Rome Experience – Day III

Sweet Sacrament, Thee we adore, o let us love You more and more!

What a day in Christian Rome.

We woke up, prayed, ate breakfast and walked down to St. Peter’s for Mass. Every Sunday there is a celebration of Mass at the Altar of the Chair. The Mass is entirely sung, celebrated in Latin with an excellent choir. The old monsignor was all fired up at the homily, “the faith, the true faith will lead you to heaven, the faith, the true faith will bring peace to the world, the faith, the true faith, shared with your friends and families and you will walk into the glory of God.”

There are few other things like an organ fugue as you process out of the the basilica to infuse the spirit with the shades of glory to go and live for God and in service to the world.

Walking out of the basilica was a bit on the nuts as some tens of thousands were packed into the square for the Angelus and talk by the Pope. How beautiful it was to see so many in the Piazza San Pietro. True, many there to see a celebrity, but that celebrity also preaches Christian truth.

Lunch was pleasant, with a short time of rest afterwards. At 4:00 I trekked off with some of the seminarians to San Andrea della Valle, the church dedicated to St. Andrew the Apostle about 15 minutes from the Vatican. It is the second largest dome in Rome and a beautiful church. The Pope was having Adoration from 5 – 6 pm and asked all the parishes of the world to do the same. Since I didn’t think entry into St. Peter’s would be possible without a ticket I thought the church dedicated to Peter’s brother would be a nice choice, what do you think.

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So, a lovely Holy Hour was had. Our group certainly made the Adoro Te Devote a bit more vigorous and the pastor was very good to us. During the Holy Hour I was very moved while reading a letter from a Spiritual Directee of mine – thanks to all those who are so good to me.

After the Benediction we walked back to CIAM. The Chiesa Nuova was right on the way and visiting the tomb of St. Philip Neri is always a good idea. When we entered, a surprise!

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Adoration was still going on, in fact we walked in just at the start of Vespers. True, we could not visit St. Philip Neri but to see the Lord’s clergy and many young faithful and to hear the singing of the psalms is a greater treat!

How I love Christian Rome! True, my heart aches for all the people I love and miss back home, but I do love this city and the spiritual joys it has to offer. Here there were no popes, no cardinals, no bishops, no rows of nuns in habits nor the ecclesiastically famous. But here was Jesus, His priests, His faithful, in a beautiful house dedicated to His Name, through the work and legacy of one of His saints. Such things are easily found in this great city and it has always filled my heart. I I do love the Pope and the cardinals and all the ecclesiastically famous, but I love the other as well. To breathe this air and see these colors is a leaven for the heart and mind and soul.

We had many important guests at dinner and so much fun. It was good to see Gabi Lopez and Joe Baker, two seminarians from Madison and great fun to have Fr. Jim Socias with us. After dinner a Skype chat with someone very dear to my heart and then to type.

I love you all like Jesus and miss all those back home – Jesus, ADORO TE DEVOTE.

Rome Experience – Day II

So it begins.

The seminarians of the Rome Experience arrived today but not before a bit of adventure.

The morning was greeted with a gray sky and a chill in the air. So I prayed, drank some strong coffee and was ready for the day. You know, coffee has and will always taste better in Rome. Perhaps it’s the roast, perhaps the beans, perhaps the water, perhaps the brew but most likely the place. Everything, the good and the bad, can be found in Rome, the city where the living God chose to plant the heart of His bride the Church to beat until the end of time. Thus, for centuries, all the best of the divine has intersected with the best and worst of humanity. So, it makes sense that all things human would taste better in Rome (except beer and hamburgers.)

So out the door. The mission, buy month-long bus tickets. In short, there were closed stores, kiosks that did not sell the monthly ticket, stores that didn’t sell the tickets even though the sign said they did and finally the places that did sell, but only to find out that they only accepted cash payment. Of course, my happy debit card has a €500 limit for withdrawals per day and so the €1225 was not going to be covered.

Then it started to rain, I mean really rain. So, with a little defeat in my heart I walked back to CIAM soaking wet. The house greeted me warmly and I hung clothes out to dry and changed before Fr. Socias arrived and we chatted all things Church and apostolate. In short it was very enjoyable

Which as good since the seminarians arrived about three hours earlier than I thought! Thanks to the good sisters we put some food in them and got them oriented. After that a short walk down to St. Peter’s I let the seminarians run off to gelato and whatever little ecclesiastical adventure they might have in in hours. All were back for dinner, a short get-together and off to a Roman sleep.

Here’s my view as I do my night prayers before bed. As I said, O felix Roma!

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Rome – Day I

It’s particularly nice to wake up and make your morning offering while looking at the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica. It was a beautiful Roman morning with cool weather all the day long.

There’s something to be said for praying in a city filled with domes and steeples dedicated to the glory of the one God and His only Son, Jesus Christ. There is no loneliness in prayer here. Granted, the jet-lag hit hard and I was very tired in the morning.

Today was a day of scouting – laundromats, gelaterias, bus routes, pharmacies, etc. so that the men will be on good footing. The sun was high and the air was cool. I bumped into the newly ordained Fr. John Paul Mitchell on the way down the Janiculum hill and was pleased to learn that he will be at the Casa Santa Maria next year as well.

I took the long route to the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross (Santa Croce) and was able to enjoy the lovely business of Campo Fiori. The flowers were indeed beautiful and it makes for a nice walk up to the famous Piazza Navona.

Most go to Navona for touristic nonsense or to see the Bernini fountain. I go to see St. Agnes. In the center of the square is the beautiful church built over the site of her martyrdom. I went in, greeted Our Lord Jesus in the Sacrament and then said my Rosary. After I paid a visit to the place where her skull is kept and prayed for purity of heart and was blessedly joined joy a couple of sisters.

The rest of the morning was a bit disappointing. The was a mis-communication and I was not able to make contact with Fr. Socias at Santa Croce. When I left the university it started to rain and I got a bit wet on the way to see St. Catherine of Siena, whose body is in the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva. (I will study Italian in Siena in August & September.)

After this visit I did a bit of clerical window shopping – my parents gave me a generous gift certificate to my favorite Roman clerical shop, Barbiconi. Alas, I have not yet printed it out and do must visit later. On a side note, the Italians are way behind when it comes to the style of vestments. A perpetual reminder to them, gaudy is always out. Thank the good God for the English who are leading the charge in this field.

Wearily I walked back towards the Vatican, up the Borgo Pio and ate lunch at one of my favorite places, Taverna Roger – the foods is fine, the decor excellent, it always has clerics in attendance and you never hear English.

Certainly I hoped to visit St. Peter’s, but the line was so immense that my spirits were dampened. I thought to visit the bookstore and the Swiss Guardsmen were most polite and helpful in letting me in the backdoor. I love that store, everything wonderful, helpful and clerically nerdy can be found there. Well, almost everything.

Finally, back to CIAM where I downloaded two apps for doing Italian language drills (thanks Abby N.) and spent the next hour doing drills. Suddenly I became excited to go back to school. Study gave way to prayer as I went to the chapel for evening mental prayer, Mass and them Vespers.

After Vespers I wrote a couple of letters and started to miss home. Next year will be beautiful and hard and is especially hard to think about. But I had little time to dwell on it as I was going up to the NAC for dinner with Gabi Lopez and Scott Emerson, which was delightful and ended with a drink and some lengthier conversation. It was very nice to spend time with those good men.

After a few failed FaceTime attempts (I love you and miss you) it was time to write. Perhaps more introspection in the future, but for now, a record.

Buona notte from the the greatest city in the world.

Biblical Foundations of the Church

Here are the scripture citations I was going to give at the Alpha/Omega event on May 9th.  (Thanks for a great night everyone!)

I.  John 21:24-25

– Many things Jesus said and did were not written down

 II.  Acts 1:1-3

– Speaks about the kingdom of God which is not written down but kept by the Apostles, shows that the Church teaches the full truth.

 III.  Matthew 16:17-20

– Confession of Simon’s faith is the foundation of the Church, Simon is renamed Peter (because that faith is not from him but from God) and he (Peter) is given the power to bind and loose.

IV.  John 16:12-13

– There is more teaching to come (after the Passion) which will be taught to the Apostles (foundations of the Church) and will be ‘all truth.’

V.  Luke 22:31-34

– During the Last Supper, Jesus grants protection to Peter’s FAITH – the guarantee of the power given in Matthew 16.  Note, Jesus does not guarantee that Peter will remain morally upright, thus the Pope will always be protected to teach the right faith even if there is failure in his moral life.

VI.  John 21:15-19

– Jesus confirms the love of Peter and His love for Peter and prophecies the future of Peter and of the Popes.

VII.  Acts 2:42-43

– The teaching of the Apostles is a key part of the worship of Christian because they, 1) have the power of the Holy Spirit to teach and 2) were with Jesus after the Resurrection.

VIII.  1 Corinthian 15:9

– Saul (Paul) persecuted the Church of God, meaning that the Church was alive, up and running before the Bible came into existence.

IX.  1 Timothy 3:14-15

– The church is the pillar and foundation of the truth.

X.  Acts 15:1-29

– Representatives of the Apostles are sent to teach the truth from ‘the Holy Spirit and us.’

XI.   Revelation 21:10-23

– The heavenly Jerusalem has the Apostles as its foundation.

I’m leaving St. Paul’s

This past Sunday, April 7th, it was announced that at the end of the current semester my assignment at St. Paul University Catholic Center will come to an end and I will be transferred to a new assignment.

I came to St. Paul’s on 1 October 2008 and I anticipate formally leaving by 29 May 2013.  Spending the past 5 academic years with the students and the last 1651 (as of today) days with the Staff of St. Paul University Catholic Center has been a great challenge, a great joy and a great privilege   My gratitude to God for making me a priest knows no bounds.

My new assignment will be to study.  Sometime near the end of this summer I will move to the city of Rome where I will begin the pursuit of a doctoral degree in liturgical theology at one of the Roman ecclesiastical universities.  I will post more information as it becomes official.

Please offer prayers for me and especially for the priest who will take my place at St. Paul’s.