The End and the Beginning

Pax Christi vobiscum! Come Holy Spirit!

Well, it is hard to believe that we New Men have been here in Italia now for over 2 months. Time flies when you're having food, I suppose. Actually, at this pointI would just like to take a moment to stop and reflect on some things, some more serious than others. And this is a perfect time to do so, since we are finishing one phase of preparation, and moving into a more spiritual time before classes start.

First: I really enjoy Italian food, but more importantly, I enjoy the fact that eating is truly a social activity. People sit around the table and actually talk; in fact, there are no TVs looming overhead to distract one out of conversation, no matter how great of game may or may not be on. It was tough at first, but I've come to love it more now. I am simply able to focus on the people in front of me and come to know them better. Now, whether the people with me are enjoying coming to know me better is a different story....

Second: I have come to have a greater appreciation for the gift of life, just by simply stepping out into a cross-walk. Yes, the road is a great place of sanctification, because it quite literally scares the hell out of you. Whenever you step out into traffic, which you have to do or they just plain won't stop, you recognize the gift of life and the power of Divine Providence. It's also quite exhilarating.

Third: Having just finished our formal Italian studies, we have discovered some fun phrases:

- "basta pasta" = "enough pasta"

- "tutti i frutti" = "all the fruit"

- "molti tipi di cibi tipici" (NOTE: i's are pronounced "ee" and c's are pronounced "ch") = "many types of typical food"...and you have to admit, that's just plain fun to say; go ahead try it...seriously.

Fourth: The Three Most Important Italian words/phrases are, from least to most:

- "piano piano" = "slowly slowly" - One must have patience when learning Italian, and really with anything in life.

- "mangia" = "eat" - This one...should be quite obvious.

- "vino" = "drink of little memory that goes well with mangia-ing" - I am not endorsing anything here....

Fifth: The collar just seems to fit. Check it out for yourself (cue the MIB theme):

This is James, my DB, and myself, and, if we do say so, we make this look good. Heh. But honestly, it is both humbling and exciting to don the collar. And it's fun to see the looks I get walking around in one on the street. One story: when Fr. Rudy, our Vocations Director, was here, someone approached me asking if I could bless a crucifix for them.... Yeah, so I referred them to Fr. Rudy, because I can wave my hands over it, but I'd only be shooting blanks right now (not to mention the impediments I'd incur for pretending to be a Priest). Wearing the clerics, however, is like a discernment highway: people approach me like they can trust me, and that is a humbling experience. It helps me to realize very quickly that I need to get ready to be constantly at the service of others--it's not an easy call. But I thank God that I get a chance to both literally and figuratively try it all on right now, before I'm a Priest.

Well, please keep the New Men and the 4th year Men (soon to be Deacons) in your prayers for this next week. We are both going on retreats, and I guess they thought the New Men were too talkative; they're sending us on something called a, um...silent retreat? Yeah, that's right. Something like that. I guess the staff doesn't know me well enough...or maybe they do and think I need it. Heh. "But for God all things are possible" (Mt 19:26). I am really looking forward to it. I've never been on an 8 day silent retreat before, and how often do we really get a chance to spend that much time only with the Lord? So please keep us in prayer. We want to encounter the Lord and receive all that He has for us.

God bless you all! And I have prayed for all of you reading this at St. Peter's Basilica while in Adoration. (And I'm not just saying that to get more readers....) Pax Christi!

Once Upon a Tour

Pax Christi vobiscum! Come Holy Spirit!

Wow, today was something else. We got a break from everything today as today was Saturday (yes we do get to rest every so often). And this worked out perfectly as a friend from A&M, Mariel, and her sister were visiting Rome today. Once they got in, we were able to meet up and head over to Saint Peter's. It was good getting to catch up, and I got my first chance to give a tour of Saint Peter's Basilica.

I have to say, there's nothing quite like showing people around that makes you realize a place is your home. Unless you count having a mailing address, which I guess would be a pretty good tip-off. But it really hit me, I know this place more than I thought I did. Some of the things coming out of my mouth, I had not realized I picked up during my time here.

So, dressed in clerics, I got to show some friends of mine around the place I have now been living in for over a month. God decided to add another element into the mix, though.

On the way in, there were a couple of young women (one from Florence, the other from England), one of whom was unable to enter since her shoulders were not covered (they take dress code seriously here, praise God). Well this young woman randomly (read as providentially) asked Mariel for her sweater so she could enter. And Mariel, being a good Aggie grad, gladly offered it to her. So the tour of 3 became a tour of 5.

And they all seemed to really respond to the tour. It's a catechetical tour, meaning that it's meant to instruct on the faith, and some of the seminarians at the NAC give some of these tours. So I gave it an unofficial shot, and it worked out! Praise the Lord. And at the end of it, we closed in prayer!!! What a blessing, and completely the providence of God!

Please pray for those two young women, because I think they may have really seen the true Beauty of St. Peter's, behind all of the art and architecture, for the first time. I'm just glad I had been on the tour before, or it would have been a short tour....

Thank you again for all of your prayers and support. It is always nice to receive letters and emails from you all (note: I'm not shamelessly plugging for letters and emails...yet). But just so you know, your prayers are greatly felt. And I would ask that you pray for 21 men who will be ordained to the Transitional Deaconate in just 3 weeks time. Praise the Lord. God bless you all, and I prayed for you all in Saint Peter's today during my Holy Hour there!

The Word of the Day: Hope

Pax Christi vobiscum! Come Holy Spirit!

Okay, so I have been reading St. Maria Faustina's Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul, which is excellent, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to grow in their relationship with God. There is one section in particular that gave me great hope, and I just could not wait to post it; it could be just what someone needs to read.

"Let no soul, even the most miserable, fall prey to doubt; for, as long as one is alive, each one can become a great saint, so great is the power of God's grace. It remains only for us not to oppose God's action" (Notebook I, #283).

That's all we have to do: ask the Lord to give us His grace to pick back up and start again, even when the going gets tough. He wants to take us and make us more than we are. For while God loves us right where we are, He loves us too much to leave us there. And that gives me great hope. And that's the word.

Oh, and check the Castel Gandolfo post. There should be a pic there now.

God bless!

On the Way...

Pax Christi vobiscum!



I am sorry for the teaser, but I am only writing to say that another post is on the way. The good news is that our vocation director came in yesterday to see us...apparently the Diocese thought we already needed a check-up.


It has been great to have him here, and he has really taken care of us. It is nice to know that we have a home, even when we are away from home. Please pray for Fr. Rudy and for the Diocese of Dallas. There are some exciting things going on right now.


Also, I just wanted to share with you a reflection I had while we were in Assisi for our end-of-orientation retreat. While at Holy Mass at the hermitage of St. Francis, my mind wandered...not away from the Mass, but into it (had you fooled, didn't I?). The Priest was only using simple vessels for the bread and wine, soon to become the Body and Blood of Christ, when a thought hit me. These vessels were earthen vessels, but usually we use golden vessels. Why? Because, golden vessels help us to understand the true dignity of what happens within them: the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ, and, of course, the vessels that carry them should be precious, helping us to see this great truth.

Then it hit me: what is the ultimate destination of the Body and Blood of Christ? The golden vessels? I think you're catching my drift.... God desires to be in us. The golden vessels are only the road to us.

Now, with that in mind, what do the golden vessels say about us? In God's eyes, we are more precious than the finest gold, than anything this world holds valuable. God did not come to sit on a golden throne. God comes to us each day in the Eucharist to sit on the throne of our hearts, if we let Him. That's what He desires. He wants us to knock down whatever sits there now and let Him be Lord of our hearts, of our lives. Then we will find the true peace that comes only from God!

Look for another update soon. There's been a lot going on, and I am so thankful to be here right now. And I am also thankful to get to wear clerics regularly (yesterday was the first day to start doing this). It's definitely humbling, but it is confirming my call.

God bless you all!

Papal State of Mind

Pax Christi vobiscum! Come Holy Spirit!

Wow, it's been a while, and so much has happened in such a short time. There's a lot to cover, and I don't have a lot of time right now--so I'll just hit a couple of highlights. Believe you me, you won't be disappointed....unless you don't like hearing someone say, "believe you me."

On Saturday, August 25th, we were privileged to receive a tour of St. Peter's from one of our very own seminarians (they do let us off the leash every once in a while...). The tours given by these men are intended to be catechetical, and thus the information was quite inspiring--I really want to learn more about St. Peter's after this tour. We learned about the original basilica built on the vatican hill, about the necropolis that was there prior to the basilica (and even now, underneath it), about the statues of the Popes that line the walls of St. Peter's. So many of the things we heard you never get on a regular tour. And I loved that we didn't have to hear any secular speculations on how the incorrupt bodies of saints in the Basilica were actually being preserved by a wax that somehow keeps their skin from decomposing (I'm sure if this wax existed, the number of face-lifts would decline). Some people will honestly take greater leaps of faith to avoid believing the infinitely simpler explanation that God exists and that He shows this to us through miracles. Why is that so difficult? ...End rant.

Sunday, August 26th, as a class, we visited Castelgondolfo, the summer residence of Pope Benedict XVI. We went out to hear his Sunday Angelus address to the expectant crowds from many different nations. I was in eager anticipation prior to the address at noon: I have never seen this Pope in person before, as I had with Pope John Paul II in 2002 at World Youth Day Toronto. My anticipation increased due to the fact that JPII was the only Pope I had ever known prior to Benedict XVI. What was it going to be like to see a Pope other than John Paul the Great?

We were moved out of the general receiving area, a large courtyard, to wait as the rest of the crowd moved in. We had it made in the shade, both metaphorically and literally: we didn't have to worry about the heat, and when the crowd was all safely behind the barricades, they allowed us to assume our spot just in front of and off to the side of the barricades. It made for a close view of the balcony where the Pope would appear. And when he did, the air was electric.

I could just feel, in the air, the presence of God. The Pope, the successor of Peter, the first Pope, was standing there before us, robed in white, waving and smiling at all of us. I could tell, however, that unlike the celebrities whose fame makes them like gods, this man's fame came from a humility that is actually of God. He loved us from the balcony, and his words told us to seek after our salvation even though the path to heaven is a difficult one. That is true love: to tell us what we need to hear and not simply what we might want to hear. (And I could understand most of it, though he spoke Italian).

After praying the Angelus in Latin, he took the time to recognize the groups present, speaking to them in their native tongue. When he got to the English group, he recognized the "new seminarians of the North American College." Yes, he addressed us specifically. We then sang "Ad moltos annos vivas" to him (translating roughly to "Long may you live"), and he clapped for us, telling us afterwards, "I pray that your formative years in Rome may help you to grow in wisdom and pastoral charity." Yes, we got a specific prayer from the Pope. That's got to be like praying 100 times (so I'd have to sing 50 songs to get there myself).

After all of this excitement, we toured the gardens where he feeds the fish, and where he and Pope John Paul II (and I'm sure other Popes) have walked and prayed and written encyclicals and such. Following this, we had a wonderful meal and tried to take in what in the world just happened. Praise God for this opportunity! It is wonderful to be Roman Catholic!

Well, that's all I'm going to be able to get for now. I'm trying to get a video of the experience uploaded, but I keep running into problems. Don't worry, I'll get it posted somehow.

Oh, and now pictures won't work. I'll see what I can do to update this one later.

God bless you all, and you are in my prayers!

Pax Christi!

THE VIDEO!!! http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4625429804690221214&hl=en