God has been so good!

This week, I want to write you about someone who has a significant influence in my life and who was called home to God this past Thursday.

Sister Rose Taranto, a Sister of St. Dominic of Amityville, died early Thursday morning. Sister Rose worked at St. John the Baptist Diocesan High School for over thirty years. A Sister of St. Dominic for 72 years, Sister Rose served at Our Lady of Solace, Dominican Commercial and St. Michael’s in East New York before coming to serve at St. John’s. While I attended and worked at St. John's, she was a teacher of Latin and Spanish, the organist and eventually the secretary to the Chaplains, as part of Campus Ministry, at St. John's. So over these years we have grown pretty close in working and sharing life together. (I think there are few who prayed as hard for me to come to the seminary!)

Sister Rose is a tremendous example of what is to be a person great service, holiness and faith. Throughout her life, Sister Rose certainly knew trial and pain, having faced many illnesses and challenges. She often worked through them, knowing God was with her, working even up to just a few weeks ago. You would be hard pressed to find her complain about any of the life circumstances she found herself in – rather she would accept that path she had been given and usually be the first to remind us that “God has been so good!” A statement she proclaimed and lived out until her final days.

At her funeral yesterday, one of the prayers spoken about in reference to saint describes Sister Rose perfectly:
“You renew the Church in every age
By raising up men and women outstanding in holiness,
living witnesses of your unchanging love.
They inspire us by their heroic lives,
And help us by their constant prayers
To be the living sign of your saving power.”

I guess in all of our lives, there are individuals who stand before as incredible witnesses to faith and hope. For me, and I’m pretty sure for thousands of others, Sister Rose has been and is an inspiration and source of great hope for the journey I have been on in my life and continue to be on.

To read more about Sister Rose, you can go to the St. John the Baptist Diocesan High School website.

Let's pray for Sister Rose's family, her friends and her community of Sisters. Let's pray for Sister Rose too - as I am sure - she is praying for all of us. Thanks for showing us all the ways that "God has been so good!"

Meet the Rector

People have been asking me how the seminary works in terms of structure, organization and community. Every now and then I'll try and introduce you to some of the people who are part of the community here.

One of the first people I'd like to introduce you to is Msgr. Peter Vaccari. Father Peter was appointed Rector of the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception on June 24, 2009. Msgr. James McDonald - another good and holy man - who was the Rector here since 2005 was appointed Pastor of St. Aidan's in Williston Park. Father Peter has been a professor of Church History since 1988. I don't know everything about him but can tell you he's a dynamic teacher, a tremendous spiritual director and has made a real difference in the lives of many of the seminarians who have lived here over the past twenty years. (I had him as a professor before and have him this semester - there's no one more excited about Church history...trust me! In fact he's taking us to the Holy Land this Winter break so we can more powerfully understand the times of the early Church. If you're interested in being a part of that so the right hand column.)

The role of the rector is to lead the seminary community on a number of levels and in a number of ways. In some ways, I guess you can say he is the Pastor of our community here as well as the Principal, chief administrator, encourager-in-chief , mentor, and much, much more. And on top of all of that, he's a really nice person who makes himself available, approachable and is so generous with his time and energy. When you talk to him, you have no doubt you are being listened to with great respect and reverence.

I write about him today because we had our second Rector's Conference this morning. Each month, the rector meets with the seminarians to share some insight, direction, teaching and/or encouragement. Today, Father Peter talked to us about Pastores Dobo Vobis a document by Pope John Paul II on the formation of seminarians. We were asked to really consider what it means to live in community in the seminary - what we bring to it, what challenges we face, and what, individually and collectively, we can do to improve the community life here at the seminary. I never fail to leave a meeting with Fr. Peter without somehow being called to be a better person. So that's one of his jobs to constantly encourage and challenge us to really reflect on what we're doing here at the Seminary and even what we, collectively, can do better so that we leave here well prepared and well formed for life beyond the seminary.

Rector or not - he's a pretty impressive person and someone I wanted you to meet! (And I'm pretty sure that he does not follow this blog - so this is genuine post I assure you!)

P.S. Check out the new seminary website at icseminary.edu. I promise to post up some pictures of the Seminary this week....for now check out the site.

The Sound of Silence

This past Thursday we had our first Day of Recollection. It was led by Bishop Paul Walsh, an auxiliary bishop of Rockville Centre. Many have wondered, based on my last post, how one handles the silence, especially me!

We began on Wednesday night with a talk and then a Holy Hour. After that, we were asked to be quiet. As big as the seminary building is, you could tell the difference. On Thursday, we spent the whole day in silence. Bishop Walsh offered two additional talks about the Eucharist that gave us much to think about - and the silence gives you plenty of time to think! He challenged us to look at the Eucharist as a reminder that we are "wired for God" and the meal that we share at Mass "must always lead to mission". He called on us to enjoy the Eucharist as it repairs and re-energizes us.

Beyond the talks, we could use the silence to read, journal, walk around the grounds and sort of get some time to let things process. We even ate meals in silence. Even that experience forced us to reflect on what we were eating and even to consider where it came from and how much food we really need to eat in our lives. So it was a day of reflection on many levels.

The truth this is the third experience of silence I've experienced in the past few months. This past summer, I spent a week with the Camaldolese Benedictines in Big Sur, CA. It was a week of mostly silence -with some conversation with the monks at meals. My life here at the seminary began with a three day retreat on the psalms led by Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio. I have to say with all the apprehension of entering into these experiences they were wonderful....definitely something for each of us to try at some point.

So we're on to week 2 of "The Seminarian Sent Forth". I have some ideas of future postings, but if you have some ideas for future posts, please e-mail me and let me know.

Let's continue to pray for and with each other!

COME AND "FOLLOW"

We're going to learn the blog navigation together! If you want to follow this blog, you just need to click on the bottom right hand side of the page. i think this will let you know when the blog is updated. If you have an AIM or Yahoo account you can use that. If you don't look to the bottom where it asks you to open a Google account. All this involves is typing in the e-mail address you always use....so you're not creating a whole other e-mail address. If anyone is more familiar with this than I, comment below.

Tonight begins a silent day of retreat and recollection. I'll let everyone know how it goes over the weekend.