John Paul II Good to Be True

The Love of the Father be with you! Pax Christi vobiscum! Come Holy Spirit!

Where does the time go? Has it really been 4 months since I last posted? Wait, don't answer that....

So after a summer of running around and never sitting down--except to eat burgers, beef and/or chicken enchiladas, steak, bacon, filet mignon, and Burger Patty-O's (beef brand cereal--goes great with milk), let's just say that I had to blow the dust off of my keyboard after a bit of a hiatus.

And since I didn't have a clue what the word hiatus really meant, I thought I'd blow the dust off of my Merriam Webster Dictionary and give it a look:

main entry: hi-a-tus
Pronunciation: \hī-ˈā-təs\
Function: noun
Etymology: Latin, from hiare to yawn
Date: 1563
1 : a break in or as if in a material object; gap
2 : an interruption in time or continuity; break
3 : a period of time in which a seminarian forgets his responsibilities towards his home country by failing to update them on the current state of his affairs; especially if said seminarian has been spending time in Rome; woeful-neglect-of-duty-deserving-of-scorn-by-all-(former)-readers

I didn't know that synonyms could have that many hyphens. I also promptly shut my Merriam Webster Dictionary...and threw dust back on it.

So here I am, and I have a few stories to share, most of them from the last 72 hours. So let's get to it.

Well on Thursday afternoon, I thought I'd go take a little time in prayer down at the Tomb of John Paul II underneath St. Peter's. I just don't get over there as often as I should for living so close to him, so I thought I'd take the opportunity since I had some free time.

I went in and knelt behind the roped-off-section available for those who wish to pray there. There was also a red velvet rope immediately in front of the Tomb itself. So I was a little ways back from the Tomb. See the picture to get a better idea:

As I was praying there, I thought, "Wouldn't it be awesome to have my rosary touched to the Tomb of John Paul II?" Not long after that thought passed through my mind, I witnessed a man approaching the guard who stands by the tomb ("No foto") and whispering something to him. The guard then took something from the man's hand, stepped over the red rope, and touched it to John Paul's tomb. I immediately thought, "It is possible."

Not wishing to cause a commotion, I decided to wait so that a line of people (I'm picturing an Italian "line" here, folks) did not ask him to do the same thing. And while I waited I looked at the Tomb some more, and I noticed the following dates: 16 - X - 1978 --- 2 - IV - 2005. Then I thought, "John Paul wasn't born in 1978...Oh! that was when he was elected Pope." I ran the date through my head again, "The 16th of the 10th month...the 10th month...hey, that's October." Quick glance at my watch: "TH 10/15"

"Hey, that's this month," I thought. "And the 16th...that's tomorrow. I'm here on the eve of the 31st Anniversary of John Paul II's election to be Pope! Awesome!" It hit me like a ton of bricks. I had no idea that I would be coming down there on that date. I just hadn't thought about it.

After this realization, and a bit more time in prayer, I finally noticed the crowds had died down--at least enough to prevent the guard from telling me that a bunch of other people would want to do the same thing if I had my rosary touched to the tomb. So, gathering all the manly courage that I often exhibit in the humblest manner, I approached the guard and said, "Scusi, could you touch this to the tomb for me?"

His response: "Non posso perche..." ("I can't because...then I would have to do that for everyone else...)

My eyes communicated my response: "Yeah right. I just saw you do it, fratello."

Realizing my incredulity, he looked around and noticed one of his superiors walking up just at that moment. He turned back to me, saying, "Chiede lui." ("Ask him.")

So I asked his superior if I could touch my rosary to the tomb, and he looked at me half a sec, and then said, "Si." And he promptly walked over to the red rope and lifted the rope, allowing me to kneel directly in front of the tomb and touch the rosary to it myself.

...

Seriously, I could not (and still can't) believe what was happening. That was the greatest gift I could have received. God is so good! And it came at such a great moment. Praise Him! As many of you probably know, John Paul II is my personal hero, and he's a big reason why I'm on this path (or I should say, God has really worked through him to get me to consider and respond to the call to the priesthood). So that was such a blessing, and I wanted to share that with y'all.

I will have to fill you in on the other story soon. (I promise it will be before February 19, 2010.)

May God bless you with His grace and His peace, and thank you for your patience!

Torno subito!

The Love of the Father be with you! Pax Christi vobiscum! Come Holy Spirit!

Twenty-three months ago today I arrived in Italy to begin an adventure the extent of which I could never have imagined. Twenty-three months ago, to the day. Wow. And tomorrow, God-willing everything goes alright (pray for safe travel!), I will set foot again on American soil for the first time in almost 2 full years. I will be literally kissing that American soil. I will then proceed to wash it down with real, good ole, unbeatable Tex-Mex. Thanks be to God!

The odd thing: it both has and has not felt like 2 years away from home. I mean, in one sense, so much has happened that it seems to have just flown by. In another more real sense, I realize that it has been a long time since I've been home.

It is beautiful, though, to look back and see how God has been working in and through every moment. There have been some amazingly beautiful moments, real gifts of grace. There have also been some difficult moments, those times when I really felt the weight of the cross. The beautiful thing is that the Lord was present in both. I mean, sometimes He invites us up the mountain of Tabor, to see Him transfigured in all His glory, and other times He invites us up the mountain of Calvary, asking us, like Simon of Cyrene, to help Him carry His cross. Either way, we are with Him, with Love Himself, and that is what makes it all possible.

I am eager now to see how He uses this summer to guide me on the road to priesthood. I have a parish assignment, and I will also get to be a part of a mission trip. All told, it should be a phenomenal summer.

And now for my Top Ten List of Things Most-Missed from Texas:
10. Driving places
9. Elevators built for more than 8 Italians (= 2 Americans)
8. Ice
7. 'merican Efficiency
6. Personal space (measured in acres)
5. Waiting in lines that do not become wider at the front as more people show up
4. Not almost-dying every time I cross a street
3. Steak, burgers, barbecue, brisket, real bacon, chicken enchiladas, beef tacos, ballpark hotdogs...catch my drift?
2. Texans
1. My family and friends...(collective "awwww")

Needless to say, I'm ready to be home. I look forward to all that God has in store for me there, and I hope to be blessed enough to catch up with y'all (yes, the "y'all" was intentional). I do plan to keep posting on the blog this summer, so keep an eye out for that. And thank you for reading thus far, and also for your prayerful support of the journey that God has me on. I pray for you all, and I pray He blesses you one-hundred-fold for all the prayers you have said for me.

Catch you back in Texas! God bless!

Little Things, Great Love

The Love of the Father be with you! Pax Christi vobiscum! Come Holy Spirit!

So as you may be aware, exams are going on, and I have one tomorrow. Which means that of course I would spend my time writing a blog post. I've also cleaned my whole room (twice), washed my clothes, checked my email 15 times today, and offered to clean other guys' rooms. I decided I'd get right on top of procrastinating...didn't want to put it off.

But I did have a little reflection lately that I really wanted to share. It came in prayer, and it just seems like I've constantly been reminded of it since then. Just wanted it to put it out there. It comes from The Feeding of the Five Thousand in the Gospel of Matthew (14:13-21):

When Jesus heard of it, he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself. The crowds heard of this and followed him on foot from their towns. When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick. When it was evening, the disciples approached him and said, "This is a deserted place and it is already late; dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves.(Jesus) said to them, "There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves." But they said to him, "Five loaves and two fish are all we have here." Then he said, "Bring them here to me," and he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds. They all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up the fragments left over--twelve wicker baskets full. Those who ate were about five thousand men, not counting women and children.

The following words of Jesus really jumped out at me: "There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves." (Emphasis mine)

I mean, what were the disciples thinking?

"I got it: let's solve the problem by sending them away from the God of the universe made man. That sounds like a good idea."

"Did you come up with that yourself?"

"Yep, thought of it myself just now." (Loose translation from the Aramaic.)

Now, in all fairness, they were still in the process of discovering who exactly Jesus was, and the miracle that was about to take place was intended to help them see that Jesus truly is God. But it hit me: you never solve a problem by sending someone away from Jesus. He wants to be God of our lives, and He's a lot better at it than we are. So why not let Him?

So what happens next? But they said to him, "Five loaves and two fish are all we have here." (Emphasis mine)

Right after I read these lines, it hit me: God does not want our achievements. God does not want our awards, our honors, our many friends, our business connections. I mean, He does want us to offer those things to Him as well, and He's not against them. But what He wants most of all is our poverty, our inability to do it ourselves, our weakness.

In other words, God is not waiting for us to become awesome so that He can use us. He's waiting for us to give Him our littleness, our nothingness, our weaknesses and failures so that He can work through them to bring about amazing results of staggering proportions. I mean, what happens in this passage? Five loaves and two fish, which is all they have, when placed in the hands of God, becomes food for over 5,000 people, with leftovers to spare.

Jesus was not waiting for them to do a fundraiser to feed the followers of Jesus. He was not waiting for them to "figure it out." He was only waiting for them to offer Him what they could, offering it in the faith and trust that He would make it work out for the rest.

That one small offering, given in love--indeed, placed in the hands of Love Himself--was able to reach thousands of other people, because it was God who worked in their weakness. Mother Teresa captured it best with her simple yet beautiful words:

"Do small things with great love. It's not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing; and it is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving. To God, nothing is small; the moment we have given it to God, it becomes infinite." (Emphasis mine)

Now, I think I'm going to offer the 5 loaves and 2 fish worth of studying I've done for my exam tomorrow and see if that's enough to get through it.... *Cough *Cough

God bless you all! See you soon!

But Who's Counting?

The Love of the Father be with you! Pax Christi vobiscum! Come Holy Spirit!

So I can't wait to be home. Lots of good going on here, but I must admit I'm looking forward to coming home soon. So in the interest of both subtlety and good taste, I decided to add this flagrantly obvious countdown button with scroll-over capabilities. Enjoy, and God bless!

Sail Away

The Love of the Father be with you! Pax Christi vobiscum! Come Holy Spirit! A fourth exclamation point!

So exams are fast approaching, which means that there is a lot of studying that needs to be happening. I, therefore, being a great student of the highest caliber, have done everything I possibly can...to avoid it. Instead, I have been reading some of St. Augustine's writings on the Gospel of John. Quality stuff...and I bet you I find a way to work it into any or all of my exams.

Professor: "Dimmi qualcosa sulla Incarnazione."

Me: "I'm sorry, what was that?"

Professor: "Una cosa sola sulla Incarnazione. Qualsiasi cosa."

Me: "Look, can I just say something on St. Augustine and have you pass me? People back home think I speak Italian, and it'd be really embarassing if I failed these exams and they found out the truth."

Professor: "I'm just kidding. Sure thing, kid. Say whatever you want. I'm just waiting for my smoke-break anyway."

Me: "Perfetto! Appunto la cosa che volevo udire!"

*Record Scratch*

Professor: "You speak Italian?"

So, as you can tell, my exams are going to be fine. In the process of reading St. Augustine, though, I came across a great image that he uses to speak about our Salvation in Christ. Basically, he says that through sin we became separated from the Father by a vast sea, and Christ came to bring us back across that sea to the Father. But the only way to get there is by floating across the sea on the wood of the Cross. It's really a beautiful image: the only way back to the Father is by the Cross, and that Cross is our ship which gets us across the sea between us and the Father.

Then I had a thought, an image that came to me at some point in the past. I can't remember if I read it somewhere or if I came up with it myself, so to be safe, I think I'll just say I came up with it myself.

We are in fact separated from the Father by a vast sea, but Christ came to give us a way back, a way across the sea, as St. Augustine said. So Christ built a boat, in which all of the faithful gather for the journey, and that boat is the Church. And He wanted that boat to sail back to the Father by the wind of the Spirit. In order to catch that Spirit, however, Jesus had to mount the mast, the wooden beam of the Cross, and make Himself the Sail by which the Spirit could push us along.

Now, I'm not sure I can say that all of this is perfectly theologically sound at every level. But I think the basic image is clear: the Cross is, in a very real way, the mast of the great ship we call the Church, and Jesus allowed Himself to be fixed to it as our Sail, carrying this great ship across the sea by the wind of the Spirit, wind being an image frequently used as an analogy for the Spirit. It just helps us to picture what is going on in our Salvation.

This analogy just seems to fit because I think it is clear that this life is a pilgrim journey. It is not the end. And as we move on our way back home, we never do so alone. We travel together--thus, we have the Church. But we cannot travel by our own power: it is only by the missions of the Son and the Spirit, both sent by the Father, that we are able to come back to Him. The only thing we have to do is get in the boat and stay in the boat, and they will take us the whole way.

I offer this image to you because I know how much it has helped me throughout the years, and I hope you too will catch a glimpse of the beauty of the Faith through it. Thanks be to God for all He has done and continues to do in our lives.

So now all we have to do is sail away.

God bless, and please pray for our exams. Less than a month till I get to come home! Thanks be to God!

Happy Mother's Day!

The Love of the Father be with you! Pax Christi vobiscum! Come Holy Spirit!

Happy Mother's Day! Thank you, thank you, thank you for who you are and for giving life to us children.

Mothers deserve so much thanks that they usually don't get. In fact, it's kind of a sad irony that the very people who should thank you, we kids, are the only ones who see everything you do for us, but we are also usually too busy thinking about ourselves to see everything you do for us. So the only people who see everything you do don't really see everything you do....

So on behalf of the younger generation, I would simply like to say thank you, both for who you are and for putting up with us, because oftentimes you have been the only ones to put up with us.

And where would this world be without mothers? You literally bring new life into this world, and that is a beautiful gift. I also realize, however, that I am a man, who, being a male of the masculine gender, has not had to undergo the "joys" of labor--so my perspective of the whole "beautiful gift" might be a touch outside of reality. But then, I think that you mothers, even after all you have been through to bring us into this world, would say that it is truly an amazing gift and you wouldn't trade it for the world.

So again I ask, where would this world be without mothers? Without mothers, we would not have:

• Bedtimes stories
• Learning how to share
• Bedtime prayers
• Learning how to apologize for not sharing
• Middle-of-the-night bedtime stories
• Learning how to sleep through the night
• Home-cooked meals
• Shelter from Dad when we forgot how to sleep through the night
• A shoulder to cry on
• Arms to rest in
• An example to learn from
• A special example of God's unconditional and tender love for His children

We really have a lot to be thankful for in our mothers. And if any of you readers out there happen to work for Hallmark, I have one word for you: royalties.

Oh, but I should add one more thing to the list, one more thing that we would not have without mothers:

• Jesus Christ

It was through the "Yes" of a woman from Nazareth that God came into this world. It was through her affectionate motherhood that her child, God-made-man, first learned how to pray. It was through her Fiat, her continual unconditioned "Yes" to God, that she was able to surrender her Son and release all claim on Him, so that through His Sacrifice on the cross, He could become the Savior of the world. And it is through her acceptance of John at the foot of the cross ("Woman, behold your son." John 19:26), that she in turn has become our Mother, the Mother of all believers. Yes, Mary was the first Christian, the first to say "Yes" to God and become a disciple of Jesus. And through her "Yes" we truly have a Mother in heaven, so that we might come to know the love of God through the unconditional and tender love of a mother for her children.

This Mother's day, be sure to thank God for your mother. Pray for her. She has given so much for you. And also, when you pray, thank Him for the mother He has given all of us in Mary of Nazareth.

May God bless you, and have a Happy, Holy Mother's Day.

Two-Hour Train of Thought

The Love of the Father be with you! Pax Christi vobiscum! Come Holy Spirit!

The last couple of weeks have been non-stop, fast-paced, over-the-top, out-of-control, one-of-a-kind, I'm-quickly-running-out-of-expressions-kind-of action, in terms of both spiritual and worldly wonders. There have been some great travels lately, as we have had two weeks off for Holy Week and Easter. The North American College therefore encourages us to get out and explore the wonders that God has worked in Europe. On one such journey, I was privileged to have a conversation with a man from England (made easier by the fact that they speak almost the same language as we do). As you may know, some conversations are awesome, while others are spectacular. This was one of the latter.

Nigel is a man from England who moved to Sicily 20 years ago to teach English to Italians--he continues to do so to this day. I am a seminarian from Dallas who moved to Rome 2 years ago so I can later teach the Faith to Americans. And it just so happened that on Saturday morning at 8:17, we were both departing for Florence in seats across from each other. Begin conversation.

Taking advantage of the lull in conversation between myself and the two Jesuit priests with whom I was traveling (I had bored them to sleep), I decided to strike up a conversation with the rather large British man seated across from me, whom I had heard speaking "a spot of English."

We started off talking about the countryside, weather, and where he came from and all. And then we quickly began to talk about how people in America--and England I come to find out--often work themselves to death, and then, after they are done climbing the corporate ladder, are still left empty, despite their success....

*Begin deep conversation.*

We then proceeded to talk about how all human beings desire more, how we are seeking truth. And also how we want both to love and to be loved. We are seeking truth. We are seeking love.

And then, (*cough*), I uh, (*cough*), mentioned (*erhmm*)... that Christ is both.

I mean, it only makes sense that we would encounter the fulfillment of Truth and the fulfillment of Love in a Person, with Whom we can relate as personal beings. And why would we have these desires if there were no fulfillment for them? Why would there be a lock that no key fits? And how awesome is it that only in Christ do we find both? Two fundamental human desires fulfilled in one single Person, with Whom we can interact, from Whom we can learn.

Now, I am taking this part of the conversation a little further than it went with Nigel (pronounced N-EYE-jill), but I really wanted to hit this point home with you all. It just makes so much sense, and I can't help but want to point it out. In the Person of Jesus Christ we find the fulfillment of our most fundamental desires. That's it. That's all you need.

So then we continued talking a bit more, and Nigel happened to say some things about how rapidly technology is running away with us and our ability to ask these kinds of deep questions. In fact, a lot of what he said sounded exactly like the content of John Paul II's first encyclical, Redemptor hominis, and I told him so. Nigel basically talked about how dangerous our technology has become, especially advancement in warfare with things like nuclear weapons. There's no joy in knowing that we have developed those kinds of weapons, and this is exactly what JPII says is the problem today: we feel alienated from the work of our own hands, because it has turned against us. Our hope then is in Christ who, by becoming man, has sought every man and woman. He has taken on our condition to redeem it from all that threatens it. And thus Christ is the Redeemer of Man, a.k.a. Redemptor hominis, to use the Latin. It's really a wonderful encyclical, and it was amazing to hear this man say things that reflected John Paul's thought from the beginning of his pontificate. Maybe...just maybe...there's something true in it?

So needless to say it was an awesome...no spectacular...conversation. God is at work. I mean, the harvest is truly abundant...the fruit is falling off the trees with how much people desire this truth. Excuse me, this Truth. Because our desires are only fulfilled in the Truth that is Love, Jesus Christ Himself.

May God bless you with His Truth and His Love. Happy Divine Mercy Sunday!