. As you climb the stairs on your knees (as is the traditional custom, you can see this in the picture) you look up to see a beautiful depiction of Jesus crucified with Mary and John under the cross. It is a beautiful meditation on the passion of Christ. After all, Jesus knew that he was going to His death, He had predicted it, and so as He walked up those steps He was doing it for you and I! What depth of love is found in the passion of our Lord!

After that we had a nice walk back through the Forum. It was really a nice visit. Today, Wednesday, they had a chance to see the Holy Father in his general audience. It is always nice to meet up with good folks from home. It makes Tennessee seem so much closer!

Opening Banquet

2008-10-18T22:32:00.000+02:00

Tonight we had our opening banquet to kick-off the new year. Now that classes are in full swing at all the Roman Universities it is time to celebrate the official opening of the academic year for the students of the Casa Santa Maria.

First we had Mass, with His Eminence Cardinal George, Archbishop of Chicago celebrating. We also had Archbishop O'Brien, Archbishop of Baltimore and Chairman of the Board of Directors for the North American College, as Main Concelebrant.

Archbishop O'Brien blessed our jubilee bell:

This bell is being installed in our bell tower to mark the 150th anniversary (next year) of the North American College (founded in 1859 by Pope Pius IX)

You can see the NAC crest stamped on the bell:

On the backside is the crest of His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI:

Viva Il Papa!

Then of course we had a nice reception:

Followed by a very nice meal (the dessert was Baked Alaska!)

and then a pleasant digestivo in the cortile.

I Won!

2008-10-18T22:12:00.000+02:00

This morning the priests of the house held the Fall 'Room Lottery'. This is a tri-annual ritual in which the lower class priest (new-men) vie for some 'upper-class'. The new men, when they first come, are given rooms with the least 'property value' so that they can work themselves up year by year into the upper-end real estate at the Casa Santa Maria. Now as you may remember from one of my first posts, my room was very much on the lower side of the 'real estate' at the Casa Santa Maria (I could almost touch both walls if I spread my arms out). But today, I came out with a substantial upgrade (mostly due to lack of participation on the part of many upperclassmen who apparently were happy with their rooms, all the better for me:)

I wasn't expecting much at first, seeing that my name was third from the bottom of the list. The system is this: Each priest is ranked according to ordination date and time spent at the Casa Santa Maria. There are Seventy-two priests on the list of varying ages and backgrounds. Now I have been ordained for three years and this is my first semester at the Casa, hence third from the bottom:

But lucky for me, most of the upperclassmen didn't show up to get a new room so the list ran through pretty quickly and I found myself with a choice of some very nice rooms. I decided to choose room 202-204; a double room with quite a bit of space (each of the rooms in this particular choice is bigger than my original room!!!)

Here are some pictures of the room before I moved in:

I will post some more when I get settled in and have things arranged. Needless to say, I am happy with this little move as now I can actually stretch without being afraid of knocking something over!:)

Now of course this means I will have a different phone number. I don't know yet how that works but I will make a post when that comes into effect. Until then, you can still call my old number and I will check those messages.

Vote! It's actually a Christian Duty

2008-10-16T16:43:00.000+02:00

Well folks, the vote is in - at least for me that is. This morning I received my absentee ballot from Hamilton County. It is probably the only one that they sent to a Vatican City address! It will probably give someone in the courthouse a little chuckle or something to brag about; "I got to process a voter ballot from the Vatican!" or something like that! Well anyway, I personally walked it down to St. Peter's and dropped it in the mail box:

And now I must say a few words to encourage the faithful:

As you may or may not know, Participation in the life of society (and that means in politics too) is one of the permanent principles of the Social Doctrine of the Church. We as Christians are called to make our voices and values known to the world at large. A Christian is not and cannot be a relativist and we don't have the luxury of saying, "I'm okay, you're okay!" We cannot profess one thing to be true and yet hold that its opposite can also be true. This comes to a head when dealing with society at large.

Ours is a task dedicated to the redemption of humanity, because we are one body in Christ! We hold the truths of our faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore we hold the truth about human nature revealed in 'the-Word-made-flesh', to be true not only for us but for all. We believe what we believe because we believe it to be TRUE! The apostolic ministry of preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ is all about sharing this truth with humanity. Sharing it as the truth that will set us free and not simply as a suggestion or optional practice in order to be 'good' or simply for the right ordering of society.

This is especially important to keep in mind when dealing with the public arena and politics. Our faith is not and can never be 'merely a private matter!'. I seem to recall a passage from scripture, "But he that shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven" Matthew 10:33 Politicians have a grave ethical and moral duty to be faithful to the Truth even if it is unpopular if not for themselves then for the greater good, otherwise they lack integrity and credibility and society suffers as a result. Catholic Politicians have an even more grave responsibility to this reality. They profess to believe what the Catholic Church holds and teaches as necessary and binding on all the faithful for their salvation in matter of faith and morals. To act contrary to this would be a grave offense against their own souls and would be injurious to the whole Church as well by introducing public scandal to the faithful. "It were better for him, that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should scandalize one of these little ones." Luke 17:2 As you can see, this is not just a mere personal opinion - this comes from the mouth of God-made-man, Jesus Christ.

As for us citizens, we too have a grave obligation to be faithful to this truth. I include here in this post a letter from the Bishops of Dallas and Fort Worth. It is worth a read-through and a serious consideration as this election gets nearer. I chose it among all the many statement of the bishops (which are many and pretty much say the same thing) because it gets right to the heart of the issue while addressing all the other arguments that people tend to make. Remember, it is not easy to be a follower of Jesus Christ, sometimes it means the cross, or sometimes it means choosing a candidate who is not 'our cup of tea', who may not represent our full spectrum of beliefs or values in all of its many facets but at the bottom gets the most important and foundational truth right. The Church does propose a way through this mess that we can count on, a way based in the truth of our faith, based not in politics or agendas, based not even on necessarily sectarian religious creed, but on a reasoned and grounded humanism that is based on the Natural Law.

This letter is powerful and direct. I took the liberty to bold and underline some sections. And so without further ado, here is the letter:

Office of the Bishop Office of the Bishop

Diocese of Dallas Diocese of Fort Worth

October 8, 2008

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

The month of October is Respect Life Month in our churches. It is a time in which we as Catholics are called to reflect upon the gift of life that has been entrusted to us by our Creator and to focus our attention on the many attacks against human life that exist in our culture today. This year, Respect Life Month takes on a more profound meaning as we face an election in our country where the protection of human life itself, particularly that of the unborn, is very much at stake. Therefore, as your Bishops, we wish to take this opportunity to provide clear guidance on the proper formation of conscience concerning voting as faithful Catholics and to articulate the Church’s clear and unambiguous teaching on life issues as they relate to other issues of concern.

The Church teaches that all Catholics should participate as “faithful citizens” in the public square, especially through our voice in the voting booth, and that we have the responsibility to treat the decision for whom we will vote for with profound moral seriousness. We must approach the right and duty to vote with a properly formed and informed conscience in accordance with the teachings of the Church. Last November, the Bishops of the United States issued a document entitled Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, in which we and our brother Bishops issued clear moral guidelines to aid the faithful in proper formation of conscience with regard to the many issues we face in our nation today. Through this joint statement to the faithful of Dallas and Fort Worth, we seek to briefly summarize the key points and dispel any confusion or misunderstanding that may be present among you concerning the teaching contained in the document, especially that which may have arisen from recent public misinterpretation

concerning this teaching.

1. Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship clearly teaches that not all issues have the same moral equivalence. Some issues involve “intrinsic evils”; that is, they can never under any circumstance or condition be morally justified. Preeminent among these intrinsic evils are legalized abortion, the promotion

of same sex unions and “marriages”, repression of religious liberty, as well as public policies permitting euthanasia, racial discrimination or destructive human embryonic stem cell research.

Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship clearly states:

“There are some things we must never do, as individuals or as a society, because they are always incompatible with love of God and neighbor. Such actions are so deeply flawed that they are always opposed to the authentic good of persons. These are called ‘intrinsically evil’ actions. They must always be rejected and opposed and must never be supported or condoned. A prime example is the intentional taking of innocent human life, as in abortion and euthanasia. In our nation,

‘abortion and euthanasia have become preeminent threats to human dignity because they directly attack life itself, the most fundamental human good and the condition for all others’ (Living the Gospel of Life, no. 5). It is a mistake with grave moral consequences to treat the destruction of innocent human life merely as a matter of individual choice. A legal system that violates the basic right to life on the grounds of choice is fundamentally flawed.” (22)

2. The destruction of the most innocent of human life through abortion and embryonic stem cell research not only undercuts the basic human right to life, but it also subverts and distorts the common good. As Pope

John Paul II clearly states:

“Disregard for the right to life, precisely because it leads to the killing of the person whom society exists to serve, is what most directly conflicts with the possibility of achieving the common good… It is impossible to further the common good without acknowledging and defending the right to life,

upon which all the other inalienable rights of individuals are founded and from which they develop…” (The Gospel of Life, 72; 101)

3. Therefore, we cannot make more clear the seriousness of the overriding issue of abortion – while not the “only issue” – it is the defining moral issue, not only today, but of the last 35 years. Since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, more than 48 million innocent lives have been lost. Each year in our nation more than one million lives are lost through legalized abortion. Countless other lives are also lost through embryonic stem cell research. In the coming months our nation will once again elect our political leaders. This electoral cycle affords us an opportunity to promote the culture of life in our nation. As Catholics we are morally obligated to pray, to act, and to vote to abolish the evil of abortion in America, limiting it as much as we can until it is finally abolished.

4. As Catholics we are faced with a number of issues that are of concern and should be addressed, such as immigration reform, healthcare, the economy and its solvency, care and concern for the poor, and the war on terror. As Catholics we must be concerned about these issues and work to see that just solutions are brought about. There are many possible solutions to these issues and there can be reasonable debate among Catholics on how to best approach and solve them. These are matters of “prudential judgment.” But let us be clear: issues of prudential judgment are not morally equivalent to issues involving intrinsic evils. No matter how right a given candidate is on any of these issues, it does not outweigh a candidate’s unacceptable position in favor of an intrinsic evil such as abortion or the protection of “abortion rights.”

As Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship states:

“The direct and intentional destruction of innocent human life from the moment of conception until natural death is always wrong and is not just one issue among many. It must always be opposed.” (28)

5. Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, in paragraphs 34-37, addresses the question of whether it is morally permissible for a Catholic to vote for a candidate who supports an intrinsic evil – even when the voter does not agree with the candidate’s position on that evil. The only moral possibilities for a Catholic to

be able to vote in good conscience for a candidate who supports this intrinsic evil are the following:

a. If both candidates running for office support abortion or “abortion rights,” a Catholic would be forced to then look at the other important issues and through their vote try to limit the evil done; or,

b. If another intrinsic evil outweighs the evil of abortion. While this is sound moral reasoning, there are no “truly grave moral” or “proportionate” reasons, singularly or combined, that could outweigh the millions of innocent human lives that are directly killed by legal abortion each year.

To vote for a candidate who supports the intrinsic evil of abortion or “abortion rights” when there is a morally acceptable alternative would be to cooperate in the evil – and, therefore, morally impermissible.

6. In conclusion, as stated in Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, the decisions we make on these political and moral issues affect not only the general peace and prosperity of society at large, but also may affect each individual’s salvation. As Catholics, we must treat our political choices with appropriate moral gravity and in doing so, realize our continuing and unavoidable obligation to be a voice for the voiceless unborn, whose destruction by legal abortion is the preeminent intrinsic evil of our day. With knowledge of the Church’s teaching on these grave matters, it is incumbent upon each of us as Catholics to educate ourselves on where the candidates running for office stand on these issues, particularly those involving intrinsic evils. May God bless you.

Faithfully in Christ,

Most Reverend Kevin J. Farrell

Bishop of Dallas

Most Reverend Kevin W. Vann

Bishop of Fort Worth

A little Reunion

2008-10-16T09:30:00.000+02:00

Last night I had the privilege of getting together with a couple of my classmates from my time here in Rome. They were here for the Diaconate ordinations last week and were still here for a little R&R. They are both from Little Rock, Arkansas. On the right is Fr. Jason Tyler on the left is Mr. Matthew Glover, Esq. (I put that in there because he just passed his bar exam!) Matt decided to leave the seminary before ordination, at the end of our third year. He went back to pursue a career in the legal profession - and his wife is taking the picture. I had the great priviledge of going to both Fr. Jason's ordination to the Priesthood as well as Matt and Brooke's wedding. It really was good to see them again, and to eat at one of the old NAC hang-outs: Scarpone on the Gianiculum Hill

Oh, well, I guess I have to get back to my studies now. I actually have homework to do!

Third Day of Class

2008-10-15T12:46:00.000+02:00

Just to keep the post up to date - I just had my third day of class and things are going well. My studies this semester are concentrating on two areas of the code: Marriage Law and Procedural Law. Two huge areas to cover. But I had the great priveledge of working at our Inter-diocesan Marriage Tribunal this past year and summer which gave me a great head start on the subject matter. Hopefully I can build on this as I begin an in depth study of these areas.

Here are some nice pictures of my 'text book'

You can see its a little worn from my previous year of study

and already full of underlines and notes - not the last, however!

Brother Benedict's Ordination

2008-10-13T16:39:00.000+02:00

You may remember the post I made about the Catholic Moment: A Catholic Moment

Well, I was able to go back up to Norcia over this past weekend for Brother, now Father Benedict's priestly ordination. There were quite a few concelebrants among them are the ones shown below in the picture:

Fr. Joseph Carola S.J. (on the right) was my Patristics Professor (patristics is the study of the fathers of the church, Augustine, Justin Martyr, Ignatius of Antioch, Ireneus of Lyons, etc.) when I was here doing my first cycle of studies; a great priest and a great teacher! It was wonderful to reconnect with him.

The church is universal and sometimes very colorful as evidenced by the Canons Regular of Klosterneuburg in Austria in their choir dress.

Fr. Elias (on the left) lives at the Casa Santa Maria with me.

After the ordination, Fr. Benedict gave the customary first blessing:

It was really a wonderful day for all. Though on the walk to the Pranzo I sprained my ankle - it is healing now but it gave me a shock!

First Day of Class

2008-10-13T16:24:00.000+02:00

Just a little post to keep everyone informed:

In case you were wondering, "When is this guy ever going to start class?" You will be happy to know that today, October 13, 2008, I officially started class! We just had a simple day of introductions, a methodology class and of course Latin! (which I will be taking till the day I die) The code of canon law is written in latin and so it is the latin text which is in effect and must be known upwards and downwards in its original language! Another layer of this reality is that all the course work that focuses on the latin language of the code is taught in Italian!!!

Not to worry. I think I will make it though:) I am pleasantly surprised at how well the transition has been. Coming back after a hiatus isn't as bad as starting something new for the first time. So I have been able to ease myself back into the Roman environment and language well enough and I look forward to the year.

Here is a nice shot of the front entrance to the Gregorian University:

Oremus pro Invicem

Diaconal Ordination at St. Peter's and dinner following

2008-10-09T21:55:00.000+02:00

I just got back from the diaconal ordination for the North American College (seminary division). 25 men from around the U.S.A. were ordained as transitional deacons. This is the event that everyone looks forward to as they prepare themselves for priestly ministry. The Diaconate is where the promises of the liturgy of the hours, obedience and celibacy are made. An awesome and radical commitement to follow Christ and to become a coworker in the apostolic ministry of proclaiming the word. It was held in St. Peter's Basilica at the Altar of the Chair:

I don't have pictures of the ordination because I thought it would be rude and irreverent for me to take my camera out during the liturgy. I will post some pictures when they have the official ones up on the pnac website. Until then you can probably see last years pictures on www.pnac.org

But I did take a few pictures of the cena and gelato that followed:

Myself and a good Holy Cross father (we both had the Caprese)

After a long and very beautifully celebrated ordination there is nothing like a great meal (some grappa) and a little gelato to round it all off! Good times!

A Catholic Moment

2008-10-09T10:52:00.001+02:00

This entry is a 'backlog' Literally - a weblog that should have been posted a week back: backlog!

It is about the unity of our faith but in concrete terms. When you are a member of one body (mystical body of Christ) with a billion bodies across the globe (not to mention the ranks upon ranks in the church purgative and triumphant in heaven) you may think the world a large place. Au contraire - the Catholic Church in fact makes the world a smaller place - which brings people together (communion) under the strangest of conditions.

Anyway - I was chided recently in an e-mail (very gently of course) by a good priest from Shreveport, LA for not mentioning such a surprise encounter I had with him and a group of people from Shreveport here in Italy on pilgrimage! and rightly so . . .

So there I was in Norcia, a remote valley town in the mountains of Italy. I was retreating and praying and being holy and all 0:) when all of sudden who sits down beside me in the monastic chapel but Fr. Peter Mangum of Shreveport!?! (Now some may or may not know that my family is originally from Shreveport, Louisiana) Now the last time I was in town visiting relatives he had told me that he was bringing a group with him to Italy, but it was still a surprise to look up and see him sitting next to me!

He and a few of the pilgrims had broken off from the rest of their tour group to take a side trip to Norcia in order to see an old friend of theirs, Brother Benedict. Brother Benedict is a monk of the abbey where I was doing my retreat. He is also about to be ordained a priest (this Saturday to be precise) Here is where it gets even more Catholic - he attended the University of the South in Sewanee, TN (Diocese of Nashville, near Mont Eagle but still near enough that priests of the Diocese of Knoxville fill in masses there) where after a conversion he made a profession of faith and entered into full communion with the Catholic Church. He went to school there with some friends, a brother and sister from, of all places, Shreveport, LA who had also converted to the Catholic Faith. So what are the chances of all of these people converging on one remote place and all at the same time? Pretty low if left by itself, but if you factor in the great grace that Jesus Christ founded a Church that was intended to go to the four corners of the world, you get pretty good odds.

So there we were, a strange collage of acquaintance in a remote valley of Italy - gathered because we have come to know and to believe in Jesus Christ and His Church! Well, we all piled into the monastery's car: there were six of us - myself, Fr. Peter and his nephew (il furbo), Mrs. Walker and her daughter (one of the friends from Shreveport/Sewanee) and Brother Benedict who drove us up to Castellucio for a nice pranzo (lunch) at the Refugio, a stop along the Great Ring Trail of the Monti Sibillini.

On the way back we stopped to get a picture - here is an artistic shot. I am taking a picture of Fr. Peter taking a picture of Brother Bendedict and Mrs. and Ms. Walker as they stand before the picture of the grandeur of God - His creation!

Sorry for being so poetic - but sometimes you just have to be when it's a Catholic Moment such as this:)

Confessions at Santa Maria in Trastevere

2008-10-09T07:49:00.000+02:00

Yesterday evening I had the opportunity to help out, along with eleven other priests here in town, with confessions for a group of pilgrims from Bismark, North Dakota. They were in town for the diaconal ordination of some of their seminarians studying at the North American College. (That takes place today - October 9th). It was great being able to exercise again my priestly faculties. What a great gift confession is - the personal experience of the forgiveness that Christ won for us on the Cross. My favorite teaching about confession is found in the catechism paragraph 1470:

"In this sacrament, the sinner, placing himself before the merciful judgment of God, anticipates in a certain way the judgment to which he will be subjected at the end of his earthly life. For it is now, in this life, that we are offered the choice between life and death, and it is only by the road of conversion that we can enter the Kingdom, from which one is excluded by grave sin." The reality is that we will all have to face judgment one day - But in God's mercy He has given us this sacrament as a sort of 'Installment Plan' :)

Anyway, here is a picture of the Facade of Santa Maria in Trastevere with two of my fellow Casites in the foreground (nomenclature: Casite - n. one who dwells at the Casa Santa Maria. pr. like Hittite or cenobite):

The Wikipedia entry for Santa Maria in Trastevere:

The basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere is one of the oldest churches in Rome, perhaps the first in which mass was openly celebrated. The basic floor plan and wall structure of the church date back to the 340s AD.

This is the queen of the churches in Trastevere. The inscription on the episcopal chair says that it is the first church dedicated to the Mother of God, although actually that privilege belongs to Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. In its foundation it is certainly one of the oldest churches in the city. A Christian house-church was founded here about 220 by Pope St. Callixtus I (217-222) on the site of the Taberna meritoria, an asylum for retired soldiers. The area was given over to Christian use by the Emperor Severus when he settled a dispute between the Christians and tavern-keepers, saying, “I prefer that it should belong to those who honor God, whatever be their form of worship.” In 340 Pope Julius I (337-352) rebuilt the titulus Callixti on a larger scale, and it became the titulus Iulii commemorating his patronage, one of the original twenty-five parishes in Rome; indeed it may be the first church in which Mass was celebrated openly. It underwent two restorations in the fifth and eighth centuries. In 1140-43 the church was re-erected on its old foundations under Innocent II[1] The richly carved Ionic capitals reused along its nave were pillaged from the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla.[2] When scholarship during the nineteenth century identified the faces in their carved decoration as Isis, Serapis and Harpocrates, a restoration under Pius IX in 1870 hammered off the offending faces.[3]

The 13th-century mosaics in the apse are attributed to Pietro Cavallini.

The predecessor of the present church was probably built in the early fourth century although that church was the successor to one of the tituli, those Early Christian basilicas that were ascribed to a patron and perhaps literally inscribed with his name. Though nothing remains to establish with certainty where any of the public Christian edifices of Rome before the time of Constantine the Great were situated, the basilica on this site was known as Titulus Callisti, since a legend in the Liber Pontificalis ascribed the earliest church here to a foundation by Pope Callixtus I (died 222), whose remains, translated to the new structure, are preserved under the altar.

The present nave of this Romanesque church, rebuilt by Pope Innocent II (1138 –1148) and rededicated to the Virgin Mary, preserves its original basilica plan and stands on the earlier foundations. The 22 granite columns with Ionic and Corinthian capitals that separate the nave from the aisles came from the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla, as did the lintel of the entrance door.

Inside the church are a number of late 13th-century mosaics by Pietro Cavallini on the subject of the Life of the Virgin (1291) centering on a "Corontation of the Virgin" in the apse. Domenichino's octagonal ceiling painting, Assumption of the Virgin (1617) fits in the coffered ceiling setting he designed.

The façade of the church was restored by Carlo Fontana in 1702, who replaced the ancient porch with a sloping tiled roof— seen in Falda's view (upper right)— with the present classicizing one (below right). The octagonal fountain in the piazza in front of the church (Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere), which already appears in a map of 1472 [1], was also restored by Carlo Fontana. The image of Mary on the façade is believed to be the earliest iconographic depiction of the Virgin nursing Jesus.

The church keeps a relic of Saint Apollonia, her head, as well as a portion of the Holy Sponge. Among those buried in the church, are the relics of Pope Callixtus I and the body of Lorenzo Cardinal Campeggio.

Here is a picture of the interior - it is very beautiful!

I got to use a traditional confessional, a.k.a. 'the box' - very fine indeed!

Near Santa Maria in Trastevere is the famous Communita di Sant'Egidio whose main apostolate is serving the poor.

From their website: http://www.santegidio.org/en/contatto/cosa_e.html

The Community of Sant'Egidio began in Rome in 1968, at the initiative of a young man, who was then less than twenty, Andrea Riccardi. He gathered a group of high-school students, like himself, to listen to and to put the Gospel into practice. The first Christian communities of the Acts of the Apostles and Francis of Assisi were the first reference points.The small group immediately began going to the outskirts of Rome visiting the slums, then crowded with many poor people, and they began an afternoon school (its name was "Scuola Popolare" -People's School-, nowadays "Schools of peace") for children. Since then the community has increased. It is now in more than 70 countries in 4 continents. The number of community members is also constantly growing. There are about 50.000 members as well as many more who are permanently co-operating in the service to poor people and in the various activities of Sant'Egidio without being part of the community in a strict sense. There is also a large number of persons reached by the various activities of service that the community performs.

I believe they serve meals to over a thousand people a day at their soup kitchen here in Trastevere. What a beautiful gift this community is to the church and to the world!

Motorino Sightseeing

2008-10-08T15:33:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I took the day to go sight-seeing (no I wasn't skipping class! They don't start till next week!) Sightseeing can take alot out of you especially in Rome where you have to walk everywhere. Instead of walking, I decided to rent a motorino (relatively cheap) and proceeded to see the sights. Now some of you might say, "but isn't driving in Italy crazy???" The answer is simply, Yes, but if you join into the craziness it is more like dancing . . . literally. Cars, busses and motorini do a sort of dance through the streets of Rome, every once in a while there is a traffic light that is sort of like musical chairs - the music stops and everyone has to find a place to park for a second. And find places they do (usually though, the motorini get to inch their way forward in between cars and busses to get to the front of the line. Then when the light changes you would have thought it was a pistol start at a Track and Field meet!

But anyway, I had a motorino the last year that I was here before so it was like, well, like riding a bike - I just picked up right where I had left off.

I rode to some of my old hang-outs, like the top of the Gianiculum Hill where I took this picture:

And yes, I was wearing a helmet!

That's St. John Lateran behind me.

This is what it looked like from my perspective:

Anyway, the advantage of riding a motorino is that you can really see the whole city in one day. I started by just cruising around the Vatican then I went over towards the Forum and Colloseum. I went up the Esquiline Hill to Visit St. Mary Major and St. Peter in Chains. It was too dark inside St. Mary Major to get any good pictures but it is a truly beautiful church. I will have to post more on that later.

Here is a picture of the relics of St. Peter's chains in the church of the same name:

The Wikipedia entry for St. Peter in Chains:

"Also known as the Basilica Eudoxiana, it was first built in 432-440 to house the relic of the chains that boundSaint Peter when he was imprisoned in Jerusalem. According to legend, when the Empress Eudoxia (wife of Emperor Valentinian III) gifted the chains to Pope Leo I, while he compared them to the chains of St. Peter's final imprisonment in the Mamertine Prison in Rome, the two chains miraculously fused together. The chains are kept in a reliquary under the main altar in the basilica."

Here is the famous statue of Moses by Michelangelo located in one of the transepts:

It was built as part of the funeral monument for Pope Julius II.

After that, I went for a drive to St. Paul outside the walls where I was on Sunday with the Pope. see the previous post on that St. Paul outside the Wall

It is located out on the via Ostiense (the road that goes to Ostia, i.e. the mouth of the Tiber River (Os, oris, noun meaning mouth)) After a little stop at St. Paul's burial place (the basilica itself) I drove out to Le Tre Fontane, the three fountains, which is the place where Paul was martyred for the faith. It is a beautiful place with a trappist abbey attached to it. The church is named 'three fountains' from the legend that when Paul was beheaded his head bounced three times down the hill and everytime it hit the ground a miraculous spring welled up from the ground! Here is the entrance to the Church:

You can see the old Roman pavement which has been preserved for 2000 years!

The Romans were excellent engineers!

After 'Le Tre Fontane' I went over to the Catacombs of St. Sebastian. Here is a beautiful statue carved of St. Sebastian depicting his arrow pierced body:

St. Sebastian

According to his legend, Sebastian was born at Narbonne, Gaul. He became a soldier in the Roman army at Rome in about 283, and encouraged Marcellian and Marcus, undersentence of death, to remain firm in their faith. Sebastian made numerous converts: among them were the master of the rolls, Nicostratus, who was in charge of prisoners and his wife, Zoe, a deaf mute whom he cured; the jailer Claudius; Chromatius, Prefect of Rome, whom he cured of gout; and Chromatius' son, Tiburtius. Chromatius set the prisoners free, freed his slaves, and resigned as prefect.

Sebastian was named captain in the praetorian guards by Emperor Diocletian, as did Emperor Maximian when Diocletian went to the East. Neither knew that Sebastian was a Christian. When it was discovered during Maximian's persecution of the Christians that Sebastian was indeed a Christian, he was ordered executed. He was shot with arrows and left for dead, but when the widow of St. Castulus went to recover his body, she found he was still alive and nursed him back to health. Soon after, Sebastian intercepted the Emperor, denounced him for his cruelty to Christians, and was beaten to death on the Emperor's orders.

Saint Sebastian was venerated at Milan as early as the time of St. Ambrose and was buried on the Appian Way. He is patron of archers, athletes, and soldiers, and is appealed to for protection against plagues. http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=103

After St. Sebastian I had lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, Cecilia Matella. Then I was off to St. John Lateran which is actually the cathedral of Rome (not St. Peter's which is merely the 'papal chapel' :) In the Baldichino (the little thingy above the altar) are the heads of both Peter and Paul. The altar is believed to be the one on which Peter celebrated the mass as he broke bread with the Christians of Rome.

After St. John Lateran I tried to stop into Santa Croce where the relics of the Cross of Christ are kept but they had a concert going on inside. So I passed on to St. Lawrence outside the walls. The church was still closed from their afternoon closure so I hopped on over to the Campo Verano.

According to ancient Roman tradition, the Campo Verano, the main cemetery, lies outside the city walls on the Via Tiburtina (the road to Tivoli). The North American College has a mausoleum there and it contains the mortal remains of Frank Parater, a seminarian from Richmond, Virginia whose cause is up for canonization. Our mausoleum is the tall one in the center:

After a walk through the city of the dead I went back to see about St. Lawrence.

St. Lawrence martyr

Feastday: August 10

Saint Lawrence was one of seven deacons who were in charge of giving help to the poor and the needy. When a persecution broke out, Pope St. Sixtus was condemned to death. As he was led to execution, Lawrence followed him weeping, "Father, where are you going without your deacon?" he said. "I am not leaving you, my son," answered the Pope. "in three days you will follow me." Full of joy, Lawrence gave to the poor the rest of the money he had on hand and even sold expensive vessels to have more to give away.

The Prefect of Rome, a greedy pagan, thought the Church had a great fortune hidden away. So he ordered Lawrence to bring the Church's treasure to him. The Saint said he would, in three days. Then he went through the city and gathered together all the poor and sick people supported by the Church. When he showed them to the Prefect, he said: "This is the Church's treasure!"

In great anger, the Prefect condemned Lawrence to a slow, cruel death. The Saint was tied on top of an iron grill over a slow fire that roasted his flesh little by little, but Lawrence was burning with so much love of God that he almost did not feel the flames. In fact, God gave him so much strength and joy that he even joked. "Turn me over," he said to the judge. "I'm done on this side!" And just before he died, he said, "It's cooked enough now." Then he prayed that the city of Rome might be converted to Jesus and that the Catholic Faith might spread all over the world. After that, he went to receive the martyr's reward. Saint Lawrence's feast day is August 10th.

http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=366

Here is a picture of the outside of the Church:

Now the folks back at St. Jude will be interested in this. I noticed the banner on the far right pillar. I went up to investigate and it blew my mind. The good people of St. Jude in Chattanooga have been preparing all year to celebrate their 5oth anniversary (the parish was founded in 1958) I hope that it will be a spectacular celebration, but that great milestone limps in comparison to the jubilee that St. Lawrence is celebrating this year. The Church was found in the year 258, that means they are celebrating their 1750th anniversary!!!! Wow!

After St. Lawrence, I took a nice ride through town and then up the tiber for the Piazza del Popolo and then decided to call it a day!

So you can see from the length of this post that the motorino is a very fine way to see Rome without getting too tuckered out. If I were to have used public transport and or personal transport (feet) there is no way I could have covered all that territory in one day perhaps even in two . . . But as it is, I had a good day to remind me of the many saints and sinners (read here taxi drivers who cut you off ;) who have graced this beautiful eternal city!

Saint Cecilia

2008-10-06T09:36:00.000+02:00

For any choir members of the Divine Providence Schola Cantorum who might check this blog from time to time I post an entry on St. Cecilia the patroness of Music. We have a beautiful statue of her at the base of the main stairwell at the Casa Santa Maria:

Here is a little hagiography I found from the 'Catholic-Forum'

The Life of Saint Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr

Cecilia occupies a distringuished place amongst the Virgin-Martyrs crowned by the Church, and now following the Lamb in heaven.

Her name was inserted in the Canon of the Mass in the earliest times of Christianity, and it is also found in the most ancient calendars and martyrologies. In thefourth century a church was built in Rome, under the invocation of this Saint. This church was rebuilt by Pope Paschal the First, in the eighth century. At that time search was made in vain for the relics of the Saint, and it was generally believed that Astulphus, king of the Lombards, had carried them away when he pillaged Rome in 735. The Saint herself appeared in a dream to Pope Paschal the First, and commanded him to persevere in the search for her precious remains, and he at length found them in the cemetery, called after Saint Cecilia herself. The body was found enveloped in cloth of gold tissue, and at her feet were pieces of linen saturated with blood. The Pope translated her body along with those of Saints Valerian, Tiburcius, Maximus, and the holy Popes, Saint Urban and Saint Lucius, to the church sacred to the name of our Saint.

In 1599, eight centuries after this inhumation, the body of Saint Cecilia was discovered in a case of cypress wood, laid in a marble tomb. Pope Clement then caused a magnificent shrine of silver to be made for the holy relics, which still exists.

Let us now briefly relate the history of this Saint, which throws great light on the lives and martyrdom of Saint Valerian and Saint Tiburcius, who suffered along with her. Saint Cecilia was born at Rome, in the beginning of the third century. She was of a patrician family. It is not ascertained that her parents were Christians, but she indubitably was brought up in the faith. Gifted with wealth, genius, and beauty, the richest and noblest of the Roman youth sought her hand in marriage, but as Cecilia had made a vow of perpetual virginity, she stood aloof from all suitors. God was the only spouse who could satisfy her heart.

Cecilia loved music, and her history informs us that in her retirement from the pomps and transitory amusements of the world, she was wont to sing the praises of God, accompanying herself on various instruments. It was thus she poured forth her soul to God in strains of sweetest. melody. She would fain emlploy herself on earth as the Saints are employed in heaven; but all this felicity was fast approaching its term. Her parents disregarding the vow she had made, caused her to marry a young man of noble lineage, named Valerian. Cecilia obeyed her parents, but she was not the less faithful to her vow. God himself inspired her spouse to receive baptism; the sacrament was conferred on him by Pope Urban, whom the persecutors had driven to take shelter in the tombs of the martyrs. For this new Christian, God had already prepared a martyr's crown. Valerian's first act was to labor for the conversion of his brother Tiburtius, and in his holy work he was zealously assisted by Cecilia, who convinced him that the teachings of the pagans were merely chimerical fables. Soon afterwards Tiburtius received the sacrament of baptism at the hands of Pope Saint Urban. Thus did Christianity gain another champion who was soon to descend into the arena, and there win a martyr's palm.

Cecilia, Valerian, and Tiburtius spent their wealth in succoring the Christians whom the pagans had cast into prison: and they devoted much of their time to burying the bodies of the martyrs. Intelligence of these facts soon reached Almachius, prefect of Rome, who vainly sought to pervert Valerian and Tiburtius. To all his instances they replied thus:

"Hitherto, Almachius, we have been in deplorable error, adoring gods of wood and stone; but the true God has deigned to enlighten us and bring us to the Christian faith. Sooner or later, oh Almachius, you shall discover the folly of giving adoration to such insensate things."

On hearing this, Almachius ordered them to be scourged, and then to be handed over to a priest of Jupiter, who had orders to compel them to offer sacrifice to the statue of this fabulous god. The officer who led them to Jupiter's priest was named Maximus, and God had already begun to touch the heart of this man. Seeing a ray of joy beaming in the faces of the brothers, Maximus inquired how they could be cheerful at such a dreadful moment?

"Hear me, Maximus," replied Tiburtius, "we are going to enter into life eternal. This temporal state is replete with misery, but it has its term, sooner or later, for all of us. For the faithful, God has prepared a realm of never-ending happiness. The wicked must perish eternally; but Christ has promised to bestow the choicest blessings on those who lay down their lives for him."

On the instant Maximus declared his intention of becoming a Christian. That very night he received instructions from Cecilia, and prepared himself for baptism. Next day Tiburtius and Valerian were beheaded, and Maximus witnessing their execution, exclaimed - "Oh, what would I not give to share your triumph, ye blessed martyrs of Jesus Christ."

Almachius ordered him to be tortured, and he expired with eyes fixed on heaven, even while the executioner was causing him the intensest agonies.

Cecilia having now become sole mistress of her husband's property, sold it, and gave the money to the poor, for she knew that the day of her martyrdom was approaching. Dragged before Almachius, she scorned every proposal made to her. "What," said she, "are not your idols stone and marble? Has not Jesus, the Redeemer, promised eternal life to his faithful followers, and do you think me so stolid as to forfeit that eternal life for a few years of hollow remorseful pleasures ?" Upwards of 400 persons who heard these words embraced the Christian faith, and were baptized by Pope Saint Urban.

Cited once more to the tribunal of AImachius, and being told that it was her duty to obey the emperor, she replied: "God and His holy laws have the first and the most imperative claims to my obedience."

Thereon Almachius ordered her to be shut up in a stove, and when he learned that she was not dead, he sentenced her to be decapitated. Whether it was that the hand of the executioner trembled, or that God meant to glorify the courage of his servant, after receiving two sword-strokes, the head was but half severed. In this state the Saint lay weltering in her blood for three days, and, in fact, she implored God to grant her three days of life to console and animate the converts who swarmed round her. At length, on the third day (November 22nd, 232), her soul went to receive its glorious reward. Pope Urban assisted her in her last moments.

http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/ps4g06.htm

St. Paul outside the Wall

2008-10-05T20:52:00.000+02:00

This morning I had the opportunity to go out to the Church which was built over St. Paul's burial place to attend mass with the successor of St. Peter. St. Paul outside the Walls is actually my favorite Church in all of Rome. There is just something about it that draws me to it. Of Course St. Paul is considered one of the two Princes of the Apostles. He along with Peter are the most prominent evangelizers of the world and of Rome. And of course it was the blood of these two martyrs which was the seed of the faith planted in this hallowed ground.

Now this year happens to be dedicated by Pope Benedict as the year of St. Paul. St. Paul is responsible for a large number of the books in the New Testament in the form of his letters to the various churches he had evangelized as well as to particular people whom he knew. He even wrote a letter to the inhabitants of this very city (which would later be the place where he gained the crown of martyrdom). Here is a picture of St. Paul's Facade and his statue which dominates the entrance cortile:

We were all waiting to in the basilica for the opening mass of the Synod of Bishops being held here in Rome. They are studying the Word of God in the life and mission of the Church - no better place to start than at the tomb of the Word's most prominent and prolific expositor in the written form. Here is a picture of the crowd gathering and waiting in this beautiful basilica:

Rome is truly a Catholic City. I mean this in the sense of universality - the world becomes small when you enter the eternal city. This is the place where Catholic Christians from all over the world converge and intermingle. Every tribe and nation and tongue is represented in the Church, all the corners of the Earth find their center in the mission and ministry of the Holy See. But even for me it was a chance to reconnect. I ran into a ton of people I knew back when I was studying on the hill. One group in particular is the Little Sisters of the Lamb, a religious group coming out of France, whose charism is reliance on Divine Providence. They are extreme mendicants in that they won't accept monetary donations and live off begging for their sustenance. To travel around Europe that actually hitch-hike (in groups of course). A good friend of mine is associated with this order and has invited a group of them to Kansas City where he is a priest. It sure was good to see them, and they have invited me out to say mass at their chapel near the Santi Quattro Coronati church over past the Colosseum on your way to St. John Lateran.

The Pope entered and our hearts swelled knowing that here was Christ's vicar on earth passing by us. What an awesome reality to be so close to the visible sign of our unity as Catholic Christians!

Mass at St. Peter's

2008-10-03T21:37:00.000+02:00

Today we formally began our orientation to the Casa Santa Maria. Our first stop was mass at St. Peter's basilica this morning. It was threatening rain all day but held off till this evening but that is why there are some guys with umbrella's in their hands (in case you were wondering). Here we are walking towards St. Peter's:

This is a pilgrimage of sorts that we are making to the tomb of the apostle Peter. We are priests of Jesus Christ who founded His church on the rock, Peter. He had been given the great charge to strengthen his brethren. We approach his relics to ask for that strength through Peter's intercession, to pay our respects to those who have followed in the shoes of the fisherman, and to listen to the current custodian of the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

We got vested in the huge sacristy of St. Peter's. this little corridor is just a small part of the whole sacristy. Shown in the picture is Msgr. DeWayne who is our House Spiritual Director:

We had mass in the Hungarian Chapel which is located in the Crypt of St. Peter's only about 200 feet from St. Peter's tomb. Talk about a good start - we celebrated the votive mass of Sts. Peter and Paul the two princes of the apostles whose blood consecrated this holy city in the name of Jesus Christ- but now we have to go and do likewise!!! As the rite of ordination tells us, we must imitate what we celebrate!

Just around the corner we were able to pray at the tomb of Pope John Paul II the Great. He is buried within about 50 feet of the apostles tomb. Requiescat In Pace:

After mass we climbed up the Gianiculum Hill, some for the first time, others like me, with lots of memories flashing back. We were greeted and feed a fine breakfast at my old Alma Mater; the seminary division of the North American College. A lot of changes have taken place improving the campus - more updates on that later but for the time here is just a little picture to show the gran palazzo that used to be my home . . .

Registration Day

2008-10-01T14:38:00.000+02:00

Registration for anything in Italy is always a trying experience. But I would like to report a minor miracle that has happened here on this Feast of St. Therese of Lisieux . . . I registered, was inscribed and am paid up in full for the Gregorian University's second cycle studies in Canon Law AND IT ONLY TOOK THREE HOURS!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is usually a process that goes on for days with going back and forth to different offices and getting stamps and signatures from every person under the sun. But not this time! Deo Gratias!

First you have to Matriculate (that is, enroll yourself in the University). I had already done this in 2001 so my info was already in the system and it saved me probably a whole days worth of running around. Then you have to meet with the Superior of your residence and get his signature and stamp to proceed to the next step. The next step is (in the second cycle) to meet with the Dean and get his signature and stamp for your proposed course of study. This paper is then brought before the Faculty secretary for parousal and affirmation. It is then taken to the Academic Secretary for formal Inscription (resgistration). At this point you are officially in the system. But it ain't over yet! Because now you have to hike it up to the Economato (Business office) to pay for the course of studies (which actually turned out to be the easiest step of the whole process! go figure:). Did I mention that this only covers one year of study at a time. The process is repeated in full (except the matriculation thing) every year.

Here is a picture of us standing in line to get Msgr. Kelly's signature.

I must note that only two of us from this picture were able to accomplish this amazing feat today.

Msgr. Kelly is the superior of the Casa Santa Maria.

If you will notice the little thing in Msgr. Kelly's right hand - in Italian it is called a 'timbro.' To us it is just a stamp or a seal but to the Italians it is like a beautiful sunrise or a majestic mountain scene, that is to say they just love using and seeing the mark of the timbro. Take a look at the assortment of documents that it has taken me to register and you can see the affinity for timbrature that the Italians have come to be accustomed:

I would point out to the reader that in the above picture, taking the form on the bottom left (which was used to submit my application for the italian student visa), there are no less than eight, count it, eight separate stamps on the one piece of paper.

The Greeks invented beaurocracy; the Italians perfected it!

Hiking in the Monti Sibillini

2008-09-30T21:07:00.000+02:00

While I was in Norcia, I took the oppurtunity of the closeness of the mountains to take a few hikes during the day. It was a good physical activity to keep me from going stir crazy on my retreat.

Norica is in the Southwest corner of Italy's largest National Park, Monti Sibillini. It is absolutely gorgeous and even reminds me a little of the Smoky Moutains.

Here is a picture of me and of the trail leading up to Monte Patino which is something like 17oo meters tall (around 5,500 feet).

The trail was practically straight up! I guess the Italians never heard of the switchback method of climbing a mountain.

Another day during the retreat, I went up to a little mountaintop town called Ospedaletto (my poor Italian translates it as either the town of 'Guestbed' or 'hospitalbed') That mountain was only 1000 meters! It was a cold and drizzly day but that sometimes makes for good hiking and there were some beautiful views on the way up.

I brought a lunch made up of 'Norcineria' Norcia is famous for its cured sausages made from pork, wild boar (Cinghiale) and other game. It is also famous for its cheeses especially its pecorino or goat milk cheese. Yum, very tasty! I had some Cinghiale and some deer meat sausage as well as little pecorino and another cheese that tasted a lot like Bell Paese (softer like Mozzarella and really creamy). Slap all of that on some bread and you have a meal, but wait, there's more. On my first hike I stopped by a Honey store. They had fresh honey from Castellucio where the bees collect pollen from all the flowers of the great plain of the Monti Sibillini. It is the most savoury honey I have every tasted! It tasted so good I hiked it up the mountain for my lunch!

Put it all together on a slice of bread and this is what you what you get:

After lunch, I was able to rest for a while on top of the mountain looking out over the valley of Norcia.

Here is a self-portrait of me and Norcia after I had come down from the Mountain.

Again, the trail was straight down to the point where I had to hang on to the trees and gingerly step my way down so that I didn't fall off the face of the mountain. I am glad that I had taken the long way up the mountain, that is, around the back. If had taken the path that I took down on my way up I would have had to have some climbing gear!

Retreat in Norcia

2008-09-30T20:26:00.000+02:00

I just got back from a week-long retreat in Norcia, Italy. Norcia is a beautiful town nestled in the Umbrian countryside. It is not too far from Assisi or Cascia where St. Francis and St. Rita came from, respectively. Now Norcia is not to be out-done by these other Umbertide saints. It is the famous home of St. Benedict, the founder of western monasticism and the Patron of Europe. (also the name taken by the current sucessor of St. Peter)

The Monastery is located right on top of Benedict's childhood home. There he lived with his parents and his sister St. Scholastica. The home that they lived in has been uncovered though archeological digs in the crypt of the Basilica.

In this picture you can see the Basilica and main piazza of Norcia. Notice the Statue of St. Benedict in the middle of the Piazza. Notice also the mountains climbing up behind the town.

The town where Benedict lived was of Roman origin. The Latins called it Nursia. There has been a Christian influence there from very early in the town's history. The Church of St. Lawrence in which Benedict was baptized and received the other sacraments is still standing to this day. It was erected in the fifth century.

I was on retreat for six days with the monks. They got up for Matins at 4:15 and didn't stop praying or working (ora et labora is the benedictine motto) until Compline at 7:45 p.m. During the winter schedule (which began on the feast of the Triumph of the Holy Cross, Sept. 14) They only eat one meal a day! A very austere bunch these monks are. Here you see some of their robes hanging outside the chapel. They put these on over their regular habits for Lauds and Vespers.

This is the chapel where the monks pray the midday hours of prime, terce, sext and none (1st, third, sixth and ninth hours). The Blessed sacrament is also reserved here.

The monastic way of life is a refuge from the world so that heaven might be contemplated. The monk's whole life is fixed on praising and glorifying God; another Benedictine motto, Ut in Omnibus Glorificetur Deus! (That in all things God might be glorified!)

Visit to Santa Maria Sopra Minerva

2008-09-22T18:40:00.000+02:00

This afternoon I had to go out and get a few amices from Barbiconi (a clerical taylor shop) and so I made a plan to stop by and visit the famous Santa Maria Sopra Minerva. The highlight of the church for me is the tomb of St. Catherine of Siena, Doctor of the Church. The Church itself is a rarity in that it is in the gothic style - not found very much in Rome where many of the churches are Romanesque, Baroque and Rococo.

The tomb of St. Catherine of Siena is in the transept and is the located under the main altar

The Church is located just around the corner from the Pantheon. You can see it right when you walk out into the piazza.

I leave for Norcia tommorrow morning. I will be there for a week of retreat before my studies begin.

Oremus pro invicem

Casa Santa Maria

2008-09-22T11:11:00.001+02:00

I am getting set up in my new residence, the Casa Santa Maria. The Casa is the graduate priest department of the Pontifical North American College. There are about 70 priests from North America studying at the various Roman Universities who have their residence here. This place is really beautiful with long corridors and green gardens in the courtyard. It is very Roman in its layout and style. Here are some pictures to give you an idea.

As we used to say up on the 'hill' (The Seminary Division of the North American College), "It 'aint home but it sure is much!"

My room is one of many here at the Casa. They are mostly set up like monastic cells because this at one time was a convent and the rooms were the sisters cells. The building is kind of a patch work of add-ons and additions and so no two room are the same. Mine faces the Via dell'Archetto which is a noisy little alley way not much bigger than a normal driveway but with cars and motorini passing by all day. There is also a little restaurant across the street that has outdoor seating right underneath my window which makes for noisy nights when it's hot outside. The romans love to eat outside and I have to leave my window open because there is no AC. Here is a picture of my little 'cell'.

Up and Running

2008-09-21T23:59:00.000+02:00

This post serves to inaugurate my blog, Praedica Verbum, on my life as a priest of Jesus Christ. I intend to use it as an 'updater' to all who might be interested.

Oremus pro invicem