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IPF on TV (EWTN) with Fr Gabuzda
The Institute for Priestly Formation (IPF) was featured on EWTN show Sunday Night Live with host Father Benedict Groeschel. The guests were Father Richard Gabuzda (IPF director) and Father Joe Kelly (priest of New York & IPF faculty). They focused on the the mission of IPF and their efforts in building a Center for Priestly Spirituality. Some great discussions and live call-in questions. They spoke on the summer programs (that I took last summer) and how awesome the Holy Spirit has grown the mission of IPF. I hope they post some of the show on their website or YouTube. You can order it from EWTN, show #280.
Here is a short video about the mission of IPF that is on the IPF website and on YouTube (from 2 years ago):
Vatican praises The Simpsons
I’m not a huge fan of The Simpsons, but I just watched a episode about Bart going to Catholic school called “The Father, the Son, and the Holy Guest Star.” [S16E21] In the classic Simpsons’ satire, Bart & Homer become Catholic while Protestant Marge tries to bring them back. WOW! A great episode to use with high school discussion groups. This episode touches on all kinds of questions about faith and religion (and there’s lots of paintball in it, too!).
I also found an article about the Vatican praising The Simpsons show.
Animated US television show, The Simpsons has gathered praise from the Roman Catholic Church for their “realistic” way of dealing with religion and spreading happiness among viewers. An article published in the Vatican’s newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano has lauded the long-running show, insisting “many today wouldn’t know how to laugh” if the series hadn’t been aired, reported Contactmusic.
The newspaper story thanked the show’s producers for depicting family patriarch Homer’s struggle with his own faith through its 20 years on the small screen. “Homer finds in God his last refuge, even though he sometimes gets His name sensationally wrong. But these are just minor mistakes, after all; the two know each other well,” the article said. The story also insisted that The Simpsons success is due to its “realistic and intelligent writing”.
The same newspaper had recently paid tribute to ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’, for highlighting the “sacrifice” needed for good to triumph over evil.
WOW! Who would think The Simpsons would be watched at the Vatican? What next, Family Guy?
the “LOST supper” debate
Today’s top Google News story in America was ‘Lost’ fans lobby Obama on State of the Union sked where LOST fans were petitioning President Obama to not have the State of the Union speech on Feb 2, the day of the 3 hour premiere of the final season of LOST. Aside from the embarrassment that a TV show is more important to people than reality (with political spin), I found the LOST promo picture interesting, with allusions to da Vinci’s Last Supper portrait.
I have been following LOST the last few seasons and want it end — they just keep teasing and dragging. The promo photo actually has 2 versions. An analysis of the differences was noted in a article I found called Decoding the ‘Lost’ Supper. Are there hidden revelations in the pictures about the last season? Here are the 2 versions. Click them for larger pics.
Does their position have anything to do with the Apostles in Da Vinci’s “Last Supper”? Why are people swapped between pics? Why are some distanced? Why is Sayid in Judas Iscariot’s position? It would be interesting to revisit the pictures at the end of the season. Check out the article.
“Grace before meals” prayer from The Big Bang Theory
My sister got me interested in The Big Bang Theory, so I watched the first episode from this season 3.
There’s a scene when Sheldon goes back home to Texas and does a prayer before eating dinner that would have come in handy for Thanksgiving. Here is goes …
By His hand, we are all fed.
Give us Lord, our daily bread.
Please know that we are truly grateful,
For every cup and every plateful.
Amen.
John Adams (HBO mini-series)
Tonight, I started watching a 7-part HBO mini-series, John Adams, with a few seminarian brothers. I heard good things about it over the summer and the first episode was great!
John Adam (HBO mini-series trailer)
John Adams (HBO mini-series makers’ comments)
Voltron homily
MASS – (Fr Santos) — today’s homily mentioned Father’s favorite anime cartoon growing up (and mine) as Voltron, Defender of the Universe. He followed with a story about a child that thought he could fly … and even tried “flying” out the second floor window … caught by his father working in the garden below … but the father got more hurt than the son he sacrificed for … a great connection to how complete our Heavenly Father’s love is for us … “God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not die but have eternal life” — John 3:16
— plus, any mention of Voltron in a Mass homily is worth noting … lol
Elvis on Univision
Tonight at 10pm, we watched Elvis, one of our brother seminarians from the Archdiocese of Miami, in an interview on a special featuring the Catholic Church and vocations on a Spanish show on Univision. It also featured our Miami Vocation Director, Fr Manny Alavarez along with some video of our campus and small groups of our brother seminarians. — Elvis is famous! I tried to find a video clip to put here, but couldn’t find it.
care packages from IL kids + LOST 9 ball
SEMINARIAN CARE PACKAGES — After dinner, the Rector randomly gave out a dozen Easter cards written by some elementary school kids from Illinois. They also contained gift certificate cards in them, for gas and more. — WOW … blessings all the way from Illinois … thank you (even though I wasn’t a lottery winner). 🙂
DOTS — worklist (McCarthy House) — worklist 2 (clean our Pre-The house) — Holy Hour (Fr Michael) — brother seminarian’s father dies (CL) — 9 Ball (3 losses) — LOST S2.7n8
Jesus? + tomacco + retreat starts
MASS – (Fr Michael) — feast of “Most Holy Name of Jesus.” Homily was a reminder of 2 questions that we were asked at the beginning of the school year. Deceptively simple … but not easy to answer (if you’re honest). (1) Do you believe in Jesus? (2) Is your life different because of it? … Yes … ummm … I think so … ummm … retreat time!
DAY DOTS — breakfast Tomacco — newspaper — 11am Rector Orientation — lunch [pan] spill — book sale — TV Hauntings
spinach + Robitussin
MASS — [left shine]
SPANISH – (Dr Jimenez) — chaper 14 test + dictation + evaluation.
LUNCH — food court @ Dolphin Mall with J.
DINNER — Spinach lasagna (with nuts & hard pasta)? + Robitussin drink + scarce salad bar.
RECTOR’s CONFERENCE – (Fr Michael) — part 2 on Virtues for new guys.
TV — watched last to episodes of Pushing Daisies procrastinating 2 philosophy papers due tomorrow. [a blessing in disguise]
moral virtues + Jim Gaffigan
SPANISH 2 – (Dr Jimenez) — new chapter 14.1
TV CATCH-UP — watched missed episodes of The Unit & Cane.
RECTOR’s CONFERENCE – (Fr Michael) — about Moral Virtues (see seperate post).
PRE-T HOUSE — watched standup Jim Gaffigan. Night Prayer. House “cleaning” meeting.
ten piedad + soccer + lawn movie night
SPANISH 2 – (Dr Jimenez) — Spanish mid-term on chapter 12. — “Senor profesor, ten piedad de nosotros, por favor!”
SOCCER — with the stressful exam week, we had an evening of soccer (non-tournament) after dinner and played until we couldn’t see the ball anymore. — I was ball boy, again
WALK-IN MOVIE NIGHT — 8pm tonight we had a different kind of movie night for our last evening together before the weeklong “Mid-Semester Break.” We laid out on the grass & watched “Norbit” projected onto a wall outside. — Great idea! Need more OFF!
The Office
TV — watched the new season of “The Office” on NBC. Even through I missed last week’s opener, I joined a few brothers here that also follow the show. I also tried to watch last weeks episode on the NBC website, but the bandwidth here was too slow, but I’ll keep trying. — some classic Dwight Schrute lines: “Assistant TO THE Regional Manager” — “Two paintball lessons with someone as experienced as I am is worth easily like 2 grand.” — “If you can fool them into thinking that you really care, you can get them to do anything for you.” — “Do you have your tickets to the gun show?” — “Do you want to form an alliance with me?” — anybody have another?
care package
Busy day with 3 classes, worklist (mopping floors) and Holy Hour before a good pork – baked potato – kolleyflour dinner. Watched the new Pushing Daisies series and some Bionic Woman. Even with all that, the best part of the day was …
“CARE PACKAGE” — Yeah! Some “The Office” stuff, summer vacation pictures & the 2nd season of “The Muppets” on DVD. — life is way too AWESOME! Thank you, caring stranger!
“Lost” season ends
Today is the Jewish festival of Shavuot. I wrote about it a couple weeks ago. It’s parallel to our Christian festival of Penecost this Sunday.
A 3 hour “LOST” season finale was tonight. 1 hour of review and 2 hours of asking more questions that answering. It was better than I expected, but they just add long meaningless side stories to sell commercial time. I’m getting tired of it. At least they’re getting rescued … maybe.
TV show idea: new “Big Brother”
Marketing is super important to vocations. That’s why I started this blog in the first place (even though it goes against by personality — a friend noted). As we encourage vocations and make them more “transparent” to everyone, we risk exposing ourselves. If we have to make ourselves more vulnerable to scrutiny from others, than that’s a risk we must take (isn’t that what we’re called to do anyways?). The marketing needs to be done by the whole church, but begin with the clergy, religious and seminarians (the newbies).
We need better marketing! Take more pictures and videos, make more relevant websites and blogs, present the “reality.” The cable special “God or the Girl” was a good start, but what about a reality show like “Big (Seminarian) Brother (or Sister).” I think lots of people would watch that, especially non-believers. Even if you have some bad examples on the show, it would just be an opportunity to evaluate, grow and demonstrate our humanity. — Am I the only one who sees this? Kermit? Anyone?
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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