Pjanoo + SJVCS music video

I found this song a couple weeks ago and every time I listen to it, I picture a music video of seminary life here at St John Vianney College Seminary.  It’s like a flying video camera visiting dormlife, meals, Mass, communal prayer, sports, fellowship, studies, staff, manual labor, social trips and the beautiful grounds.  It changes each time I listen, but the only thing that doesn’t change is the elevation of the Blessed Sacrament in a monstrance by Fr Michael (rector) during our Wednesday Holy Hours … that happened at the 4 minute mark in the song.  I just had to post it … it keeps me focused! 

This is “Pjanoo” (Original Mix) by Eric Prydz.  Enjoy and be holy!

frisbee + Obama ad

After dinner, we played some frisbee til we couldn’t see anymore and my shin couldn’t take anymore

Some of us watched the Barack Obama infomercial (part 4 of 4) with some lively discussion with friends.

Bottom line, if Obama gets elected, he’ll have a Democratic Congress to institute some of his radical policies.  If he doesn’t make some progress, we’ll see a Republican Congress in 2 years (like when Clinton got elected) and may not see a Democratic majority for a while.  If he DOES get some of his idea instituted, he needs to be careful not to shock this country with too much change … it’ll give fuel to the Republicans as well.  Whatever happens, economy needs to stay strong … but that’s just my opinion

Adoration + “my life prayer”

HOLY HOUR – (Fr Michael) — for my communal Holy Hour (adoration of Blessed Sacrament), I usually start personal pray with the “Litany of the Blessed Sacrament.”  Afterwards, I felt drawn to find another prayer in my “St Joseph People’s Prayer Book” that was more personal.  I found …

[#366] Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament

My Jesus,
I thank You for having bestowed on me so many graces:
for having created me,
redeemed me by Your Blood,
made me a Christian by the Sacrament of Baptism,
and borne with me for so long
when I was under Your displeasure.
How unhappy should I be
if I had died in the state of mortal sin!
I should now be lost forever, O my God,
and I could no longer love You.
I thank You
for having pardoned me in Your mercy,
as I confidently hope.
I thank You especially
for having remained with us in the Blessed Sacrament,
for giving Yourself so often to me in Holy Communion,
becoming my food,
and for admitting me now into Your presence.
I thank You for all these favors,
and I hope one day to thank You more perfectly for them in heaven,
and to celebrate without ceasing Your ineffable mercy for all eternity.
AMEN.

I like the prayer, but like with most written prayers, I want to change some words or add my own.  I think I’m going to keep revising this prayer to slowly create a unique “My Life Prayer” that can help me come before the Blessed Sacrament in my own Holy Hours.  I’ll try to post as I do.  God bless & be holy!

worklist makak

WORKLIST (manual labor) — Cool weather was nice.  Busy day today with lots of palm branches to pick up.  Also found some proud weed-pullers.  I also caught my golf-cart partner Manuel swinging from a palm branch like a makak (Creole for “monkey”).  — Holy labor!

  

tap water + faith

MASS – (Fr Vallee) — today’s homily was a dream about all of us seminarians getting Baptized in our Reflection Pond (it’s pretty cold today) … healing all our vices and imperfections.  However, the Archangel Raphael (upper right side of our chapel mural) came to life to say: “with enough faith, even tap water can heal.”  — Great message … inspired … Fr Vallee … a permanent holy memory!

Caribbean food night

CULTURAL FOOD NIGHT — Tonight was West Indies (Caribbean) Food Night, a combination of Bahamas, Jamaica, Haiti and Puerto Rico.  Lots of good food … some more spicey than others.  I hope I can remember all the food off the top of my head … here we go …

drink … Sky Juice (coconut + ?) … Bahamas
soup … Pumpkin soup … Haiti
meat … jerk chicken & beef … Jamaica
rice … yellow rice & beans … Puerto Rico
appetizers … great bread + (meat-filled baked pockets – look like empenadas)
plantains
dessert … Rum cake … wizardry of “Oz”

Great food!

 

Here’s some pics of all the work involved.  I helped Eric pack the appetizers with some origami techniques.

      

Armin van Buuren – Birth of an Angel (song)

Last night I had an awesome Holy Hour.  Half way in, a trance tune got stuck in my head.  This morning, I ran across this awesome song … I’d like to think this was the one.  Armin van Buuren’s “Birth of an Angel“ … jump ahead to about 4 minutes … that’s when it gets really good!  This is trance music at it’s best!!

CCD: Saints + Rosary

CCD – For apostalic work (10th grade Confirmation religious education), we continued on the Rosary, reviewed the Mysteries, prayed the Joyful Mysteries, discussed All Saints’ Day, All Souls’ Day, Purgatory and debated “only saints go to heaven.”  — next week they’re doing saint reports & presentations!

priestly advice

MASS – (Fr Santos) — Fr Santos shared some words of wisdom from a Spiritual Director he had in seminary.  When you become a priest, (1) travel light, (2) love deeply & learn detachment, and (3) keep your priorities in sight.  Simple, yet profound and practical.  — this made for some great discussion at brunch!

Humanities conf

Tonight, we had our annual Humanities Conference.  Our special guest was Fr Mark, a Dominican priest who teaches at Barry University.  He did a great powerpoint presentation on “Visual Christianity: Interpreting the Theological Tradition.”  Lots of architecture from Revena, Italy as well as Wahaka, Mexico.

Fr Richard Vigoa Mass

MASS — today we had another visiting celebrant for Mass.  Fr Richard Vigoa is a newly ordained priest of the Archdiocese of Miami in residence at St Michael the Archangel Catholic Church here in Miami.  He was also a graduate of St John Vianney College Seminary.  It was great to see his joy for the priesthood and some shared experiences when he discerned here.  — a great visit!

CCD: Christian music

APOSTALIC WORK — Today in 10th grade CCD class, we tried to review some things we’ve discuss so far by adding some discussion on application.  We used some mainstream Christian songs and studied their lyrics to bring a Christian perspective to practical life issues.  Here are the songs we used …

Life, sin, shame, forgiveness … “Dare You to Move” by Switchfoot

 

Heaven … “I Can Only Imagine” by MercyMe

 

Effectiveness of prayer … “This is a Call” by Thousand Foot Krutch

 

Dating relationships … “Gone” by TobyMac

 

Parable of the Lost Sheep (Mt 18:10-14) … “Leaving 99″ by Audio Adrenaline

Fr David Zirilli Mass

MASS — today, at morning Mass, we had visiting priest Fr David Zirilli.  He is a newly ordained (5 months ago) priest here in the Archdiocese of Miami in residence at St Louis Catholic Church nearby.  He celebrated Mass as an alumni from here at St John Vianney College Seminary.  It was great to hear how joyful he was to finally be ordained and finally finishing seminary.  His reflection on his initial experiences give hope to what the Lord may have in store for me.  — Thanks for stopping by.

—————

David Zirilli, 36, is a native of Melbourne, Florida born on April 26, 1971 and is the eldest of two sons. His parents, Tony and Susan, are both Certified Public Accountants practicing in South Florida. His brother, Danny, is a civil engineer and lives in Houston with his wife and daughter. David is a graduate of the University of Florida, where in 1993 he earned a Baccalaureate degree in Accounting. He later attended the University of North Florida where he obtained his Master’s degree, also in Accounting. Like his parents, he began a career as a Certified Public Accountant, opening his own practice in the Key Largo area. During this time, he was active in several ministries at San Pedro and St.Justin Martyr parishes in the upper keys. After eight years of public practice, David sold his firm and entered St. John Vianney College Seminary, where he completed the pre-theology program before entering St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach, where he is currently finishing his final year of theology. Pastoral Assignments: David has worked in a number of ministries throughout his seminary career including the Greenbrier assisted living facility in Miami; Holy Cross Daycare and Center in Palm Beach; and the Hanley Center, also in Palm Beach, where he worked with those suffering from alcohol and drug addiction. He spent a summer at Good Shepherd parish in Miami and was sent for his pastoral internship year to St. Joseph’s parish in Miami Beach. Since his ordination to the diaconate last April, David has been ministering at St. Gregory the Great parish in Plantation.

Following ordination to the priesthood, David celebrated a Mass of Thanksgiving at St.Gregory the Great Parish on Sunday, May 11 at 12:00 p.m.David will serve as priest after his ordination at St. Louis Catholic Church in Miami. Lazarus Govin, 39 was born in Havana, Cuba on November 20, 1968 to Melanio Govin and Lourdes Garcia. He has a younger sister. He left Cuba in 1993 to the Dominican Republic, and settled in Miami in 1994. He graduated from Miami Dade College with an Associate in Arts degree in 1998. He entered St. John Vianney College Seminary and obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy in 2000. He has been trained and certified in Spiritual Direction at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, from which he received a Master of Arts in Christian Spirituality. He finished his studies in St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary completing a Master of Divinity and a Master of Arts in Theology. Pastoral Assignments: Little Flower, Coral Gables Cathedral of St. Mary Corpus Christi Lazarus will serve as priest after his ordination at St. Andrew Catholic Church in Coral Springs.

CCD + BAPTiSM + 5 finger prayer

Tonight’s CCD class (religious education) was on “Prayer.”  We used a PowerPoint slide show I made a couple years ago to profile the different types of prayer.  I used an acronym I made up using BAPTiSM:

B A P T i S M =

B = Blessing (to invoke God’s power for a person, place or activity)
A = Adoration (the “created” before the Creator)
P = Praise (glorify God)
T = Thanksgiving (gratitude)
i = Intercession (I ask God for OTHERS) + Petition (I ask God for ME)
S = “Sorry” (ask for forgiveness)
M = Meditation (tuning into God)

 

When discussing Intercession, I suggested using the “5 Finger Prayer” that I personally like using:

5 FINGER PRAYER =

Thumb - Pray for those nearest you such as your family, parents, siblings, spouse, children, friends and co-workers.

Pointing Finger – Pray for those who instruct, heal and minister such as teachers, health care professionals, pastors and church workers.

Middle/Highest Finger – Pray for leaders in business, police and fire departments, military personnel, and local, state and federal government including the judiciary.

Fourth/Weakest Finger – Pray for those sick and in need, locally, nationally and internationally including the persecuted church and those who have suffered natural and man-made disasters.

Fifth/Smallest Finger – Pray for your needs.

Mass @ St Agnes

Tonight we were invited to the evening Youth Mass at St Agnes Catholic Church in Key Biscayne, FL nearby.  A beautiful parish with a loving faith community.  We lectored, ushered the collection and spoke to several parishoners after Mass.  – afterward, Doral Ale House  : )

 
     

Fr Joseph Kottayil

At the end of this morning’s Mass, we recognized the celebrant, Fr Joseph Kottayil, for his priesthood and brotherhood here at St John Vianney College Seminary.  He is one of our “in house” Spiritual Directors.  The Student Council, this year, decided to keep, in an extra-special way, a different priest of the house in our prayers each month.  Last month, September 2008, we all focused on Fr Joseph.  This month, it is Fr Santos.  — Thank you, Fr Joseph, for you!

————-

Father Joseph Kottayil was born April 1, 1959, in Kerala, the most Catholic state of India, he is the fifth of seven children. Ordained Dec. 23,
1979, he came to the United States in 1990 and worked at St. Agnes Parish in downtown Brooklyn, N.Y. The cold winter did not suit him, however, so a priest friend invited him to come to South Florida. Since 1991, he has served at St. Coleman Parish in Pompano, St. Maximilian Kolbe in Pembroke Pines, St. John Neumann in Kendall and St. Catherine of Siena in Miami. On July 1, 2002, he was named pastor of the newly-created Blessed John XXIII Parish in Miramar.  Today is a permanent “in house” Spiritual Director at St John Vianney College Seminary in Miami, FL

For more info, see some personal question & answers on the Archdiocese of Miami HERE.

Sign on his desk:  “Be patient.  God isn’t finished with me yet.”

puzzling life + guardian angels

MASS – (Fr Alvarez) — Life is like a puzzle.  When we’re young, it has big pieces and the picture is easy to put together.  As we get older, however, the pieces get smaller, more numerous and the picture gets more complicated.  We can only get so far on our own.  We start struggling through confusing pieces, forcing pieces, missing pieces and trying to do too many puzzle at the same time.  Eventually [hopefully], we acknowledge our need for help to see the bigger picture of our individual lives that God has planned for us.

Discovering God’s Will for our lives is what each of us should strive for daily.  That’s better said than done however.  When we have an “extra challenging” calling to a possible vocation, therefore, the busyness of our lives demands a extra-ordinary move to “remove yourself” to more intense “discernment” process like the seminary here.  Am I called the the priesthood?  the religious life?  permanent diaconate?  married life?  single life?   Even in the seminary, however, there come distractions that keep you from exploring the question honestly with yourself.  I guess that’s why we have Spiritual Directors to help clarify your personal puzzle while the Seminary Formation Team help your puzzle grow into its fullest potential, assuming everyone involved is looking at the right picture.  Discernment and formation may sound simple and easy, but I don’t think either word should be used if the puzzle is truly taken seriously … serious enough to stop calling it a puzzle … and embrace it as “MY LIFE” that God drew just for me … with images I don’t want to see … that the Lord reveals as I become open to accept … and ultimately live for His glory … knowing it brings joy … while short-sightedly focusing on the fuzzy gaps that fear clouds in doubt.  [this last line took an hour to write]

Today’s feast day for “Guardian Angels” reminds me of yet another voice I have access to but don’t give an ear to often enough.  Here is the Guardian Angel Prayer:

Angel of God, my guardian dear,
To whom God’s love commits me here,
Ever this day, be at my side,
To light and guard, Rule and guide.
Amen. 

“From infancy to death human life is surrounded by their (the angels) watchful care and intercession. Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life. Already here on earth the Christian life shares by faith in the blessed company of angels and men united to God.”  — from the Catechism of the Catholic Church; 336.

DOTS – Rector’s Conference on “Obedience” — VP debate in HD

croquet + Chris West + fresh cookies

After dinner, the Pre-Theology houses had some late night [low light] Croquet games, followed by part 1 of Christopher West’s “Proclaiming the Theology of the Body (for Priests)“ audio series.  Everything accented by some freshly baked cookies.  — real brotherhood