Thanksgiving vs. Turkey Day

First, I think it can be a both/and.  But I had a bit more thanks this past weekend than I had turkey.  To begin with, I was thankful for no school on Thursday.  The NAC told the universities that we would not be in class due to the American holiday.  Though, because there was still class, some very astute seminarians went to take notes for everyone…another point of thanks.

 

I was up at 6:30 to help with our hall breakfast, which was amazing.  Breakfast casserole, breakfast burritos, fruit salad and apple tarts were just a few of the deliciousness that we enjoyed.  Then, we had a wonderful Mass and a wonderful feast afterward. Each state or group of states had their self-decorated table to make it feel like home.  There was turkey, dressing, mashed something, cranberry sauce, green beans (though not in casserole form), and plenty of pumpkin pie (to have them, thanks to the deacons and families for bringing cans with them; for the over abundance, a big thanks to Mustang parishioners).  Interestingly enough, pumpkin pie is one of American’s weird foods.  It didn’t hit me until I was talking to the Italians about it.  We make a desert out of a vegetable.  We grind up a gourd and serve it for desert.  The idea is a little strange but ever so delicious.  And the Italians agreed. 

The day was pretty complete then.  However, the weekend was just getting started.  Saturday, we had the Newman-Oldman show.  It was a production.  The Newman part went for an hour and half.  I was in a couple of acts including the finale and a couple of videos that we made.  It was a fun night with many laughs. 

Sunday was the big game, the Spaghetti Bowl.  The Oldmen hadn’t been defeated in nine years.  We took the field to end that tradition.  I played lineman on the offense; I made sure that no one got passed me.  And I did pretty good.  The Oldmen has a few big guys who were competition. I got jacked in the jaw on one play and my shirt sleeve was ripped even on the first play, but it was a great Sunday.  We unfortunately lost, but we held our own and were only a touchdown away from breaking tradition.  Thankfully, no one got seriously injured.

And so ended my first NAC Thanksgiving. 

What a past couple of weeks!

Two weekends ago the Consistory was here.  It was busy here.  We hosted Cardinal Wuerl and Cardinal Burke here at the NAC.  I got a wonderful experience of being a photographer and have some of my pictures here:

Though I had a ticket to the berretta (hat) ceremony, I wasn’t able to make it in.  Even two hours before the event wasn’t enough time to get a seat.  I got right up to the security gate, and they closed it at 9:50.  The event was at 10:30.  I waited there with a priest from Washington, DC who was excited about Cardinal Wuerl.  We decided to wait.  Around 10, a young man and his grandmother from Equador came up to me and asked if I speak Spanish.  Not thinking about how the Italian has taken its toll, I said “si.”  Sure enough, I could understand, but I could get out the words without great strain.  Luckily he spoke English perfectly.  Turns out his grandmother was first cousin to the new Cardinal from Ecuador.  Though they didn’t let us through, we had a great conversion.  Since it was this guy’s first trip to Rome, he was excited.  He talked  about a need to give something back to the Church for all it’s given to him, resounding a bit of a possible vocation.  We parted ways.

I headed back to the school in the driving rain, and I got camera-d to take pictures of the Cardinals in the Red Room here at the school.  While there were many dignitaries (US Ambassador Diaz), one of the more talked about people, outside of the Cardinals, was the lead actor, Eduardo Verastegui,  from the movie Bella who came.  There were so many people at the school here.  It was rather intense. 

After the guests had left, we got to breath.  That night we headed over to the Apostolic Palace where the Pope and many other important figures live.  The night of the Consistory is only night that the Apostolic Palace is open.  No, the Pope’s apartment isn’t open, but there some very beautiful stairs that lead up from the Bronze Doors to the place where the Pope receives guests.  It was something else to greet Cardinal Burke up there.  Cardinal Wuerl was over in another building.  As we were leaving, we walked by Cardinal Amato’s receiving line.  The name stopped me.  This summer, before coming to Rome, I saw Fr. Albert from Conception Monastery, who has been working on the case for sainthood for Fr. Stanley Rother.  He told me before I left that if I see Archbishop Amato over here that I need to tell him to hurry up the cause of Fr. Stanley.  I knew that this was the same man.  So I got in line with my friends, one of which was a seminarian who attended the same seminary as did Fr. Stanley.  When we got up there, I explained who I was and where I was from.  At hearing that I was from Oklahoma, his eye perked.  At hearing that we were praying for the cause of Fr. Stanley Rother, his eyes perked again.  Cardinal Amato was very pleasant to talk to.  He was kind, forgiving of our Italian, and asked questions about us.  He cared about people; that was clear.   

Sunday instead of going to the Mass of Rings, where the Princes of the Church receive their rings, I headed up to Christ the King parish here in Rome.  It seemed fitting since Sunday was the feast of Christ the King.  It was wonderful to get into a parish with families, and it was even nice to have Mass in Italian.  But truly amazing for me was the walk back.  The trees were golden and the leaves would cascade softly rolling down the breezes as the sunlight would splash through them and bathing the streets in a glow.  And it felt just like that.  What a great weekend! 

Next update…how Thanksgiving is done here. 

How it has been so busy!

Well, here it is more than month since my last post.  I was undertaking a big project to try to put up some recordings from the Diaconate Ordination.  I have a couple here (but forgive the quality…and tell me if they don’t play, first time with mp3 on my blog) for you all with some pictures.  Congratulations again go out to Deacon Cory Stanley from our archdiocese who was ordained just a month ago. 

Ordination VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Brian’s Photos and the Choir’s singing.

In this past month, I’ve been in classes and trying to get the schedule down.  Here it is:

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
8:30-9:15	Synoptic Gospels	Christology	Synoptic Gospels	Christology	Revelation and Transmission
9:30-10:15	Synoptic Gospels	Christology	Synoptic Gospels	Christology	Revelation and Transmission
10:30-11:15	Church History	American Church History	Revelation and Transmission	Church History
11:30-12:15	Church History	American Church History	Revelation and Transmission
4:00-4:45	Intensive Greek	Theological Seminar		Intensive Greek
5:00-5:45	Intensive Greek	Theological Seminar (6 pm)		Intensive Greek
8:00-9:00				Formation Conference

I think this is the fullest semester of my life.  But I’m loving it.  The professors are the top of their fields.  The school is very beautiful.  We get five more minutes of a break between classes.  The cornetti (pastries, “little horns”) are great.  The 30 minute walk to school is wonderfully peaceful, and it is a perfect time to pray or catch up with the guys. 

This past weekend was a travel weekend here for the NACers.  Since Monday was All-Saints Day, we got the day off.  Yea for being in a culturally Catholic country.  So for the three-day weekend, I went to Aviano which is north of Venice a bit.  There is an Air Force base there.  It was amazing how much it felt like stepping on US soil again.  We ate at Taco Bell; I had Dr. Pepper to drink.  But far better than all of this was the community of Catholics there.  Serving the Masses again was wonderful.  Talking with the parishioners was just a treat.  The whole weekend was a great reminder of the goal of my studies.  The Chaplain was an immensely generous host who made the experience absolutely superb. 

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Well, that’s all that I’m going to write for now.  I’ll try to get another update in soon.  Be looking out for the update after November 20th when the US will receive our new Cardinals: Cardinal-designate Burke and Cardinal-designate Wuerl.  Around the consistory there will be some events held the school.  I’ve volunteered to help.  So there will a little bit at least to report on that. 

Pray for me as I pray for you all. 

Video from Toce

Here’s the video I took my last weekend in Verbania (which was a little more than a month ago).  Brian Buettner, another OKC Archdiocese seminarian here, has been video blogging.  So I decided to take his idea and add it to my blog.  I hope you all enjoy it. 

Here is the Angelus and Us Singing to the Pope

So here is when we went up to Castle Gandolfo, the summer residence of the Pope, to pray the Angelus.  Archbishop Burke was there and joined us afterwards.  It you want, flip ahead to about minute 9.  We’ll sing and you might get a glimpse of me.  I am on the front row.  Hope you all enjoy this, I did. 

Long over due update.

I hope to have a couple of videos of the place I’ve been staying at and the waterfalls at Toce, which are supposed to be some of the best in all of Europe.  Right now, I’m back in Rome.  And I’m excited to be back.  

Here are some pictures from a couple of trips to small churches up in the mountains.  The hikes were good but exhausting.  Oklahoma boys aren’t used to elevation.  There are also some pictures of an island hopping trip that we took at Lake Maggiore.  One of the islands belongs to the Borromeo family.  If you aren’t familiar, this is the same family that gave us St. Charles Borromeo.  So I hope you enjoy the pictures.

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For the past two weeks or so, I’ve been here in Rome taking a second round of language courses.  It’s all in preparation for the proficiency exam that I’ll be taking on the 20th of this month.  So please pray for me then and also during the first week in October as I’ll be taking a Greek placement test for the university.   Yesterday we capped off our orientation with a trip to the beach.  I played many hours of volleyball and am red as a beet, but relaxed. 

Little Hiatus…and now I’m back in the saddle

So I took a short break from the blog.  Now, I’m back again.  So where do things rest right now? 

I’m one week away from being back in Rome.  When I get back, I will start round-two of Italian classes.  But I had a great moment today.  I finished Italian grammar (insert fireworks and cake here).  My teacher, Giorgia, and I have been working out of her grammar book.  Spanish has helped a lot with understanding the Italian grammar. 

I’ll have a bit more tomorrow.  Today a bit of headache. 

Sunday was something else

While I had all these great plans to go to a mountain escape (Macugnaga) and the home of prosciutto and parmesan cheese (Parma ), they fell apart  due to the distances that had to be traveled in public transportation.  It’s not so great in the north of Italy.  So I was stuck here for the weekend which turned out to be pretty cool.  I was invited by one of the other guys to go up to a mountain top town which was celebrating its city festival which was tied to a saint’s feast.  We pulled up and within five minutes they had us back in the sacristy putting on albs, completely unbeknownst to us beforehand.   Without hardly any more words, we were shoved into the processional line and the Mass was starting.  One confusing hour later, we were recessing out, me with the cross in hand.  As if that weren’t enough chaos, we arrived outside the church only to find ourselves in a processional line to go around town.  There were women dressed in traditional clothing of the area, a small but full on band playing national songs, the multitude of servers (with an average age of 12, including us), the numerous priests, and the men carrying the statue of the saint.  While the whole trip was maybe a half a mile, it took us nearly 45 minutes.  That’s a while to be holding a cross…but not that I’m complaining.  It was still pretty cool.  Afterwards, we went to rectory for a toast to two of the priests, one who was celebrating 25 years and the other celebrating 50 years.  There were many dignitaries there, including: three federal police in full formal regalia (and it is the definition of regalia), the mayor, other important key figures in the community…and then there were us two out of place seminarians from the US.  It was nice, just out of place.  Then we were whisked over to a restaurant for the formal dinner and sat at the head table.  The humility rose.  We were merely invited to this event; the next thing we knew we were up front and personal at this event.  It was a little

overwhelming.  Then came the food. We had an antipasta of prosciutto and cantaloupe (which is probably the best match up ever) and an assortment of other cured meats.  Then we had risotto (prepared rice), which was also great.  Then for the principal meal we had two plates.  The first was a type of thin sliced roast beef with steamed zucchini and carrots.  The second was swordfish and fried potato slices.  Then for dessert we had an amazing wild berry pie.  The night was too much.  But what an experience.   

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Update on updates

 

I have been having a little fun with all of this.  I found a new writer for my blog.  It’s Windows Live Writer.  If all goes well, it will be my new and default way of updating my blog.  It also has many great options to make it look amazing.  We’ll see how it goes.  But my favorite thing is that I can write entries offline and then upload them when I can get to a connection.

FYI

For anyone who might not know, I'll put up a small bit about where I am. In December of this past year, I was asked to study at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. I feel very blessed to be given this opportunity. And while I am in Italy right now, I won't actually start classes until October. In the meantime, I am studying Italian as my theology classes will be in Italian. I ask for your prayers. And please send me your prayer requests too.

I've made to Italy

For anyone who has been expecting something, I'm sorry for the time. I've been in Italy for almost three weeks now. And finally I get to the blog. I hope to get some pictures up soon. For the time being, I have been taking classes in Italian for almost two weeks now. Things are going bene.