homework: what type of student would I be if I didn't do my homework

I admit that I am very lazy when it comes to homework, I was as a high school student, college student and as a graduate student.  The less work I have to do the better.

Last week Bishop Serratelli was our guest lecturer and he's back at it this week. I love my bishop dearly and will defend him pretty much all the time as I don't like people complaining about who he happens to send us as pastor or vicar, but his homilies can be boring.  Bishop is a Scripture scholar and a pretty good one at that too so you would expect his homilies to be good, which they normally are, he just delivers them far differently than he teaches.  I had the priviledge of having then Father Serratelli for a class while I was an undergraduate at Seton Hall.  I was looking to be a senior so I took a class at the graduate level to get my credits. So I knew what we were in for when Bishop came to teach and I have to say I will miss him after these two classes.  Our regular professor, who is brilliant and full of knowledge, just seems scattered.  Bishop came in with a plan, stuck to it and we covered everything he wanted to cover.  There is a difference in how Bishop interacts outside of his homilies, he's completely different.  Bishop Serratelli, the teacher, is the man I see preach at the Chrism Mass and who at the end of Confirmation and regular Sunday Masses, but this person seems to disappear when he preaches.  Any way at the end of class last week the comment, "What type of teacher would I be if I didn't assign homework: read 1 Kings 22:13-28 and tie it into tonight's class." That last part might be my paraphrasing of it, but that is our assignment. To read the following passage and tie it into what we spoke about in class.  

Meanwhile, the messenger who had gone to call Micaiah said to him, “Look now, the prophets are unanimously predicting good for the king. Let your word be the same as any of theirs; speak a good word." Micaiah said, “As the LORD lives, I shall speak whatever the LORD tells me.” When he came to the king, the king said to him, “Micaiah, shall we go to fight at Ramoth-gilead, or shall we refrain?” He said, “Attack and conquer! The LORD will give it into the power of the king.” But the king answered him, “How many times must I adjure you to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?”So Micaiah said: “I see all Israel scattered on the mountains, like sheep without a shepherd, And the LORD saying, These have no master! Let each of them go back home in peace.” The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not tell you, he does not prophesy good about me, but only evil?” Micaiah continued: “Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD seated on his throne, with the whole host of heaven standing to his right and to his left. The LORD asked: Who will deceive Ahab, so that he will go up and fall on Ramoth-gilead And one said this, another that, until this spirit came forth and stood before the LORD, saying, ‘I will deceive him.’ The LORD asked: How? He answered, ‘I will go forth and become a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets.’ The LORD replied: You shall succeed in deceiving him. Go forth and do this. So now, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours; the LORD himself has decreed evil against you.” Thereupon Zedekiah, son of Chenaanah, came up and struck Micaiah on the cheek, saying, “Has the spirit of the LORD, then, left me to speak with you?” Micaiah said, “You shall find out on the day you go into an inner room to hide.” The king of Israel then said, “Seize Micaiah and take him back to Amon, prefect of the city, and to Joash, the king’s son, and say, ‘This is the king’s order: Put this man in prison and feed him scanty rations of bread and water until I come back in safety.’” But Micaiah said, “If you return in safety, the LORD has not spoken through me.” (He also said, “Hear, O peoples, all of you.”)

The lines that stuck out to me are the ones that I bolded.  Our class is on Biblical Call Narratives and let me tell you there are a lot of callings in the Bible.  We've studied mainly old testament calls and of course both Scripture scholars, Bishop Serratelli and Dr. Glazov, have talked about the calls of the prophets.  I guess it's a good thing when both men give you the same basic overview of a call narrative.  In all the calls we have discussed we talk about the divine confrontation, the introductory word, the commission, the objection, the reassurance, and a sign and how these will appear in most call narratives.  This passage doesn't seem to be a call narrative so how does this tie into what we talked about.  

Well we've covered a lot of stuff in our classes but one of my notes from Bishop's class seems to stick out, the prophet will speak how God wants him to speak" Which agrees with the first statement I bolded, where Micaiah is saying I will speak how the Lord wants me to speak.   Micaiah speaks of how Israel is scattered on the mountains like a sheep without a shepherd; this makes me think of the Gospels when it's said "I will strike the shepherd and sheep will disperse" (What I'm Catholic I know the story, the line, just not which Gospel and the exact number of the verse) Maybe it's because it's Lent and the Passion Gospels tend to stick out more, but that's what I thought of.  It shows that the New Testament and Old Testament do work with each other.  The last line that I bolded is the one about seeing God seated on the His throne.  This image we did talk about with the call of Isaiah and how he sees God upon a throne.  It's an image of Heaven, which we get to see at every Mass, well not actually see, but to be close to at every Mass.  

Not sure how much I am supposed to read into the passage but these are the three lines that stuck out to me.

What are my gifts?

So as part of our Evangelization Certificate program and eventual Masters of Theology we have Saturday sessions and this past weekend we talked about what our Spiritual gifts are and what ministries we might be suited for.  As a part of this we took a spiritual inventory and took a look at the answers.  Oddly I wasn't surprised by my answers, well order of gifts and when I read the ministries that are afflicted with my top three (five as three of them tied) I was pleasantly surprised to see me described to a tee.


Here are how my Spiritual gifts ranked:
Serving
Faith
Craftsmanship/Pastor/Teacher
Apostle/Giving/Deeds of Power
Evangelization/Exhortation, Encouragement/Hospitality/Knowledge/Prophet
Discernment/Musician/
Intercession
Mercy
Tongues
Caregiver
Healing/Wisdom
Administration
Missionary

I found it interesting that serving ended up on top, but I'm not surprised by it as I do tend to lean towards serving people and the Church.  I was sort of surprised to see faith up there as high as it was because I haven't felt like my faith was strong at least not as strong as it was in college.  The ministries that use my tops gifts also fit me, I do volunteer with social ministries, I have no problem doing mundane tasks.  I am a lector, greeter, and Eucharistic minister and I would totally run and participate in Bible studies and take pictures of the events in the parish.  CCD teacher, youth leader and teaching are stuff I do already and I've often said I would love to teach the teachers, so it was nice to have my gifts and ministries reaffirmed.  I would love to find a way to get paid to do all this stuff, but that will come I guess.

Hopefully there will be more to come on this later but for now I am off to read for class ;)

Go to your room!

"But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you."

So this week's reading is from Matthew's Gospel.  What comes to mind is the idea of praying in "secret" or alone giving the fact that the highest form of Catholic prayer is public it amuses me that we are told to pray alone.  The word prayer jumps out too as in I need to pray more.  Oddly or not oddly I do tend to pray alone either in the car or in a room away from my family so that I don't get any questions about what I am doing.

My favorite form of prayer is and has been Eucharistic Adoration mainly as I can be by myself.  I've always been the leave me alone type of person not because I don't like people but I just like being by myself.  So I guess I have always found a way to go to my room and pray.  We were given an assignment of doing an Examen prayer in the style of St. Ignatius Loyola.  We're supposed to do it daily at the end of the day so we can look over our day.  I don't mind doing it, I just don't want to look at my life that way as I'll see how imperfect I am.  I mean really who wants to see what they are really made of.

Grad School and Scripture

I have to spend time with Scripture passages for grad school so why not blog about them.  Hey why not right.

So our first reading assignment was Luke 5:1-11


"While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret. He saw two boats there alongside the lake; the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” Simon said in reply, “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.” When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come to help them. They came and filled both boats so that they were in danger of sinking. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him and all those with him, and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners of Simon. Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him." 

We were asked to spend time with the scripture passage so of course my mind went straight to doing Lectio Divina with the passage.  You know read it, think about it, read it again, think about it again and pray with it.  Yeah, easier said than done. I read it and attempted to do Lectio but it wasn't the best effort.  My thoughts alway turn to how human St. Peter is.  Of course we discussed it in class and each person thought of something different.  As I was reading the passage I thought of my past trip to Ireland specifically our tour of Donegal, especially the fishing village of Killybegs because when I saw the picture that is below, I thought of this Scripture passage.  What, I am a theology major it makes sense.  What came to mind as I read the passage was the stench of the net; it was nasty.  So I went on to think well ministry can be smelly as it's not always easy and well dealing with teenagers does mean getting dirty literally and figuratively when you discuss the heavy hitting issues.

I always think of the USCCB Vocations video when I read this passage as well, it is called Fishers of Men after all.

The beginning of the film is pretty much this scene from Luke's gospel or is at least meant to make you think of it.  While the video is strictly for priestly vocations it doesn't mean that they are the only ones who can catch the fish.  

In class we discussed Peter's progression of seeing Jesus, listening to Jesus, stopping what he was doing, getting in the boat, which Jesus was already in, listening to Jesus again and finally acting on Jesus' words and asking for help from others.   I wonder how Andrew, James and John feel being in the backseat to Peter.  We know they become Apostles and followers of Jesus, but while they are always around they often take a backseat to Peter. Maybe it's because  we can so easily relate to St. Peter in his ways of really getting it one day and the next falling flat on his face.  However Jesus doesn't care how long it takes us to get it or how often He has to speak to us to get it.  

Ministry is something I have been doing for the majority of my life and so often I wonder am I doing what God wants me to do.  Peter, Andrew, James and John literally drop everything and leave it all behind to follow Jesus.  Do I trust God enough to leave what is comfortable and a pay check behind to do His will?  I honestly don't know and that's been the question on and in my mind since I returned from the Defending the Faith Conference at the end of July.  

We had a session on spiritual gifts and charisms trying to figure out what our individual gifts are.  It was an interesting session which I will get into in another blog  but the session ended with us getting an assignment of spending time in prayer so the next Scripture passage is quite appropriate.

Our second reading assignment is Matthew 6:6

"But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you."

More to come on this later after I sleep and after I actually spend time with it in prayer.

January 19th a day I will never forget

It seems like only yesterday that a phone call woke my roommate and I up at 5am.  The question from her mother of "there's a fire on campus, are you ok?" made us jump out of our beds after responding, yeah we're fine, to look out our window and there I saw a sight that I will never forget.  I saw outside of Boland Hall firetrucks, ambulances, and other emergency vehicles and wrongly assumed everything was ok.  I guess at that point everything was under control, but it certainly wasn't ok as I would find out.  My roommate and I did the best college thing you could think of, we went back to bed as everything seemed under control.  We got another phone call at 7am asking "what the hell is going on up there, I hear 3 people are dead."  Well that was it, we were awake, we had no idea what was going on and immediately turned on the tv.  My roommate like to watch Good Day NY, and I still remember how somber Jim Ryan was reporting the news of the Seton Hall Fire.  For anything on Good Day NY to be somber was odd as they were usual a "fun" news set, so it stayed with me.


Now that we were awake we did again what any normal college kid would do, we went for breakfast, but not after a few calls were made and some information was found out.  We managed to find out the fire was on the 3rd floor, the floor we used to live on. The third floor also happened to be where a friend from high school lived.  This friend's brother was killed accidentally two years before, so my thoughts where "Oh God, no, not again, You're not going to do this me again."  Thankfully that friend was one of the first people I saw when we out to walk to the cafeteria for breakfast.    We weren't out of our dorm for 2 minutes before we  heard "Pete can't find his brother."  I knew right away that "Pete's brother" was one of the three who had died, but I held out every last bit of hope that he wasn't one of them.


We continued on to breakfast, because you had to eat.  Everything on campus was cancelled.  The day was spent going from the cafe to the Main Lounge for updates to the Chapel for Mass and prayer. Eventually we were told go home, go home and be with your families.  So my friend Kelly, who lived in Albany and I decided that since I was on the way home for her, that I would drive to my house and then she would drive herself the rest of the way. Before we did any of that, we went to visit our friend Bridget who wasn't on campus that morning as she was a commuter.  I don't remember much of that small trip to Bridget's. I do remember one of her oldest sister's kids was having a birthday party that evening, so she went over there and Kelly and I started on our way home.  We made it onto the Garden State Parkway and around 7pm the names of the three young men who had died were released.  All I heard was "John Gu..." and my fears from the morning came true, Pete's brother was one of the three. We turned around at the next exit and found Bridget at her sister's house, which is why I remember that someone had a birthday. We didn't go in as they knew why we were there.  We went to Bridget's house, which was a block away from her sister's house, and somehow managed to find out the details about John's wake and funeral.  Kelly and I then continued on our way home.


While I can never change the events of that day, I can think of how well the Seton Hall Community came and still comes together.  Over facebook a good portion of my fellow Seton Hall Alumni, most of us there that day, and a newly minted alumn, changed our profile pictures to Blue Ribbons.  Those ribbons were handed out 11 years ago for the prayer services that followed that eventful day, and the message of "Never Forget: you are always a pirate" still rings true.


John, Frank, and Aaron's,well John's wake and funeral brought back all the memories of just two years before when Gary died.  I asked a very smart priest "why, why would God let this happen?" and he responded with, "Don't ask why, ask how, what can come from this."   Little did I know that I would be the rock, the one who had been through something like this already, the one who knew the memories would never go away.


I remember returning to campus, and then going to John's wake and funeral Mass, and how crowded both were.  I remember the media trying to get reactions out of us, the media crashing funeral Masses. I remember Seton Hall offering buses so that students could go to their fellow students' funerals.  I remember returning back to campus the Sunday night after John's wake, and being at the 10pm Mass, as I had yet to go, and having Fr. Jim asking for someone to read, and somehow I was volunteered.  I remember asking him, how do I pronounce Frank's last name, as I knew the other two.  Somehow I made it through reading the readings, and petitions including the names of my fellow students who had died.


11 years ago seems so far away, yet the memories come rushing back every January 19th.  I think of complaining about the snow, ice, and rain on the 18th and then laughing, because it always seems to snow around the 19th, but never on it.  I remember someone once telling me that John loved snow, and I can't help but take the snow or winter weather as a sign, that John is up there with Frank, Aaron, Gary and all the other saints in Heaven watching over us and praying for us.


Gary's 13th anniversary is fast approaching, and I remember being on that 3 floor of Boland Hall, being a lost freshman, not knowing what to think or do.  God's love is amazing when you think about it.  He allows us to know what He felt by allowing His Son to come down to Earth and grow like us, and die like we will.  What we forget is that God must have suffered watching His Son on that cross, all the while knowing it was what His people needed.  There is great solace in the idea that Jesus' parents suffer pain and sorrow the way we do.


Réquiem ætérnam dona eis,  Dómine; et lux perpétua lúceat eis, Requiéscant in pace. Amen. Rest in Peace John, Frank and Aaron.


My prayers go out to the Giunta, Caltibilota, and Karol families and to the extended Seton Hall family, that has not forgotten, nor have we forgotten the actions of those injured that day, my prayers as with them as well.