Ecumenically Yours

A Light at the End of the Tunnel

2006-05-18T20:40:00.000-07:00

The light is on at the end of the tunnel. Graduation was a couple of weeks ago, almost. And Ordination is something like 19 days away. I still don't know my assignment, so there's just the tiniest little bit of stress about that (okay a lot of stress), but other than that I'm doing well. How are y'all?

Read more about this here: The Light at the End of the Tunnel.

Diaconate Ordination

2005-11-11T17:59:00.000-08:00

Hello all! Final exams are over and I finally had time to blog a bit about diaconate ordination. Needless to say, it was awesome. You can read all about that here.

It was great to see Amy, Jill, Wendy & Mary there!

Sweet Home Chicago

2005-10-27T08:37:00.000-07:00

I couldn't resist sending a shout out to the White Sox and their oh so sweet sweep of the Astros!

Sean, Wendy...take a look at how Uribe gets a running catch done. (Sorry again couldn't resist):-)

So, we're looking forward to some new converts on the South Side. But seriously, I'm so excited for Chicago and my dad who has been waiting for this moment since he was 11 years old (the last time the White Sox were in the World Series).

Thinking of and celebrating with all of you!

-J

It's a small world, after all...

2005-10-19T14:15:00.000-07:00

This event is much less sad, so you can go ahead and read it...

I thought about CPE a bit this week. On Monday, our Polish Schola sang for Mass. Of course, I couldn't understand any of it, let alone pronounce any of it from the music given on the worship aid. So I just pretty much sat there and let the music happen.

But later in the day, the melody of one of the songs wouldn't get out of my head. I realized that it was because I couldn't sing the song in its entirety (heck, I couldn't sing a word of it). So I just had to "enjoy" it all day long. Grrr.

It's really a small world, after all...

Another sad day...

2005-09-16T11:36:00.000-07:00

Another student, injured in the accident, died this morning at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital. Please keep J, and his family, in your prayers. Please continue to pray for our community as well.

Thanks,
Pat

Edit: Please also keep, R, the driver, in your prayers. He has been charged in connection with the accident and is currently in custody.

A Very Sad Day

2005-09-15T15:20:00.000-07:00

I'd like to ask you all to keep our community at Mundelein in your prayers. Early this morning, four of our seminarians were involved in a serious, tragic car accident, on our campus. I don't know all the details yet, and I probably don't want to know. But one of them was killed, another underwent head trauma surgery at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, another underwent some surgery on his arm, and the fourth was physically unhurt. But he was the driver, so there are other hurts to deal with, obviously.

M, the seminarian who was killed, and I were good friends. He and I directed our contemporary choir together in the spring quarter last year. He was young, enthusiastic, committed to the faith, a talented musician, outgoing and a lot of fun to be with. I can't imagine this place without him.

R, the driver, was the director of the contemporary choir except for the spring quarter last year, when he was on internship. A very talented musician, he and I also shared similar ecclesiologies, so I've been close to him as well. We don't know if he will be returning to the seminary.

I'm hurting a whole lot right now. I haven't been this sad in quite a long time, and I've been through a lot of stuff. Please pray for me, pray for our community, pray for M, R and the others.

Pat

We're back!

2005-09-12T08:16:00.000-07:00

We've been here about a week already but I thought I would announce that we are officially back in "New" for the school year. I think all of us are glad to be back though it was a bit of culture shock all over again...No left turns, people stopping in the merge lane, not pumping our own gas, not remembering the security code to our front door, paying for laundry :-(, barbeques galor, multitudes of women in various stages in pregnancy, no one acknowledging your existence on the sidewalk...you know all the things we think affectionately and sometimes not so affectionately of when thinking of "New."

Classes begin in less than 48 hours and A has already missed her first day of "school" (day care) because of a 104 degree fever. Thankfully after every 4 hour dosages of baby Tylenol (yes, even in the middle of the night) her fever is slowly coming down. Yay for smooth starts right? :-)

Is it only Wednesday?!

2005-09-07T07:27:00.000-07:00

These first few days have seemed like an eternity. We've had classes (yes on Labor Day too, and neither of the professors I had on that day beleived in a brief lecture for the first day), and far too many meetings. We had our third annual liturgy meeting yesterday (translation: "how to go to Mass meeting") and I want that hour of my life back.

But in general, getting back to the seminary has been good in the sense of reconnecting with my friends here. I've been able to hear about a lot of their CPE experiences ... some good, some bad, some "medium" (that was his own word, not mine). I think all of us are richer for the experience and will be better priests.

There is a meeting tonight for next year's CPE students. I am the student speaker for it, giving the "I did CPE and you can too!" talk. I have to keep it brief, which will be hard since I have so much good material from those eleven weeks! But since I really do believe in the topic of my talk, it will be an easy one to give, I think.

I've decided to be like John the Baptist when it comes to music ministry: I must decrease. There was a meeting for those who wanted to be musicians this year, and they have something like 30 cantors already, so I decided not to go. It will be hard to give that up, but it's a busy year, and I've felt called to do other things. In fact, I was asked to help by leading a small group of second year guys in their formation discussions. I didn't think I was going to do that, but God (and Fr. Ciomek) called, so I said yes to that. I'm also editing the school magazine for one more issue, and continuing my work as Fire Chaplain, so that will be enough for one year, on top of studies, prayer, dozens of meetings, and God knows what all else.

It's less than two months now until my diaconate ordination. I am very ready for it, now we have to see if the Church is ready! We have certification coming up, and then have to take our oath of loyalty. When those things happen, I'll be asking for your prayers (again).

Know that I will be praying for all of you also. I hope things are going well!

Pat

Three Promises

2005-09-03T17:21:00.000-07:00

It's been a crazy week/weekend so far. I finished my retreat Friday morning, and left Friday afternoon for my friend's diaconate ordination in Springfield, IL. I stayed there overnight (free lodging is a goooooood thing!) and am finally back and getting ready to return to Mundelein sometime tomorrow night.

I should probably be packing things up, but ... nah! plenty of time for that later!

I wanted to thank you all for praying for me during the retreat. I had probably the most significant retreat of my seminary time, and that was a really cool thing. The retreat director was an oldish (70's) Jesuit who has been doing this retreat for Mundelein for 20 years. Unfortunately, that kind of showed in his presentation, as it was full of a lot of cliche things that he's probably been using from time immemorial. But the bulk of his stuff was actually pretty good. The retreat house was very nice -- lots of good scenery, well maintained and very clean. I was with a lot of my classmates I don't usually hang out with, and had a great time. So all in all, it was cool.

The best part, though, was that there was plenty of time for long walks and time to reflect. One of those was after the talk on celibacy, and I took the time to pray over my three promises. It was incredibly consoling to know at the end of the walk that I feel ready to make those promises now (okay, I know that wasn't a feeling word, A., but it's the best I could do given the sentence structure...).

I feel like my work in seminary on dealing with conflict has made me more able to make a promise of obedience in the best sense of the word: to follow my bishops' orders with generosity, but able to make my own needs known and not pretending they're not important. As far as the prayer promise goes, I know that prayer is central to my pastoral ministry and that pastoral ministry is central to my prayer. I can't do one without the other. And as for celibacy, I have to say that probably the reason I feel ready to live that promise is the time I spent discussing it with my CPE group. It was either TV or SM (maybe both) who said that having that discussion was like being on holy ground. Well, it was for me too. And I have come to know that healthy relationships with others -- Catholics and non-Catholics alike -- is central to living as a healthy celibate man in the world.

It was a great retreat, and it helped me to solidify my vocational call, which after all is the whole point of a retreat. Thanks again for your prayer support. Diaconate ordination is something like 62 days and counting... :-)

Fun with Fundamentalists

2005-08-30T20:45:00.000-07:00

Hello again,

It's early evening and I'm sitting on my in-laws' couch attempting to relax while listening to the beginning of the effects of Hurricane Katrina going on outside. I thought I would get into the routine of sharing the "growing edges" that I've been working on since CPE ended. I remember in my final eval. presentation that TV challenged me to face my fundamentalist roots and work through them. I think perhaps TV thought this would help my issue of claiming pastoral authority and I tend to agree with him on this one.

So God must have been speaking truth through TV, because I've had the wonderful privilege of getting up close and personal with my "fundie" roots for the past two Sundays. Two Sundays ago, I went to church with my parents and listened to a 45 minute sermon that was from John 1:1-15 and the title was Spiritual Alignment: Abiding in Christ. Sadly, the only thing I can remember from it was a ton of prooftexting and a story of how the Pastor was car shopping with his daughter and when the salesperson told him he was an athiest, the pastor told him how he shouldn't be an athiest and through a weak-assed argument based loosely on Intelligent Design, convinced this athiest to check out the local fundie church. T (my spouse) and I came away from it all convinced that the pastor whipped this 45 minute puppy up in the 23rd hour. How someone can talk about pretty much nothing for 45 minutes, I still don't quite know :-)

Which leads me to this past Sunday that somehow we woke up at 6:30 Eastern time (5:30 Central) and went to the 8am service at T's parent's American Baptist church. Their senior pastor has recently left so we hoped that interim pastor would be a bit different. Sadly, another 45 minute sermon later I learned that the message of Acts 2:14-41 is basically that Jesus brings both grace and wrath and we are God's enemies with God's wrath dangling over our heads unless we embrace the Truth and Facts about Jesus. I'm not joking, at one point I looked above my head wondering if I could see this wrath the pastor was talking about. Towards the end of the sermon, the pastor took a moment to tell us that this sermon wasn't just his opinion or just based on his experience but these are the facts and it's our decision to accept the facts or be God's enemies. Yikes!

So after being a part of these services, I sit here and think hmmmmmm..... why has God given me the opportunity to witness these sermons? What can I learn about these communities and myself through these experiences? Right now what I can glean are a few things. First, I've realized I need to treat these communities with respect even if they do not respect me. Yes, I can be frustrated, even angry with the messages they convey but I don't think I was raised in this type of community for no reason. I still understand these people in part. They are a part of my history which will always remain with me. I need to learn from them and realize that many people feel and believe the way they do. Their reality is the reality of many and it's my job to learn how to continue to connect with them even if I disagree. I see this most clearly with my parents and T's parents and extended family. I need to claim my pastoral authority so I am able to clearly communicate my vocation to those who would reject but doing so with grace and respect.

I don't know if I have much more to say about this for now but I'm sure it will be revisited. Thank you for reading and journeying with me on this topic. :-)

Hello all, and request for prayers

2005-08-28T17:39:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone ... this blog is a great idea. I hope we'll all make use of it from time to time because it will be great keeping up with y'all. And hey, it's only been what, a week, and I already miss you!

Tomorrow evening (Monday), I start my pre-deaconate retreat. Please keep me in your prayers during the week that this will be a time of inspiration and quiet reflection on God's call in my life. Also please pray that as I reflect on the promises I'll be making, that I will come to be able to make them with the greatest confidence in God who created me and called me.

I will be praying for all of you and your own callings in these days as well. God bless you all!

Pat

Welcome to Ecumenically Yours!

2005-08-28T10:40:00.000-07:00

Hello fellow Good Sam CPErs of 2005,

Welcome to our brand new blog. Hopefully this will be a place where we can keep in touch, share new learnings, think out thoughts, vent, or just say hello.

Looking forward to the dialogue!

Jess