To Be, Or Not To Be: A Seminarian

I had the grace of leading my parish (and many others Brooklynites) on a pilgrimage to Washington D.C. for the 39th Annual March for Life. Preceding the pilgrimage, on Friday the Obama Administration took another swing at the Gospel of Life by removing certain protection in his healthcare plan. Religious institutions have one year to comply with a law that requires them to provide contraception and abortion pills for their employees. The Catholic Church has always opposed contraception and abortion as unworthy of our dignity as humans. This administration and many of its allies in the pro-abortion camp are more and more frequently pushing the Catholic Church in America into a corner.

Thankfully, as the March in Washington proved, more and more people are waking up to the injustice of abortion, the indignity of contraception, and the tragedy of assisted suicide. More and more young people are waking up to the insurgencies waged against the Catholic Church from every side.

On a recent retreat I had the pleasure of reading St. John-Marie Baptiste Vianney’s

biography by Abbe Francois Trochu. St. Jean-Marie grew up under the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution when the Faith was persecuted if it did not conform to the secularist views of the revolutionaries. Priest were murdered and families terrorized for remaining faithful. One passage from Trochu’s book is harrowing:

“From that moment the Vianneys ceased to attend the parish church, though it held for them so many tender associations…In point of fact, the sacred edifice was soon closed altogether. A cruel persecution was now raging. Priests who refused the oath ran the risk of arrest and

execution, without the possibility of an appeal–within twenty-four hours. A reward of 100 livres (100 francs) was paid to anyone denouncing the proscribed, whereas deportation was the punishment of all persons harboring a priest.”

Father Carl Subler, Cpt. celebrates Mass in Afghanistan.

Why such harsh treatment of the priest among all other professions? Because the priesthood is not a profession. It is a vocation –a call to speak the Truth, that Truth who is Jesus Christ, crucified and risen for the salvation of the world, that Truth who calls men after Himself to be crucified (by the media, by their enemies, by Satan himself) in order to be united with Christ in saving the world from absolute certain catastrophe, that Truth who refuses to be compromised despite opinion polls and electoral results. The priesthood is a vocation to love as Christ loves: compassionate yet also firm, consoling yet also corrective.

The present administration will force priests and Catholics altogether to examine whether they are willing to be crucified for Christ for the faith we have received for two thousand years.

This summer’s World Youth Day theme was “Firm in the Faith,” a reference to St. Paul’s letter to the Colossians. In full, St. Paul writes “So, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him, rooted in him and built upon him and established in the faith as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one captivate you with an empty, seductive philosophy according to human tradition, according to the elemental powers of the world and not according to Christ” Col 2:6-8.

How appropriate that passage is to these times!
Thankfully we have bold and insightful bishops molding their priests and training their people for the coming conflicts. Free from all parties to criticize all parties, our bishops tackle every issue where humanity is concerned because Christ is the center and saviour of humanity. this means that He is the saviour of every aspect of humanity: of economics, of immigration, of sexuality, of conscience,  of life’s beginning and of life’s end.

Our own Bishop DiMarzio had continued to share his opinion on poignant and pressing issues. This passed week, Archbishop Dolan (who is soon to be Cardinal Dolan) had articles in the Daily News and the Wall Street Journal. And Cardinal O’Malley of Boston faces the challenge of a terrible ballot referendum in Massachusetts.

Even our Holy Father, Pope Benedict, has weighed in on the threats facing Catholics in America. Click on the links above for powerful opinions, critiques, correctives, and even castigation from some of our country’s shepherds, the bishops. Inform yourself, your family, and even your priest (if he is unaware) about the present and coming battles.

Seminarians of the England and Wales with Pope Benedict.

And, as always, continue to pray for more priests who, under the zeal and teaching of our bishops, will spur our efforts to win the battle for souls to the glory of the Lord of Life. May the Blessed Virgin, Mother of priests, intercede for her men at the foot of the Cross.

Tonight, I had the pleasure of leading the Vocations Committee in prayer and planning for the increase in vocations to the priesthood and religious life at the parish.

It’s an awesome privilege considering that today is the feast of St. Anthony the Great. He is the father of all monks, being the first to go as deeply into the Egyptian desert to be alone with God.

He responded to the Lord’s call to “come and follow” quite literally. Upon hearing the words read in the Gospel at Church, he left to follow in the Lord’s footsteps.

You can read this snippet of his vocation at SouthwarkVocations. Or you can read the entire story of his remarkable life on the Internet History Sourcebook. Those looking for a pleasant recording of Anthony’s life can find Maria Lectrix‘s version on Archive.org.

Here’s a cool short read from National Catholic Register on the diversity of the Catholic Priesthood.
————————————————————-

Here Comes Fr. Everyone

by Simcha Fisher Thursday, January 05, 2012

When I say “Mormon Elder,” an image pops into your head, right? Or if I say “Lutheran pastor” or “Orthodox rabbi” or “womynpriest of a Unitarian faith community fellowship co-op”—you know who we’re talking about. Fair or not, you can picture the type right away, down to the tone of their voice and the cut and color of their hair. There may be some exceptions, but there is definitely a type.

But what about when I say “Catholic priest?”

I recently had the opportunity to edit the short autobiographies of twenty seminarians. It was a strange job, and I felt a little monstrous as I cut the stories down drastically to fit the required word count: “Hm, best friend in a coma? Sorry, no room. Gave dad the news while he was serving in Iraq? Touching, but too long—that’s gotta go. ‘May the peace of Christ be with you’? Sonny, we don’t have time for that!” and so on.

Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio flanked by the new transitional deacons. (Courtesy of Gregory A. Shemitz of LICatholic.org)

But as I gave the edited bios a final once-over, something struck me: there was no pattern. Other than that all twenty seminarians were men, they had nothing else in common that I could see. Some were teenagers, one was a widowed Navy vet. Some had been pious children with make-believe altars in their bedrooms, others had been atheists. They had been high school jocks, or engineers, or had considered a career in politics, or just drifted aimlessly until God came and smacked them with a vocation. Some of their mothers had pushed them into considering the priesthood; other mothers (quite a few, actually) laughed when their sons first mentioned the idea.

Nothing in common that I could see, other than some mention that they had each reached a point where they could no longer deny where God was leading them.”

Find the rest of the article on National Catholic Register’s blog by Simcha Fisher

The Seminarians have great friends in congregation of religious sisters known as the Little Sisters of the Poor. Their graced dedication to the traditional vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience is enhanced and shared through their fourth vow: hospitality. All are welcome, then, to this congregation’s beautiful annual celebration of the Vigil of All Saints Day (All Hallows Eve or Halloween) tomorrow, October 31st at St. Ann’s Novitiate.  St Ann’s is the primary convent-home in the United States for formation of their young sisters.

The Vigil of All Saints at the Little Sisters’ is a beautiful alternative to a merely secular Halloween of blood, guts, and horror. The Sisters connect Halloween to its proper expression in All Saints’ Day: when the Church celebrates all the blessed and glorious souls our Lord has accepted into Heaven. We celebrate those canonized saints as well as those who are not yet recognized as such. If you’re Grandmother, for example, has died and is in heaven but hasn’t been declared a saint…well, all Saints’ Day is her special day.

The Sisters anticipate the great Feast of All Saints with Compline (night prayer), Eucharistic Adoration, and a solemn candlelight procession to their many reliquaries of saints. Their convent, never devoid of laughter and fun will also welcome guests to enjoy sweet treats baked by the novices and fellowship in their refectory. The convent chapel is located at 110-39 Springfield Blvd. in Queens Village.

Call 718.464.4920 for more info.

Today is the anniversary of the last apparition (vision) of our Blessed Mother Mary to the three shepherd children, Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta at Fatima. I was given the pleasure of leading a rosary rally with the school children of the Church of St. Clare in tandem with the Diocesan Rosary Rally at St. James’ Cathedral.

Our Lady of Fatima

Thankfully, they were all attentive. Or perhaps, because I knelt at the prie Dieu in front of them all, I could not see those children who were asleep or pulled aside by their teachers for poor behavior.

In any event, it at least seemed to me that most of them were able to keep up with (what must seem to a child) a marathon of prayers. The teachers at St. Clare have prepared them for weeks, in truth. And most of the students were excited to finally put use to the string of beads they find lying around the house, hung up beside their bedroom doors or strung around their necks. Even the seventh and eighth graders, some of whom can try to give the air of being too cool for Church, were dutifully prepared and responsive.

I did my best to lead them and not ruin one of the age-old devotions to our Lady. At the end of it all, as the classes were dismissed, one precious 5th grader gave me the thumbs up. “Good job, Mr. Evans.” Another child walked up to me a noted “you did a good job as a priest, today.” The elementary accolades just kept coming. I’m waiting for one of them to say something like “Mr. Evans, you really should have started an octave lower to sing “Hail, Holy Queen.”

It was beautiful thing to receive their approval –not only because I could use the proverbial pat on the back (or thumbs up, as the case may be). But it shows that even the children are rooting me on, that the entire parish –from the aging grandmothers who think every word I speak is full of grace, to the grade-school children who see in me an older brother just trying to pass his classes at some school called the seminary.

The priest is born from within the family –really, the Body of the Church. The seminarian (like ll the baptized is born into a relationship with all around him in the Body of Christ. St. Paul teaches of the body of the Church “If [one] part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy” (1 Cor 12:26). Despite my position of authority, I am even lifted up and assisted by the monotoned and frequently distracted prayers of the youngest members of the Body

Our Lady of Fatima reminds us today, as well, that we cannot eschew the prayers and support of the young. Please remind the children in your life to prayer for priests and those in consecrated life.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.

Today, four of our brothers studying at the Immaculate Conception Seminary in Huntington will be installed as Acolytes. At the Mass, we come in touch in Christ’s presence and are fed by Him at the table of His word in the Scriptures and at the table of His body.

These four men, Christopher Mirabal, David Atanasio, Joseph Scolaro, and James Renna were already instituted as readers last year. They received an important ministry in assisting the deacon and priest to proclaim the Good News particularly by their study, preparation, and proclamation of the Old Testament and Epistles readings of the New Testament.

Now they will assist the deacon and priest in an even closer way to prepare the Altar of Sacrifice for the most holy and awesome gift of our Lord’s presence in the Blessed Sacrament. When these men are instituted Acolytes, though the rest of the world may see a mere altar server, the eyes of the Church see sons who are drawn closer within the body of the Church, the Altar at the heart of the Church and the living Bread come down from heaven who nourishes that heart and body.

The Acolyte helps the deacon and priest to prepare the gifts for the Sacrifice, the Sacrifice which is given up for many. In turn the acolyte must prepare himself at every Mass to bring this Sacrifice to others. Thus another crucial function of the Acolyte is to bring communion to the sick and home-bound.

For these special sort of ceremonies (installations, institutions, marriages, and ordinations) there is even included in the Rite a short homily which the celebrant may use. In the homily prescribed the book of rubrics called the Roman Pontifical, we read “because [he] is specially called to this ministry, [the acolyte] should strive to live more fully by the Lord’s sacrifice and to be molded more perfectly in its likeness.”

We pray today, on the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, that our Lord who molded our Lady in such a perfect likeness to His sacrifice may also listen to her very prayers for her other sons who seek to attain this conformity for His service at the Altar and His ultimate glory.

Pastoral year comes as the middle of five years in the major seminary’s formation program. During that year, men are assigned to various parishes throughout their respective or host dioceses. Bishop DiMarzio has graciously assigned me to the Church of St. Clare in Rosedale.

Over the year, we in parishes gain experiences in the various ministries, learn the ins and outs of the RCIA process, help catechize the young, visit the sick and home-bound to distribute communion, begin preaching, lead vigil services for the deceased, and (apparently) attend many, many parish meetings.

Some seminaries opt for offer their men only a summer pastoral experience every year for three years of formation. Having served at a parish earlier in my formation, I see an immense value in being at the parish for the entire year. One gets deeper into the crevices of the parish, so-to-speak, when the parish is most active with prayer groups, societies, events, and trips –those crucial months between September and May. It’s also the prime time for catechesis and youth ministry.

Some priests I know, however, went to seminaries which had no pastoral year and haven’t found their priestly ministry suffers anything significant from that absence. One priest I know believe that there isn’t anything he experienced and learned during his own pastoral year which he would not have learned his first year as a newly-ordained priest.

The variety, duration, and opinions of pastoral experiences in seminaries are some of the things which differ most between formation programs in the States. In the end, the formators of each institution know best what each man individually (or the collective of men) needs to be best prepared for ministry in the diocese where those men belong.

My class of brother-seminarians was able to get together today for a short orientation on one of the key aspects of our pastoral experiences, the Lay Support group: a monthly meeting of lay leaders and ordinary parishioners who assist the seminarian to know more about parish life, the hopes, fears and joys of the laity. The seminarian, too, can bounce some of his own hopes, fears, and joys off of them for support. It may be comparable to the way some religious orders assign an adopted family to their novices.

While I must admit that most of what the Lay Support group will discuss with the seminarian are practical, tangible, sensible issues, it probably would not be a truly supportive group if the members did not pray for their seminarian daily and especially during their meetings.

Those who read this blog: discerners, youth ministers, or interested parishioners also make up a sort of extended lay support group. As always, remember to keep the seminarians in your prayer especially the group of us now sent to parishes. Here, where the rubber meets the road, where the theology that is studied more obviously than ever before meets the reality that is lived is a very crucial moment in the life of progression toward the priesthood. Pray for us as St. Paul did for his own disciples being forned into the likeness of Christ that our “love may more and more abound, both in understanding and experience” Phil 1:1-9.