A Month In Already??

At the end of 2011, as I was reviewing my year, I gratefully noted that as busy as I was with schoolwork and ministry, I was still able to have some fun from time to time, and I continued to enjoy some good food and drink with friends. 

And yet, I also noticed that I had failed to post very much about these things here on the blog ... and let's face it, my family doesn't care about my homilies - they've heard my preaching for years!! ;) 

No, my loved ones want to know about my adventures. So in 2012 I promise to try harder to keep you all up to date on my travel, tourism, and culinary experimentation (at least from February on :)

At the end of my Christmas break I once again attended the annual meetings of the American Historical Association, held this year in Chicago, Illinois. Last year in Boston we were blessed with a light snow - but this year, Chicago disappointed (those two words go together an awful lot, don't they!) - we had unseasonably warm weather during our stay (which meant the river smelled ... okay, I'll stop ripping on Chicago now).

It was a good time nonetheless. I enjoyed the conference sessions I attended, the people-watching I did along the Magnificent Mile, and the several opportunities I had to reconnect with friends.

I also made my first-ever visit to Saint Peter's in the Loop ....

... and enjoyed some Chicago deep-dish pizza.

When the conference was completed I made a quick trip to South Bend to see some of my Holy Cross brothers before their new semester began.  I very much enjoyed seeing two of my classmates, and several other close CSC friends. And although the Irish Icers were on the road, I did get to walk through their new hockey stadium.  I was very impressed.

I think my favorite part was this little quote painted on the visiting team's penalty box:

I definitely look forward to seeing a game there sometime soon.

Thankfully, when I returned to DC my fun continued for a few more days. My good friend Ken was visiting from Portland and we had several opportunities to see one another, including a visit to the Dulles extension of the Air and Space Museum.

I have been trying to work hard since ... but I will have another adventure to report on before too long!

New Look

As you can see, I've been playing with a slightly different layout for the blog - and I am continuing to experiment and tweak. Let me know what you think.

"Happily Even After"

Faithful readers of "Gift and Mystery" will know well my dear friends Josh and Stacey Noem, and their children Oscar, Simon Peter, and Lucy - my goddaughter. The Noems have appeared regularly on this blog as we have shared the last eight years as MDiv classmates, colleagues in ministry, priest and parishioners, travel companions, partners in crime, and much, much more.

Well now they are (finally!) blogging themselves. I am delighted to direct you to "Happily Even After," their new blog hosted on the "For Your Marriage" website, which is an initiative of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. I encourage you to bookmark and follow their blog, as you will see I have done on the sidebar. I suppose you might say that Josh and Stacey will be reflecting there, as I am here, on the 'gift and mystery' of God's call - in their case, to marriage and family.

The Constitutions of the Congregation of Holy Cross state that we religious and priests "do not imagine that those who commit themselves in other ways to the following of Jesus are thereby hindered in their service of neighbor. On the contrary, we find in them willing and complementary partners in shared mission. We want our vows, faithfully lived, to be witness and call to them as their commitments, faithfully lived, are witness and call to us."

I give thanks to God for the faithful witness and friendship Josh and Stacey have given me as a priest, and pray that their blog will bear much fruit in their life together, and in the lives of all those who share their journey by reading along.

Priest Bloggers

This year's World Communications Day coincides with the Year for Priests, and so our Holy Father has released a letter entitled, "The Priest and Pastoral Ministry in a Digital World: New Media at the Service of the Word."

Pope Benedict notes that "all priests have as their primary duty the proclamation of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God, and the communication of his saving grace in the sacraments." In the new technologies "priests can discover new possibilities for carrying out their ministry to and for the Word of God" - possibilities which "make us appreciate all the more Saint Paul's exclamation: "Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel" (1 Cor 9:16).

Here are a couple of highlights from the text of the letter:

- Priests stand at the threshold of a new era: as new technologies create deeper forms of relationship across greater distances, they are called to respond pastorally by putting the media ever more effectively at the service of the Word.

- Priests can rightly be expected to be present in the world of digital communications as faithful witnesses to the Gospel, exercising their proper role as leaders of communities which increasingly express themselves with the different "voices" provided by the digital marketplace.

- Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites) which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis.

- Using new communication technologies, priests can introduce people to the life of the Church and help our contemporaries to discover the face of Christ. They will best achieve this aim if they learn, from the time of their formation, how to use these technologies in a competent and appropriate way, shaped by sound theological insights and reflecting a strong priestly spirituality grounded in constant dialogue with the Lord.

- Priests present in the world of digital communications should be less notable for their media savvy than for their priestly heart, their closeness to Christ. This will not only enliven their pastoral outreach, but also will give a "soul" to the fabric of communications that makes up the "Web".

I certainly hope that this little corner of the web fulfills some of these goals, and I especially pray (and ask you to pray) that this last point might be true of me. May the Lord make all of us "enthusiastic heralds of the Gospel in the new "agorà" which the current media are opening up."

Deer Porte

I received more than one inquiry into my whereabouts since the blog has been silent for a few weeks. Alas, after a summer of fun I have been hard at work over the past two weeks welcoming the seminarians of Old College back from their summer vacations, orienting the freshmen seminarians, and attending the start of the year retreat for all men in formation: Deer Porte.

As I may have mentioned previously this retreat's name derives from the previous location for the seminarian camp (Deer Park, Maryland) and the current location (La Porte, Indiana).

Camp is an opportunity for prayer, reflection, and relaxation at the start of the school year. Especially for the new men, it's a chance to get to know their brothers in formation in a relaxed setting before the craziness of the academic year overwhelms them.

I attended this retreat throughout my time in formation - three years in Maryland and then three in Indiana after a new location was selected. I never imagined that I would be returning so soon as a member of a formation staff - but that's exactly what's happened!

Now I want to remind you that since I am on staff, this retreat was work for me. Work, I say.

There are plenty of games, including chipping contests into the pool . . .

. . . oh, and plenty of just lounging around in the pool . . .

. . . and a casino night with lots of great prizes.

. . . but there are also conferences, including a panel on brotherhood in religious life by Frs. Steve Lacroix, CSC, Greg Haake, CSC and Jim Connolley, CSC . . .

. . . and of course there's lots of prayer as well, but I don't take pictures during prayer.

It was a great opportunity to spend quality time with the men of Old College and get to know them a bit as I prepare to live and work with them this year. We're obviously back on campus now, and classes have begun - so now the regular routine begins, and the work of GRE prep and applications begins in earnest.

Please pray for me, the men of Old College and all our men in formation as we work in the apostolate of studies. And here they are, the men of Old College:

All in a Day's Work

When I started this blog I aimed at "sharing some of the amazing experiences I am able to enjoy all because I have been invited into the great gift and mystery that is the priesthood." I wrote that, God willing, this might "help me, and you too, to be ever more grateful for the gift and mystery that is life itself."

I think this has largely been the case as I approach the one year anniversary of this blog. That said, the nature of my work requires that the greatest portion of what I do remains between priest and parishioner. With the exceptions of my homilies, I find myself writing more about the fun things I'm up to than the daily joys and struggles that make the priesthood "a gift and mystery."

I've thought about this quite a bit over the last 48 hours . . . and over lunch today I told some of our teachers that my last two days would have made a perfect documentary about how the life of a priest must run the full spectrum of a life's emotions in the matter of a day.

Between yesterday and today, I have presided at four Eucharistic Liturgies and heard confessions for an hour. I anointed a dying parishioner in hospice care, visited a parishioner in the hospital, and went to a family home to bless the body of a parishioner who had died during the evening.

I wrapped up the paperwork for two infant Baptisms that will take place this weekend and was asked to travel to California to Baptize the healthy newborn daughter of a college friend. I also prepared to Baptize, tomorrow, a 2 year old who is in ICU and not expected to survive.

I began the marriage paperwork for an engaged couple I am friends with, and spoke with two other people whose marriages are suffering tremendous trials and are heading towards divorce.

I ran into a peer-aged parishioner at lunch and had a lovely conversation about faith and discernment. I spoke with another about their struggle with faith.

Of course, as in every life, not everything in a day rises to this level of import. In the midst of these graced but charged moments, there are always the more mundane administrative tasks - answering emails, scheduling servers, locking and unlocking buildings - and the more reflective work of preparing and writing homilies and liturgies.

But I don't say all this to garner sympathy, or to call attention to myself. Rather, I share it because it is precisely this kind of reflection that makes clear to me what a holy "gift and mystery" the priesthood really is.  What an amazing grace I receive, by virtue of my ordination, when I am invited into peoples' lives and charged with bringing Christ to them.

I read this today, from a Q&A session the Holy Father had with the priests of the diocese of Rome:

"The rectory isn’t in the world, it’s in the parish. Here, people often come to the pastor – normally without masks, without pretense, but in situations of suffering, of illness, of death, of problems in the family. They come into the confessional, without masks but as they really are. No other profession, it seems to me, gives this possibility of knowing the human person in his or her humanity, and not in terms of his or her role in society. In this sense, we can really study the human person in his depths, outside the roles people play, and learn ourselves what it is to be human – the human person always at the school of Christ."

This is indeed a "gift and mystery" and for priests, it's all in a day's work.

Happy Feast Day . . . and a New Blog!

Today is the feast of Blessed Basil Moreau, CSC the founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross. I think it's therefore a very auspicious day on which to begin a new blog covering the lives and ministries of Holy Cross priests and brothers . . . and that's precisely what I've done! 

Frs. Ed Obermiller, CSC and Jim Gallagher, CSC of the Holy Cross vocations office asked if I would work with them to publish just such a blog as part of their effort to get the good news out about all of the great work the men of Holy Cross are doing day in and day out - and to give people a better sense of our lives in general.

Please go and take a look at the new blog: Spes Unica!

Stay-cation

I've spent the remainder of the week here in Portland hosting Kevin and Jeanette in the Rose City. As always, it's been a real pleasure spending time with them. I'll have a few more pictures to share from the stay-cation portion of the week . . . including our trip to the Willamette Valley wine country.

I did get some work in this week as well. I finished preparations for a wedding that I celebrated today - and, of course, I spent a bit of time working on my homily for the weekend. That'll be up next.  Enjoy!

On Wisconsin!

I'll be leaving Portland tomorrow for a ten day trip to the Midwest. First, it's off to Land O' Lakes Wisconsin, with Frs. Ralph Haag and Pete McCormick for a little vacation at the University of Notre Dame's property there - property Holy Cross used to use as a summer seminary and then gave to the University for environmental research. I'm not sure how much fishing I'll do this year, but there will be plenty of drinking, sleeping, and bullshitting to be sure! 

Then Next Sunday we'll head to La Porte Indiana for the beginning of "Baby Priest Camp" - the continuing education workshop for priests ordained five years or less.  I probably won't be posting much until at least this time next week, but please be sure to check back for pictures and stories from the trip!

Your $.02

After several people mentioned having difficulty with posting a comment, I made a few settings changes that should make everything much smoother.   So now you can more easily comment, ask a question, taunt or tease me, whether you have a Blogger account or not. You know, the way things work in the real world.

" . . . Imitate What You Celebrate."

It's hard to believe, but today is the first anniversary of ordination to the priesthood for me and my classmates.  So much to be grateful for - starting with the three best classmates a guy could have. 

In the ordination rite of priests, the bishop exhorts the elect to "know what you do and imitate what you celebrate: model your life on the mystery of the Lord's cross."  A beautiful piece of calligraphy art with that quote hangs on the wall across from my desk - the gift of my rector and friend Fr. John Conley, CSC.  I think of this quote often as I hear Confessions, Baptize, and especially when I celebrate the Eucharist.  More than anything else, it is Jesus in the Eucharist who is the gift and mystery of our lives.

This quote also helps explain the name I chose for this blog: "Gift and Mystery."  It's the same name that Pope John Paul II used for the memoir he wrote on the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination.  He writes:

At its deepest level, every vocation to the priesthood is a great mystery; it is a gift which infinitely transcends the individual.  Faced with the greatness of the gift, we sense our own inadequacy.

My hope is that this blog will allow me to share some of the amazing experiences I am able to enjoy all because I have been invited into the great gift and mystery that is the priesthood.  And maybe that will help me, and you too, to be ever more grateful for the gift and mystery that is life itself.

Deo Gratias!

Getting Started

Well, I went ahead and did it.  

After debating whether or not to start a blog for quite some time, I finally decided to bite the bullet and enter the blogosphere. 

Ultimately, I decided that this is the perfect way for me to share photos, quick stories about what I am up to, and homilies with family and friends scattered around the country.  So that's what I plan on using this blog to accomplish.  

Commentary on things political or ecclesiastical will be kept to a minimum.  Although you know well that I never lack an opinion, or the willingness to share it, I don't have the time to run a news service or moderate a discussion board.  Besides, there are plenty of other websites and blogs you can find that at - just check some of the links to the right.

Over the next several days I plan on learning the ins and outs of Blogger and getting a few posts up on things I've been doing recently.  In the meanwhile, Welcome!