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.”