Saint John Vianney Seminary photos

Inside the quad



Downtown as seen from the tower




The Front Range from the tower



Stained glass in the centre of the apse at Christ the King Chapel




The Mary garden


A typical room on third floor

Dominic's Nine Ways of Prayer

I wasn't too excited by this reading; it talks about the different postures in prayer that St Dominic used. Yes, we should be free to assume different postures, but I'm not that excited. Maybe I'm too much of an old fogey.

I did have a few particularly interesting notes in this lecture, though:

First a reiteration: "Scriptures are the language of prayer--we need to commit them to memory, so that they can come to our mind during prayer; if we don't commit to memory, we are impeding God's normal way of reaching us/talking to us". So again: use the one week psalter! It's a good thing.

The telos of prayer is communion/relationship with God.

And a favourite point of mine: "Reading/study is not in competition with other areas of formation: because 1) study informs your pastoral work 2) study forms good human habits 3) study leads us into deep contemplation". Needless to say, I'm excited to have a class schedule again come autumn.

Spirituality Year is over

I've finished Spirituality Year as St John Vianney Seminary, and my media fast is over, so I will be trying to blog about the past year in the coming months. I hope to share what I found to be particularly fruitful. Given my temperament, I'll naturally start with my handouts and notebooks from class.

My favourite class was Spiritual Classics. We spent the whole year delving into a number of the greatest works of Catholic spirituality. Our reading list was:

*Catechism of the Catholic Church (the fourth pillar thereof)
*Dominic's Nine Ways of Prayer
*Benedict's Rule
*Guigo's Ladder of Monks
*Francis Xavier Nguyen van Thuan's Testimony of Hope
*Augustine's Confessions
*Bernard of Clairvaux
*John of the Cross
*Story of a Soul, by St. Therese of Lisieux
*a retreat of Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity

Reflections on the Catechism:

[These are disparate, and the nuggets from my notes]

Priests need to be experts in prayer for our people--they want to see someone who is deeply prayerful, who points to the Other. Every person has this desire on their heart; even if they don't want to actually turn to God, they need to see someone who is there; it becomes a matter of hope. If people can see a man who is in intimate relationship with the Other, maybe they can be in this intimate relationship with their Creator as well. I think this is why we are given the Spirituality Year, which is apparantly unique among seminaries. It's an entire year devoted to time for prayer and the spiritual life, before we're thrown into academics. The intention is that we develop a rock foundation of prayer that will sustain us throughout our life.
Prayer configures us to God the Father; it takes us into his heart.
When we pray, we come more fully what we are.

Secular priests have to be a model for everyone; we're free to borrow spirituality from all over the Church's patrimony; we must express spirituality in ways that will appeal to the lay faithful; we need to be able to relate to pretty much everyone.

One of the most important things in our life is obedience. The word comes from ob-audire: to listen. And we can't hear the Father if we don't take up our cross and follow the Son.

SY is billed as the year of the heart, because the heart is the place of encounter with God. Many of us (and me especially) are caught up in our heads and don't relate enough with our heart. SY was a great year to grow in this.
Prayer is our heart to heart relationship with God; the heart is our inner sanctuary, where God speaks to us; it is where we can talk to God.

One of the foundational virtues is humility. We each need to pray God to show me how I really am; how he sees me; to have a true vision of self. It is important to remember that God really does see each of his as his child. This is a hard lesson to learn, but important.

The spiritual life is about our thriving; God wants us to thrive, even more than we do. We thrive as we realize our identity, as sons of God; as we become more and more conformed to Christ, we become more and more who we are.

On the Holy Spirit: The Holy Spirit is the source of our spiritual life; Christ is in heaven interceding for us that we might receive him, that we will know and love him.
The Holy Spirit is the spirit of sonship; because the Spirit is in us, we are sons of the Father.
He is Jesus' Spirit, so he communicates Jesus' desires to us.
The Spirit can be deepened in us even once we have him; it's not all-or-nothing.

The reason we sin, is because be don't know God's love; we don't realize how much he loves us, and so we don't respond in love to his love.

We acquire the heart of Jesus through the Psalms. The Psalms cover the whole gamut of human emotion. The better we know them, the easier we can integrate them into our prayer life, and see them as God's words to us personally. One thing I intend to do in the coming year is to set aside one holy hour each week to memorizing psalms. I tend to waste my time in holy hours, not knowing what to do, so this will be a good way to focus myself. The importance of the Psalms is a good reason to use the Roman Breviary rather than the Liturgy of the Hours. A one week psalter can make them stick in your mind in a way that a four week psalter never will. Moreover, iyou get all the psalms, in all their parts, rather than most of the psalms, edited for content.

In my notes I have: "you begin to be able to pray continuously if you spend specific time in prayer each day". I don't exactly see this having happened in the course of the last year in my life, but I suppose I'm much better than I was last June. And the extent it hasn't happened is I'm sure some defect on my part, not having given myself well enough to the year. Pray for me.

Most Christians live their life like Michael Corleone--he always wanted to get out of the family business, but only got sucked back in each time he got close to escaping it.
We need to pay attention to the fact taht there is something in us which is repulsed by God. We must realize in our poverty taht we need God--ask God for his gift of prayer. Ask God to show us how we are (ie humility). Ask for the mercy to see how much we need him; get out from the illusion that I'm a good guy and don't kneed to be fixed; if I don't, I will inflict my wounds on my parishioners [or whoever's around me]. I can't fall into thinking I can't talk to God about my biggest problems because he'll be repulsed by them/me--he already knows, and freely chose to die an awful death so that I can be raised up from these problems and share his life. He will never refuse his mercy to we who ask for it.

And for those pursuing the married vocation: a husband's pathway to holiness is to lay down his life for his bride.

Thomas a Becket

Today is the fifth day in the Octave of Christmas, with the commemoration of Thomas Becket. Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury in the 12th century, and was martyred by the English king's (his onetime friend's) thugs for his defence of the rights of the Church. King Henry's (the second of that name) men came into his own cathedral and murdered him as he prepared for Vespers. It is a good saint story, and well portrayed by Peter O'Toole in Becket; well worth watching today if you haven't before.

Liturgically, this day is a good example of why Catholics need exposure to the Extraordinary Form. I was always puzzled by what to do with this day, and others like it. During the octave of Christmas, Lenten weekdays, and 17-24 December, memorials are outranked and thus not celebrated. The table of precedence does, however, say that "Optional memorials, as described in the instructions indicated for the Mass and office, may be observed even on" those days I just mentioned. I couldn't figure out how to do this, even though I read through the GILH every Advent, and have been saying the Office for close to three years now.

Only this year, after learning how to say the EF Office, have I figured it out. I had read GILH 239 multiple times before, but never understood what it meant. It reads:

During privileged seasons, if it is desired to celebrate the office of a saint on a day assigned to his or her memorial:

a. in the office of readings, after the patristic reading (with its responsory) from the Proper of Seasons, a proper reading about the saint (with its responsory) may follow, with the concluding prayer of the saint;

b. at morning prayer and evening prayer, the ending of the concluding prayer may be omitted and the saint's antiphon (from the proper or common) and prayer may be added.

That's a commemoration. The Proper of Seasons says its a commemoration. But if you haven't been exposed to the EF, you aren't going to know what the heck a commemoration is or how to do it, even with the GILH sitting right in front of you. I read that paragraph several times, understanding the words, but not knowing what they meant. Having done commemorations in the EF, the paragraph makes perfect sense to me now. But without that exposure, it was a mystery.

Commemorations are a wonderful way for the sanctoral and temporal cycles to be reconciled. Rather than one cycle being left out in the cold, with commemorations both are fit into a given celebration. It is a classic example of the Catholic preference for both/and over either/or.

So, this is how you do the Office today:

At Matins, the two readings for the proper of seasons, followed by the reading for Thomas Becket, followed by the Te Deum, followed by the collect for Thomas Becket, followed by the Benedicamus Domino.

Lauds is concluded in this way:

Pater noster...

All-powerful and unseen God the coming of your light into the world has made the darkness vanish. Teach us to proclaim the birth of your Son Jesus Christ,

Whoever hates his life in this world keeps it safe for life everlasting.

Almighty God, you granted the martyr Thomas the grace to give his life for the cause of justice. By his prayers make us willing to renounce for Christ our life in this world so that we may find it in heaven. Per DNIC...

Dominus nos benedicat....

Vespers is concluded in this way:

Pater noster...

All-powerful and unseen God the coming of your light into the world has made the darkness vanish. Teach us to proclaim the birth of your Son Jesus Christ,

The saints find their home in the kingdom of heaven; their life is eternal peace.

Almighty God, you granted the martyr Thomas the grace to give his life for the cause of justice. By his prayers make us willing to renounce for Christ our life in this world so that we may find it in heaven. Per DNIC...

Dominus nos benedicat....

The other Hours are normal and are not affected by the commemoration.

I hope this explains how to commemorate in the OF, so that you can now do it on the 31st for Sylvester, and during the season of Lent. Moreover, I hope it inspires you to dig into the EF for yourself.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas reflections

A merry and very blessed Christmas to all of you!

1. For the recessional for today's Mass of the Dawn at the Cathedral, the hymn was "Good Christian Men, Rejoice". If you've not heard it, seek it out. The tempo is charming, and there was a lyric that really struck my heart: Now ye need not fear the grave. Christmas is so beautiful! God become man, and fully revealed to the world, no longer hid in the womb of his Mother, this Incarnation is what makes possible the sacrifice of this man's life which made possible our salvation. Our salvation can indeed be found in the Nativity, as this hymn so joyfully proclaims.

2. From Pope Benedict's homily today: "To awake, then, means to develop a receptivity for God: for the silent promptings with which he chooses to guide us; for the many indications of his presence. There are people who describe themselves as "religiously tone deaf". The gift of a capacity to perceive God seems as if it is withheld from some. And indeed – our way of thinking and acting, the mentality of today’s world, the whole range of our experience is inclined to deaden our receptivity for God, to make us "tone deaf" towards him."

This selection from our Holy Father is a good explanation for the Spirituality Year in which I am at the seminary. We have a media fast this year--we're not allowed the use of cell phones, landlines, internet, tv, radio, etc. Basically all electronics. Only on the weekend may we use these. And on Sunday their use is only for communication--eg no tv on Sunday. The whole point of our media fast is to help us awaken to God's voice in our lives. The guy who is using his cell all day, with the radio or the tv on in the background all day, is not terribly likely to be listening to see if God is calling him to a priestly vocation. It is much too easy to distract ourselves with all the super-cool gadgets we have. If I have my phone with me, I can text people all the time and never have to face silence, which may have include an encounter with my conscience or with God. Our media fast is truly a good.

A Thought

"Our liturgy contains incomparably more than what our hearts are ready to feel." (Abraham Joshua Heschel)

Written of the liturgy of the Old Covenant...how much more true of the New and Everlasting Covenant.

Another Huy Update

Here is another update on Huy's continued recovery to the fullness of health:

A recent CAT scan showed he has scar tissue on 75% of his lungs (down from 90%) and his lung capacity (how much he can fill his lungs) is right at 30%. All aspects continue to improve, however. His strength is returning and he has been cleared to drive. He is eating well. Huy has some high blood pressure, but they hope that will diminish over time.

In all – he is on the (slow) road to recovery. He is grateful for your ongoing prayers – and grateful for Our Lady’s care and Our Lord’s healing touch.