The Best Week of the Year

The beginning of every academic year at the NAC is marked by arguably the single most beautiful event of the entire year! This coming Thursday, 30 of our brothers who are entering theology IV will be ordained deacons in St. Peter's Basilica at the hands of Sean Cardinal O'Malley, the Archbishop of Boston. It's an amazing experience to watch hundreds of American prelates, priests, deacons, seminarians, family members and friends pack into the vast space behind Bernini's iconic baldechino, at the breathtaking altar of the chair. There, on the marble floor at the center of Christendom, my 30 brothers will literally lay down their lives in service of God and His people, and, upon rising once again, will be conformed to Christ the Servant when Cardinal O'Malley lays his hands upon them.

For the third straight year, I will participate in the celebration by singing in the choir. To be honest, a church as big as St. Peter's has a really difficult acoustic to sing in! But we always do our best, and the music always does turn out beautifully. The beauty of an other-worldy liturgy is truly a wonderful gift that we are able to give the newly ordained men and their families.

Probably the coolest thing about the ordinations (at least from the point of view of a "younger brother") is that, every year, the reality of ordained ministry becomes more and more vivid! This year, for instance, I will be able to witness the ordination of two of my best friends in the world, Tim Wratkowski and Nick Hagen, both of whom are to be ordained for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. I've know both of them for so long, and it's going to be so surreal to see them kneel before the Cardinal as laymen and rise again as deacons! I'm so proud of both those guys, as well as the entire class of ordinandi, and it's so cool to think that, in roughly one year's time, it will be time for my classmates and I to lay down our lives on that marble floor!

The morning after the ordination Mass is always quite a treat too. Every newly ordained deacon chooses a church in Rome in which to have a Mass of Thanksgiving with his family and friends. It is at this Mass that he is able to proclaim the Gospel and preach a homily for the first time! Having been to a couple such "first deacon Masses" now, I can honestly say that there are few things cooler! (A "first priest Mass" is probably one of those cooler things!)

Tonight, we will be celebrating a Mass in our College with all the friends and family of the deacons-elect as an "opener" of sorts to this amazing week. Then, on Wednesday evening, all the priests and seminarians of the College will gather in this same chapel for an hour of adoration, a reflection on the diaconate, and procession to our outdoor statue of the Blessed Mother, where we will entrust our 30 brothers to the motherly care of Our Lady, Queen of the Clergy. It is always one of the most wonderful, heart-warming moments of prayer in the entire NAC year. And this year, it promises to be more moving than ever, as I think about these amazing friends and brothers who will soon be receiving this tremendous gift of the diaconate.

Please pray for Tim, Nick, and the other 28 men who will be ordained this Thursday! May God bless them and grant them joy and generosity in their vocations!

Christ's peace to you all!

-Colin

Coming Down from the Mountain...

Hey folks,

Yesterday, my 45 classmates and I returned from our retreat in the town of Ariccia, nestled in the beautiful hills just an hour or so south of Rome. We stayed at a lovely little retreat house overlooking Lake Albano, a pristine volcanic lake surrounded by quaint Italian towns and beautiful foliage (green is a color we don't get to see so much in the busy streets of Rome!).

On a clear day, it is possible to see the dome of St. Peter's Basilica off in the distance, little more than a speck on the horizon. West of that, we could look out onto the shore of the Mediterranean! Even though our retreat took place in silence, almost every evening was the occasion for many of us seminarians to gather silently on the large patio overlooking the lake, taking in the beauty around us and meditating on the tremendous graces which God has given us in allowing us to live amidst so much beauty. We were even blessed with a little crazy weather during the week too! Wind and rain and funky clouds and everything that was awesome...we got to see it all!

The retreat itself was grace-filled beyond belief. Outside of Mass and Evening Prayer as a group, each of us spent half an hour each day meeting with a spiritual director, receiving a few Scripture passages to meditate upon for that day, and sharing any particular graces or struggles on his heart. While not formally an Ignatian spiritual exercises retreat, it certainly had a similar feel. The focus was on imaginative prayer, in which you attempt to delve more deeply into the Sacred Scriptures, oftentimes through imagining yourself in the particular scene. As you might be able to imagine, this can be pretty difficult with all distractions and random thoughts which run through the average person's head in an hour! But the Lord calls us to be faithful, not successful! Through persevering with the Lord and continuing to be generous toward Him with your time, it is amazing what beautiful things He can accomplish.

This coming week, my class is at the College for our final week of conferences before the diaconate weekend craziness rolls into town. This week, it will be a series of homiletic conferences, combined with a couple opportunities to give some practice homilies. Should be a very growth-filled experience, as usual!

Until next time,

Colin

After 23 Months: Stateside!

When my classmates and I boarded the plane at Newark International Airport on July 14, 2014 and soon watched the shoreline of the United States pass out of sight, we knew that it would be another 23 months before we would see that shoreline again! Certainly, the thought of beginning our theological studies, the joy of meeting our new brother seminarians, and the prospect of living in the heart of the Church gave us all deep peace and great excitement as we began our journey into what was largely an unknown chapter in our formation lives. But, for all the wonderful blessings which we knew the Lord had prepared for us "across the pond," there couldn't but be a sadness at the fact that we were leaving our home! Family, friends, parishioners, priests, brother seminarians, baseball, the English language, real hamburgers...It was tough to leave it all behind.

It had been far too long.

With so many days standing between our leaving America and our long-desired return (somewhere around 700 I think!), the focus was obviously to always live in the moment. I learned during that time the valuable grace of being able to sprout where I am planted, and to seek ever more to cling to the Lord throughout all the trials and difficulties which transitions can create. Live in the moment. Don't count down from 700 days until the moment when it's time to go home. Allow the Lord to guide you every single day, in the midst of the amazing experiences, and those which might just make you homesick...This was our task as NAC seminarians in our first and second years of theology: to live each day as a gift, to allow the Lord Himself to guide us a care for us during this transition.

What wonderful advice this was! Over the course of the next 23 months, the Lord blessed me with two amazing years of formation: a tremendously challenging and life-giving seminary community, centered around the Lord and focused on a life of prayer and virtue...no fewer than 250 brothers, all of whom, whether close friends or men whom I might run into only rarely, have called me on to a deeper love of God and His Church...blessed experiences of travelling, not only in Europe, but also in Africa, experiences which have offered me so many opportunities to connect with God's people and encounter the vast treasures of the Catholic Church. Indeed, sitting on that airplane as it left America behind, I could never have imagined how good the Lord would be to me during those next 23 months!

Minneapolis, how I missed you

And then, almost before I knew it, the time came. It was my turn to go home! Almost in the blink of an eye, it seemed, spring semester 2016 had come upon us. And, while it was the most out-of-control-crazy and how-on-earth-am-I-going-to-survive-this semester of my academic life, it was overshadowed by the joy of going home! My classmates and I were buying our plane tickets, receiving our summer parish assignments, asking each other what our first meal back in America would be (Chick-Fil-A ended up being mine!), and just generally geeking out over all the wonderful graces and experiences that awaited us stateside. We even had a customized Google Map with pins on all our different summer assignment parishes; we were really all over the place!

No trip to St. Paul was complete without a stop at the Cathedral!

Sometime in February, my vocation director Fr. David Blume brought me the happy tidings that I would be spending the summer (as well as summer of 2017) at the Church of the Epiphany in Coon Rapids, Minnesota! It was really a winning decision for everyone, since it kept me close enough to home to allow me to see my family on a regular basis (a big win for Momma Jones especially!), while also allowing me to observe the daily life of one of the largest suburban parishes in the Archdiocese, something I've always desired to be a part of.

During my first two years of theology at the NAC, a certain phrase which is often repeated by the faculty priests in their conferences and conversations is: "you cannot imagine how good the people of God will be to you!" Boy, did they get that one right!

From day 1 at Epiphany, the people of God truly were so good to me. Every morning, I had the opportunity to assist at Mass by distributing the Blessed Sacrament! As an installed acolyte, this is a ministry which I can now perform anywhere in the Church, and, since it such a huge part of diaconal and priestly ministry, it was pretty cool to be able to jump right in! Many times, as folks would be coming up for Communion, I would be hit with the thought that I am giving Jesus to His people right now!! Pretty amazing stuff.

Before and after Mass, whether the 8 am daily one or any of the 5 Sunday Masses, I got a taste of the very simple priestly activity of greeting people...it was sometimes quite a crowd. Since I was wearing clerics like the priests, I often had to tell people that they didn't have to call me Father, but it was still pretty cool to be able to tell folks that I was their summer seminarian. They were all so welcoming, and it was amazing how, as the summer went on, I really was getting to know many of those wonderful families.

Don't get me started on the hometown 9...

One of the most amazing and, perhaps unexpected, graces of the summer was the time I was able to spend with the Epiphany youth. Believe it or not, I entered the summer a little freaked out by the prospect of being around American middle-schoolers and high-schoolers! I mean, it had been two full years since I had been home; I didn't know a thing about "what the kids are doing these days," and I was afraid of being out of the loop!

Well, I learned on roughly my first day in the parish that that was a pretty dumb thing to be afraid of. The kids were so incredible, and my time spent helping out in the parish's youth ministry programs ended up being one of the most powerful experiences of those 6 action-packed weeks. In June, I spent 6 days at Extreme Faith Camp, which offers middle-schooler the opportunity to encounter the Lord in prayer, community, and the Sacraments, especially Reconciliation and Eucharistic Adoration. The evening of Confession was especially cool. The small group leaders helped their kids to examine their consciences, and answered any questions they might have about the Sacrament. Many of the kids, understandably, were originally a little freaked out at the idea...But, thanks be to God, they all went! The joy and peace which many of them recounted was truly incredible, a sure testimony to the fact that God truly wants to encounter us in His Sacraments, if we merely go before Him with an open heart. What a blessing, too, to realize how much He used all of us youth ministers as instruments to "prepare the way before Him." Our hard work and prayer truly paid off in the lives of those kids!

I also had the opportunity to be quite involved with the Epiphany high-schoolers, who are pretty much the coolest people I know. In many parishes, the summer presents many challenges and obstacles to doing any sort of real high-school ministry. But those obstacles couldn't slow the roll at Epiphany! Every Thursday, between 20 and 25 boys and girls from the parish's youth group would gather for the 8 am Mass, drink coffee and play games in the youth room, before heading out to the field for what were some of the best ultimate frisbee games I've ever been a part of. Seriously, those kids put me to shame week after week. I guess I've got some work to do this coming year!

The youth ministry experience at Epiphany was highlighted by an amazingly grace-filled 5-day trip to Steubenville, Ohio in late-July. We were 6 chaperones with roughly 30 kids, in for two very long bus rides to and from the youth conference. It was so much fun to simply get to know the young men and women, most of whom were so deeply seeking the Lord and open to whatever He might have in store for them in their lives. Even those kids who may have been present more because of parental compulsion were moved by the Lord in powerful ways, especially in the moments of prayer which took place at the conference, and in great sense of community which the youth group continually fostered.

The kids are alright

Then, there were the priests! I was incredibly blessed to be with 4, yes, 4!!!! wonderful priests this summer. Three of those priests were assigned to the parish, while the fourth worked full time at hospitals in Coon Rapids and Fridley, but the impact of such strong, consistent priestly witness in one place was truly felt. In fact, one Sunday, there were so many priests around saying hello to people after Mass, that one woman who was visiting Epiphany for the weekend asked me, "Is there some sort of religious order here at this parish?" Her question really wasn't a surprising one, since most parishes are lucky to have even 2 priests around. And yet, thanks to the grace of many vocations to the Archdiocese in recent years, as well as the many pastoral needs of a parish as large as Epiphany, the parish is blessed by the presence of these 4 very holy, prayerful men.

If you've stuck around for this big 'ole update, thank you so much for reading. Currently, I'm back in Rome, where my classmates and I have been enjoying a week of swapping summer stories, doing some pastoral counseling workshops, and, of course, trying to kick jet lag in the face. We'll be going on retreat tomorrow in a beautiful little town near Lake Albano, roughly an hour from Rome, for some much needed time of prayer and rest. Know that I will be keeping you all in my prayers; I ask the same from you. Until next time!

-Colin