With Mary His Mother...

Posted by: Deacon James Stiles

7 January 2015 

We began the day with mass at one of the five major basilicas in Rome, Santa Maria Maggiore (Saint Mary Major). A most fascinating relic kept within the crypt of this Church, as tradition has it, is part of the very manger in which the Christ child would have laid on Christmas day! We were stirred by the beauty of the Church as well as by the homily given by one our classmates, Dcn. Adam Laski. He reminded us of the great importance of loving one another as brothers in the Lord. This love cannot remain superficial. Just as the person who is captivated by the beauty of a church like Santa Maria Maggiore is meant to be lead into the mystery of the Person whom it reflects, so too the love we have for one another as brothers must be profoundly sincere and get beyond the superficial: we must help one another encounter Christ. 

This set us up well to have our first class session which followed our visit to the basilica. Among other things, we spoke about the two great tasks which our Lord has entrusted to every Christian: loving God and neighbor and spreading the Gospel to all the nations. After a brief study of the history of the Church’s missionary efforts throughout Her history, I left class with a deeper conviction of the Holy Spirit’s power to inspire and direct efforts of evangelization and was again reminded that the Holy Spirit can use the simplest situations, even just a kind conversation with another, to spread His Gospel. 

We worked up an appetite from our intellectual work, so we headed on over to the North American College for lunch. Ever since Dec. 8th, 1859, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, the Patroness of the U.S.A, seminarians from the United States have been formed to be priests in this seminary in the Eternal City of Rome. The seminary has changed locations throughout the years. Its current location and structure is something to see with arguably the best view of Rome from its roof-top. The highlight, of course, of being at the North American College was catching up with men whom we know from our dioceses who are currently studying there as seminarians. 

We ended the day with a trek out to visit the Missionary of Charity Fathers. We prayed with these priests and religious brothers, shared a great meal with them, and then discussed their charism for bringing Jesus to the poorest of the poor. The most striking thing I heard one of their priests say was, “We can’t go out to the poor until you are first aware of your own poverty.” What he meant was that all of us are poor before God. We can do nothing without Him and we must rely totally on His grace if we are to freely choose to love the poor and be with God for all eternity.

It was, indeed, a blessed day!

We had an Epiphany!

Posted by: Deacon Billy Dodge

6 January 2015

January 6^th, the Twelfth Day of Christmas, is the traditional date for celebrating the Epiphany. Definition of epiphany: a manifestation of a divine being. Who is the divine being? Jesus Christ! Who is Jesus being manifested to? The Magi (a.k.a. Three Kings or Wise Men). Why is this day a big deal? Because the Magi are Gentiles. In the past God was only manifesting Himself to the Jewish people. Now He is showing Himself to the Gentiles. And who are the Gentiles? We are! The Magi represent us. Jesus is making God present to us! So this is a great day of celebration for the Church. In fact, many Italians exchange Christmas gifts on this day in imitation of the Magi who gave the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to Jesus.

My highlight for January 6 was attending the Epiphany Mass celebrated by Pope Francis at St. Peter’s Basilica. Mass began at 10 A.M. Being hardcore Pope Francis fans we got there at 8 A.M. so we could get prime seating.

After Mass St. Peter’s Square was packed. It seemed as if everyone and their mother came for the Angelus, which includes a short message from Pope Francis and a papal blessing. It is amazing to think of how many people are impacted by our Pope.   

Another benefit of Holy Days (i.e. holidays) like Epiphany is that lunch is moved to 12:30pm because Italians usually eat at 1:30pm. Our lunch was tasty pasta, meats, and a coffee mousse dessert. The food here is great J. The rest of the day open. I made a pilgrimage to a couple beautiful churches to pray for people back home who asked for prayers. Fr. Carl, who is our professor, and some of my classmates went to the deacon ordination of men preparing to become priests for the Missionaries of Charity. And other classmates did exciting things like taking a nap.

Like us, I hope you have a blessed Epiphany!

So It Begins...

Posted by: Deacon Bryan Kujawa

5 January 2015

Today was a full day, I tell you what.

Let's start at the beginning. One really great thing about Italy so far: they all like to sleep in. Back in the ol' USA I've grown accustomed to starting my day early - we all know the popular phrase, "The early bird gets the worm," - but here it seems the Italians are none too concerned about getting any of those proverbial worms. Thanks to this bit of information, we were all able to get a little extra sleep in the morning and didn't start our day until 9 o'clock. What a gift! This allowed for a little prayer, Scripture reading, and espresso before having to interact with anyone. I mean, who doesn't feel better after encountering those three things in the morning??

Anyways, at around 9:04 (our class ALWAYS has at least one guy running late and this morning was no different) we hopped on a bus and rode it downtown Rome. We got off at the last stop and walked a few minutes to the Mother House of the Missionary Sisters of St. Peter Claver, where we had Mass and were treated to some invigorating presentations by the sisters. This community of sisters serves in over 20 countries around the world and specialize in aiding other missionaries in their work. They reminded us that Christians must always consider their entire lives as a mission from Jesus Christ to announce his Gospel message of salvation. They also got us to sing some African songs of praise to God - we were all clapping our hands and some were even dancing around a little bit! Following their presentations, we were treated to another round of espresso, which is ALWAYS something to be celebrated!

After the espresso we headed back to the place where we're staying - the Domus Romana Sacerdotalis (only a five minute walk from St. Peter's!) - for a brief lunch before heading out on another adventure. We then headed toward the Vatican Museum, where we spent the entire afternoon. We had a very excellent tour guide, Christina, lead us through the huge museum and explain so much of it to us. It helped a lot that she was originally from Georgia so we didn't have to strain our ears through an accent or broken English - yet another wonderful gift from the Lord! I couldn't possibly explain everything she told us, but I will say the displays there were very impressive and some dates back as far as the time before Christ walked on the earth! We finished our tour with some time in prayer at the Sistine Chapel, which was very beautiful.

As a I write this post, my mind is very tired from all the information received throughout the day from both the Sisters of St. Peter Claver and from Tour Guide Christina. We had a full day, yes, but it was also a day filled with great gifts from the Lord. I look forward to even more gifts tomorrow, but I'll let tomorrow's blogger write about those. I can promise, though, that it will include more prayer and espresso, and that causes my heart to rejoice!

May the Lord give you his peace!

-dbk

Welcome and Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! May the peace of the Child Jesus be with you all! Another Christmas, and He still comes to us like a precious gift - "grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." (Jn 1: 17). This is truly a very special Christmas for the Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity Class of 2015, because it will probably be our only Christmas as deacons.  As always, we wish many blessings upon you, our readers and our families.

Most of us have been in our dioceses and with our families, but we will be departing soon for the Eternal City – Rome!  We wanted to share our journey with you through this blog, so that you can explore Rome with us, at least virtually.  We hope to keep you, our family and friends, updated along the way.  Only God knows all that He has in store for us.  We will share our experiences, adventures and blessings, along with a funny story or two, I’m sure.  We will be in Rome from January 4th to February 4th, including a retreat in Assisi.  Please keep us in your prayers.    

Also, feel free to share this blog with others.  In our next post, we will give you the link to our Facebook page, which will provide an easy way for you to share all the details with your friends and family.  Each deacon in our class has volunteered to be responsible for one post during the course of our trip, so you will get the flavor of our experience from varied perspectives.

We are grateful for your continued prayers.  This trip marks the beginning of the final preparation for our priestly ordination. Like St. Ignatius, we are going to the feet of the Holy Father to receive our 'orders'.  We are ready to be sent out to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ! 

Deacon Alvaro Perez, PES

PS: Rome, see you soon!