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Nuestra Senora de la Caridad
Today, there was no morning Mass since we went to the University of Miami Convocation Center for a special Mass for the 40th Anniversary of the Shrine to Our Lady of Charity. The seminarians were called upon to assist each priest with distribution of Holy Communion. The responsibility was a bit intimidating at first (with such a big crowd), but everything went smooth, by the grace of God. Here are some pictures:
wineskins + Homer’s crayon
MASS – (Fr Joseph) — homily began and ended with 2 great stories: the “Amazon Explorer” (who can’t fully explain his experience, but encourages others to experience the journey themselves) and the “outstreached arms of Alexander the Great vs Jesus” (Alex conquered all, but died with nothing — while Jesus began with nothing and died to complete everything). Today’s gospel reading was the parable of the “Old & New Wineskins” where Jesus is the wine and we need to become “new” skins to accept him fully — experience him for ourselves “personally.”
MODERN PHILOSOPHY – (Fr Santos) — today surveyed the concepts of the universe from “geocentric” to “heliocentric” challenging in many ways to faith and the Church. Included was another Simpsons illustration using the episode where Homer has a crayon removed from his brain, becomes smart and Flanders surpress Homer’s ideas because they are too challenging to his belief system. — Ignorance is bliss. We also have to learn the Greek alphabet for next Friday.
ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY – (Fr Santos) — more Sophists, their subjectiveness and birth of self-awareness. Also used “Homer’s crayon” and Greek alphabet. — I never really cared for the “Simpsons,” but now I feel like I’m missing out.
ARTS & IDEAS – (Fr Vallee) — continue with the Greeks. We need to watch the movie 300 be next Friday. — cool … I get to post more stills from the movie in this week’s posts.
EVENING — had a “Spiritual Direction” session, watched “Pursuit of Happyness” & did some studying.
Rector’s Conf – Jesus Christ
Tonight’s “Rector’s Conference” was the 3rd part in a series on “Reason, Formation and Relationship with Christ.” I’m slow at taking down notes, so I welcome corrections or addition.
I. Intro — reflection on Matthew 16:13-19
II. The Good News: Jesus Christ
A. The Gospel — is a “person” — Jesus is the “Good News” that is proclaimed
B. The Heart of Evangelization — is a “person” (Jesus) that is proclaimed in order to lead others to him.
C. The Heart of Catechesis — is a “person” — instructions in the faith leads us to communion with Jesus.
III. The Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of God, our Lord.
A. Jesus — means “God saves” and there is power in his name.
B. Christ — means “Messiah” or “Anointed One” by the Father
C. The Only Son — relationship with the Father
D. Lord — claim Him as God
IV. The Incarnation
A. Why?
1. in order to save us by reconciling us to God
2. so we might know God’s love
3. be our model for holiness
4. make us partakers in the devine nature
B. True God & True Man
— mentioned some early Church heresies
— “God became Man”
— Jesus had a human soul, human will, human body, and loved with a human heart (in order to show us how)
V. The Mystery
— His words, deeds, silences and being is a revelation of the Father
— His whole life is a mystery of redemption that we must be open to receive
VI. The Face of God
— Jesus speaks as one who sees God the Father face to face
Alka-Seltzer + esterder
MASS – (Fr Alvarez) — today’s Gospel reading of Jesus calling the trusting apostles to be “fishers of men” was well illustrated by an Alka-Seltzer commercial (“Try it, you’ll like it!”). Sometimes we have to venture out of our familiar comfort zone and into the unknown for various reasons (fear, inadequecies, selfishness, etc), but the Lord calls each of us (uniquely) to trust His direction and “learn something new” that should surprise us in the “best way.” — Amen. Easier said than done, but baby-step are still moving.
SPANISH 2 – (Dr Jimenez) — Yo “failo” (I need the past preterite form) the review test (chapters 1-11) with a 48%, but surprisingly (and somewhat relieved) that some did worse. I definitely need to step up my catch up work, or it’s gonna hurt all semester. Learned a new word (that doesn’t exist) — “esterder” — I need to think of a good definition for it. Any ideas anyone? Kermit?
RECTOR’s CONFERENCE – (Fr Michael) — part 3 of a series on “Reason, Formation & Relationship with Christ.” I’ll post some excerpts separately.
Mother Teresa + Sophists
MASS – (Fr Vallee) — at the 10 year anniversary of the death of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Fr Vallee noted how newly release letters reveal she experienced long periods of “darkness” when she couldn’t feel God. She would even refer to Jesus as “the absent one” at times. Lately, the media is questioning her canonization with such “revelation,” not realizing all go through such times in the spiritual lives. Even St Augustine, St Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross would echo such experiences. We, just as Mother Teresa, are called to continue through times of spiritual desolation with patience and faithfulness, knowing consolation will come. — even in seminary, I’m anticipating highs and lows.
MODERN PHILOSOPHY – (Fr Santos) — we covered the resurgence of math and rise of modern science. Notable line: “Psychology is the questionable child of philosophy.”
ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY – (Fr Santos) — we covered the Sophists. — The politics of today has only perfected the art of rhetoric from the Greeks.
ARTS & IDEAS – (Fr Vallee) — we continued with some slides of paintings and began reading his 40+ page handout on the Ancient Philosophy period. — The power went out during class and lasted through worklist.
WED WORKLIST — Some of our worklist jobs were changed, but I remained in “Sacristy,” where I dusted pews, organized songbooks and collected some garbage. It was hot (no A/C) but fruitful.
WED HOLY HOUR — We had benediction and silent prayer time, where I used my new St Joseph’s Prayerbook (that I just realized I left in the cafeteria) and found some great prayers “Before the Blessed Sacrament.”
300 – refuse external trappings
MASS – (Fr Santos) — 
In today’s readings, Jesus speaks with “authority” to both preach and heal. Fr Santos (in his first Mass at SJV) began his homily by using the movie 300 to stand firm in beliefs and not be dependent on outside influences. He used the scene where Xerxes (Persians king) offers Leonidas (Spartans) money and power to surrender. Leonidas stood for principles of country, honor & his people — he refused external trappings. The Greek word for “authority” is “exusia” and means “from within your own being” which Jesus did everything by (as opposed to Rabbis and prophets who prefaced what they said with footnotes). In seminary, we’re call to focus on our own individual call (from within) to preach and heal with the “authority” of the true priesthood found in Christ Jesus. — I pay attention to any point made using a cool movie.
SPANISH 2 – (Dr Jimenez) — If “failo” means “to fail,” then I “failo” the test (needs past PRETERITE form – which I don’t know either) of the first 11 chapters of our spanish book (which was taught in Spanish 1). I over-studied last night to the point it all mixed into zero usability. Of all my classes this semester, I will need to put extra effort into Spanish.
LUNCH — we had tuna burgers. I’ve never heard of one and took a picture. — it was good.
OLD TESTAMENT – (Fr Michael) — we learned methods of studying Scripture — Fundamentalist, Historical-Critical, Human Sciences, and Contextual approaches. Need to read chapters 3 & 4 for next week.
EVENING PRAYER — a major lightning strike (nearest to me nonetheless) in the middle of prayer scared the life out of all of us.
VIRUS ATTACK — as I’m writing this post, my computer got attacked by a virus on my Shared Documents folder. — 2 scares in the same day.
pre-Socratics – Luther – service – Shrine
Monday started out-of-whack without morning Mass (because we’re going to the Shrine tonight). — lots of Laboring done today.
MODERN PHILOSOPHY – (Fr Santos) — we continued from the Rhineland Mysticism (late Mid-Ages) through Martin Luther (1483-1546). As I start digesting some of this stuff, my thoughts and slow “question-generator” are interupted by others’ quick comments & questions. I know I’m slow with the processing, but at least Wednesday will be a “question-day.” I need to remember to look-up Meister Eckhart and his doctrines. We got back our True/False Quiz from Friday. 10 out of 15 is not good — but some of those were tricky.
ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY – (Fr Santos) — we covered 8 pre-Socratic philosophers like Thales of Miletus, Anaximenez, Anaximander, Heraclitus, Pythagoras, Parmenides, Zeno, & The Atomists (Democritus & Leucippus). We got back out Quiz from Friday. 10 out of 10 — I need to enjoy it while I can … they WILL get harder.
ARTS & IDEAS – no Fr Vallee today, still on Labor Day vaction — must be nice.
MINISTERIAL METHODS – (Fr Michael) — we reviewed the definition of “ministry” and discussed the broader call the “service” that all ministers should have. We were given Colossians 3:12-23 to meditate on throughout is week with Lectio Divina. — what is holding me back from having a true heart of service?
LECTURE AUDIOS – I recorded today’s 3 lectures on my mini digital audio recorder. It took a while to figure out how to convert the big WAV format to MP3, but I finally found a way to normalize & convert to MP3 @ 24kps. I also put copies in a Lecture folder on my Shared Docs in case someone else from class wants a copy.
8pm MASS @ Shrine of Our Lady of Charity – we carpooled for a Mass ending the Novena to Our Lady of Charity. A beautiful spanish Mass in a beautiful shrine. We each received a Papal blessing & picture of Pope Benedict XVI. Trying to understand the spanish homily only reminded me to finish studying for an eleven chapter Spanish test in the morning.
audio recorder & wake
Today, after brunch, I headed homeward to spend some time with family and friends. I got a SanDisk mini audio recorder/player so I can record some lectures in class. I stopped by my parish to drop off some CCD resources I had and say hi to Fr Dalton (pastor) — he said looked good in black (in my formal suit). I only dropped by on my way to a wake for a friend’s father who died on Friday (from cancer).
Y.E.S. Retreat video
I can’t seem to install my Pinnacle video editing software on my laptop to finish editing the Y.E.S. Retreat video. I’ll have to finish it on break in October. Sorry for the delay, everyone!
For status of the Y.E.S. Retreat video, the MASTER LIST of YES event links is HERE.
SJVCS Seminary Life Album
July '09 -- hospital chaplains @ IPF
Easter '09 -- Miami SJVCS friends
the Son always finds a break in let the clouds
Feb '09 -- school vocation talks @ AMHS
Feb '09 -- cold breakfast with brothers (Matias, Fenly & Randy), now at SVDP and Imad (at SJVCS)
Superbowl '09 -- eating great @ SJVCS
Sept '08 -- Worklist Coordinators?
St Raphael Chapel mural @ SJVCS
Sept '08 -- retreats @ SJVCS
"It's not easy being green"
Catholic Kermit 
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