Confirmation was about a month ago at the parish and yes as I do with most of the blogs, I type the highlights of what I want to talk about and then step away from the computer.
I've known my bishop for awhile. I still remember my first encounter with Fr. Serratelli on that March for Life Bus in January of 1998. I remember when he became Msgr. Serratelli and I certainly remember taking a summer session week long course with him my junior year so I could have enough credits to be a senior and get the hell out of Seton Hall. Yes, I was insane enough as an undergraduate to take a graduate level course with a man who knows Scripture like the back of his hand. Wonderfully for me, I was naive enough to not realize what I was really doing and when it came down to it, then Msgr. Serratelli was very nice, and kind and maybe it was because I was an undergraduate but I enjoyed that class and was not one bit scared of the oral exam he gave as a final. I remember sitting in the Seminary dinning room and hearing him say "It's like Daniel entering the lion's den. Imagine we're over in Campus Ministry having a conversation." Thus began my personal interaction with the man who is currently my bishop.
I take great joy in saying I know the Bishop of Paterson and I take even more joy in knowing that he knows my name and hasn't forgotten it like he usually blames his miter for. Fr. Geno's comments at his Mass of Thanksgiving about our Bishop, well it's a sort of lack of comments, because FG didn't say much, but his reaction while mentioning Bishop Serratelli showed his love and passion for the man he calls "boss" (for a few more weeks) and the man I call "Pappa Arty, I mean Bishop" This action reminded me of how much I love my bishop and how much it pains me to hear people talk disparagingly about him. I know Bishop moves the priests around a lot and that my parish seems to get the brunt of it, but that doesn't mean he doesn't like us. I'm tired of people complaining that this one doesn't do this and this one doesn't do that. Own up to your actions and thoughts, get to know the person, attempt to get to know the person before you just say he doesn't like us so I don't like him.
I know my personal connection makes it for a lack of better terms, personal, when someone attacks Bishop. I know it's that time of year and we're bound to have yet another change in staff at the parish, but we just have to deal with it. Maybe Bishop only wants the guys to have a year or two at a bitchy parish and then move them on, I mean really nothing can be worse than a place that complains about everything.
Oh well before I get totally off topic the original intent of the blog was about the homily Bishop Serratelli gave at Confirmation. I only remember portions of it, but Bishop does not preach for long but he gets his point across. Bishop started his homily out with the legend of Quo Vadis, where Peter while leaving Rome meets Jesus and asks "Lord, where are you going?" to which Jesus replies, "To Rome to be crucified again." Of course Peter gains his confidence and returns to Rome to where he faces his eventual martyrdom. This story always reminds me of Seton Hall and my Latin class, so Bishop had hooked me in. The basis of his homily is that we should always be living our lives as a follower of Jesus, meaning that the sacrament doesn't end at the ceremony but that it continues on. The comment live your life as a follower of Jesus struck me as yes Bishop was preaching to teens who face far more issues than I did at their age, but it's true for all of us. It reminds me of the question "Is there enough evidence to convict me of being Christian, or in my case Catholic?"
That is what stayed with me from Bishop's homily. It's not in his preaching, though it is good, that Bishop excels, but at his questions and answers session. In the question and answer session you get to see Bishop's passion for teaching come out, you get to see the personable side of him come out. It always leads to the vocations speech, but hey he's the bishop, he's got to talk about vocations. This time it wasn't the vocation to priesthood or religious life that he spend his time on, but the vocation of marriage. Bishop spoke about how one is called to marriage in the same way that one is called to religious life and how each vocation comes with it's ups and downs. He spoke of how no vocation is easy, but that there is joy in the vocation. I remember thinking this is what he was talking about at the Chrism Mass of how if the priests are on fire and are full of joy that the lay people will follow suite. I sat there as he said the vocation will not be easy, you'll have to do things you don't like, give things up, but there will be joy.
Joy seems to be a buzz word right now. Fr. Geno mentioned it, Bishop has mentioned it and our Holy Father speaks of how there is a poverty of joy in the world. As I type this I keep looking down and seeing the memorial card for Fr. Jim Sheehan, who passed away last August after a battle with cancer. The picture on the card shows the joy in which Fr. Jim served the Archdiocese of Newark. Looking back on all the priests I have meet in my life, the ones that I have come to know and love have much joy in what they do and in life. Bishop Serratelli may not always enjoy his job, but he is a joyful person, same goes for the pastor of the parish.
I can't help but think that some day soon I'll be doing work for and in the Church. I know it won't be easy but it is joyful work.
May God continue to bless and watch over my wonderful Bishop, priests and of course the Holy Father.
Showing posts with label Seton Hall. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Seton Hall. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Thursday, January 20, 2011
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.
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.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
SHU's Chapel
I went looking for my pictures of the Chapel, it took me a while to find them as I didn't remember when I took them just that I took them. Alas I found them, they are from October 2007 despite my thinking it was before that.
You can see in this picture that different designs were being "tried out" on the wall, it took me a second to realize that something was different.
I thought I did a better job of taking pictures, guess I was in too much of a hurry to actually get the pictures taken than caring about how focused they were. I just say I'm excited to go and see the re-stored Chapel and to take pictures of it.
Here's an article on the re-stored Chapel
As soon as I find pictures of the newly restored Chapel I will try to do a side by side comparison. The pictures I was sent by one of the campus ministers were sent to her by one of the priests on campus and I don't want to use his personal photos on my blog. Oh well that's just an excuse to go visit one of my favorite chapels. You'll see a picture in the link if you click on it.
You can see in this picture that different designs were being "tried out" on the wall, it took me a second to realize that something was different.
I thought I did a better job of taking pictures, guess I was in too much of a hurry to actually get the pictures taken than caring about how focused they were. I just say I'm excited to go and see the re-stored Chapel and to take pictures of it.
Here's an article on the re-stored Chapel
As soon as I find pictures of the newly restored Chapel I will try to do a side by side comparison. The pictures I was sent by one of the campus ministers were sent to her by one of the priests on campus and I don't want to use his personal photos on my blog. Oh well that's just an excuse to go visit one of my favorite chapels. You'll see a picture in the link if you click on it.
Friday, June 27, 2008
sometimes things are closer to home than you think
During the war in Iraq I often thought it would be Mike (high school acquaintance and son of one of the deacons at my parish) or Paul (best friend's brother) I would hear about, however when they announced on the news the names of 3 soldiers who died over there on Monday, in particular Greg Dalessio, I thought, I know that name... did I go to school with him.Sure enough I got a link today from a fellow SHU alum via facebook and I can't place or remember how I know him, other than campus ministry keeps popping into my head. It will drive me nuts until I figure it out and now work study is popping into my head too, for all I know it could have been student ambassadors, but I'm thinking campus ministry.Captain Gregory Dalessio SHU classes of '00 MA '04 may you rest in peace and thank you for your ultimate sacrifice and love of your country. Without men (and woman) like you this country would be nothing. In doing a google search for Greg's name in an attempt to see how I knew him I found some interesting pages. This one in particular struck me as interesting. A news article on him from the Courier Post, the paper in South Jersey. am sure that more will come up on this topic...for now I'm off to sleep as it's the last day of CCD and it's been a long week.
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