Cape Ann Parish Assignment

Each year and each summer, we are assigned to a parish to help develop our pastoral skills.  This year I am assigned to a pastor in Cape Ann, Massachusetts.  FR. J. is the pastor of two parishes (but not an official collaborative of the Archdiocese of Boston (yet)).   As a third year student, we are supposed to be at our assignment for 6 hours including travel time.

I leave early Sunday morning.  It is a 45 minute drive to the first parish and the 8:30 Mass.  I greet the parishioners as they arrive and have some short conversations with them.  I read or serve as an Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist, or just participate in the Mass with the assembly.  After Mass, I move over to the rectory and help with the RCIA program. 

Once RCIA is over, I drive to the other parish and join the Mass already in progress there.  I greet the parishioners as they exit Mass and then move over to the rectory there to assist with a confirmation class.  Once that is finished, I meet the pastor for lunch and discussion before I head back to the seminary.

I get to talk to a lot of people, help with some adult and teen faith formation and get to pick the pastors brain about the vocation that I will be doing in about 18 months.  It is a good assignment.

Reflections from a Labyrinth

Why do I stiff arm you, O Lord?
I walk alongside you, yet keep you at a distance.
Why am I afraid to let you close to me?
I know you have called me to be a priest and I want to respond to that call. 

So why do I keep you at a distance?
Am I moving towards you or away from you?
When will I allow your healing touch?

As I walked the labyrinth this year, I noticed how you were always at my side. 
Just like the poem, "Footsteps in the sand". 
Rarely, you were behind me or in front of me. 
Perhaps that is the way life is. 
You stay beside us most of the time. 
When we are focused on you, you are in front of us. 
When we turn our backs to you, you are behind us. 
But you are also behind us when we need a push or a kick in the rear.

The center object changes as I walk the labyrinth. 
God's presence also manifests in many ways. 
A card or call from a friend (not a hint).
A memory of a loved one. 
The face of a fellow companion on the journey. 
A particular phrase from scripture or another good book. 

God, I am not the man you need me to be, not yet. 
Perhaps I will be. 
Perhaps the gift bestowed at ordination may bring me closer to the man I need to be. 
But even if that does not happen, 
        broken as I am, 
               I give my life, myself, 
                    my all to you.

Updates from Maine

I have my head above water again here at the seminary.  We are in our last week before retreat, so things are winding down.  My last deliverable is a homily, then I can get current on my reading assignments and start packing.  Faculty will not assign anything to be due for the first few days when we get back.

If you also follow me on Face Book, you will have seen this article about my home parish in Maine closing it's doors.  It was a sad moment in time, but not at all unexpected. The other parish in my home town is younger, larger and more vibrant.  The handwriting was on the door (shades of Luther) in 1988 when our parish was split in two and a new parish was created in the next town over.  It left our parish in much poorer financial conditions. It just took 25 years to come to the final conclusion.  The finance committee suggested it, the other parish committees and pastor approved it and the Bishop accepted the recommendation.

I will not be praying a Mass of Thanksgiving at the parish that I grew up in.  I hope to pray it in the other parish in my home town,  If God's timing works out correctly, a brother seminarian from that parish can serve as my deacon for that Mass. I just got the quote back for refinishing that chalice, it was about 1/2 of what I expected.  God is Good, All the Time.

The family in Maine are reasonably stable.  Between my niece (God bless her) and hired home health care aids, somebody is in the condo with the family for at least two hours every day.  Eyes on is a good thing.  I hear of little issues, but I sleep better knowing that good people are checking up on my family.

26th Sunday - Cycle C

This homily was complicated by the addition of an infant baptism.  For this preaching lab, I tried to connect the reading to Baptism by the use of Community.  My brothers were not entirely convinced.

I had a 3x5 card in my pocket, I did not need to use it.  Did this all from a short outline in my head.  Perhaps that is why some of the transitions are a bit rough.

24th Sunday – Cycle C

For our Liturgical Preaching Class

Did God change between the Old Testament and the New Testament? We often fall into the trap of thinking that God was harsh in the Old Testament and merciful in the New Testament.  Yet in all of today’s readings, Old and New Testament, we hear of God’s mercy.

So what is going on here?  Did God change? Or are we in error? Our catechism teaches that God never changes, so it must be that our perceptions that are in error. 

Let’s review the statements of mercy in today’s readings.  God of the Old Testament was angry with Israel as we heard in the first reading.  But, he kept his anger in check and was merciful to Israel.  The psalmist, also from the Old Testament, calls upon and acknowledges the great compassion of God.  Paul, writing to Timothy mentions twice that he was treated with mercy only because that is what God, in the person of Christ, does.  Finally, in the Gospel, we see Jesus showing mercy by eating with sinners and we hear the stories of the lost sheep and lost coin in Luke’s gospel, stories that promise God’s mercy to us as we return to Him.

God’s consistent mercy is something that we have trouble understanding. We know that we have difficulty in forgiving and forgetting, yet God does this throughout the Bible.  God continues to forgive and forget today in the sacrament of reconciliation.

In the Old Testament, the New Testament and in promises for the future, we see God’s mercy. So, why do some think God has changed?  Theologians suggest that we have seen different aspects of God through the ages. Perhaps we are confusing aspects of God with change.

 

We get into trouble when we try to describe God as a human being.  God’s ways are so far above our ways, we cannot understand His ways.  If we try to describe God, we limit God.  As my Philosophy professor was fond of saying, “God is God, and we are not”.  In fact, he frequently reminded us that “God is”.  This simple message is good for us to keep in mind.  Jesus became man to cross that gap between God and man, but God (and Jesus) is still God.

Jesus reminded us of the two greatest commandments: Love God and love our neighbor.  If we are in this space, we probably love God, but how are we doing on loving our neighbor?  Are we showing mercy to our neighbors?  If God shows mercy to us, can we do less for our neighbors? Or are we rewriting God’s commandment on love our neighbor?

Many in today’s society say that, “The Church is out of touch, it needs to modernize”.  I respond, “The Church is in touch with the unchanging God, society has changed”.  Society, as a whole, is trying to become god, to write its own set of commandments. 

Our brothers and sisters in the world need our prayers to rediscover the one unchanging God.  I pray that those playing at god by writing their own commandments will find the true God’s mercy…a mercy that is full and complete…a mercy that we can never fully comprehend.

This might even show me delivering the homily

 

 

Third Year, Fall Semester Classes

I have received a couple of inquiries about my health, mental state, etc regarding my dearth of posts. I assure you that I am very much alive, well and busy as all get out.  We have a professor for two classes that likes to use, in his words, the fire hose method of giving us information.  I am working hard to keep up with the reading and assignments this year, and it has barely started.

But, I do have some things to update you on, my beloved readers.  In the next few posts, I'll look at my Pastoral Assignment and goings on back in Maine (this is to remind me as much as you about upcoming posts).

Classes this semester include the two fire hose classes, Ecclesiology and Sacraments of Initiation.  We get a double session and a single session of each of those during the week.  Coming out of those classes finds one looking for a bit of quiet space to process, but that rarely happens.  We usually go right into another class.   In addition we have Sacrament Practicum.  Since most of my brothers will be ordained deacons this coming summer (2014), we are practicing Baptisms with the well watered baby doll.  I will be the "deacon" on 9/23, practicing a baptism.

Catholic Social Doctrine is three single classes and is taught by our Moral Theology professor. It is quite deep and relies heavily on the Catechism and church documents.

Liturgical Preaching is a triple class.  We alternate here between lecture and preaching (another note to self, post those homilies as they are complete, one is already done).  The homilies are videotaped and critiqued by a subset of the class and a self evaluation is done as well.  Out instructor reviews 1/3 of the class each time for more extensive comments.

My Pastoral Assignment counts as a class, more about that in another post.

Finally, I have on elective on "The Mystery of Suffering in the Old and New Testament".  That is a double period  once a week.

When I sleeps, I sleeps well...

The Third Year Starts

    I arrived back at the seminary on Friday for a meeting of the Orientation Team.  17 new men arrived on Saturday.  We unloaded them, moved them to their rooms and started them on the process.  We have 2 entering 3rd Theology (with my class), 2 entering 2nd Theology, 7 entering First Theology (plus the four pre-thelogy from last year to make 11) and 5 entering Pre-theology.  This gives us a total of 57 in the house.  That puts us a bit lower than last years 66, but we have room to grow.

   Classes start tomorrow (Friday) with Ecclesiology and Catholic Social Doctrine.  Cardinal Sean is coming at noon to celebrate Mass with us.  Next week, I'll have my first classes in Liturgical Preaching and Sacraments.  I also have an elective titled, The Mystery of Suffering.

   I have my pastoral assignment and I will be at a parish on the North Shore of Boston every Sunday for this academic year.  My monthly visit to my home parish to play the organ for a Saturday night Mass remains intact.