It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

Today, December 17th is my final day of the semester at the Seminary. The reason for lateness of this post is the past week has seen a flurry of finals (both oral and written) and papers. Classes are finished and today we celebrated our Closing Liturgy and Luncheon.

It has been a journey to get to this point but one that has sought to bring us closer together as a community. It began on November 30th with the beginning of the Advent season. Then, on December 9th (after Diaconate Ordination), we came together to get the “house” set up for Christmas. This involved putting get our tree together including stringing the lights (very frustrating!) and decorating the tree as well as putting up the Christmas Nativity scene. This is one of those “all hands on deck” experience and while it can be work it’s also good for us to work together! And, of course, we were able to smuggle some lights and a donated tree (and a light up snowman) for our Alley…so we were the talk of the Seminary.

Today, we celebrated our Closing Liturgy. One of the traditions here is that we sing the Closing Hymn, “O Come All Ye Faithful” in the first languages of those who live here. So we sang verses in seven different languages. It was a good reminder of our community unity and diversity.

It’s appropriate we end today as the Church begins to celebrate the O Antiphons, the time of Advent that marks our final preparation for Christmas. So as the members of this community return home or to local parishes, we go forth in a great spirit, ready for a wonderful break!

- -
Please remember in your prayers, Msgr. Jim Kissane, who passed away yesterday after a very short but intense illness. Fr. Jim was a graduate of St. John the Baptist Diocesan High School (Class of 1982) and the pastor of St. John of God Parish in Central Islip. He is truly one of the “good guys”…someone who was a great source of encouragement and strength for me and many others. Funeral arrangements can be found here.

It's Deacon Week!

This week is a big week at the Seminary. On December 8th, five men of this house will be ordained to the diaconate by Bishop DiMarzio. They will begin serving in parishes over the next few months and then be ordained to priesthood this June.

The five men who will be ordained this week, in a real sense, are the leaders of this community. Their presence, experience, wisdom and enthusiasm for ministry certainly set a high bar for those of us who live here. Simply by their status here they inspire us to continue working on this path.

For the entire community it's an "all hands on deck" week. There is much to do from preparing the Chapel, setting for all the details of the celebration, moving chairs all over the place and preparing the seminary for the nearly 300 guests who will visit us this Tuesday, to supporting the men who will be ordained. It's a good time and moment when everyone can work to bring things together.

So pray for Alonzo, Nixon, Henry, Dave and John (you can see their pictures at the Seminary website) and pray for our entire community in the days ahead, especially in this Year of the Priest.

It's Good to be Home

This weekend, all of the seminarians were asked to return to their home parishes to share a little bit about their vocation story, especially as the Church celebrates the feast of St. Andrew, Apostle, this Monday. For me, I had the great honor and privilege of returning home, and I do mean home, to Our Lady of Lourdes R.C. Church in West Islip.

I’m not sure if everyone can appreciate the difference that a parish can make in a transition like this. Ideally, parishes are small Church communities that nurture, challenge, empower and strengthen all who belong to the community. I’ve been part of Our Lady of Lourdes since birth and for as far back as I can remember have always a found a place where I belong. This community has helped me to do things I never thought I could do – including coming to the Seminary.

Over my years in the parish, I have been offered support in the midst of challenge. I have been given the privilege and honor to serve the community in some ways. Perhaps, most importantly, I have been given a great foundation of what parish and Church can and should be.

One of the great things about good communities in general and parishes in particular, is that you never really leave. So while I have been away from the everyday life of the community since August, they have not left me behind or forgotten about me. Rather, like most communities do, they’ve rallied to be present and to support me in new and different ways. That made returning this weekend feel like I had never left.

Needless to say – it is great to go home again!

A Different Week...

UPDATE - 11/26/09 - So guess who scored the winning touchdown in the Turkey Bowl - that's right, not me! The Diocese of Brooklyn, led by our Rector, Fr. Peter, defeated Rockville Centre, 3-1 (each touchdown was a point). It was much more serious than I thought - there were rules, plays and penalities....but certainly a lot of fun. Have a great Thanksgiving!

The abbreviated week ahead brings a different pace here in the Seminary. There are no academic classes and our regular routine will be altered a bit. So what will be doing, you might ask?

These three days began tonight with an Evening/Day of Reflection with Bishop Frank Caggiano of the Diocese of Brooklyn. He spoke tonight and will speak tomorrow about how we can be more effective ministers in what can be a very unreligious or non-religious world. Part of the day of recollection includes the silence that I’ve written about before. Even as I type this at 11:30 at night, it’s even quieter than usual. There’s a nice sense of peace about that.

Tuesday and early Wednesday are Work Days. I cannot tell you exactly what they entail because I haven’t lived through them but they are ways for the seminary community to work together and contribute to the life of the house. We have been divided into work teams which range from outside work, working in the Library, cleaning and reorganizing the Chapel, among many other tasks. So all day Tuesday we’re working. I bet it’s not only going to be a day where a lot gets done but it gives us who live here a chance to work on a different level. So we’ll see how it goes.

On Tuesday afternoon, I’m told, there a tradition of a Turkey Bowl where the seminarians from Brooklyn take on the seminarians from Rockville Centre. Those who are from other dioceses get drafted, I believe, on to one of the teams. Pray for me :)!

On Wednesday, we conclude with a ½ work day, then Mass followed by lunch together. From there we return home and get the chance to spend the holidays with family and friends. This upcoming weekend, we’ve been asked to speak in our home parishes about our experiences at the Seminary, Bishop Murphy’s Pastoral Letter and a real invitation to invite others to consider the seminary or religious life.

On Sunday, some of us will go to St. James Cathedral to celebrate with our Rector, Msgr. Peter Vaccari, as he is official recognized by the Bishop for the title of “Monsignor”. Then it’s back to the Seminary on Sunday night as get the place ready for Advent.

So as you can read – there’s a lot happening here in this “different week”!

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Crunch Time!

A lot of people have asked about what life is like here in the Seminary and I’ve tried to (and will continue to) write about the people, places and events of seminary life. Tonight, I thought I’d let you know about the academic part of life here. Intellectual formation is a huge part of a seminarian’s life and that means a significant amount of academic work. With a little less than three weeks in the semester it’s crunch time.

Each year, seminarians are expected to take certain classes. You can look at the Seminary website for the course catalog which provides a significant amount of information. Studying theology full time is a lot of work but it is worth it as you leave most classes not only with theological material and insight but usually with suggestions and ideas about how to integrate this material in the life of the Church.

So, a week for me includes the following classes:
+ Johannine Literature
+ Theology of the Body
+ Catholic Church History in the USA
+ Theology of the Priesthood
+ Sacraments of Initiation
+ Spanish

(can you match the books to the course?)

These are all graduate level classes so they require a significant amount of reading, studying, preparing, presentations, etc. (NOTE: I’m not complaining or whining…just explaining!). Some of my former students will rejoice that I have all of this work. One even said it might be God’s payback to me J!

Now in these final weeks, papers are due, finals need to be prepared for and all of this work needs to come to a close. This happens as the “house” continues to run and we’re expected to contribute to the life of the community here!

The hope is that learning – not only the material – to integrate these courses into our lives while also continuing our commitment to prayer, service in the community and regular meetings and gatherings! It’s all good –but certainly a lot of work! OK off to writing this paper about connaturality and celibacy…anyone got some good ideas for this?

Have a great week!

Meet the Alley!

I’m going to try with a few of these blog postings to try and share with you a little about what seminary life is like. A few weeks ago I introduced you to the Rector, Fr. Peter. In addition to him and the alley –which we’ll read about today – I’ll continue to write about some of the different people and places here too! This week we’ll do both – so it’s a little long.

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. Each alley has a number of seminarians from different years and usually has one professor or member of the faculty who is the alley prefect.

I live on Alley 3-B. There are nine of us who live here 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.

First, check out the Alley Lounge (my room is right across from it – how lucky am I!). Here, as you might able to see, there’s a TV, refrigerator, coffee maker, comfortable couches and much more. Don’t worry – that refrigerator is filled with Diet Pepsi and many other things!) Some times a bunch of guys will watch the Giants’ game or one or two might catch the light night news or something like that. Much like a college dorm we have it stocked with candy, snacks, comfortable couches, etc.

Our alley bulletin board is a way we communicate and keep up with each other. It’s hard to see in this picture but we pray for one person on the alley per week, we have a prayer intention list that we add to each week, and a quote of the week to help us reflect or think about.

We gather as an alley officially on Mondays and Thursday for Evening Prayer at 5:30 P.M. It’s a time not only to pray but also to catch up on life at the Seminary and in general. Our prayer is simple but if often allows us to pray in a more personal way with one another.

We also do things more informally too! Last week we all went out to dinner to eat with Msgr. Swiader. It was a good way to share life outside of the house. Other times, we’ll set up for dinner together or just help each other out if someone has something they need to get done. We’re a pretty good group as we are always up to trying to something that brings us a little closer together.

The alley, or the corridor community, is a great way to make a big building much smaller. The hope is that in some way the community we form here will continue beyond this place, too.

I’m going to provide a brief intro about each person on the alley – you can check out their pictures on the Seminary Website….
Msgr. Swiader: Is the dean and alley prefect. More to come about him in a future post.
Henry Leuthardt: Henry is a 4th year theologian and is preparing to be ordained this June. He's from St. John the Evangelist Church in Center Moriches. I work for Henry in the Sacristy.
Paul Kim: Paul is a 2nd year theologian from the Diocese of Brooklyn. He’s always finding a way to keep people laughing.
Jeremy Canna: Jeremy is a 1st year theologian from the Diocese of Brooklyn. Jeremy is a great musician and plays the organ at many of our seminary Masses and prayer services.
Frank Zero: Frank is a 3rd year theologian from St. Edward’s in Syosset. Frank’s in many of my classes and is a great classmate.
Daniel Opoku-Mensah: Daniel is a first year theologian from the Diocese of Konongo-Mampong in Ghana. Whenever I’m thinking how far I had to come to Huntington, I become quiet and think of Daniel. His first experience of America is here at the Seminary. Daniel is a great soccer player and a great person to live with.
John Ryan: John is a 4th year theologian preparing to be ordained this year. He is the coordinator of B-Wing for the entire seminary. He has such a great perspective and sense of humor on things! He, too, is from Our Lady of Lourdes Church in West Islip.
Killick Pierrilus: Killick is a 2nd year theologian from the Diocese of Brooklyn. He is an acolyte in the house and works in B wing – a place for the seminarians to hang out and catch up after a long day.
Brandon O’Brien: Brandon is a 2nd year theologican from the Sacred Heart Church in Merrick. Brandon is also an organist at many of our Masses and prayer services. He’s also a Giants’ fan – so pray for him these days.

Ok - this week was a long post! Sorry about that.

Of the City, Seminarians, Servers and Saints...

This week has seen seminary life with a lot of different activities and events – each I hope – with something to offer us. As we celebrate feasts of saints and souls in the Church, it’s a good reminder of how our work and our lives interconnect in many ways.

This past week, we had my first seminary “field trip”. It was part of the “Formation in Christ” program that new seminarians participate in for their first two years at the Seminary. Each Wednesday we generally meet at the Seminary to discuss a different aspect of spirituality and prayer. This past Wednesday we journeyed to The Cloisters. Here we were given a great tour about this unique space that brings together many artistic works and spaces of the Medieval Era. It’s a great trip if you have a day. Part of what made the day so great was not just the place, but the chance to be community in a little less formal situation. After The Cloisters, we journeyed to midtown to Ellen’s Stardust Diner, Times Square, Rockefeller Center and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Some of the newest members of the seminary, as I’ve written about before, have never been in the country before, never mind the heart of NYC. The trip had many benefits, indeed!

Today, All Saints’ Day, we welcomed the men from the college residence at Douglaston. (For those following from Our Lady of Lourdes in West Islip, our own David Atanasio is in residence there.) These men, for the most part, are undergraduate college students living in community in Queens. You can read about their program and who they are by going through the site. It’s good to know there are other people planning to come here to the major seminary in the future.

I also had the chance today to welcome the altar servers of Christ the King R.C. Church in Commack. Led by Chris Ferraro, they came to learn about the seminary and who knows...maybe coming here one day :)! Msgr. Joe DeGrocco and I led a tour of the seminary and prayer service for the wonderful young people of Christ the King. They seemed very impressed with the seminary and hopefully left with some good things to think about as they return to serve – both at Mass and outside of Mass – in their parish community. It was good to be connected with parish life – even if just for a few hours!

So there’s a lot going on here at the Seminary these days…The journey to NYC, the visit of the Douglaston community and today’s presentation are all reminders of how the community life here extends beyond this building. That’s a good comfort!

As we celebrate All Saint’s and All Soul’s Days, let especially remember the saints of our lives – those recognized by the Church and those known to us personally - so that we can seek God’s blessing (as offered at All Soul’s Day Masses this day) in our lives:
“In his great love, the God of all consolation offers us the gift of life. May we be blessed with faith in the resurrection of his Son, and with the hope of rising to new life.”

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.

Thanks for sending me here!

I write to you today as I begin my second month here at the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington (http://www.icseminary.edu/). Thanks for sending me here.

This has been an interesting part of the journey so far! It has pushed me in some new directions - and that's a good thing. Growth sometimes comes through the most challenging of experiences.Many people have asked me what a typical day is like here. It's actually busy with a lot of things to do. We gather as a community, or a house, for Morning Prayer at 7:30 most morning. Following we have classes until about 11:30. We gather for Mass at 11:45 and then share lunch together. The afternoons are generally free from assigned classes for school work, meetings, and the like. We gather for either Evening Prayer or a Holy Hour each night around 5 or 5:30 and then share dinner together. Following dinner it varies by night. On some nights we have a class, other times a meeting, maybe a soccer game (yes I've actually played!) or just time to catch up on school. Then - you're up and at it for the next day.Leaving my ministries and coming here has certainly been cause for major adjustment. And, truthfully, this change has had it's ups and downs. Even in the midst of the challenges, I must say that I have no doubt that I am in the right place and that hopefully I am in the right direction. That, along with the incredible amount of support and love that has been shown to me over these past few months, is making these first weeks easier than the probably would have been...so again, Thanks for sending me here!

P.S. Can you find me in this picture?