Off and Running: A New Record Year

The Pontifical North American College, my seminary here in Rome, made Zenit News (a Catholic News Service on the Internet), yesterday. It highlights that the new 1st Theology class (I'm 2nd Theology, because it's my second year here) has 61 men, the largest class ever and puts the college almost at capacity with 208 seminarians studying to be priests or finishing their licentiates, (fancy word for "masters") which are in different specializations of theology: fundamental theology, canon law, moral theology, spirituality, Church history, Patrology a.k.a. Church Fathers, liturgy, Scripture, etc...

 For the full Zenit News Article...

Other news from the NAC...

We've just finished building a new sports field with artificial turf. The field has already become the envy of Rome and can probably be spotted from airplane above, by the three red letters "N-A-C" in the middle of the field. Earlier this week the Bishop of Sante Fe, New Mexico blessed the field. Our NAC soccer team that placed 4th in the Clericus Cup tournament sponsored by the Vatican for the seminaries in Rome will have quite an upgrade in practice facilities this year. The Vatican also started a Clericus Cup Basketball tournament last year, which the NAC handily won, thus showing the world that basketball really is an American sport and if the USA can have an Olympic Gold Medal Team, then there is no surprise that their seminarians would have just dominate team in the Ecclesiastical World as well...

Back @ NAC

I've just returned from a wonderful Silent Retreat and have much I want to write about it in the future, but our schedule is already in full-swing for the present time and I've been preparing for a nasal surgery for tomorrow starting at 9am.---say a prayer if you remember.... 

We've just started our Preaching Praticum and have conferences all week on techniques and actual practice. Below is that 1st homily that I'll be giving in a few minutes to some of the other guys in my group including a faculty mentor.

The readings are for October 13 from the Monday of the 28th Week in Ordinary Time. What's with the date? Well we were told to chose either the readings for our own birthday or our mother's. I chose yours mom. :) Here's to you!

The audience is to fellow seminarians, so bear with the fact that it might be more theological than you like....

One of the gifts of the priest I worked with this summer in Sydney was his ability to engage and teach the children at his parish school. He recounted over the course of my stay there, how he had successfully taught the 1st graders the meaning of the word “heed” in which we “listen to someone” and then “do what they have told us” and that this word, “heed” spread across the playground at the school in a matter of days as the 1st graders taught the older kids what it meant.

This act of “heeding” pervades Luke’s Gospel written specifically for the Gentiles and is necessary to understand if we are to shed light on this this afternoon’s Gospel. For in the the verse preceding the Gospel I just read, Jesus responding to a woman says, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it.” OR in short “Blessed are those that “heed” God--Those that LISTEN and DO--those that HEAR and ACT upon his Word as this pastor had been able to convey to the children at his school.

It is in this context that Jesus in his frustration with the Jews calls them an “evil generation” because they have become so caught up in seeing signs that they miss the point that God has manifested himself through the signs so that they will “heed” him and follow his commands. In fact throughout the Old Testament, God uses such signs & theophanies: He uses the burning bush to stir up Moses, He sends plagues upon the Egyptians, his sends earthquakes and thunder at Mt. Sinai, and guides the people with the burning cloud in their wandering through the desert. These signs are not to entertain or be a circus act, but are to manifest his omnipotence and power so as to instill a healthy fear into them to live by the covenant of their forefathers.

Hence Jesus is upset with the Jews because after hundreds of years they, the Chosen people still are demanding signs in order to heed God’s commands.

Whereas the Ninevites, through the prophet Jonah, matured from their spiritual infancy in that Jonah’s sign and manifestation of God was solely his “preaching” of repentance, not some supernatural disturbance or miracle.

It is exactly this which Jesus is shaming the Jews over, namely that the Ninevites, who were Gentiles, not the Chosen people of God, repented by Jonah’s preaching alone, yet they are refusing to “heed” the Word of God from the Son of God, the Messiah, the fulfillment of the Prophets who is wiser than Solomon and greater than Jonah.

Jesus hence is calling the Jews to change, to mature in their faith, to stop seeking and to start listening and doing, to start heeding his Good News.
In the 1st reading St. Paul addressing the Galatians tells them the Good News-- that Jesus has set us free from slavery to sin and he exhorts them to not fall back into enslavement and bondage.

It is this spiritual combat and conversion that Jesus wants from his Jewish brothers and sisters and precisely what he demands of us. As we all at some point faced as we were discerning to enter seminary or as we were on retreat this past week, we often go through times of desolation or times of no “signs” in which God tests us to help us grow in maturity and to help us prepare for the future as priests under constant fire and greater temptations. In these moments of “no signs” and desolation may we strive to “heed” the word of God, knowing that he is always with us, and be able to proclaim, “Blessed be the name of the Lord, forever!”

Rocca di Papa- Silent Retreat

Know of my personal prayers this coming week, as I'll be on my annual silent retreat with my theology class from the North American College, just outside Rome near Castel Gandolfo the pope's summer residence. This year's retreat is geared towards Christ's identity, and becoming ever surer in our vocational call to priesthood since our deaconate ordination is under 24 months away. We will have two sessions each day where our spiritual director will give us a couple passages to reflect on and maybe some questions to discern. The rest is in our ballpark to grow in self-knowledge and relationship with Christ. There is still much formation and preparation to be done as the countdown clock tics, if we are to reverence the institution of the priesthood by already having become new saintly men.

P.S. I've begun preparing a website to be able to show more pictures, provide better links in a more orderly fashion, and to cut my prep-time for blogs in half. I keep you posted on the progress....

Avoiding a "Special Ops" Ideology

A recent article in the National Catholic Register highlighted the undercover ministry of a “Special Ops” priest working in Saudi Arabia with Filipinos (that surprisingly make up a large part of the work force in that country). He said that Saudi’s intelligence force knows of him and allows him to operate discretely because he is not a threat to security for the country. Because Catholics are not allowed to have Churches or to print anything religious oriented or wear anything identifying them with the faith, worship is done secretly underground, people are invited via email, and all songs or anything that normally would be written are projected on a screen. 

To protect his identity and prevent a scene he does not associate with Saudi’s unless need be. As if the way of life could not be worse for non-Muslims,  Saudi laws make it clear that there is to be no public manifestation or display of Christianity, Judaism, or any other religion for that matter. This heroic priest says he operates within these guidelines because to be deported or killed would mean that the 15,000 Catholics in his area would be without a shepherd.

I can’t think about this grim Saudi reality without knowing that many a time we do a poor job manifesting and displaying our pride in our own Catholic heritage and religion in a country that tolerates such public religious devotion, prayer, media, and churches. We must muster the courage to proudly be Catholic, particularly in the state of South Carolina where we represent only 4% of the population. Why can’t we be heard as largely as the gay rights movement in the US, which represents an even smaller percentage of persons? What are we afraid of? We can’t even be fined, let alone martyred for blessing our food or making the sign of the Cross in public, and yet some act like they’re getting their teeth pulled. Others wanting to be "Special Ops" in their faith, avoid “controversy” siting that all to prevailing false ideology, which doesn’t want to offend anyone or create a scene, when deep down they lack the courage to do something so simple. Yet these same people run to get their ashes on Ash Wednesday, after having already out-cried any public manifestation of faith. If you find yourself in this category then take St. Josemaria Escriva's challenge when he says: “Don’t say, ‘That’s the way I am--it’s my character.’ It’s your lack of character. Esto Vir---Be a man [Be a woman]!” Storm heaven and call upon the graces of God. Be courageous!

I confess that the culture of today is hostile towards Catholics, but isn’t martyrdom a sure ticket to eternal salvation? As St. Paul says “In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.” Hb 12:4 As I tell all those who come on my weekly tour of St. Peter’s Basilica, “There are 140 saints and martyrs of the Church’s Triumphant  circling us above on the colonnade looking at us, reminding us that the ground we stand on is stained with their blood, and they are calling us to live such a life as they did, in radical imitation of Christ, becoming worthy of the name Christian.”

Another way we could manifest our pride in being Catholic is by simply carrying our rosaries in the streets on the way to work, unafraid of what people might think or say. For those of you who thinks that’s cheesy, I’m sure if you thought about it for a second you’d agree that it’s nothing different than that defining moment in a relationship with a girlfriend the first time you’re publicly holding hands and/or giving her a kiss, except that it’s your rosary that you don’t want to let go and you look forward to the end when you get to kiss it again. Sadly in many cases, those who are afraid to do something so little as this, show how little their faith means to them. 

So I "double-dog dare" you this week to first if you haven’t a rosary, buy one; second, to always have it on your person; third to pray it weekly, if not daily; finally, show it off if you really love it and God.

I’ve been blessed to be in Assisi for over 3 weeks now to study more Italian and to read some theology. In the midst of reading Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger’s (Pope Benedict XVI) Spirit of the Liturgy I was drawn to share a reflection on blessings after reading a section of the power and significance of blessing ourselves with the sign of the Cross. The sign of the Cross is the “most basic Christian gesture in prayer... [it] is a confession of faith... [Christ] transformed the sign of shame into a sign of hope and of the love of God that is present within us... By signing ourselves with the cross, we place ourselves under the protection of the Cross...The Cross shows us the road of life---the imitation of Christ... [It] is a remembrance of Baptism...a sign of the Passion, but at the same time it is a sign of the Resurrection...Whenever we make the sign of the Cross, we accept our Baptism anew.”

Read this fragmented quote over again at least once--it’s a good source of reflection.

This explanation of the significance of the Cross gives reason for its usage at the beginning and end of (and is integration within) every Christian liturgy, because it is a sign that points to the principal mystery of our faith: the Resurrection that won our redemption from sin.

Ratzinger also points out that the “Tav”,the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet written in the form of a cross (T or + or X) and spoken of in Ezekiel 9:4f became “the seal of God’s ownership. It corresponds to man’s longing for God, his suffering for the sake of God, and so places him under God’s special protection.” The manifestation of the symbol of the cross therefore pre-dates and prophetically announces the cross of Christ. This “Tav” marked many Jewish graves (pre-dating Christ’s death) found in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Ratzinger later recalls the devotion of his parents, who made the sign of the Cross (a blessing) on the forehead, mouth, and breast of him and his siblings whenever they were departing on a journey. It was done not only to guide them on their way, and to “make visible the prayer of our parents, which went with us”, but was also “a challenge to not go outside the sphere of this blessing”. From the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (Question 551) on "What is blessing?", we hear that "The prayer of blessing is man's response to God's gifts: we bless the Almighty who first blesses us and fills us with his gifts." How true Benedict was a blessing and a gift to his parents and now even more so to us (as Pope), but how also true it is that the blessings and prayers we receive require a response.

Having read and reflected upon that, I want to make a response and to make it clear to all who read this blog or any of my works, who receive my letters, who write me or send me emails, who support me financially, who think about me, but most importantly those of you who pray for me that your prayers are blessings that daily and even hourly (at times) are a challenge for me. We may be 6 times zones apart or more, we may never talk on the phone, we may not even write to each other, but I have felt and sensed and received graces through these prayers and blessings that strengthen my resolve to give all I can for you as a future priest. As difficult as the "road less traveled" has been, I have always found strength in your encouragement and prayers, and although they would never be enough to keep me in the seminary if this were not my vocation, each Cross becomes bearable when I remember who the sacrifice is for.

Thank you! Keep praying for me and know that I really do pray for you whole-heartedly when I say it.