Money well spent

      Being something of a bibliophile – more than 1,400 books are waiting awaiting my return in Springfield – I’m always on the lookout for new books and find bookstores something of a danger.  I joked with some friends back home before leaving for Rome that I might have to keep a tally of the books I acquire in these next three years.  After almost two weeks in Italy, that tally is now at just four books, one of which is the text for my Italian classes.

      Thursday my fellow students and I were shown some of the ancient and important books in the library of the Sacro Convento here in Assisi.  Since it is attached to the Basilica of St. Francis, a couple of the seminarians and I decided to visit the bookstore (I had been staying away from bookstores as a caution).

The three books that I bought are: 

1.  The Icon of the Christ of San Damiano by Marc Picard, O.F.M., Cap. (Assisi: Casa Editrice Francescana, 2012); 
2. The Little Flowers of Saint Clare by Piero Bargellini (Assisi: Edizioni Porziuncola, 2011); and, 
3. Assisi in the Footseps of Saint Francis by Theophile Desbonnets (Assisi: Edizioni Porziuncola, 2007).

I had a bit of free time yesterday afternoon and went to pray before the San Damiano Cross, which is presently housed in the Basilica of Saint Clare. 

 I took with me The Icon of the Christ of San Damiano and was struck by the following observation:

The border of the icon sets the tone immediately.  It is formed of a great number of shells.  Among the ancients, the seashell had become a symbol of the beauty and eternity of heaven because of its beauty and endurance.  So this border of seashells shows us that the icon is destined by its nature to reveal heavenly mystery.  However, the border is not fully complete.  It is not closed at the base but a space has been left to allow for an entry (14, emphasis mine).

To enter into the mystery of the Cross of Christ.  Was this not the very desire of Saint Francis of Assisi?  Is this not what he asked for on Mount LaVerna where he received the stigmata?  Is this not what each of us is also called to do, to enter into the mystery of the Lord’s Cross?

To enter into the Crucified Lord is to enter into eternity.  To enter into the Crucified Lord is to find true and lasting peace and joy.

Even so, too often we shy away from the Cross because we do not recognize the truth of what the writer of this sacred icon knew.  The wisdom of the Cross – by the world’s standard, the folly – is that only by entering into the Cross can the glory of the Lord be known; only by entering into his Passion can we share in his glory.

If we look at the figures depicted in the icon – Mary, John, the centurion, etc. – we see that they “are all bathed in the light” that comes from the glory of the Risen Lord (24).  What is more,

…the characters are exactly the same size.  This detail means that the most important thing is not the personal holiness of each one, but that Christ is “all in all” (Colossians 3:11)… [I]t is helpful for us to discover that the characters resemble one another, all having the same large eyes, small mouths, and oval shaped faces.  If we look at Jesus we find the same characteristics.  The words of St. Paul suddenly come to our hearts: “They are the ones he chose specially, long ago, and intended them to become true images of his Son” (Romans 8:29) (24).

Whether Francis understand these various meanings when this crucifix spoke to him is difficult to say, but in the end his life makes clear that the meanings are true.  By sharing in the Passion of the Lord – both spiritually and bodily – Francis truly became another Christ and manifested the Lord’s love in an attractive and unmistakable way.  So it is that we rightly call him a Saint.

By meditating on the image of Crucified Love, by entering into the mystery of the Cross, we, too, like Saint Francis, can become other Christ’s and manifest his love in an attractive and unmistakable way.  This why Saint Clare urges us to look upon the Cross:

Place your mind before the mirror of eternity!  Place your soul in the brilliance of glory!  Place your heart in the figure of the divine substance!  And transform your whole being into the image of the Godhead Itself through contemplation (The Third Letter to Blessed Agnes of Prague, 12-13)!

By daily praying the crucifix of San Damiano, Saint Clare truly understood its meaning and encouraged others to live it with her.

Whenever we look upon an image of the Crucified Lord, we cannot help but notice the titulus above him that declares him to be truly the King.  “Before this inscription there is no escape; one must opt either for or against Jesus.  To remain neutral is not possible” (36).

Buying that little book was money well spent and lead to fruitful prayer.  If only the same could said of every book!

A quick photo from Assisi (and a fun video)

Life here in Assisi is going very well.  I don't have time at the moment for a real update, but I thought I'd share with you a picture I took this afternoon of the city from above:

As I wander through the medieval streets of Assisi, I cannot help but remember the great scene of the Battle for Goblin City in the movie Labyrinth:

It's random, I know, but that's how my mind works.

Father Capello: Pray for Thomas Peters

Most of you who read other blogs will already know that Thomas Peters, the American Papist, suffered a serious accident while swimming a few days ago that left him in a very serious condition with a broken neck.

Considering the gravity of Thomas' condition, his father, the canonist Ed Peters, who blogs at In the Light of the Law, has asked our prayers, particularly through the intercession of the Servant of God Father Felix Maria Capello, S.J.

1879-1962

My professor of canon law, Father John Dolciamore, spoke often of Father Capello and sought his intercession for his students at the beginning of each class.

I did not know a great deal about him when I stumbled upon his tomb when Bishop Paprocki and I were in Rome for his ad limina.  When I saw Dr. Peters' request to seek Father Capello's intercession for his son, I knew I had to return to the church of St. Ignatius where he is entombed.

Father Capello was a much beloved priest in Rome and was affectionately called "the Confessor of Rome" because of his skill in counseling penitents.  Through these past many decades, the Romans have retained his confessional and decorated it with gifts given through favors obtained through the holy priest's intercession:

Notice the stole he wore when hearing confessions.

Father Capello's tomb is simple, but quite dignified:

Before I left for the church, I attempted to find the prayer for his beatification and canonization, but could not do so.  Thanks be to God, holy cards were available in the church.  I knelt down at his grave and asked him intercede on Thomas' behalf, for his full restoration to health and strength and prayed the canonization prayer in Italian and the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be in English.

In Italian, the prayer is:

O Gesù che per il bene della Chiesa e il conforto dei fedeli, ricolmasti dei doni del tuo Spirito il tuo servo Felice Maria Capello e ne facesti un sacerdote pio e zelante, un religioso esemplare, un luminare di sapienza, un consigliere sicuro, un lavoratore indefesso, concedici la grazia di sperimentare l'efficacia della sua intercessione e di imitarne la pietà, l'umiltà, la pazienza e la benignità verso il tuo Divin Cuore e il Cuore Immacolato della tua Santissima Madre.  Amen.

Pater, Ave, Gloria.

O Signore, glorifica anche in terra il tuo servo fedele.

Dr. Peters, as I discovered a moment ago, provides a translation of the prayer:

O Jesus, for the welfare of the Church and the comfort of the faithful, you filled your servant Felice Maria Cappello with the gifts of your Spirit and made of him a pious and zealous priest, an exemplary religious, a luminary of learning, a reliable advisor, and an untiring worker, now grant the grace hoped for in evidence of his intercession and let us imitate his piety, humility, patience, and kindness before your Divine Heart and the Immaculate Heart of your Most Holy Mother

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be.

O Lord, glorify your faithful servant on earth!

Please, join me in seeking Father Capello's intercession for Thomas' healing.

In the years to come, I will call often upon Father Capello's intercession in my studies of canon law, which he loved so dearly.

My Room in Rome

While I study in Rome I will stay at the Casa Santa Maria, the American house for priests who are studying in the Eternal City.

Built in 1601 by the Orsini family as a Dominican convent, the Casa housed religious women until it was suppressed by Napoleon some 200 years after its founding.

Pope Pius IX gave the building to the American Bishops for the North American College (the U.S. seminary in Rome).  When the number of seminarians from the U.S. became too numerous for the building, the U.S. Bishops established the college on the Janicolo Hill in 1947.

Today, the Casa Santa Maria houses about 100 priests for the duration of their studies at the various Roman universities and provides simple, though sufficient, accomodations.

 Today I finished setting up my room:

With the lack of air conditioning, the fan is necessary in the warmth of July in Rome.

My room sits on the inside of the building and faces out toward one of the two courtyards, which provides a nice view:

It may not be much, but it's home for most of the next three years (though next year I think I'll have the opportunity to move into a larger room).

A new way of looking at things

Ever so slowly I am settling into my room here in the Eternal City, which entails not only putting things in what seems a good place in the room but also adjusting to another of getting things accomplished.

This clever video is a rather accurate description of some of the more notable differences between Europe (and in many ways also the United States) and Italy:

The primary task of today and tomorrow is applying tor a permesso di soggiorno, an extension of my visa beyond its one year expiration.

Before I concluded my assignment as Priest Secretary and Master of Ceremonies to the Bishop, His Excellency shared with me this sage advice: "If you set out to do four things in one day and accomplish one of them, it's a successful day."  I think I may need to increase the list of things to accomplish each day if I'm to have successful days.

More posts - and pictures - will be forthcoming.  Please continue to keep me in your prayers as you remain in mine.  On Saturday I will to Assisi where I study the Italian language for the six weeks before returning to Rome.

On the way

As I make my way today (and tomorrow) from Quincy to St. Louis to Chicago to Rome, Rich Mullins' "I'll Carry On" has been very much on my mind:

I am grateful for the many prayers that have been offered on my behalf and promise to pray for all of you at the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul and of Francis and Clare.

To Live Pono: Meeting Someone

This morning a line from J.R.R. Tolkien shared on Twitter by @TolkienProverbs reminded me of a post I've been meaning to write for a very long time.  The proverb was a bit of wisdom placed on the lips of Eomer, third marshal of the Riddermark:

The stranger should declare himself first.

This counsel seems obvious enough, but very few people seem to actually realize it's importance.

I cannot begin to fathom the number of times someone has shaken my hand and said, "It's nice to meet you," without ever telling me their name or asking mine (sometimes "Father" works, but knowing the proper form of address hardly suffices for "meeting" someone; if you meet someone, you should at least know his name).

Whenever I find myself in such a situation, it takes every ounce of restraint not to say, "But we haven't met at all.  All you've done is shake my hand on your way out the door or on the way to the buffet line."  Strangely, my saying something like this would be seen as rude, which is why I restrain myself, but a failure to introduce oneself and acknowledge another person is somehow not seen as rude.

My hunch is that people say, "It's nice to meet you," from a desire to be polite, or at least from a general understanding that they should pretend to be polite.  It seems a similar situation to the odd question, "How are you," when the one who asks the question doesn't actually want a response.  It is supposed to be polite to ask the question, but this is really only a false politeness, unless you actually want to know how someone is.

Please, the next time you say, "It's nice to meet you," or something very similar, please be sure to first introduce yourself and, at the very least, ask the other person's name.  It's to way to live pono, to live righteously.

Father Tolton died 116 years ago today

On this day in 1897 two priests - along with many others - died as a consequence of a heat wave in the greater Chicago area: Father Otto Greenbaum, who died in his rectory, and the Servant of God Father Augustus Tolton, whose cause for Beatification and Canonization is presently underway.

Quincy's first citizen, to borrow a phrase from Bishop Perry, had just returned to Chicago from a retreat in Bourbonnais, Illinois and was about to make a few rounds in his parish when he collapsed at 36th Street and Ellis Avenue.  He was taken to Mercy Hospital where he died at 8:39 p.m. at the age of 46.

As was his known wish, his body was brought back to the Gem City and buried on July 13, 1897 in St. Peter's cemetery where it remains interred to this day.  Regrettably, I was unable to visit his grave today due to commitments out of town.

My thoughts have often turned to Father Gus throughout these past many days as I look ahead to my move to the Eternal City.  It is a move that the Servant of God also made from Quincy and he faced many of the same challenges - and many more besides - that I soon will face: two new languages (Italian and Latin), a new culture, moving away from family and friends, etc.

At present I am neither excited nor overwhelmed at the prospects of my appointment to graduate studies in canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian University, though once I arrive in Rome one week from this morning I am certain to experience both sentiments.

As I ponder the prospect of learning a new subject in a new language, I continually remind myself that others have done this before me and have survived quite well; if they can do it, so can I.

It is especially encouraging to know that I can call upon the intercession of this Servant of God whose life is bound with mine not only by virtue of the Priesthood of Jesus Christ, but also by a common city and a love of its citizens.

In a letter to a friend, Father Tolton once wrote:

Catholics will love and respect a priest regardless of nationality; at least that is the spirit of those people in the Gem City who knew me for twenty-nine years.  Never will they forget the happy hours spent in little St. Joseph church.  I wish them all the blessings that can be bestowed upon them, for that charitable spirit that they have always shown toward me and the colored children.

For my part, I will never forget the happy hours spent at St. John the Baptist Baptist, the chapel of Quincy University, and within the Great River TEC movement.  I, too, wish the citizens of Quincy all the blessings that can be bestowed upon them for the charitable spirit they have always shown me.

Please join me in praying for Father Tolton's beatification and canonization, and ask him to intercede for me in my coming studies.

Homily - Mass in Thanksgiving for Great River Teens Encounter Christ

My dear brothers and sisters,

What does it mean to encounter Jesus Christ, to encounter the one who makes the bold claim, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21)?  Those who encountered him in the synagogue “were amazed at the gracious words that came forth from his mouth,” but their amazement did not long last; only a short time later – just eight verses later - they “drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong” (Luke 4:29).

There tend to be two responses to the encounter with Jesus Christ, though both generally begin with amazement.  One response ends, as we have just seen, with a rejection of the one who calls us to “the bond of perfection” (Colossians 3:14).  The other response ends with an embrace of the one who calls us to let his peace “dwell in you richly” (Colossians 3:16).  If it is an encounter with the same person, how can the responses be so very different, one to receive his love and one to reject it?

To encounter Jesus Christ is to be invited to a great challenge.  He invites those who meet him to do everything in his name, that is, to set aside their own personal agendas and desires to embrace his will as their own (cf. Colossians 3:17).  To live in the bond of perfection is to live a life of holiness, a life set apart for God; it is to live the life for which we have been created.  There are many people who recognize the beauty and the truth of such a life, and there are many people who do not.

It is the mission of Great River Teens Encounter Christ to lead young people toward such an encounter with the Lord who requires a decision be made.  We cannot make the decision for them, but we can help them understand what it means to live a life of faith, to strive to live under the bond of perfection.

Faith, as well as being a gift from God, “is choosing to stand with the Lord so as to live with him.”[1]  Jesus invites them – as he does each of us – to make this fundamental choice, to follow his example or to reject it.  He it is who is the true grain of wheat who falls to the ground and dies to produce much fruit for us (cf. John 12:24).  Will we, in turn, allow ourselves to die, will we set aside our own ambitions and self-centeredness to produce much fruit for God and for others?

Standing before Jesus Christ we stand before the gate for the sheep, through whom whoever enters will be saved and “will come in and go out and find pasture” (John 10:9).  At the beginning of this Year of Faith, the Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI reminded us that “to enter through that door is to set out on a journey that lasts a lifetime.”[2]  Each day we must ask if we have remained on that journey or if we strayed off on our own way; this journey of faith cannot be taken as though we were on autopilot, but must be done intentionally and with conviction (cf. Isaiah 53:6).

This journey begins, Benedict says, “with baptism, through which we can address God as Father, and it ends with the passage through death to eternal life, fruit of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, whose will it was, by the gift of the Holy Spirit, to draw those who believe in him into his own glory.”[3]  To set out on this journey of faith and to arrive at our true homeland, we must enter through the door of faith, through the door of Christ, and not seek to keep our feet on the path; we must be willing to allow ourselves to be swept up in his will.

Where the journey leads in between Baptism and death we cannot know, but we do know that the adventure is great and that the one who guides it “searches out the abyss and penetrates the heart; their innermost being he understands” (Sirach 42:18).  Yes, he knows our weaknesses and he knows our love; he alone knows the deepest yearnings of our hearts and he alone can satisfy them.  He invites us to pass through his gate, by entering into his holy wounds, to be healed, to receive forgiveness, and to have our love strengthened and our every desire fulfilled.

We have come here this evening because Great River TEC has helped us to encounter the person of Jesus Christ and has encouraged us to take up his Cross and follow in his way, striving always to enter through his narrow gate, to delve deeply into his open wounds.  As we think back over the years and the many people with whom we have prayed during our TEC weekends in this chapel and throughout this building, how can we not be filled with a joyful wonder?  The words of Sirach come streaming to mind: “Yet even God’s holy ones must fail in recounting the wonders of the Lord” (Sirach 42:17).  How can we adequately express what the Lord has done for us through the TEC movment?  Many have his graces been, “all of them differ, one from another, yet none of them has he made in vain” (Sirach 42:24).

As I think back over the twelve TEC weekends and the many Quests and Mini-TECs on which I was a candidate, a Wheatie, a resource, a member of the adult team, and the spiritual director, my heart swells with gratitude for the many blessings that have been given to me through this ecclesial movement: the reconciliation and healing, the insights and inspirations, the friendships and the laughter and the tears.  Each of us has received these same or similar blessings and together have come to express our gratitude to the Lord.  Truly, the wonders of the Lord are renewed every morning and we do well to bask in their warmth and to give him what thanks we can (cf. Lamentations 3:23).

For my part, I am grateful to each of you for the part that you have played in my own journey of faith.  TEC, in no small way, helped me to discern the will of the Lord for my life that now unexpectedly leads me to Rome to study canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian University.  I never quite knew why the Lord would call me to his service as a priest – nor do I now – but many of you helped me to realize that he was calling me; your prayers and encouragements helped me to accept his call.  For your many kindnesses to me I will be eternally in your debt; from the bottom of my heart, I thank you, and promise to remember you often at the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul and at the altar of the Lord.

But we have also come this evening to hold a “recruitment party,” to ask the Lord to help us discern whom among our family and friends, our neighbors, peers, and co-workers, we can invite to encounter Christ through the TEC movement.  In this effort, we cannot forget that “what the world is in particular need of today is the credible witness of people enlightened in mind and heart by the word of the Lord, and capable of opening the hearts and minds of many to the desire for God and for true life, life without end.”[4]

I urge you, then, with Saint Paul, to “let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one Body” (Colossians 3:15).  His Body is the Church and his Church is nourished with his Body, with the Eucharist.  Stay, then, always near his Body, both the Eucharist and the Church, and the words of the Psalmist will be fulfilled in you: “The poor shall eat and shall have their fill.  They shall praise the Lord, those who seek him” (Psalm 22:27)!

If you learn to think with the mind of the Church then Christ’s peace will always dwell in you and “in all wisdom you can teach and admonish one another, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your heart to God” (Colossians 3:16).  Amen.

---

[1] Pope Benedict XVI, Porta Fidei, 10.

[2] Ibid., 1.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid., 14.

Calling all TECites: Let's give thanks for TEC

For the past several months I have served as the Spiritual Director for Great River Teens Encounter Christ.  Since my first weekend in 1995, the TEC movement has had a profound impact on my life.  Through it, I have come to a deeper knowledge and love of Jesus Christ and have made many true and faithful friends.

As I look ahead to my coming studies in Rome, I realize that I will have to step aside for some years, which was the topic of my recent column for The Wheat Field:

Before reciting the Regina Caeli in St. Peter’s Square on Pentecost with representatives from various movements within the Church, Pope Francis said to them, “I would like to thank all the Movements, Associations, Communities and Ecclesial groups. You are a gift and a treasure for the Church! This is what you are!”

As I look ahead to July 1^st when I will conclude my present assignment as Priest Secretary and Master of Ceremonies to the Bishop and Associate Director of the Office for Vocations (I managed to fit all of that on a business card) to begin graduate studies in canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, I wish to make Pope Francis’ words my own and to say to you, the members the spiritual movement of Great River Teens Encounter Christ, “You are a gift and a treasure for the Church!  This is what you are!”  Not only that; you are a gift and a treasure for me!

Beginning with my first TEC in 1996 – TEC 162 – I have been on a dozen TECs and several Mini-TECs and Quests and each of them, varied as they were, served to draw me closer to Jesus Christ and deeper into the communion of his Church.  It was, I daresay, on my first TEC weekend that my call to the Priesthood of Jesus Christ was confirmed for me through a profound experience during the Stations of the Cross and the singing of “Watch the Lamb.”  So it is that Great River TEC has always held a dear and special place in my heart.

As I look now to the adventure that lies before me over the next three years in the Eternal City, I wish to offer the Holy Mass in Thanksgiving for Great River Teens Encounter Christ with as many of you as possible.  To this end, I will celebrate the Mass in the retreat center chapel on Tuesday, July 2^nd at 6:30 p.m.  Following the Mass, a recruitment party will be held to ask the guidance of the Holy Spirit in inviting others to encounter Christ through the TEC movement.

When he spoke to the various religious movements, the Holy Father went on to say, “Always bring with you the power of the Gospel! Do not be afraid! Always have joy and passion for communion in the Church!”  The power of the Gospel is found in the communion of the Church, in the unity granted to the faithful in the Most Holy Eucharist, the Sacrament of Unity, in which the Lord Jesus keeps his promise to be with us always (cf. Matthew 28:20).

As I humbly submit my resignation as Spiritual Director of Great River Teens Encounter Christ, effective July 1, 2013, I urge you to remember that everything we do as a spiritual movement within Church should lead each of us - candidates, Wheaties, and adult team - to a greater love and devotion to the Eucharist, to Jesus Christ present among us in a real and substantial way.  I thank you for your many prayers and encouragements over the years and ask your continued prayers for me.  Please know that I will remember you often, and future TEC weekends, at the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul!

Happy Father's Day

I'm the one walking.

The more that read the letters of the sub-creator of Middle earth, the more I am drawn to Tolkien.  So much wisdom and profundity is contained within them that is just as great - if not greater - than what he wrote in the Lord of the Rings.

As just one example, consider this excerpt from a letter he wrote to his son Michael - who at the time was an Officer Cadet in the Royal Military College - in June of 1941:

Still you are my flesh and blood, and carry on the name. It is something to be the father of a good young soldier. Can't you see why I care so much about you, and why all that you do concerns me so closely? Still, let us both take heart of hope and faith. The link between father and son is not only of the perishable flesh: it must have something of aeternitas about it. There is a place called 'heaven' where the good here unfinished is completed; and where the stories unwritten, and the hopes unfulfilled, are continued. We may laugh together yet... 

Until then, Dad, know that I love and miss you!

Call to Prayer, Pledge to Fast

The summons to prayer today from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for Life, Marriage, and Religious Liberty in their ongoing Call to Prayer, Pledge to Fast campaign is for the following intention:

On this Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus,a Heart which has loved men so much, we ask Christ to help us love our Church and country courageously, for the glory of God.

Please join our Bishops, fellow Catholics, and people of good will in praying for this important intention.

If you haven't yet signed up to join the campaign, I encourage you to do so; when you sign up, you can receive the Friday prayer intentions via e-mail or text message (or both).

Please pray for my grandmother

This picture is a few years old, but she hasn't changed much.

In the charity of your prayers, might I ask you to remember my grandmother - a.k.a., Granny - who fell again yesterday morning?  Though she did not break any of her bones, she will be unable to return to her assisted living residence and will have to move into a nursing home because her strength has been fading over the past several months.

Sometimes I wonder if my independent streak doesn't come from her.  I don't expect she'll like this very much.  Thanks be to God, though, she has made wise choices in the past.  As one example, she willingly gave up her car some years back when she could still safely drive because she didn't want to get to the point where it would have to be taken from her.  She's a strong woman who has been through much in her more than ninety years of life, but not foolhardy.

The Lord has again blessed her and us with a similar decision.  Word from home is that "she agreed that it was time" to go to a nursing home, though the decision was "not cheerfully" made.

I would like to visit her this evening, but I've been advised by my family to stay in Springfield and not drive through the continuing storms (at this rate, I'm not sure they'll ever end) on the way to Quincy and back.  Tomorrow I will spend much of the day teaching the Totus Tuus team.  Depending on how she's doing in the morning, I may try to collapse the teaching schedule to make it home; otherwise, I'm planning to visit her late Sunday afternoon.

The Bishops' Call to Prayer: For Engaged Couples

Today being Friday, our Bishops are again calling upon us to join them in the Call to Prayer: Pledge to Fast as we pray together for the protection of Life, Marriage, and Religious Liberty in the United States of America.

The intention they have proposed for us today is for those preparing for marriage:

 For engaged couples, that their time of preparation for marriage may be richly blessed as they prepare to give themselves fully and irrevocably to each other as a sign of Christ's love for His Church.

If you're looking for a way to join in the Call to Prayer, the Bishops' have provided a few suggestions for us.

Packing up old friends

The Pope Emeritus once described his books as his "friends," and I have often felt the same about my books.  Along this same line, Andrew Carnegie once said, "The man who enters a library is in the best society this world affords; the good and the great welcome him, surround him, and humbly ask to be allowed to become his servants."

I have spent the better part of the last few days packing up most of these friends, to which there has been a simple process.

First, I take a book off of the shelf and look to see if I have previously added it to my collection at Library Thing.  If I haven't, then I do so.

Second, I place a book plate with my coat of arms and my name on the inside front cover.

Third, I place the book in a tub with other books.

Fourth, once the tub is sufficiently filled, I label the top and the two of the sides with a description of it's contents - for example, "Books: Arthuriana" (which incidentally cannot all fit into one tub) - so that in three years' time unpacking and reshelving them will be easier.

The process has been rather time-consuming and at times tedious, but it has also been filled with many blessings.  As I sifted through my collection (numbering more than 1,250 books), I remembered where I was when I read many of the books, I recalled what I learned from them, and I longed to be able to sit down and read them again, but there isn't time for that.

What is more, as I was looked through the books, I was reminded of friends who recommended certain books to me.  I remembered friends was were me when I bought a particular book.  I remembered friends who gave certain books to me.  I wondered about the previous owners of some of the books whose names were written in them.  As the memories entered my heart and mind, many prayers of gratitude were raised before the throne of grace.

When I began the process, my shelves were more full than the above picture shows, with several vertical stacks of books on the shelves and even some books that fell behind others.  Now, though the process is not quite finished, the books look like this:

Nineteen tubs have been filled so far, and I know that at least two more will be needed to finish packing the
books in my suite.  I'm guessing that at least six tubs will be needed to pack the books in my office.

Throughout this process I have been greatly surprised at my own discipline.  As I handled each book I asked one question: "Will this book come with me to Rome, or will it stay behind?"

The books that will be coming with me are these:

One book missing in the above picture is one containing the Legends of King Arthur; I haven't decided which one to bring.

This seems to me a very good whittling down of my books, but I haven't yet gone through my collection of Ratzinger/Benedict books.

Eight years ago today

Holy Father, who by no merit of my own, chose me
for communion with the eternal priesthood of your Christ
and for the ministry of your Church,
grant that I may be an ardent yet gentle preacher of the Gospel
and a faithful steward of your mysteries.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God for ever and ever.

- Roman Missal, For the Priest Himself, On the Anniversary of His Ordination

The Fall of Arthur: A Review

I have remarked here on occasion of my love of the legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table that I first discovered as a young boy.  Still today I take delight in these stories and am always eager for more, particularly as regards the quest to discover the man who lay at the foundation of the legends.

When some weeks back I first learned of the coming release of an alliterative verse poem by J.R.R. Tolkien titled The Fall of the Arthur, excitement grew in my heart because I knew the brilliance of his version of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.  Tolkien was a master at taking ancient metrical patterns and making modern English fit to them.

His The Fall of Arthur is sadly incomplete, despite the urging of R. W. Chambers who, on reading the incomplete poem wrote to Tolkien, urging him, "You simply must finish it."  How I wish he had finished it!

The poem itself consists of but five cantos and covers the betrayal of Mordred, Lancelot and Guinevere, and the circumstances that would lead to the terrible Battle of Camlann, though The Fall of Arthur ends rather abruptly, too abruptly and at a moment where it lifts the heart ever more into its tale.

It seems to me that the poem is best read aloud, but even when read quietly one cannot help but feel as though he were in the presence of a great hall, sitting round a fire with a mug of ale, enraptured at the tale of wandering minstrel telling of the glorious and tragic days of the King whom Tolkien calls the "lord of legions,     light in darkness (I.106-110).

Over the last several days a discussion has begun on the list serve Arthurnet about what it is that still brings such great passion to the Arthurian legends.  The Fall of Arthur continues in this great tradition and presents us with a thoroughly Christian Arthur who carries as his emblem "a white lady in holy arms / a babe bearing born of maiden" (IV.127-128).  But, as in other tales, Arthur is not simply a Christian monarch, but a representation of Christ, another Christ, if you will, a true Christian, who is "a king of peace kingdom wielding / in a holy realm besides Heaven's gateway" (V.10-11).

When King Arthur returns to confront Mordred and set right his treachery, "he would pass in peace pardon granting / the hurt healing and the whole guiding, / to Britain the blessed bliss recalling" (V.44-45).    Here I cannot help but recall Aragorn, in whose hands are healing.  What is more, Tolkien speaks of those who "their king betraying, Christ forsaking" (V.16).

It is, I think, this hope of a kingdom restored, of mercy given and justice done, that elicits such passion even these many centuries later, centered on the person of Arthur who is betrayed by those dearest to him but who does not betray them in return.

Hope is a common theme in the writings of Tolkien and it is not absent in this text.  In the middle of the poem we find these moving lines:

Ever times would change and tides alter,
and o'er hills of morning hope come striding
to awake the weary, while the world lasted (III.218-220).

Are not we weary who awaken each day to look for the coming of hope, for the coming of Christ?

Before I am called out on this interpretation, I know that Tolkien great dislike allegory in all of its manifestations where he could detect it, but he did allow for, and even encourage, what he termed applicability.  Consideration my interpretation here not as allegory, but as applicability, spurred on by a famous mosaic of Rex Arturus in the Cathedral of Otranto, in which Arthur is shown riding on a goat in the scenes of the Fall of Man:

I have yet to find an adequate explanation for the curious placing of this mosaic, though I do have my own thoughts (that Arthur is here depicted as a Christ-figure), which I first began to put down on paper when I was in the seminary.  It is a topic to which I shall have to return when I am soon in Italy, after visiting this Cathedral and seeing the mosaic with my own eyes.  And while I'm at it, I must also see St. Galgano's sword in the stone.

Breaking News: Franciscans elect American as Minister General

Following the recent appointment of Father José Rodríguez Carballo, then Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor, as Secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Religious Life, the Presidents and Vice Presidents of the various language groups within the Order met today in Rome to elect a new Minister General.

The sons of Saint Francis of Assisi have elected the Vicar General of the Order, Father Michael Perry, a native of Indianapolis and a member of the Sacred Heart Province out of St. Louis, Missouri.

I am happy to count many of these friars as my friends - in fact, the Bishop and I just recently stayed with four of them in Quincy - and I warmly congratulate them and promise my prayers for them and especially for Father Michael as he assumes his new responsibilities.

Religious freedom given to Christians 1,700 years ago

Catholic World News today reports on a joint initiative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Council of the Bishops' Conferences of Europe to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the famed Edictum Mediolanense, the Edict of Milan of the Emperor Constantine I, in Istanbul this May 17-18.  This news caught me quite off guard; somehow the anniversary of this document that truly changed the world escaped my notice.

The issuance of the Edict of Milan is one of those moments in history of which everyone should be aware, so great were its consequences.

The Edict itself was drawn up in Milan by the Emperors Constantine I (of the West) and Licinius (of the East) in February of 313 and proclaimed in June 313 at Nicomedia.  Following its formal announcement, the Edict was sent throughout the Roman Empire and its shock waves and ripple effects continue to our own day, even if these waters of change are beginning to be recede and, in some instances, being dammed up.

Building upon the Emperor Galerius' Edict of Toleration, which he issued in the year 311, that granted to Christians the tolerance "be Christians and may hold their conventicles [meetings or assemblies], provided they do nothing contrary to good order."  The Edict of Milan went even further and granted "to the Christians and others full authority to observe that religion which each preferred."  What is more, the Emperors Constantine I and Licinius declared:

Therefore, your Worship should know that it has pleased us to remove all conditions whatsoever, which were in the rescripts formerly given to you officially, concerning the Christians and now any one of these who wishes to observe Christian religion may do so freely and openly, without molestation. We thought it fit to commend these things most fully to your care that you may know that we have given to those Christians free and unrestricted opportunity of religious worship. When you see that this has been granted to them by us, your Worship will know that we have also conceded to other religions the right of open and free observance of their worship for the sake of the peace of our times, that each one may have the free opportunity to worship as he pleases ; this regulation is made we that we may not seem to detract from any dignity or any religion.

Moreover, in the case of the Christians especially we esteemed it best to order that if it happems anyone heretofore has bought from our treasury from anyone whatsoever, those places where they were previously accustomed to assemble, concerning which a certain decree had been made and a letter sent to you officially, the same shall be restored to the Christians without payment or any claim of recompense and without any kind of fraud or deception, Those, moreover, who have obtained the same by gift, are likewise to return them at once to the Christians. Besides, both those who have purchased and those who have secured them by gift, are to appeal to the vicar if they seek any recompense from our bounty, that they may be cared for through our clemency,. All this property ought to be delivered at once to the community of the Christians through your intercession, and without delay. And since these Christians are known to have possessed not only those places in which they were accustomed to assemble, but also other property, namely the churches, belonging to them as a corporation and not as individuals, all these things which we have included under the above law, you will order to be restored, without any hesitation or controversy at all, to these Christians, that is to say to the corporations and their conventicles: providing, of course, that the above arrangements be followed so that those who return the same without payment, as we have said, may hope for an indemnity from our bounty. In all these circumstances you ought to tender your most efficacious intervention to the community of the Christians, that our command may be carried into effect as quickly as possible, whereby, moreover, through our clemency, public order may be secured [more].

In short, the Edict of Milan not only made Christianity a legal religion within the Roman Empire, but also restored to the Christians those properties which had been confiscated from them (why Constantine generally receives the credit for the edict and Licinius does not, I do not know).

You will often find textbooks that claim Constantine I made Christianity the official religion of the Empire; this is simply false.  Constantine I did not make Christianity the official religion of the Empire, but made it a legal religion in the Empire; a Christian could no longer be persecuted legally because of his faith in Jesus Christ.

It was the Emperor Theodosius I (r. 379-395) who, on 27 February 380, with his Edict of Thessalonica, made Christianity the "official" religion of the Roman Empire when he decreed that the citizens of the Empire "should continue to the profession of that religion which was delivered to the Romans by the divine Apostle Peter, as it has been preserved by faithful tradition and which is now professed by the Pontiff Damasus [r. 366-384]."

What is more, Theodosius I declared in the same document that those who did not profess the faith of the Apostle Peter "shall be branded with the ignominious name of heretics, and shall not presume to give their conventicles [meetings or assemblies] the name of churches."

How so many textbooks - written by those who claim to be historians - could confuse and conflate two key historical events separated by 67 years is beyond me.

It is curious how 1,700 years after a decree was issued that granted religious freedom to Christians that same freedom is now slowly - though increasingly - being stripped away from Christians.

For my mother

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

Lessons from Father Damien on living in a land that is not your own

I know I am a little late with this post, but I've been pondering it for a few days.  Father Damien is generally not very far from my thoughts, not least of all on his feast day, and I frequently find myself calling upon his intercession.

Father Damien arrived at the Kalawao leper settlement on the Kalaupapa peninsula of the island of Molokai 140 years ago this past Friday, where he spent the remaining 16 years of life.  He arrived in Hawaii 9 years earlier after a 5-month voyage at sea from his beloved home and family.

As you read through the letters he wrote to his family back in Belgium, you soon become aware of how isolated from them he felt.  Naturally, in those days communication was not as swift as it is in our day of telephones, airplanes, e-mail, Facebook, Skype, and Face Time.  Not only did you have to wait for the length of the voyage for a letter to reach the one to whom you wrote, but you first had to find a carrier heading at least in the general direction of where your letter needed to go.  You can imagine how this was not always timely, particularly if someone moved after you sent the letter.

As I look now to the beginning of my new assignment in the Eternal City - among a culture that is not my own and among a people whose language I do not yet know well, and a quarter of the world away from home, family, and friends - I find myself turning to Father Damien to learn from his example.  I think particularly of one letter he wrote to his sister who was a nun in Holland:

Three years now, and not a line from you.  Where are you then, my dear sister?  Are you off to Heaven already?  Not so fast, if you please.  A little more time is needed to win that crown.  Take pity then on your poor brother, who, by dint of being so long forgotten, will soon become  a regular savage among savages.  Well, I certainly love my savages, who soon will be more civilized than Europeans.  They are learning to read and write.

Another time he answered a letter from his parents, saying that "for a long time I have been distressed and in suspense about you, not knowing what might have happened.  I learn to my great joy that you are in good health."

I can only imagine the pain that he must have felt at such a lack of correspondence from home, especially when some of his letters went left unanswered   Certainly his love for his family did not diminish with the passage of years, as we learn from others of his letters, but how did he endure this isolation from his family and friends whom he left behind in service of the Gospel?

The answer, really, is quite simple.  Just after he left Belgium he wrote a letter home before embarking on the journey to what were then known as the Sandwich Islands, in which he reminded his parents:

Henceforward we shall not have the happiness of seeing one another, but we shall always be united by that tender love which we bear to one another.

He knew that this love has its origin in the love of God.  So it is that I find my thoughts turning once again to the most profound words he ever put to paper:

I find my consolation in the one and only companion who will never leave me, that is, our Divine Saviour in the Holy Eucharist. . . .It is at the foot of the altar that we find the strength necessary in this isolation of ours. Without the Blessed Sacrament a position like mine would be unbearable. But, having Our Lord at my side, I continue always to be happy and content. . . . Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the most tender of friends with souls who seek to please Him. His goodness knows how to proportion itself to the smallest of His creatures as to the greatest of them. Be not afraid then in your solitary conversations, to tell Him of your miseries, your fears, your worries, of those who are dear to you, of your projects, and of your hopes. Do so with confidence and with an open heart.

He endured the separation from his loved ones back home through his closeness to Jesus Christ present in the Blessed Sacrament.

Even with the greater ease and the swiftness of modern communications, and with the ability to return home once or twice a year, this is a lesson I will continually ask him to teach me.

Please don't think that I am dreading my new assignment; I am looking forward to it, though I do know that there will be some particular hardships that come with it, the separation from family and friends for a great length of time being perhaps the greatest of them.

Concerning the arrival of letters that did come from home, Father Damien once commented:

It is a great happiness to me whenever I have an opportunity of sending news of myself, of reminding you, my dear parents, that on an island in the midst of the great Pacific, you have a son who loves you and a priest who prays for you.

I will soon echo these sentiments not from an island in the Pacific, but from an ancient city on the Italian peninsula.

In the past, I haven't used Skype very much; now I will have to make frequent use of it.

On my desk in my office is a statue of Father Damien that I touched to his relic in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace.  As I begin considering what I will bring with me to Rome, this statue will certainly be among the first things packed.

A new assignment decreed

Each time a priest receives a new ecclesiastical assignment he receives a decree from his Bishop which makes it official.

When I stopped in at my office yesterday morning I found the Decree of Appointment sitting on my desk.  The text of the decree reads as follows:

DECREE OF APPOINTMENT

By this decree, I appoint

THE REVEREND DAREN J. ZEHNLE

to graduate studies in canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, with residence at the Casa Santa Maria of the Pontifical North American College, Rome, from Priest Secretary and Master of Ceremonies to the Bishop, and Associate Director of the Office for Vocations, effective July 1, 2013.

 /s/ Most Reverend Thomas John Paprocki

Bishop of Springfield in Illinois 

 May 9, 2013

Springfield, Illinois 

 Now it will be filed away with the other Decrees of Appointment I have received.

From the See City to the Eternal City

Speaking today to his priests at the annual Jubilee Day, the Most Reverend Thomas John Paprocki, Bishop of Springfield in Illinois, announced a series of new priestly assignments to take effect July 1, 2013, most of which will be announced in the parishes this weekend.

Since the 11^th of January 2010, I have served as Priest Secretary and Master of Ceremonies to the Bishop and as Associate Director of the Office for Vocations, both positions which I have much enjoyed.

However, as His Excellency has seen fit to send me to obtain a Licentiate in Canon Law (J.C.L.) at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, I will soon conclude my present assignments.  While in Rome for the next three years, I will reside at the Casa Santa Maria, the house for American priests studying in the Eternal City.

Prior to the beginning of this course of studies in October, I will study the Italian language for six weeks at the Academia Lingua Italiana in Assisi, the home of Saints Francis and Clare, beginning July 22nd, and will reside for the length of these studies at the Casa Papa Giovanni.

I am particularly grateful to Bishop Paprocki for his many kindnesses to me these past several years, most especially for this kindness which surpasses them all:

and for the confidence he has placed in me.

Bishop Paprocki first mentioned this coming assignment to me, if memory serves, sometime in November and shortly thereafter several friends were asking me to witness their weddings, assist at retreats, or baptize their children.  Declining their invitations was not easy, both because I very much wanted to accept them and because I could not tell them why I could not join them for these happy occasions.  I am glad now to be able to make the assignment public.

As you can well imagine, several tasks now lie before me, not the least of which is packing my earthly possessions and deciding which I will bring with me and which I will leave behind, and where they will stay in my absence, not to mention determining a good “home base” for return visits home.  The vast majority of my possessions consists of books, which, thanks be to God, are not terribly difficult to store.  My coming move will provide a much looked for opportunity to begin discarding things to which I have paid little attention over the years and really only serve to take up space.

It is a curious way how the Lord brings people into your life for a time and then reconnects you years later.

During my time in Effingham, I was happy to make the acquaintance of two families in Italy through students in a foreign exchange program at the high school; one of the families lives in Rome  (with whom I was able to visit a year ago February) and the other in the north of Italy.

I also recently learned that one of my classmates at Mundelein Seminary will also be going to Rome this Fall for advanced studies.  When we spent a month in Rome on pilgrimage, he and I often travelled about the city together with a few others; it will be good to so with him again.

Bishop Paprocki is also sending one of our seminarians, Michael Friedel, to the Pontifical North American College, the American seminary in Rome.

Initially I thought I would be heading to Rome on my own for three years, which felt a bit daunting, but the Lord seems to have taken care of this concern for me.

As I look ahead to the coming weeks, I ask your prayers for me.  The next three years will be a great and unexpected adventure, one which I welcome.

It has not been easy to keep this news quiet these past several months, but in some way I will still have to keep it quiet.  Since Saturday afternoon my voice has taken a bit of a vacation – to where I do not know.  Today I am able to make a few vocal noises but no words.  I expect to be able to speak again on Thursday, or Friday at the latest.  So if you happen to call and I do not answer, now you know why.

Seminarians run for vocations

Today, five seminarians of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois ran in the Indianapolis half-marathon as a way to pray for vocations:

Mark Tracy, Michael Meinhart Willie Jansen II, Dominic Vahling, and Dominic Rankin

One of the runners, Dominic Rankin, has a post on his blog, Open Wide the Doors for Christ, describing his experience of the run.

I am happy to hear that they all completed the race and are doing well.  Congratulations, gentlemen; well done!

A note of thanks

In some ways the act of writing a note of thanks can be learned, and in aspects it is certainly an art at which some people excel and others manage reasonably well.

Today I received a grateful note from one of our seminarians, who writes in part:

I have really enjoyed the times you have taken us out to eat this year and more importantly, the 2 times you cooked for us.  Most of all, thanks for sharing your time, knowledge, opinions and nerdyness with us.  I have really come to love hearing your thoughts on various topics.

Whether he spelled "nerdyness" properly or not, neither spell check nor I know with certainty, though it seems to me it should be spelled "nerdiness."

After two days spent largely on the highway driving through the rain up and down the State of Illinois, and after realizing that I have lost my voice, these words brought a great smile and a good laugh.

Novena to Saint Damien

Nine days from now - on May 10th - we will observe the memorial of my favorite saint, Saint Damien de Vuester.

To help us prepare for this great day, someone - I cannot remember on which blog I saw this - has posted a link to a Novena to Father Damien, which begins today (I'm sorry I'm so late with this!).

Incidentally, the celebration this year will mark the 140th anniversary of Father Damien's arrival at Kalaupapa.