Meet the Alley - Year 2

The view of our alley hall from my room.

Last year, around this time, I wrote about the alley community where I live here at the Seminary. I thought it’d be good to introduce you to the Alley Community this year. Each year there are some changes in the alley as people take leave for Pastoral Year or Ordination. Additionally, every two years, seminarians are required to move to a different alley.

As I wrote last year, in addition to being part of the larger seminary community, each seminarian at the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception is part of a “corridor community” or more informally an “alley”. The idea is, that just like Church, we don’t just experience support from the larger community but also on a smaller, more intimate level. I have come to see even more this year the need for a smaller community in the midst of a larger one.

I still live on Alley 3-B. There are seven of us who live here daily and our alley prefect, or professor is Msgr. James Swiader. (He’s also the Dean of Seminarians and my Advisor – so there will be a post about him one day.) We have some formal and informal ways that we attempt to support and be present to one another. We gather for Evening Prayer on Mondays and Thursdays and those times we usually share a few laughs or good stories about the week. Once or twice a semester we’ll try to go to dinner outside of the Seminary. (A few weeks ago we went to Besito for dinner –muy bueno!)



I’m going to provide a brief intro about each person on the alley – you can check out their pictures on the Seminary Website….



Daniel Opoku-Mensah receives
Candidacy and Killick Pierrilus
serves as the Bookbearer



Killick Pierrilus: Killick is a 3rd year theologian from the Diocese of Brooklyn. Orginally, he is from Haiti. He works in B wing – a place for the seminarians to hang out and catch up after a long day.

Fortunatus Mugishu: I’ve written before about Fortunatus (click here). He’s a great man who comes to our seminary from the Diocese of Kabale in Uganda. I miss Fortunatus. He is on his pastoral year at St. Patrick’s in Bay Shore.  We keep in touch pretty regularly. Even though he’s not living here daily, he still makes a great difference.

Daniel Opoku-Mensah: Daniel is now a second year theologian from the Diocese of Konongo-Mampong in Ghana. Daniel has a great sense of humor and perspective on life, here at the Seminary and in general. And, good news, this year he’s passed his road test and is now driving all over Long Island. (I've written before about Daniel here.)

Frank Zero: Frank is a 4th year theologian from St. Edward’s in Syosset. Frank is in many of my classes and is a great classmate. We find a good way to tease each other a bit but underneath it all is a great respect and admiration. He will be ordained a deacon this December 8th.

Ray Flores: Ray joined the alley last Spring and, like Fortunatus, is out on Pastoral Year in the Diocese of Brooklyn. He is a great musician and has a wonderful pastoral sense of things in and outside of the Seminary.



Jeremy Canna

Jeremy Canna: Jeremy is a 2nd year theologian from the Diocese of Brooklyn. He is a great musician and plays the organ at many of our seminary Masses and prayer services. Jeremy and I spent part of our summer together at the Southeast Pastoral Institute (SEPI) in Miami.

James Renna: James, a 1st theologian, is the newest member of our Alley Community. He comes to the Seminary from St. Joseph’s Parish in Hewlitt. He has a great reverence and love for the Church and for those he lives with. I’m glad he’s on the alley.


John Kwon and I at St. John the Baptist
Diocesan High School in May 2010


John Kwon: I’ve written about John before, too (click here).  He joined the alley last Spring. He is from the Diocese of Daejon in South Korea. He has a great sense of humor and perspective on things. He has become a trusted friend and mentor in managing life within and outside the Seminary.

So that's the alley! It's a great group of people and I'm fortunate to spend part of my journey here with them.

Taking Time to Smell the Roses

This past week, I returned to the parish for two important events both which are good reminders for me (and for all of us?) on this journey. Last Tuesday, I celebrated my “mock” Baptism which I’ll write about at another time.

Marie Ricigliano and I at Oktoberfest at Our Lady of Lourdes R.C. Church



Then on Saturday, I returned for a wonderful parish celebration where we honored Marie Ricigliano. Marie, to me and many others, is a living example of faith, hope and love. She has known pain, struggle, illness, the loss of a child and husband, to name a few. Yet she never fails to inspire and invigorate others. Marie is a tremendous person of prayer, community, hospitality, service, support and encouragement. What we often say about faith, hope and love she lives each and every day.



 I’ve known Marie since I was a fourth grader in the parish school (there will be no pictures of that). While we didn’t know each other personally at that point, Marie was one of the volunteers who helped at everything in the parish – from the Italian Feast, Bingo, the Rosary Christian Mothers, Parish Outreach, the Ministry of Consolation and so much more. More than the “ministries” is her gift of presence. When you talk with Marie, you know you’re talking with a woman who not only knows about Jesus, she knows Jesus and wants you to know Him too.

Over the past ten years or so, I have had the opportunity to know Marie not only as a woman from the parish but as a friend. (There is, no doubt, she is a large source of encouragement in my coming to the Seminary.) Throughout these years, she has said to me in person, on the phone or in writing, “Be sure to take time to smell the roses.” (I think she was warning me to slow it down a bit!) And, truthfully, whenever things have gotten a little crazy or busy, that line, and the person who said it, would even creep into my mind….what would Marie say?

When I arrived at the Seminary and entered my room for the first time, I smiled. For as hard as taking leave of family, parish and ministry were, I knew it’d be OK. You see, outside of my room is the Rose Garden of the Seminary. I called Marie that day and said, “Don’t worry…I’ll be able to smell the roses every day!”

We all probably have people in our lives like Marie – women and men who gently encourage and guide us in becoming who God calls us to be. (I've written about a few others here and here.) They often stay in the background, never seeking credit or accolades. (She’ll be furious when she reads this posting.) However, no matter how far in the background they might go, you always know they’re there. You need them for they call you beyond some of the surface things that life can bring and help you to move “into the deep” of relationship and love with God and one another.

Thanks, Marie, for teaching me to take time to smell the roses.

Marie (center) with Jo Brogan, Lori Bouklas and Mimi Camperlengo in the Kitchen at St. John the Baptist Diocesan High School. They used to come and organize all the Italian food at our Annual  Family Festival.

Ministry of Acolyte

This past Friday, I took one of the “official” steps on this journey. I was installed as an Acolyte. Last March, you might remember, I was instituted as a lector or reader. The focus in the ministry is on the Word and how it is proclaimed and lived out. With the institution of Acolyte, the focus moves to the Table and a sense of service both within and outside of the Liturgy.

On a “practical” level, this means more public liturgical service. The Church tells us, “The Acolyte is appointed in order to aid the deacon and minister to the priest (General Instruction of the Roman Missal, 6). This requires assisting at the altar with the details of the Liturgy and serving at liturgical functions (prayer services, Exposition, and at other acts of worship). At the seminary, this includes leading Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer when assigned, serving at Mass and our daily Exposition services, and making sure that everything “flows” at a particular liturgy.

When installed as lectors, we received a Lectionary – the book that contains the readings for each day of the year. As acolytes, we received and now begin wearing an alb. It’s another external sign of what I hope, are not only external but internal changes and growth.

Bishop Octavio Cisneros, Auxiliary Bishop of Brooklyn, came to the Seminary on Friday, and this is part of the homily he offered on Friday:
In performing your ministry bear in mind that, as you share the one bread with your brothers and sisters, so you form one body with them. Show a sincere love for Christ's Mystical Body, God's holy people, and especially for the weak and the sick. Be obedient to the commandment which the Lord gave to his apostles at the Last Supper: "Love one another as I also have loved you."
By this prayer, I am reminded (and maybe you, too) of the tremendous link between how we pray and how we live our lives each day. It’s not only about we do “in Church” but how serve “as Church” each and every day.

On Friday, after the homily, Bishop Cisneros called each of us forward and gave us a vessel of bread and wine and he said:
“Take this vessel with bread (wine) for the celebration of the eucharist. Make your life worthy of your service at the table of the Lord and his Church.”

Let’s pray that each of one of us, and particularly me these days, may be worthy of our “service at the table of the Lord and his Church!

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If you're able to come to Our Lady of Lourdes to help on October 12th (see right column) please e-mail this week. Some of you might be getting jobs!