I'm Thankful For...

This blog finally updating again!!! Oh, Thanksgiving jokes! I bet you all think I'm such a turkey for not updating in SO long!!! I'm actually a bit scared to check the date of the last update.

I do apologize but I allowed some things to slip away during midterms week and the stress of a difficult semester. While I can't promise that this will be the last major gap in posts, I do want to stress that I'm still going to continue my blog and evangelization.

So it has been a month since I last updated this blog and what a tough month it has been!!! I had to face midterms and paper and presentations because the life of a seminarian is also the life of a grad student, granted a grad student actually goes to bed before midnight because of morning prayer obligations (that seems like almost a contradiction).

After midterms week, we had our Days of Recollection. Days of Recollection are mini weekend retreats that each class in the college goes on. These are times of reflection but also rest and fraternity. The schedules aren't as intense as our beginning of the year silent retreats and meant for the classes to cement in fellowship and prayer together. Our class went on its last seminary organized Days of Recollection (because theology doesn't have a set organized retreat like we do) and we definitely made the best of it. The retreat was led by one of the older resident priests here (last year he celebrated his 55th year as a priest!!!) and he ran a very edifying and very relaxed ordo. We had time to grow in fraternity whether around the LARGE fire (which we depleted an entire woodpile to build) or in discussion and prayer during sessions. We had a great time growing in love and brotherhood.

Right now, I am pulling a late night due to the gift of Saturday sleep in Mass at 11:30. I am researching a paper for my Augustine class and trying to develop an Augustinian Theology of the Body (which given the reputation some scholars give him, sounds like a contradiction). I think it's good to rescue Augustine from the prudish anti-body stereotype that some people like to give him and show him to be a man of deep appreciation for God's gift of the body and how it impacts our identity as humans. I promise to not turn this blog into a series of abstracts from my papers!!! I will continue to pray for you all, pray for me.

Run So As to Win

Today was the Free Press Marathon which is a VERY big deal around the Seminary. The entire weekend was built around it and the guys start getting race fever very soon. Many of the seminarians have signed up for the race. A past vice-rector, and now current auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese, recognized the potential for the race to be a huge fraternity builder among the seminary last year, being an avid marathon runner himself. He urged the seminarians and some of the younger resident priests to take up the challenge of running as much as they can. Last year, over half of the seminary signed up for parts in the relay, or for the half with a few brave souls taking on the whole (including the then Vice-Rector and our Dean of Studies). It was an inspiring sight. All the seminarians were excitedly asking each other how their training was going and so many table conversations involved the Marathon that some non-runners would wince at the words race, training or run. This year our beloved bishop didn't provide the push that he did while he was with us but there was still a very strong showing of close to 40 guys participating in the event in various degrees, many braving the half and some doing their first fulls.

Saturday, we had an afternoon vigil Mass to accommodate the fact that many of us were going to be running in the morning and missing the normal community Mass. It was an interesting Mass and even the homily was focused on the Marathon. The closing hymn has got to be one of my favorite liturgical moments at the seminary to date. It was so amusing that even the rector and concelebrating priests were unsuccessfully struggling to not laugh as they processed out. There was even some impromptu clapping breaking out (an event that is SO out of the normal from the usual liturgical practices!!!). To make the scene even better, none of us could sink up our clapping either with each other or the beat of the song. There was so much win there that I think even Charlie Sheen would be amazed.


Sunday was RACE DAY! It was SUCH an exciting time. I got up at 4:50am and made it to our short intercessory prayer and blessing at the entrance before race time. This was my first half-marathon (only doing a short leg of the relay last year) and I was SO excited. I've been training for a year for this and the fact that it was all coming to a head was SO exciting. Downtown was so busy with runners everywhere. The starting line was SUCH a blast and the course itself was amazing. I went over the Ambassador Bridge, along the Detroit River on the Canadian side and then back through the tunnel into America (I couldn't help screaming 'MERICA when crossing back into the US). It was SUCH an amazing experience and I could go on and on about all the parts of the race (I might post a couple photos later) but I think I'll spare you the play by play. It was such a fun run and I got to go across a national border UNDERWATER! Finishing was amazing and immediately upon crossing the finishing line my legs both said "Enough of this, we quit" and now I'm hobbling around like I'm 80. All in all it was a great day and Christ was glorified!

Exchanging Truth for Lies

In the first reading from today from Romans, we are presented with a common topic from scripture, idolatry. I know in my mind it is so easy to view the false gods and idols of the past as a distant and well extinct problem only really around in a few confused and rebellious teens and young adults or REALLY confused older adults. However, there is a wider meaning here than just a bronze statue of Zeus or... well, I'm not exactly sure what the modern people do with their candles and stuff... At some point or time we have all been idolaters and idolatry is THE sin of this age. We have all exchanged the truth of God for a lie. Each time we have said, "I want this MORE."

The self really has become the worst kind of false god in the modern world. We have gone through such an effort to cleanse the outside of the vessel from idolatry but we have neglected to clean the inside. I know I am very much a product of my generation. I feel that little burn every time I suffer the slightest inconvenience. The likeness I've carved my idol into isn't of birds or four legged animals but of myself. I think the readings give a very timely opportunity for us to maybe start some cleaning on the inside of the vessel. It may be time to start toppling some idols and giving up somethings just for the sake of gift, start making offerings on the One True Altar!

Everybody's Looking Forward to the Weekend Weekend

Weekends in the Heart are just straight craziness. I mean Saturday alone is fuel for about two posts. Saturday started off with a formation Saturday, which I mentioned previously. During formation Saturdays we start off with the Latin Novus Ordo (which is the Latin version of the Mass we are all used to) and then as classes we each say a rosary. My class says our rosary outside walking around the grounds. After the rosary we spend time in lectio continua, which is a continual reading of Sacred Scripture, each time picking up where the last time left off. Afterwards we have formation sessions by class.

This month's session was about Spiritual Fatherhood and discerning the priestly calling to fatherhood. I found it very helpful and will provide plenty of fodder for my prayer in the future. This year of the seminary is very much about discerning God's call for each of our lives. We had a talk from one of the priests on two characteristics of fatherhood generativity (the property of generating) and mercy. We looked how these traits are exhibited in God and in the life of the priest. We then had a discussion as a class with the priests about these traits, discernment and fatherhood. It was pretty much what the doctor ordered for the seminarian mind that is constantly racked with the question of discernment.

After the session, I went home to do some baking. I, unfortunately, had to miss the annual college vs theology softball game (which we lost by one run on two highly contestable calls, or so I hear). I was preparing a birthday cake for a dinner that took place after evening prayer hosted by a theology professor at the seminary. She boards three young women, two of which are commuter students at the seminary and friends. The professor loves to host seminarians and her latest dinner coincided with the birthday of one of these young women. I thought I would try my hand at cake decorating and the best place to bake is my house because we have the counter space and supplies that the college kitchen does not have. The result was... from my point of view a mitigated pass, from the input I received an unqualified success. The dinner itself was so much fun and a great opportunity to bond with the extended seminary community.

The cake baking itself was a monster fiasco. I wound up having to abort and start over after making a few critical errors that are seriously rookie mistakes. Cakes are supposed to be boring (seriously compared to the fun stuff I like making, they are boring), you can make while sleeping affairs but instead I turned it into a fail cake! So my budgeted time was very much used up and I wound up cutting an entire frosting color out of the design, having to freezer cool the cake, and then the first layer of frosting, and finally speeding recklessly down the highway with the cake pan in next to me. I showed up to evening prayer JUST on time covered in cake flour and food coloring. I don't think I've ever seen anyone else experience this.

After the adventure Sunday, I decided to spend a NORMAL day at home. So I went home immediately after Mass (grabbing just some peanut butter and bread as a pre-run snack) and treated myself to a nice 11-12 mile run around suburbia in the fall (80 degree fall, but fall none the less!!!). Then spent some nice time with my parents before meeting other seminarians for Tai food (a Sunday tradition). I love Sundays.

FIRST! Friday

This past weekend was so packed I didn't get to blog about anything and, thus, I need to split the past few days between two posts! This will cover the fun that is First Friday around here.

This past week kicked off our First Friday vigils. The seminarians sign up for Holy Hours throughout the night for all night adoration preceding First Friday. My hour is 11 to Midnight! I love late night adoration, especially after everyone clears out and then you can be alone in a dark chapel with the only illumination coming from the altar. It is such peaceful and quiet prayer.

After morning prayer and Mass, and a nap, I got a jump on my house job on Friday, since I am fortunate enough to not have any class on Friday. I am in charge of billing for house cars as the college liaison to house cars. Something about working with excel always feels like big boy work. It was a nice and relaxing day before the craziness of the weekend.

Getting In Touch With My Roots

My grass roots, that is!!! Our bishops have asked us all to send letters to our congressmen and senators in response to this. I may follow this up with a discussion on human reproduction, or rather an explanation on where the Church is coming from but I really want to steer clear of hot button issues because this blog primarily isn't about politics. I assure you I won't make a habit of posting on political topics because that isn't what this blog is and the only reason I am doing it this one time is because of the wishes of our bishops and obedience IS something this blog is ALL about! I love me my obedience!!! So here is the letter I sent to my congressman/senators:

Dear (insert Washington type names here)

I am writing because the new health care regulations deeply concern me. I am a Catholic seminarian from a Catholic family. I am very concerned that my family and I would be forced to accept a health care plan that covers contraceptives, especially those that serve an abortifacient purpose.

As Catholics, we believe that contraception is contrary to the nature of the marital act and human nature itself. It is a grave sin because the matter is so grave. There are very few things more sacred than the procreative gift that God has given to the human person, the ability to bring new life into the world. Please consider opposing these health care laws as they stand right now because it is a terrible violation of our rights and our human dignity to be forced to support something that goes so radically against our beliefs.

Please co-sponsor the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act (H.R. 1179). This measure ensures that the rights of conscience of all participants in our nation's health care system will be respected.

Thank you very much for your time in reading this and thank you for your respectful consideration of this legislature. You and your fellow congressmen are ever in our prayers. I ask that you please help defend the dignity of those Catholics in your district that you have been charged to represent.

Sincerely,

Sean MacLennan

The 3 Fs of Seminary Life

Today was all about the 3 F's of seminary life, fraternity, fun, and... ummm... filosophy(?). It was a wonderful day for all three because today we had our first class dinner of the year. One of my brothers from the class made a HUGE amount of pulled pork, some homemade cole slaw, baked macaroni and cheese and an apple crisp for dessert. It was amazing! It is so much fun spending time with my class, watching the Tigers win at O'Berg's and eating food prepared with a great deal of love. Our brother was very kind and definitely viewed his cooking as a gift to share with us. Coming from someone who loves to get down in the kitchen as well, it was a GREAT meal and a very very tough act to beat if I were to ever try my hand at cooking for the class.

After dinner and clean up, which I more watched than participated in (someone has to help supervise and uplift his brothers with his amazing presence), we studied some philosophy. I love sitting in study groups with my classmates who are taking philosophy classes because occasionally, I'll know what they're talking about and I can be helpful and, let's face it, I'm so nerdy talking about philosophy is just plain fun for me. Apparently, there is an upcoming ethics test on Kant and John Stuart Mill and I just love ethics so it was a match made in Heaven. I got to talk about the joys of utilitarianism. It's all fun and games until it comes time to crack a few eggs for the omelet!

My favorite part is shooting holes in both systems with same question. Neither philosopher does a good job of saying "Why should I care about anyone but me?" This is one question I feel so very qualified to speak about because it almost amounts to a manifestation of conscience. There is that little rebellious voice inside that occasionally shouts "Why should I care about anyone besides me?" The best part about this is only the Catholic can answer this best by saying "Because, that is what we were made for. Because, God loved us first!" The worldly philosophies either decay into selfishness or a strange sense of duty for the sake of duty. Neither of these is the narrow way, neither of these is the way of the Cross! Ultimately, love is the only proper grounding for ethics! Love is what we were made for; love pushes us outside of our own selfish dumb heads and out into the beauty that is the other and, ultimately, to The Other! Studying Kant and Mill just makes me SO happy to be grounded in Christ, because the alternatives are not pleasant!

Farewells

I'm not sure how to explain all of the posts today, it could be my newly reacquired health or it could be the sense of inspiration that comes from it being St. Therese's feast day (would LOVE to do a post about her, but maybe next year... when her feast day gets eaten by Sunday... DARN IT!), or it could be the mountain of homework that is piled up waiting for me because of all the sick days which is causing me to seek out distractions. I have a suspicion that it may be the latter. Anyway, today was a very bittersweet day because today we said goodbye to one of my classmates. We went out to lunch with him in Greektown and it was a great time.

This was the first man from my class to discern out and I must say it hits much closer to home when it's a classmate. While there is a great deal of joy to know that God's will is being done in his life, there is, also, a great deal of sadness because we are losing a brother from our day to day lives. There is a great deal of emphasis on class fraternity and our class is particularly close so it is very jarring to lose on of our own. He seems at peace and it seems (from the outside looking in) to have been a very prayerful and good discernment which makes it all the better in the long run. I would love it if you all could remember him in your prayers.

Spirit Day Adventure

My gosh, I am stoning you to death with pebbles now aren't I? Anyway, yesterday was our first "spirit day." It was in honor of the Detroit Tigers making it into the play offs. This was one of the stranger anomalies in seminary life. It means that we could wear our Tigers colors or paraphernalia to morning prayer and class on Friday. Nothing like this happened last year, I don't recall ever having a dress down day. It was truly a strange occurrence.

Apparently, not everyone got the e-mail or understood it properly which led to quite a scare for me. I walk down in my jeans, boat shoes and Justin Verlander t-shirt to morning prayer, walk in and almost everyone is in school dress! This leads to an "oh crap!" moment when I look at my watch and realize I'm just 5 minutes early, no time to change. I sneak my way into the middle amidst the stares of clerics wearing theologians who definitely did not read the e-mail, not daring to sit in the front as I normally do. I was slightly reassured when other college guys came in jeans and Tigers clothes though I still avoided priests (who were all in the normal dress clothes and clerics) during breakfast until the head of college formation came in and sat down in jeans and a jersey and inside my head I was screaming "VINDICATED!!!"

St. Jerome

I love St. Jerome very much, as much for his work as for his personality. I found this stanza of a hymn we sung to him to be really entertaining (I actually laughed in the middle of morning prayer at this).

Learned and tireless, nothing could deter him;
From patient study, though, when critics pressed him,
Fierce as a lion, he would swiftly answer,
In refutation.

Hilarious! I know of no other hymn for any other person in the Church that mentions something like this.

Sick Day

I wasn't feeling well all week and consequently my posting suffered but I'll put up a few posts today about this week to make up for that. Sick days are like the lamer version of snow days! At the seminary, it means you go into self imposed quarantine and begin to take your meals in your room, sit in the infected section at Mass which is behind the credence table toward the back, don't shake hands with anyone (dude, last night was my first hand shake in days, I didn't think I'd notice but man you do feel isolated) and of course don't go to class (that part was pretty tolerable). It also means that most likely you'll be going to the noon Mass which is for commuters and staff and not the morning liturgy with the seminary (also a plus and a minus). There have been in the past house jobs like infirmanarian who would be charged with taking meals to the sick people and I think stocking a community medicine cabinet. No such job or cabinet exists in the college at the moment, sadly, so it was just lots and lots of orange juice.

Do Something Amazing

This will be my first "blast from the past" posts in which I'll dig up things from my past when my present isn't particularly interesting for blog fodder or when I feel that background may be necessary to provide context for current events. This current post falls under the latter motivation (though, after hours of class today and facing hours tomorrow, I think the former is equally applicable). Now I will give some context to references to NET Ministries or my year doing missionary work.

NET Ministries is a young adult ministry who, as their mission statement explains, challenge young Catholics to love Christ and embrace the life of the Church. They do this primarily through retreat ministry. NET is based out of St. Paul, Minnesota and every year a new batch of young adults from the ages of 18-28 gather together for training where they are given formation on their identity as sons and daughters of Christ and trained in the skills necessary for a year of ministry with teens. They are then placed on teams by the staff. Most of these teams are travel teams, like the one I was on, and they go from diocese to diocese, coast to coast in a 12-passenger van with a trailer in back putting on retreats from the teens in 6-12th grade and staying in host homes around the area. For more information go here and if you want to check out my (few) blog posts from that year you can read my blog which gives an first hand account of life as a missionary. There are also a couple pictures and amusing anecdotes. Now that I've given context, I feel free to constantly talk about NET as is my wont.

Steubie or Not Steubie

STEUBIE!!! That's the answer! This past weekend was our first Off Campus Weekend of the year. This is the magical time in every seminarian's life when all obligations disappear, even food service halts, and we are allowed to go anywhere or do anything within the confines of morality and prudence (well, as much prudence as I am in possession of...) provided that the seminarian is back and in the pew in time for night prayer on Sunday night (9pm). Off Campus Weekends are great (so great that apparently I capitalize them like proper nouns!) and provide much needed relaxation time. If you are wondering what I did with my weekend of freedom, I road tripped!

I asked around and we got a few guys together to road trip to Franciscan University in Steubenville, OH. A former seminarian (and diocesan brother) started his MA there this year and guys went out to visit him. For me, there was definitely a parallel motivation to the trip because my own NET sister from my missionary team began school there and my brother from the team lives there. It was a family reunion of sorts and I could not pass that up!

The university is flippin' sweet! I've been before but I am always just in awe of just how well integrated the faith is in campus life. My favorite example of the weekend is from a flyer for a 70s dance that will take place next weekend "Disco may be dead but we believe in the Resurrection." It is so healthy that the faith is just so much a part of the lives of many of the students that even though it isn't the only thing they do it is very much the lens through which they view the world. Everything is done in the light of their faith even if it just going to get coffee at the Heavenly Grounds, watching a movie in a dorm room with a wall of posters featuring Clint Eastwood, Schwarzenegger, The Beatles and JP II, or just playing ninja in the student center on a Friday night and meeting new people with charity. It's enough to make even a Saint Louis University alumnus like myself jealous (and that is saying quite a bit, SLU Rocks!).

I enjoyed the weekend so much and it was a milestone. This was the first Off Campus Weekend that I actually did some homework!!! I will definitely consider going there again because it was a massively fun time. I had a blast at that movie night I mentioned even though one of the students and I wound up spending most of the movie talking about better movies we both wished we were watching (we both agree, Die Hard is the best Christmas movie of all time!!!). This weekend was a great break from the usual and I am now totally thrilled to be going back to life here at Sacred Heart!

The Heat is On

The semester is starting to kick into gear! The schoolwork is starting to pile and I think I'm safely behind in all of my classes. It's finally Friday (I was SO tempted to make another Rebecca Black reference but I think one is enough, though I still reserve the right to slip in a Ke$a reference). This week was a bit of a hard one, especially Wednesday!

On Wednesday, I had my first formation meeting of the year. In seminary, we each have a formation director whom we meet with once a month to discuss how things are going, what we need to work, and progress in growth. The meeting went very well and I adore my formation director and trust him implicitly. The difficulty came in the fact that I've been asked to cut out something very dear to me. Seminary life, or any discernment, often demands of us sacrifices and many of these are legitimate good things that we very good for us up to the point that Christ holds out His pierced hand and asks for them. The idea being that we need to strip away the "ands" from our lives. I'm a priest and... I'm a mother and... or I'm a Christian and... Everything gets stripped away so that it's only God and us and then we can see what He wants once the clutter is gone.

This is one of the most painful aspects of our Christian life, sacrifice. If we remember everything in our lives is subordinated to or brought under God. This means we are in a position to give gifts to Christ! We can say to Him, "I love you so much I'm going to give you this..." The great thing is that when Christ points to something and says, "I want that," we are guaranteed that we will ultimately come out the benefactors from the transaction. Every gift we give Christ is just one more gain for us.

2 lbs of Kielbasa

Today was very busy! I think you are going to get a taste of another aspect of seminary life in this post. Within a week of me establishing a norm for Sunday, there is a deviation from that norm. All plans are subject to change, praise God (slogan stolen from NET Ministries). Once a semester, the Archbishop invites all the seminarians from the two seminaries within the Archdiocese, Sacred Heart and Sts. Cyril and Methodius (I'll explain them in a minute) to the Cathedral for a short seminar on some aspect of priestly formation and then Mass.

This time, the Archbishop discussed with us the importance of vulnerability within the priestly ministry and the acknowledgment of the action of the Holy Spirit in the call. He emphasized that none of the Apostles had any particular skill that would result in success in the early Church and that the spread of Christianity is not the result of human ingenuity. He went on to suggest we reflect on this point during those times in which we remember our own unworthiness and shortcomings in the face of the call. The Archbishop stressed the importance of vulnerability in ministry, particularly the vulnerability that hope and ideals bring. He encouraged us to never give up on our ideals and hopes when they will inevitably be dashed by reality. The people of God deserves a priest (or anyone in ministry) that does not doubt or limit the power of the Holy Spirit. Just because the people we minister to will not be enraptured by the glorious words of our every sermon or the entire community won't be converted and a standing room crowd will not form on our Wednesday morning Mass does not mean that we have any right to give up on them or say that there are just some who are unreachable. It is crucial to open ourselves to the wounds of disappointment because it is only then that we can actually also be open to the virtue of hope.

Providentially, the Mass was also the annual Mass for the disabled community of the Archdiocese (sometimes I think the Archbishop plans these things). It was an awesome reminder of the gifts that the most vulnerable have to give and, as another seminarian pointed out on the ride home, just how fortunate we are to have our health, our speech and our minds. He pointed out that we have NO right to any of those things which we take for granted as our own and just how great a gift they are and how this gift can and should be used for God's greater glory.

After Mass, we were invited by the other seminary, Sts. Cyril and Methodius, to their campus for a cookout. Their seminary is for Polish men who come over the US to study here. While they are over here, they are selected by a sponsoring US diocese which they will go to. This process, I've gathered, is much like free agency in the NFL. Their campus is HUGE and on the shores of Orchard Lake which is possibly one of the most expensive plots of land in the state (never let anyone tell you that the Polish are anything but shrewd). The seminary was built before 1920ish back when that area was WAAAY out in the middle of no where. Now it is in the middle of some of the nicest suburbs in the Metro area on a pristine lake. It was a great opportunity to build fraternity from the Polish guys whom, up to this point, I've never had a chance to even meet. Of course the food was amazing! Giant smoke kielbasa! I had 4! There really is few things better than some good Polish food (for the record, I don't have a single drop of Polish blood in me, so this isn't a biased statement).

After lunch, we were given tours of the grounds (they have a hockey rink!!!!) and offered boat rides on their pontoon. I have decided it is for the best that I am where I am. I cannot imagine the trouble I would find myself in if I had access to a pontoon boat AND a Zamboni (the Zamboni would be used for atleast one McDonald's run). It was a great Lord's Day!

Sacraments and Etiquette

Not to be confused with Mystery and Manners! Today was a Formation Saturday. Once a month, each class has a formation Saturday in which we spend Saturday morning in formation workshops. These usually help to build up certain virtues in human, spiritual and/or pastoral formation. They are a way for the formation staff to address topics that are important that don't necessarily come up in classes. This particular day was a little different as our class met in the refectory (check your seminary vocabulary sheet, which you should be putting together now: this means dining room) and we discussed etiquette! We covered how to greet people, how to juggle conversations, how to look presentable, and table manners. It was actually a pretty enjoyable time and I definitely learned a thing or two.

After lunch, I went to the sacrament of confession out at the Solanus Casey Center. Many seminarians like to go to there to confession. The Capuchins are there are such great confessors and it is a really amazing place. I adore the Franciscans there.

Reconciliation is such an amazing gift. It really is amazing to think that even though our sins are like scarlet, God makes us whiter than snow through the sacramental graces won in the confessional. God is SO merciful! I am just overcome by just how undeservedly loved I am and how freely giving He is. God is GOOD!

The Last Few Days

Wednesday night was the unofficial kick-off of the youth group year. I am a member of the adult team at St. John Neumann in Canton. This isn't my apostolic assignment, which I'll be getting soon, but just some ministry I enjoy doing on the side. It was a great opportunity to start off the year and catch up with the teens. It's a great group and I really enjoy the opportunity to see God work in these teens.

Thursday is our Archdiocesan fraternity day. Seminarians from the Archdiocese meet for evening prayer and then we have dinner together in the refectory (it's our seminary word for cafeteria/dining room). It is always a great time to build brotherhood with the guys from our diocese. More and more there is a greater emphasis being placed on the importance of fraternity in the life of the diocesan priest. There is a strong effort to help build up supportive relationships between priests because they are best suited to relate to and support each other (iron sharpens iron).

After dinner, was our weekly holy hour of adoration and benediction at 8 pm. This is an opportunity for each of the priests at the seminary to preach on readings he selects and gives us further formation as a whole seminary.

To make Thursday even more exciting, our campus pub, O'Berg's (named after the late Fr. Berg a beloved member of the faculty and basketball coach) had it's grand opening for the year. That's right, our seminary has a bar (gasp, the scandal!!!). It's the main social area for both houses that has a loft with pool, air hockey, and ping pong tables, a TV room with a big screen donated to us by a generous sponsor from the Lansing dioceses and a very nice bar with fridges packed both with beer and soft drinks (for the underage guys and those that don't drink). The idea is that instead of having lots of seminarians with private fridges for their beer, we have a big community bar staffed by seminarians that sells beer at cost (about $1.50 a bottle) so that it becomes a building block of fraternity. The rector was even so generous as to buy each of us our first round! All in all, the year is getting off to a great start

Words of Life

Yesterday, during Mass, our dean of students gave a very great homily on how the words of Christ give life in the readings and how we can bring life with our words. In the Gospel, the words of Christ bring life into the lifeless son of the widow. Through Christ, we have that ability to bring life into each other and support each other with our words.

I reflected quite a bit yesterday about the use of words and what the Bible has to tell us about them. One of my favorite verses from Sirach tells us "The blow of a whip raises a welt, but a blow of the tongue crushes the bones" (Sirach 28:17). We need to reflect on how we use our tongues. Cutting speech can be a grave danger to charity. St. Matthew warns us that even if it is said sarcastically there is danger in using words beyond their meaning "Let what you say mean simply 'Yes' or 'No;' anything more than this comes from evil" (Matthew 5:37). Another translation says let your yes mean yes and your no mean no. So even if hurt isn't intended with our words, saying the statement sarcastically is still not living according to the calling we have received in Christ. Christ wants our words to have meaning and sarcasm ruins the integrity of our speech.

The reading from yesterday doesn't just challenge us to not use harsh language, just like Chapter 5 of Matthew, Christ ups the ante from the Old Testament (Sirach). No, we are called to work toward the glory of God with our speech. In the confiteor, we admit that we sin from what we have not done. How many opportunities come daily for us to bring life by our speech and we settle for less? I know of many times where I could have affirmed one of my brothers and decided to simply joke around and maybe tease him instead (my tongue, unfortunately can be quite sharp). Just because no harm came from the interaction, does not leave me faultless. Christ wanted to come into that situation and did not receive an invitation. God was not glorified in that interaction even if He wasn't blasphemed. That alone is falling short of the mark or target which is the original definition of the word sin. The bar is set high, but think of the joy that would come from rising to Christ's challenge with our speech and think of the life we could bring into this world through something as simple as our speech!!!

A Good Sunday

Yesterday was a wonderful day! Sundays are often really good times at the seminary for free time and getting set for the upcoming week and ordering the chaos of the past week. The day starts off with our 9 am morning prayer and then 10 am Mass with the rector. Msgr. gave a great homily that worked in the importance of numbers both the number 7 in the readings and the numbers 9/11. He did an excellent job of touching the importance of the Sept. 11 in our culture and also breaking open the scripture in a way that wasn't all over the place but held the two themes balanced and united.

Mass is always followed by brunch which often has fancier or special dishes instead of the normal day to day fare of eggs, bacon etc. After brunch, the day is ours till night prayer at 9 pm! And it was such a beautiful day out after the week of rain I was able to get my run in!

It was great to be out in the sun! On the way back, I had a particularly uplifting encounter. I was running along Woodward between Chicago and Grand (which is kind of a rough area) when I saw this young man who was fairly seriously developmentally-challenged walking with his crutches (in Detroit this is not too uncommon of a sight because there are a great many mentally handicapped on the street, sadly). He had this HUGE smile on his face when he saw me in a great distance and started waving and kind of mimicking my run and then his smile doubled when I waved back and as I got close he held his hand up for a high five. He had such joy in that encounter that I couldn't help feeling uplifted from meeting him. His joy and meekness was such a stark contrast from his surroundings where you have to have a certain level of apprehension and there is a bit of fear in every interaction with a stranger. He reminded me of the anawim and our duty to them.

The anawim (or the poor lowly ones) have a special place in scripture and in our lives. Theirs is the kingdom of Heaven! They are dear to the Lord and are a gift to us all. In many ways, weakness and vulnerability is a gift because it challenges those who are stronger or more gifted, in some respects, to use their gifts for the benefit of the anawim. Their vulnerability demands our support, love and protection. That is why we were given the gifts that we have. In many ways, we are the anawim as well. We are called to embrace all of those areas in which we are weak and lowly. Pope Benedict reminds us that being poor is not just a social classification or condition but a spiritual choice. We are all called to be totally at the mercy of the one who made us. We are all called to be anawim.

The Beginning of a Year

The year is just starting off which means a bunch of new faces, new rooms, new classes and a return of many of the blessings and hardships of the last year. I was surprised, on move-in day, to find out that I was put in one of the new rooms in the new hallway way up on the third floor over looking the courtyard, which is a HUGE change from last year. Instead of burned out buildings, I see trees and instead of gun shots, I can hear the fountain. It's enough to make you forget what city you're in! The room itself is just a testament to just how much love we receive from the Church: brand new carpet, walls and the best furnishing I could ever hope for. I am the envy of the seminary, I will have to show pictures some night that isn't laundry night (nobody wants to see THAT!).

It is a blessing to have new guys. Guys from two different religious orders the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity or SOLT (there seems to be letters missing in that acronym...) and Companions of Christ the Lamb are joining us this year which positively swells our numbers to capacity. That makes the new faces into a particularly large number and I must say there may be a bit of habit envy going around the seminary because of the SOLT guys (they are just so darn cool). The seminary is big and getting bigger.

Classes started this week after our silent retreat to kick the year off ended. That means a whole new batch of classes for me. My class schedule is going to be a point where you get a bit of a different picture than you would if you were following most college seminarians since I already did my undergrad in philosophy while most guys have education in far more practical and employable degree paths. So, while they get a degree in philosophy, I am working on an MA in Theology! This means I have a schedule that looks like this:

Monday
Theology of the Cross and Suffering 3:30pm-5:30pm (I, unfortunately, miss community evening prayer with this)
Mariology 6:30pm-8:30pm

Tuesday
Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas 10:30am-12:00pm (my one philosophy class that I'm auditing because I want to be with my college brothers)
St. Augustine the Theologian 3:00pm-5:00pm

Wednesday
Christianity and World Religions 4:15-6:30 (this is an STL course which stands for Super Tough Load... actually I just made that up, STL really is a degree which is like a PhD issued by the Vatican. Means I miss evening prayer and dinner!!! So far I've been scavenging in the house fridge to see if anyone left any food unlabeled- NO NAME, FAIR GAME!)

Thursday
Thomas again (repetitio est mater studiorum)
New Testament Greek year 2- Reading course (hasn't started up yet, and I haven't quite figured out when and where that meets... I kind of like to pretend like it doesn't exist, for now. It will become all too real very soon.)

Friday
No classes (we we we so excited)

So, this includes two classes taught by our resident Jesuits (Augustine and the Cross) which means you will probably NOT be hearing from me on exam week and that may be a good time to remember me in your prayers. Novenas to St. Joseph Cupertino and Divine Mercy Chaplets may be especially timely at that point.

This year is starting off and let's get a jump on it.

First Things

Hello world! Or atleast the portion of the world that will be following this blog. I thought I would start by stating my intention and, perhaps, put a proper focus on the blog so that it is always directed toward a proper end (or telos for those philosophy/Greek nerds). Introductions:
I am Sean. I am a seminarian for the Archdiocese of Detroit. I am, at the time of this post, in my second year of Pre-Theology which is the year that precedes Theology and Candidacy. If God wills me on to a normal course toward ordination, it would mean that I will be a deacon in four years and a priest in five. More personal information will hopefully bleed through during the course of this project.

I mentioned a particular end. This blog will hopefully be a look into life at a typical American seminary and a look into the head of (well, let's face it) an atypical American seminarian (I have always been well outsides the boundaries of normal). I also will hope to include all things edifying such as anecdotes, stories and reflections. I do hope to develop a habit of posting to this and ask some patience as I am not currently in a habit of doing this on a regular basis. This entire project will hopefully give a human look at seminary life. I hope this will be a tool for evangelization and very much hope that this will not be a cause for scandal. All of this will hopefully build up the faith and lead others to a deeper relationship with Christ. This will also be a great opportunity to see that the Christian life is a fun life and a life full of joy. So, perhaps, we should kick this off with a quick request for intercession from Blessed John Paul the Great as this is a very New Evangelization thing to do.

Blessed John Paul the Great, through your example you led millions to know Christ and to love Him. You challenged us to bring to a new and changing world the eternal and unchanging message of Christ's love. Help this blog to properly glorify Christ and lead others to accept the invitation of friendship that He offers to each of us and help those that read this to know that Christ loves them and return that love in kind. We ask this through your intercession and through the intercession of Our Lady. Amen.