SJS on Catholic TV...

It was great fun to return to CatholicTV this morning for a segment on THIS IS THE DAY.  Jay Fadden and I chatted about the end of the year at the Seminary, the upcoming Ordinations to the Priesthood, the Pentecost Collection and the SJS Golf Tournament.  I hope you enjoy this clip!

   

Last Homily of the Year at Deacon House...

This morning I preached to the Deacons at Deacon House (for the last time this year). They will all be ordained in the coming weeks, beginning with the Boston Ordinations a week from tomorrow.

Do you remember your first day in Seminary? How frightened you were? How unsure of yourself you were? How big and strange and impossible everything seemed to be?

But you persevered. Why? Because you had confidence in yourself and your own capabilities? Probably not-so-much. Because you knew you had the native abilities and the stuff it took to conquer the world? Doubtful.

You persevered because you loved Christ. Because you had heard the voice of Jesus whispering in your heart, Because every so once in a while, at a time you lest expected (but most needed it), you felt the cool breath of the spirit waft across your life. You persevered because you dared to call him Father and you knew he hear your prayer.

You persevered. Because, like Paul in Corinth, in the middle of a particularly fearsome panic attack, you heard the Lord say to you: “Do not be afraid…for I am with you.”

You persevered, as you will with the best of pastors, and the rest. As you will with the sweetest, loveliest most faithful parishioners, and the rest. As you will on good days, and the rest. You will persevere.

Just as you have through Seminary. On the days when all was consolation and light, and on the rest. For we travel through this valley, dear brothers, seeking only to discern God’s will and to find the strength to do it.

And on some days, even in Seminary, you probably felt like the mother in today’s Gospel, in anguish because the hour of your labor had arrived. The anguish of facing who you really are, the anguish of trying to become what God needs you to be, the anguish of the growing heart, the mind and the very depths of you.

But in these days you are also like that mother, knowing that God is about to bring forth new life through you. Thousands and tens of thousands of new lives, saved by God through your hands and led by Christ through your life to be happy forever with him in heaven.

And like that mother, who persevered through her labors, the memories of the pain will fade for you. For your heart is rightly flooded on these days with the joy that God has called you to be his Priest, in the image and likeness of Jesus his Son.

So let your hearts rejoice, for no one can ever take that joy from you. Dear brothers and sons, dear fathers, dear friends.

Baptisms in Quincy...

Seminarians Dan Zinger and Valentine Nworah recently assisted Father Robert Cullen at some special Baptisms at Saint John the Baptist Parish in Quincy. Valentine, who was recruited by Dan, was particularly helpful to a family from the Ivory Coast due to his fluency in French! Here are some great photos from the Baptism!

"On A Sacred Note" with Stephanie Scogna

Our dear friends at CatholicTV have a great feature story in the latest issue of CatholicTV Monthly.  They're premiering a brand-new series called On A Sacred Note, with sacred music enthusiast and scholar Stephanie Scogna.

In this issue, you'll find anecdotes and photos from one of her first episodes, in which she came to our holy house to interview our Director of Sacred Music, Dr. Janet Hunt. Click the image below to read the whole story, which begins on p.4.

(Saint John's Seminary and Dr. Hunt will also be featured on another episode later this summer. Mark your calendars for June 18 and July 23!)

The Pre-Theo Awards 2018

Tonight  we celebrated the Pre-Theo Awards, recognizing the uniqueness of each of our pre-theologians!  A wonderful time was has by all, led by hosts Greg Quenneville and Patrick O'Connor!

Previous hosts of the Pre-Theo Awards Gather for a Photo Op

God chose you...

Here is my homily this morning at Deacon House.

“At Mass or the Lord's Supper,” the General Instruction of the Roman Missal tells us, “the people of God are called together into unity, with a priest presiding and acting in the person of Christ, to celebrate the memorial of the Lord or Eucharistic sacrifice…” (GIRM, no. 27)

Now, most of the people coming to Mass, including present company, think it was their idea to come to Mass, not God’s. You did, after all, set your alarm last night and you chose to show up, least the Rector be scandalized by your absence.

Well, I suppose there’s a bit of devotion in there, too. You have grown to know that without this daily bread our lives are empty and that at this Altar we find the source and summit of everything worthwhile. So that’s why you chose to go to Mass.

But that’s still not what the General Instruction says….it says that you have been “called together into unity” by Christ, who formed you into a holy people, a royal priesthood, Christ’s own mystical body.” It was not we who chose him, but he who chose us. (John 15: 16)

In a few weeks you will hear the same thing in the Prayer of Ordination, when the Bishop recalls how God “chose men next in rank and dignity [to Moses and Aaron] to accompany them and assist them in their task.” Just as you will hear the Bishop say these blessed words: “Relying on the help of Our Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ, we choose these, our brothers, for the Order of the Priesthood.”

And all those years you thought you were discerning whether you wanted to be a Priest, whether you would be happy as a Priest. But the truth is, all you and I have been trying to figure out is whether God had called you to be a Priest. For we do not choose him. He chooses us, to go out and bear much fruit and to love one another as he has loved us.

Meditations With a Pencil...

A couple months back I used some of the illustrations from Diane Orpen's 1946 book, Meditations with a Pencil.  I have received many requests from seminarians to post some more of these beautiful pencil drawings.  Since the book has been long out of print, I include some more of these simple drawings for your prayer and reflection.

“In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary.  And coming to her, he said, 'Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you.'  But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.”                                             
                     - Luke 1: 26-29

“[Simeon] he took [the child Jesus] into his arms and blessed God, saying: “Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in sight of all the peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel.” - Luke 2: 28-32

"One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him, 'Do you want to be well?' The sick man answered him, 'Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me.' Jesus said to him, 'Rise, take up your mat, and walk.'     -John 5:5-8.

"He called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said, 'Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.'"              -Matthew 18: 2-3

“Coming to his senses he thought, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food to eat, but here am I, dying from hunger. I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers.’”   - Luke 15: 17-19

“For the needy will never be forgotten,

nor will the hope of the afflicted ever fade.”

      - Psalm 9:19

“Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector.  The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity—greedy, dishonest, adulterous—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.’  But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’  I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”          - Luke 18: 10-14