1. The only window in my fourth-story room on St Gregory Hall has been open for days. I just can’t get enough of this fall weather.

    My legs are sore from playing a game of pick-up soccer with my brother and some of his friends Saturday and then having seminary soccer practice Sunday afternoon. Guess 27 years doesn’t recover quite like 17 did.

    About two dozen guys are in the chapel, and another hundred will flow through the hallways and down the banistered stairwells, pouring into the chapel just in time for Evening Prayer here at 5PM.

    Two guys, one from Little Rock and the other from Memphis, have successfully distracted me from writing. And I don’t mind it.

    Today was kind of a late start of waking at 6:34 AM. We stayed up last night watching Henry V, a Shakespearean play for one of our classes, and I caught the (unfortunate) finale to the Colts game before heading back to my room to pray and hit the hay.

    Breakfast this morning was with the usual crowd of students and monks was followed by Morning Prayer. Moral theology with Father Mark, Mass with Father Peter, and a nice long break for lunch and reading before a class on what it means to be created male and female, catching the video footage of Pope Francis landing in the US… now cranking out a column before the rest of the day’s events: Prayer, dinner, meetings, and a seminary kickball tournament down the Hill and across the street.


    When I first began this journey some six and a half years ago, I thought it wouldn’t go fast enough. “Eight years before I can actually do priest things?” Yep. And yet today I wouldn’t trade a single month of the past 82 for an early end to this precious time discerning, growing and being with the Lord.

    Yes, the closer I get to the end of this eight-year journey, the more I see the details—and the more I realize I am going to miss them.


    Because life is in the details—the precious, ordinary details—and we can become so driven by the final result that sometimes we miss the Providence in the moment. Not only does God want us to live with Him forever, the Lord wants us to live with him in wonderful and joyful communion now. Maybe it’s time for us to stop and enjoy it.


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    Labels: Newspaper Columns Personal Reflection Seminary Life

  2. A fascinating read about the current political election ultra-marathon and an intelligent assertion on why it might be different than in years past.
    The cost of Trump is that he turns it all into “Survivor.” That trivializes serious candidates. Mr. Trump has so upped the dramatic ante that the networks have jumped in as players, goading dopey candidate No. 3 to confront and attack dopey candidate No. 4. This is diminishing. They’re puppets in somebody else’s show. 
    A Democratic pundit there to do cable told me something smart. Journalists are now acclimating themselves to the new reality, he said. A few months ago they thought Mr. Trump and reality TV were climbing over the wall trying to get into the real world of politics. Now they realize it’s journalists trying to climb over the wall into the new world of reality TV. That, he said, is now the real world of politics.

    Read the full text here:  http://www.peggynoonan.com/the-undercard-and-the-mane-event/
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  3. In one of our final classes in seminary, we look back to the earliest leaders of the Christian faith: the Church Fathers. These men learned from Peter, James, John, Matthew, and other Apostles and became their successors as the bishops of Rome, Antioch, and more. In fact, we can trace back our own Bishop Thompson’s predecessors to the very men we are talking about in classes, because every bishop is ordained by other bishops who have come before. Amazing!

    As I was reading about some of these Church Fathers, several themes came out: the unity of the believers, the importance of understanding what Jesus taught, and learning how begin living as “Christians,” because there weren’t Christians before to learn from.

    St. Ignatius of Antioch was the third bishop of Antioch—Peter was the first. St. Ignatius first called the Church “catholic”, which means “universal”. He aimed at bringing unity to the Body in an age where there was no mass-media of Church teaching, no centralized “Creed,” and very few elder Christians to raise new Christians in the Faith.

    St. Justin, martyr, and St. Clement of Alexandria, bishop, each found themselves in a twofold role as early leaders of Christianity. First, they had to defend the faith, and second, they needed to present it in an attractive way. Each relied upon philosophy for the former, convincing people that Christianity was not opposed what we can know.

    Further still, they argued Christianity was indeed entirely more reasonable than pagan beliefs. Then, not only did they need to make the case for giving the faith a chance, they needed to teach about it to those now disposed to hear. St. Justin taught listeners that Christianity was for all, not the property or way of a few. St. Clement suggested steps in the journey of discipleship: baptism, knowledge, and finally, becoming like God by how we live.


    Reflecting on the lives and teaching of men like these, men who were among the first priests and bishops, we begin to see that our priests and bishops are not so different today. These Church Fathers were tasked with defending the Church against internal and external division, and with presenting the faith in an attractive way. Our pastors carry on the same mission that all the world may come to know Christ and live in Him. The witness of the Church Fathers inspires us to continue this mission.

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    Labels: Church Fathers Lives of the Saints Newspaper Columns The Early Church
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