Domini Canes

2008-07-04T14:06:00.001-07:00

Going backwards in time is not usually how blogs work. I'm aware of this. However, I realize that there are some people who've not yet heard about my trip to NY to see the Holy Father so there's no time like the present.

We left on a Thursday night and got back on Sunday around 600pm. So all in all we were only gone from St. Louis for about 72 hours. At least half of those were spent in a van. Which isn't nearly as bad as it sounds. Someone was always in the back sleeping and someone else was always riding shotgun to make sure the driver didn't do the same. It was really blessed to have such a great bunch of friars to go with on this road-trip.

(Aquinas Institute President blessing said van.)

We were assigned a retreat center by the archdiocese of NY and we had no idea what our accommodations would be like. To say that they were awesome would be an understatement. The house we stayed in was owned by the Franciscan friars of the renewal, which was founded by Benedict Groeschel. Apparently some wealthy donor had given them a large house on Long Island Sound in a really swanky neighborhood. It has a pool (which was not filled at the time unfortunately) and fantastic view right on the waterfront. But all this wasn't the best of it. The best part was the fact that Fr. Benedict Groeschel himself lived there! Okay he actually lived in a small room in the garage but close enough.

(The view from the back of the house looking
out onto Long Island Sound.)

The best part of being there was all the time that Father G. spent with us. He was eager to great us right after we got there and had dinner with us later that night. We hadn't had a chance to go to Mass that day (Friday) because we had been on the road all day and, by an act of Providence, he hadn't had time to say Mass either. So we got see hear him say Mass that night and joined him for a Rosary. Apparently he wanted even more visiting time because after Mass he wanted to sit with us and chat over a little wine with cheese and crackers. That was fine by us - we thought we had struck gold and didn't want to stop digging. He's a very warm person but still maintains his NY sense of humor. The next morning (Saturday) he said Mass for us again. As you would expect he's an excellent preacher. I should also mention that the food at the retreat center was not extravagant but very good.

(The other friars with Fr. Benedict.)

After breakfast we packed up and headed to Dunwoody Seminary for the main event. We got there at about noon and there was some entertainment on stage to keep everyone amused until the Holy Father showed up. He ended up arriving around 500PM. Every one of the seminarians was given a little bag which included a white or gold scarf to wave - and wave we did. Benedict traveled around the crowd in the Pope Mobile and then made his way to the cathedra at the center of the stage. And we just get cheering and cheering. Chants broke among the seminarians including "Bendict!" and "We love you!" The atmosphere at the whole event was amazing.

(The 7 of us in front of Dunwoody seminary.)

This cheering went on for about 7 minutes until one of the Masters of Ceremony motioned for the Pope to go walk out on the planks of the stage which came right up to the seminarians section. So we got about 15 feet from the Pope which was a lot closer than expected. On the big screens that showed images of the Holy Father you could tell that he was moved by the greeting he got from the seminarians and young people. I know that he saw the reaction that JPII drew from the crowds but I'm not sure, going into office, that he would be getting anything like that. It was interesting for me to see how loved he really was with the people there.

(The Crowd - actually only about 30-50% of it.)

In his talk. the longest of his trip, the Holy Father talked to the young people about having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and the importance of prayer. The Holy Father then went on to speak very powerfully about the importance of truth and liberty that can come only by living in the Truth; not a something, but a Someone, Jesus Christ. He addressed the many things in our culture that lead away from true freedom and toward addiction and sin. All of us must have the courage to persevere in the faith that shines so brightly in the saints of the Church. It was a very powerful talk from the Chief Shepherd and Universal Pastor of the Church. As President Bush said after the Holy Father’s speech at the White House, “Thanks Your Holiness. Awesome speech.” And I think that about says it all.

The Church is truly blessed to have Pope Benedict as our Holy Father. May God give us many more popes like him and give him many more years!

2008-06-21T20:41:00.000-07:00

Well a lot has been happening recently. The providence had it's annual pow-wow in Chi-town and about 80 brothers (40% of the total) came. There were some workshops about our vision for the future which got us nowhere fast. The general sentiment was to discuss the real issue of what ministries had real priority for us, which was the meat and potatoes that they were waiting to discuss. However, the only person who said anything very specific was Fr. Mascari the provincial. He believed that Aquinas Institute (where I study), Fenwick High School (where I studied), and the our campus ministries were the top priority. That list is just about the same one I would compile so I was pretty happy about that.

The kibitzing about ministry was mildly interesting and catching up with some of the brothers I hadn't seen in a while was very nice but the highlight was definitely the solemn vows of 5 of my student brothers. The vows were made in the middle of a beautiful Mass at St. Vincent Ferrer Church in Riverforest, IL. When the brothers promised their obedience to God and the Master of the Order till death there was this little voice in me that said, "We've got them for sure now." It gives me great joy to know that if I make solemn vows I'll get to live with brothers like these.

One of those brothers, Timothy Combs, invited me to a relaxing weekend with him and his family at their summer home in Lake of the Ozarks. We had a great time together and it was a really relaxing weekend. Lots of traveling though. Down to lake on Friday and back up to WI on Tuesday to give me first adult education class on the 10 Commandments. Considering that it was summer I was pretty pleased that about 10 people turned up to take the class. I was even more pleased that they were pleased at the end of it.

2008-05-28T20:49:00.000-07:00

Exsurge, Domine! (Arise, O Lord!) Come to the aid of my poor neglected blog!

Well it's been an atrociously long time since I've updated this thing but since it's summer I figure that I should make the time. After all, being a student brother in summer is about more than long naps in afternoon, reading fiction, chatting with friends, and stuffing your face. I'm trying to figure out what else there is and when I know for sure I'll be sure and post it. There are signs though that the summer will also include weekly preaching at Holy Hour on Saturday morning (not to worry, the good people won't have to listen to me for a whole hour), an adult education course on the 10 Commandments, 2 seminars for kids who will be receiving Confirmation next year (1 on Genesis and the other on theological topics in Harry Potter), a week long trip with some of the high school youths of the parish to the Catholic Heart camp, participating in a Bible study, visiting the sick (more on that below), and taking a directed readings course on Healthcare ethics which I have yet to set up with Aquinas Institute.

I recently had my first experience of visiting someone in a nursing home and bringing Holy Communion to them. The situation wasn't all I would have hoped for. While I was leading the communion service the man I was with was having his whole room moved next door. However, I just plowed along and the surrounding chaos didn't seem to bother him. What was very moving was the man's faith and devotion. I asked after we were finished if there was anything else I could do for him and he said, "You've done everything, you've brought me the Lord." And of course he is right. Please keep him in your prayers as he recovers from surgery.

I'll make another post soon looking over the past semester and my trip to NY to see the Holy Father - which was awesome! The important thing now is that the blog is rolling again. I will, please God, keep it updated on a fairly regular basis.

2007-02-05T21:40:00.000-08:00

It's been quite a while since I wrote my last post and I do apologize for that. I was on of those things that I indended to do but things would creep up on me and I'd forget about it for a week and them something else would and I'd forget again. Then as more time passed inertia began to set in and I became more reluctant to update the blog because there was just so much to talk about. So I'm not going to do that and instead just try to give a few snippets about what been going on.

The weather has been crazy. I don't know how many blizzards have rolled through the state but it's more than I care to remember. Not that this was so bad being from Chicago but I just wasn't mentally prepared. Everyone kept saying that Denver has mild winters and last year it only snowed about 3 times and each time they got about an inch. Well needless to say history didn't repeat itself. Actually shoveling wasn't that bad - it's kind contemplative when you get into it.

Here is a picture of one of most loyal morning Mass attendees. Actually on this day she was 1 of 2 non-friars who were there. In good weather we have maybe 30.

Christmas and New Years were pretty nice and I had a good time hanging out with the older friars. It would have been nice to go home and see everyone in the family but part of discerning is being away from your family and seeing how it feels to be part of the Dominican family. So in general it was a good experience although a lot of work since I did a fair amount of the cooking (the older friars being occupied with things like Mass). The hardest part of not being home was knowing how hard that was for my family. Wherever I'm at I'm usually at home. I'm Denver now because of a choice I made and I knew that this separation would be a consequence which made it much easier to deal with. My family though just has to live with my decision and that is an inherently harder position to be in and that is difficult for me.

About two weeks ago I went to the Right to Life Mass at the cathedral and then the rally afterwards on the steps of the capital building just a few blocks away. As we marched around downtown Denver I got to talk to a number of really interesting and wonderful people. There was one woman who was a Protestant convert to Orthodox Christianity who was thinking of joining the Catholic Church but still had some issues that she wanted to talk about (like the Church taking too liberal a line on natural family planning as well as dogmatic questions about Mary's Immaculate Conception and Assumption). There was another lady who survived an abortion as a child and later had to have a tumor removed from her head because of the chemicals that were used. Then there were all the other people who just wanted to meet me and say hi and to thank me for being there. Unfortunately there wasn't a very large presence of the clergy at the rally. I chatted with one of the seminarians from the diocese that I had met on a previous occasion. What the whole experience really brought home to me was the witness value of our way of life and in particular how important it is to wear the habit. It opens up a lot of doors and allows you to talk to people and be there for them because what I wear tells them volumes about me. I've noticed the same thing at the homeless shelter where people will talk to me about things that they might not tell anyone else. Which also makes the betrayal but the clergy responsible for the sexual abuse scandal and those who covered it up so horrendous and what grievous violation of trust it was - and that trust was huge.

On January 27 we had the local Franciscan student brothers and one priest over for the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas. I cooked pizzas using California Pizza Kitchen's recipe. I also made stuffed mushrooms and bread pudding for desert. All in all it turned out pretty well and it always fun to hang out with them.

Well that's all for now. Until next time, take care and God bless.

2006-11-26T11:19:00.000-08:00

After a lot of prayer and reflection, Br. Peter decided that Dominican life was not him - not because anything was going wrong but because everything was going well and he was still unhappy. We took him to the airport on Friday the 17th, one week after he first talked to me about leaving. I think he made the right decision and I hope that he continues to pursue the priesthood in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis (where he's from) - which seems to be his plan at the moment.

I don't think any of us realized how close we had gotten until Br. Peter decided to leave. I think that people leaving is particularly hard in religious life because the people you live with are both friends and brothers. In my life I've had to say some expected goodbyes to friends as we graduated from high school or college and went our separate ways and also some very unexpected and very painful goodbyes as well. Now thankfully Br. Peter is not dead and I hope we will continue to be friends in this life and the next, but it is still hard to see him go because he was also a brother. We joined the Dominican family together because we thought God was asking us to give our lives to the preaching of the Gospel for the salvation of souls (which is the mission of the Order). To have someone leave is really hard and the smaller the group the harder it is.

Still I've really been able to see God's hand this and brings a lot of comfort. I was blessed to have Peter around for 4 months and to become friends with him even though this was not where God intended him to stay. I got lucky that he didn't find his vocation right away because if he had I wouldn't have known him. His leaving has given me the opportunity to be a true friend - one that tries to help the other person go where they are being called regardless of the high cost to myself. Finally, I've seen it challenge my thinking about my vocation and understanding why he left helps me understand why I choose to stay. It was a very difficult time but also a very graced one and I am thankful to God for that.

(I started this post shortly after Thanksgiving and am just finishing it up now)

In the past few weeks since Peter has left things have returned to normal - it's not the same as before but it does feel normal once again. I've actually been a little surprised at how quickly we've all trasitioned to our new situation and that in has been good to see. I've spoken to Peter twice since his departure and he's doing well which is good. (If he had a big revelation on the plane home that he was making a big mistake I probably would have killed him for putting us through all that for nothing.)

2006-11-05T08:46:00.000-08:00

Caution: Long Overdue Update

I'm sorry that I haven't updated this thing in a while though lots of stuff has been going. I'll try and keep it brief as possible.

Last Saturday we went to a pro-life conference held at the diocesan seminary here which featured a professor from Noter Dame University and then a panel discussion that included the archbishop. A lot of good stuff present on the relation between law and cutlure and how the former affects the latter. All in all very good.

We had another workshop with the Holy Cross borthers on enneagrams given by a dominican sister named Maria Beesing. This is another type of personality test which focuses on what really motivates you. There are 9 basic motivators and I determined that I was a 5 with very heavy 1 influence. This means that I seek understanding with a heavy perfectionist bent to me. Then there was also considerable influence from a few other types including 8 which is described as the "champion" personality - someone who dedicates themselves to a cause. Sister Beesing described this type as people who have a soft heart that's wrapped in barbed wire (which I thought was a pretty hilarious way of putting it). The conference was good and pretty informative.

This is our basement were we did the workshop and the other photo is of Br. Nich talking to Sister Beesing.

Last week one of the wonderful people who attends morning Mass in our chapel gave us 4 tickets for the Colts and Broncos game. Br. Peter was of course thrilled and as a favor to him I decided to root for the Broncos who then of course lost. It was a really good game though and I really enjoyed being there. The stadium is awesome because, unlike Soldier Field, the seats rise rather sharply and it gives the place an almost cozy feel. For reasons passing understanding the game we went to had the third highest attendance in Broncos history with 75,051 people. The game itself was really good although, if I am going to try and enjoy a football game, I think I'd rather watch TV because I can't really tell what's going on the field. I think the best part of that day was watching a team of kids from the Boys and Girls Club play football against a team of Mascots. Absolutely hilarious.

Here's me and Br. Peter at the game.

Halloween was pretty cool. We dressed up as Dominicans. I gave the kids in my religious ed class the day off which meant that I had the week off which was kinda nice. Last year one of the guys dressed up in his habit, including the big black cape, and then held the big bowl of candy in front of him with the cape wrapped around the sides. One of the other friars then hid under cape and when a kid reached into the bowl to get candy he would jump our and scare the living crap out of th ekids. We're not that creative unfortunately. We did do some pumpkin carving though. I tried to carve an upside down bat but unfortunately cut too far in one direction and basically ruined it. Se la vi.

Here is Fr. Bob in phantom of the opera costume. To top off the night we watched the Three Amigos. So funny.

I've been working on my cooking skills though. These past weeks I've been on the Saturday night cooking team and kinda took the lead on these projects. Last week we made chicken in a white wine and mushroom sauce along with angel hair pasta in a marina sauce which turned out rather well. Last night I got some recipes off-line for some Olive Garden and made beef marinated in an italian dressing sauce with a balsamic glaze served with fettucini alredo with spinich, green onions, and mushrooms which was pretty tasty. Oh and Brushcetta for an appetizer. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why friars usually have that Friar Tuck physique.

Here's us last night with Bob Pickering who regualrly joins us for evening prayer and might be joining the Dominican Laity sometime in the near future.

This past week we had another conference with the Holy Cross brothers - this time on the Psalms. It was pretty interesting but there isn't much to tell. The holy cross brothers did make a ton of awesome food for us though.

Here we are in the dining room of the Holy Brothers novitiate.

Sister Howell gave us the conference from the psalms. She now teaches at Aquinas Institute which, God willing, I will be going to next year.

Well that's all for now (and isn't that enough). Take care and God bless.

2006-10-22T16:43:00.000-07:00

And the beat goes on, sort of...

Well for all the talk of routinue in novitiate it seems like there is always something different going on every week or almost every night even which just throws the schedule off a little bit. I'm really beginning to appreciate our Prior's idea that the novitiate year is when you have all the time in the word and you can't get anything done. Since this kinda bothers I'm thinking that it's something that I need to work on. I really like routine but life is anything but so we might as well get used to that fact as soon as possible.

My ministries have all been going pretty well. This past Wednesday with the 7th graders I was supposed to help them complete a worksheet which somehow never made it into my possession so I had to basically wing it that class. We ended up doing a short exercise on Jesus' use of the title Son of Man and then had a discussion about that. Some of the questions and answers these kids asked were so thoughtful that I was just blown away. The homeless shelter was also really good. An impromtu prayer group has sort of poppped up at the end of my shift which included me, a Protestant guy getting his masters in theology, and then two guys who are deacon candidates for the archidiocese. When I got there this past Wednesday I had lunch with this one homeless guy who was telling me about his bank card got stolen and he got wiped out and so he couldn't keep his apartment and then he said, "But yeah know, God has blessed me so much. I'm really grateful." That was just amazing.

On the left is me demonstrating the deifference between the physical form of a symbol and its meaning. On the the right, one of the students in the front row has decided to take a good stiff drink to remedy the headache he's getting.

On Friday night I went to my first ever Theology on Tap, which is an event for young people held at a bar where some speaker comes in talks about some sort of Catholic topic. It was pretty good although I have to admit I spent most of the time talking to a guy I had met in Chicago who was thinking about joining the order.

Last night Br. Peter and I tagged along with some of the senior community to this hole in the wall BBQ place that had really awesome food. After dropping the senior memers off at the priory Br. Peter decided that we needed a little blast from the past and drove us to a nickel arcade where we spent about 2 hours playing games that I haven't seen in years...it was awesome. Well that's all for now. Have a good week and God bless.

2006-10-09T14:57:00.000-07:00

Let the Good Times Roll...

This was an interesting week. The novice master went to England to get art for a fundraiser that we do every other year and for part of the time of his absence the vocations director Fr. Wisdom was in town along with one of the guys who is going to be applying for next year's class - Ryan Cody - who is a great guy.

Br. Peter does ministry once a week with Mother Theresa's group the Missionaries of Charity and this weekend they were celebrating the 56th anniversary of their foundation. So they have a little mass in their chapel with Archbishop Chaput presiding and a small reception after Mass. Well after the Mass we're all hanging around and the archibishop walks in starts doing his whole meet and greet routine. He goes up to Br. Peter and says hello and of course he doesn't know Br. Peter's name. So Br. Peter says, "Oh we've met before don't you remember me?" And so the archbishop is really apologetic and feels terrible and then Br. Peter says "Oh just kidding!" Well that is round one.

Then the archbishop comes to me introduces himself and I say, "Oh hi Your Grace, I'm Br. Nick" to which he replies, "Oh St. Nicholas of Some-place-or-other-that-I've-never-heard-of." I give him this blank stare and then say questioningly, "Santa Clause?" We all started laughing but he must have thought there were a few cards missing from my deck.

Here are some pictures of the scene:

The guy in the green shirt is Ryan. The short nun standing in front of me is one of the most joyful people you will ever meet.

Here's Fr. Wisdom and myself in front of Mother Theresa's stantue and then me with Ryan enjoying a muffin.

So then on Saturday we decide to go up to the cabin the mountains outside Boulder (same place as labor day) to just kick back and relax which was really nice. It was actually a little chily, hence the nice fire we had going (see pictures below). But I cooked dinner which consisted of shirp and pasta in a light tomato gralic sause and some roasted vegetables - both of which I learned to make from my mom - and both turned out quite well.

This is picture of me getting toasty by the fire while I contemplate the Koran which I'm reading. Let me just reassure all the doubtful minds out there that I will not be converting anytime soon.

Here you can see the sumptuous feast that I prepared (with some help from Br. Paul). Ryan brought a nice wine from Chateauneuf De Pape (The House of the Pope). The vineyard was first planted in France after John XXII built a summer castle for himself (you know nothing much, but he called it home).

And of course what Saturday would be complete without Br. Peter watching football or Br. Paul pretending he to be some sort of holy contemplative monk.

Last night Fr. Wisdom treated us to the Olive Garden and then we
went to see The Departed which is a very good movie except for the last few minutes which kind of let you down but otherwise it's really good. All in all a very good time.

2006-10-01T10:24:00.000-07:00

Short and Sweet...

This has gone by pretty quickly with not too much out of ordinary. On Wednesday night though we got to go to see the Colorado Rockies play the Los Angeles Dodgers which was really fun. The Rockies were up until about the 6 inning and then unfortunately gave up a few runs and ended up with a loss. But it was good times and the foot-long hotdog that devoured was delicious. Of course the prices there are highway robbery. Fr. Louis was cold so he got a cup of coffee - $4.50! It would have been a lot cheaper to go to Starbucks. Unfortunately there are no pictures because Br. Paul, the chronicler, forgot the camera.

On Tuesday I had another class session witht he teenage kids that I'm preparing for First Communion and First Confession at Eastertime. This week I wanted to talk to them about the soul and why it is that people believe in the existence of the soul. Is it just a nice story that someone invented or are there real logical reasons which point to its existence. This is a foundational question and I think it's important that they see that revelation is not divorced from reason. Also, if they believe in a soul even if they don't believe in Catholicism then perhaps it will spur them on in the future to pursue the truth. We went at it from a sort of Aristotian understanding of things and I tried to use the Socratic method to get them to see how the mind does things that cannot be attributed to a purely entity - namely the brain. onsidering how poor of an education these kids have had and how new to teaching I am I thought the class went remarkably well. They engaged and answering questions and thinking. It was beautiful. One of the kids even told me that I had lost him in the last five minutes so we give a quick review of the main points.

The homeless shelter ministry this week was interesting and I talked to a few guys who had some interesting backgrounds. The 7th graders at the school I help out at were great. I gave a talk on what Pope Benedict said in his recent controversial speech about Islam and how reason and revelation are connected and why God cannot contradict Himself. The kids were good about responding to questions but occassionaly one would let loose with an answer that was so good it just made you pause.

On Satruday nights it's the novices turn to cook dinner and this week was my turn. So I made pizzas - no not from scratch but close enough. I thought they turned out great. Nothing quite like mountains of cheese and toppings.

Here are a few pictures from this week (apologies for the lack of Rockies game picutres - we had really good seats too - 13th row by thrid base).

This is just another photo of our chapel that I took after benediction on Thursday. We used a lot of incense which is why you can see the light streaming in.

This is just a cool shot of Fr. Louis that Br. Paul took in the main parish church that the Dominicans run in Denver.

And here is a nice shot of Br. Peter looking in the other direction of said church. Well that's all for now. Take care and God bless.

2006-09-26T10:32:00.000-07:00

Hang'in wit da Nuns...

On Wednesday afternoon we went to St. Walburga's Monestary which is about 2 hours away from us somewhere in Colorado. The monestary is inhabited by about 22 (although 2 are out of the country at the moment) Benedictine cloistered nuns (which means they don't leave the monestary grounds except for very good reason - (like having your visa expire)). They're a really wonderful group of women and they've been doing rather well in recruitment because 6 out of 22 of them are still in their formation years. Anyway, the reason we went there was to attend a workshop of lectio divina. This is an ancient way of praying with the Scriptures that is one of the primary forms of prayer used by the Benedictines.

The workshop was led by the addess Mother Maria Michael who is just a gem of a human being and really very wonderful. The whole point of lectio divina is to listen to God speaking to you in His inspired words and the basic process of lectio divina has 4 steps:
1) Pray to God that you do it correctly and actually try to listen to Him instead of talking all the time
2) read a passage from Scripture very slowly (usually one of the readings for that day's Mass) and listen for a word or phrase that jumps out at you
3) reread the passage again very slowly and keep listening (for the phrase doesn't usually jump out until I reread it)
4) meditate on the word or phrase and use it as a basis of mediation and prayer
5) if God so decides, you'll enter a period of contemplation in which you just sit quietly in His presence - this doesn't always happen because it is the gift of God and not us - we just have to be ready for it

One of the things which you can do which I've started myself is to keep a list of all the phrases the jump out from day to day. The message you get over time can be very interesting. I thought the workshop is great and I think that I will be making lectio a permanent part of my prayer routine. I've already been getting up a half hour early in the morning to do it for the past few days and any body who has seen me try to function in the morning knows that that is not the easiest thing in the world for me but I think that it serves as a good anchor for the day. Speaking of the day the nuns start their morning prayer (called matins) at 4:50 in the morning! I did that on Thursday and it was beautiful but I would like to take this opportunity to thank God that that is not my vocation. The nuns do seem to love their life though so I'm happy that they're happy.

Below are some pictures from the trip. I'm sorry I don't have more. The rock formations all around us were just beautiful so I'm sorry that I don't have more to show you but it was an awesome place to do some contemplation.

Here are a few pictures:

This is a picture of us with Mother Maria Michael the abbess. The man straegically placed behind the abbess and myself to conceal the fact that he isn't wearing his habit is Fr. Bob.

Another shot of us with Mother Maria Michael and the statue of St. Walburga in the background.

A great photo taken by Br. Paul of Br. Peter during his midafternoon "meditation," as I like to call it.

Finally here is an old photo from the night of our vestition when we recieved the habit of St. Dominic. You will notice that the statue of St. Dominic above us is wearing the latest fashion from the 13th century just as we are. Now I'm not sure that's exactly what he wore but the habit has changed very little during the past 800 years.

Oh, and little mystery was solved the other night at dinner. This family who had a son in last year's novice class invited the three of us and Fr. Louis to dinner the other night and somehow the topic of conversation got around to ghost stories. So I mentioned a little incident which happened in our chapel about 2 weeks ago. Our chapel is basically a rectangle with the entrance door at one end and the tabernacle at the end. When you enter, immediately on your left side there is a piano and on the right an organ. If you go 3/4 of the way down the chapel you hit the alter and to the right of the alter is a door leading to the sacristy where the priests get ready for Mass. I'm sitting that the piano perfecting this melodious voice of mine when the door to the sacristy starts opening about half way and slamming shut over and over again. Then the door starts opening wider and slamming shut even more violently. So naturally I'm freaking out and sitting at the piano praying while half in shock at what I'm seeing. So it stops and after a few minutes I get up to investigate to see if maybe there was some stange air current that might be responsible but I examine the door and find that once closed you have to turn the handle to open it. Next, I suspect my brothers, especially Br. Peter who seems like the type who would pull something like this but Br. Paul tells me that he hadn't seen Br. Peter leave that whole time and he insists that he was upstairs the entire time. So I'm generally confused. Well, at dinner I'm recounting the whole story and with a devilish grin Br. Paul says, "Oh yeah, that was me." Me: "What!?!?!"
But we all had a good laugh and I have to admit that it was a brilliant prank. Would have nice if he hadn't waited 2 stink'in weeks to tell me. If anybody would like to contribute any suggestions about how I might repay my brother please email me (nmonco@gmail.com) or add a comment. Anyways the dinner was delicious and we just had a really good time.

Well that's all for now. Have a good week and God bless!

2006-09-18T18:41:00.000-07:00

Ministry Begins...

As part of first we are obligated to do a ministry one day a week. We had already made visits to the various sites that people had volunteered at in the past and made our recommendations to Fr. Louis about what we wanted to do. At the end of the workshop with the Holy Cross brothers he told us our assignments. On Wednesday morning I will be helping out at a Denver gradeschool run by Dominican nuns and in the afternoons I will be at a homeless shelter run by the Fransicans. This is the first time that a novice has had has time split between two ministries and I'm extremely happy about that because I think that I will get exposure to ministering to two very different groups of people that I normally wouldn't have any contact with. And the two groups couldn't be more different. The grade school kids come from upper middle class and wealthy families and are mostly white. The homeless people come from all different racial groups and often times from troubled families. Not to mention the fact that some are coping with seriuos alcohol and drug addicions or the after-effects of previous additions and some are mentally challenged. On top of these official assignments I've volunteered to prepare a group of teenagers for their first communion and first confession at Easter time. The kids, all 14 or so of them, are Hispanic but fluent in English. There is quite clearly a broad range of interest levels in the topic and many are, even if interested, reluctant to speak up too much in class. So this is going to be a challenge but I'm looking forward to it. I know that I will do a better job with them than almost anyone else would and part of that stems from the fact that I think they can handle this process like adults - this doesn't mean that they are well educated or that I'm going to give them a lot of high theology but it does mean that I won't spend my time wasting their time on crap like drawing pictures of the bread and wine. And of course at bottom it really isn't my fault or credit if they become good Catholics. I'm going to throw a lot of time and effort and enthusiasm into this but the work of conversion is God's job and it's their job to accept His grace and it's comforting to know that. (Not that I won't brag if one of them becomes Pope).

At the gradeschool I'm going to help this wonderful young nun, Sister Mary Sabine with her first two 7th grade religion classes and then help a laywoman teacher whose name escapes me at the moment, with her 7th grade math class. At the homeless shelter I'm mainly gonig to be doing what is called a ministry of presence in which I basically walk around and greet people and talk to them and just be there for them. I've heard from the Dominican Brother who worked there last year that people see the habit you're wearing and so they just come up and talk to you about stuff - usually in a friendly way although some choose to make you their dumping ground for the problems they have with the Church but that's just the way things go.

In other news the pool at Regis University is now open and Br. Peter and I have been going quite frequently. Peter is learning how to swim and has made a lot of progress and I have managed to lose a few pounds from around the waistline which is always exciting.

Br. Peter figured out how to get the photos from out camera from said samera to the computer so without further ado here are some photes of what's going on here.

This is a photo of this past Saturday night. Fr. Louis was out of town so Br. Peter decided as our recreation for the evening we'd have college night. That meant ordering pizza, watching college football, telling college stories, staying up late (or late for us I should say) and not cleaning up our mess until the next morning.

These are my two classmates - Brs. Peter (right) and Paul (left).

This is a picture of the three novices with Peter on the left and Paul on the right. Fr. Louis is in back left part of the picture and Fr. Wisdom, the Vocations Director, is on the right.

Br. Peter and myself hiking by the lake near the Dominican cabin the mountains on Labor Day. The picture was taken by Br. Paul.

Well that's all for now. Take care and God bless.

2006-09-09T15:09:00.000-07:00

Busy Week...

I hope everyone had a good Labor Day weekend - I certainly did. About 70 years some nice old lady donated a cabin in the mountains about an hour and half outside of Denver to the Dominicans when we used to staff a parish up there. So allof us novices and the whole senior community went up there for a nice cookout and a hike along the lake. Unfortunately no swimming is allowed in the lake which is a tragedy because the water is cold but not freezing and therefore perfect for long-distance swimming practice. Oh well. Otherwise is was a beautiful day out and I had a good time.

Then on Tuesday we had some important visitors. The Constitutions of the Dominican Order mandate that the Master of the Order visit all the provinces (I think twice) in his 9 year term. Because of some scheduling conflict we actually did not get to meet the #1 guy but had to settle for #2 and I think #4. Two very nice brothers - one from Brazil and I think one from France. We had three meetings - one individual, then one with all us novices together, then one with the whole community. In the second meeting they asked us some questions about where we would like to go and what would we like to do outside of the US. I said that I would like go to Singapore or Hong Kong because "they speak English there." Then we asked them what they thought were some of the biggest problems in the Order today. One thing they mentioned was the rleuctance of people to travel outside their own provinces and go abroad. That was kinda awkward.

Then on Wednesday we, the novices and Fr. Louis, went to the Holy Cross noviate, which was about two hours today from some workshops on peronsality. We stayed in there place for two nights and let me tell you, they have some swanky accomadations. They have about 200 acres with beautiful mountain views, a mansion, a guest cottage, a workout facility, and 2 hermitages. The mansion where I stayed was beautiful and very old fashioned (separate staircase for the servants and all that). The Holy Cross brothers themselves were really a good bunch of guys and very generous and hospitable. Also a very diverse group. One of their novices is 60 years old and has a son older than I am! Another was from Africa and another one was Iowa's strongest man in 2004 or something like that. The workshops centered around the Myers-Briggs personality test which basically tells you what type of personality you are. I am a INTJ - which means introverted, intuitive, thinking, judger. This type is classified as the "mastermind" personality. The exact opposite would be an extroverted sensing feeling perceiver. The whole purpose of this was to help us understand why we sometimes react they way we do, how our brothers view the world, and what impact our personality has on our spiritual life and the places where we need to challenge ourselves. One prayer which fits people like me is: Lord, please help me to be open to the ideas of others, wrong though they may be. All in all very informative. I have to add in here that the Holy Cross brothers cook dinner for themselves every night and they are quite good at it.

2006-09-03T10:33:00.000-07:00

Catching Up

I've been a little lazy in my posting duties lately so there's a bit to catch up on since my last post.

First, there was vestition. That's the name of the ceremony where you get the habit of the Dominican order. If you go to google and search images for St. Dominic you'll see what I'm talking about. If you want to, you can choose to have the Order give you a religious name at that time. You submit three choices and usually your new name comes from that list but there is no guarantee. After getting some input from my family, especially my mother, I decided to stay with Nicholas. Tony got the name Peter and Michael got the name Paul - which I thought was a good choice for both.

Second, there is the near death experience on the mountain. Br. Peter thought it would be a good idea to go hiking in mountains at a place about 25 minutes away from where we live and so Br. Paul and decided to join him. Everything was fine going up the mountain. When we finally got to the top though we noticed that a rather nasty looking storm was rolling in very very quickly. We spent the next 50 minutes bsically jogging down the mountain in freezing rain and getting soaked to the bone while praying that we wouldn't be struck by any of the lightning which was flashing all around us. We finally made it to the base of the mountain and started walking across this field toward our car. Just as I looked up lightning stuck the top of a small ridge quite close to us. Peter, who was in the lead, turned around and said "I think we should keep runnning." Which Paul and I thought was a great idea. So thankfully we made it back to the car alive. On the ride home Peter told me to look at the map of all the trails in the area where we had been. I noticed that the trail we took was more than twice as long as any other trail and was the only one labeled "strenuous."

Thirdly, I had my first birthday with the Dominicans here in Denver. Things went quite well. I heard the wong "Happy Birthday" 4 times which is a record. One of the ladies who regualrly goes to morning Mass, Judy, invited the three of us and Fr. Louis out to lunch which was prepared by her and her family - so that was really nice. Then after visiting a shrine to Mother Cabrini up on top of this mountain (we drove up this mountain thank God) we get home and had dinner with the senior community of Dominicans here. The cook, Diana, made pasta and shrimp as I requested and I of course had three helpings...and some apple pie for desert. Then two parents and a sister of one of members of last year's class came over and brought two cakes with them. (At this point I'm so full from dinner and lunch it's painful to even think about food. Oh and my mother sent a batch of crescent cookies which are absolutely delicious so of course I've had some of those as well.) Thankfully we didn't start eating the cakes until after some festivities - which included the wierdest game of pin the tail on the donkey I've ever seen. The rule was that whereever you first touched the wall that was where you had to put the tail. Only one person managed to hit the donkey at all (me), one other person managed to hit the right wall, and one person wasn't even in the right room when they finished. A very fun night. Interestingly, the wine didn't make an appearance till after the games were over with.

I went back and read the 3rd and 4th Harry Potter books which were both very good and have gotten about halfway through an okay biography of St. Dominic. I also finished Celibacy in Crisis and The Unhealed Wound which my parents had given me. Both books were by former priests and approached the crisis in the Church from various perspectives - neither of which I agreed with. The Unhealed Wound by Eugene Kennedy was this long sort of anti-Catholic rant which attacked the Church on everything from celibacy to abortion to women priests. The real problem is that Kennedy thinking he's on the inside of the Church making a contribution when in fact he's on the outside yelling in. There is a real unhealed would though that needs addressing and that is the wound is in Mr. Kennedy himself. He left the priesthood many years ago and has never recovered. His own unwillingness to live up to the vows he took and accept the responsibility given to him at his ordination is evident in how he trats John Paul II. Kennedy says that he can look at JPII and see in his sad eyes (or something like that) a man who is wounded because he divides the flesh from the spirit is basically being hurt by his celibate commitment. Pstchologists would call this projection and Mr. Kennedy is a poster-child for it.

Celibacy in Crisis is a much more interesting book which builds on Richard Sipe's many years a psycholgist working with priests. He presents a lot of facts and figures which are inciteful in mnay ways. The biggest problem with his work is that it is dated and more data has since been revealed about the crisis. Many of the problems in seminary training he talks about have disappeared and don't resemble what is going on today in seminary formation programs. Not only but there is a the perception, which Sipe seems to have, that the crisis existed uniformly over time and across the United States which is absolutely not true. Most of the incidents took place over 20 years ago and the perpetrators were not evenly distributed amongst seminaries. On that second point, there was a story that came out not too long ago on how soemthing like 10% of all the priests who graduated from the Los Angeles seminary in the past 40 years or so had been accused of abuse. This is a really high rate compared to most seminaries but on top of that, in certain classes during the late 60's and early 70's almost of a third of the class was accused of abuse. This seminary is also reported to have had an atmosphere of sexual licentiousness. This is the exception which is being regarded as a rule. For more stats on the abuse crisis go here.

Well that's enough of that for now. Have a good day and God bless.

2006-08-20T15:46:00.000-07:00

Getting Started

Well I just got back from a 5 day retreat on Friday and will receive the habit of the Dominicans in about 2 hours. There is an old custom in the Dominicans that friars take a new name once they receive the habit but after talking it over with people, especially my mother, I decided against this idea so I will be good old Br. Nicholas.

The retreat was pretty relaxing and it was nice to have a lot of time to read and think - although to be honest I think I've done enough thinking about being a Dominican and would actually like to start being one.

I just finished reading George Wiegel's The Cube and the Cathedral which is about secularism and its effects in Europe. His main argument is that Europe is in a cultural crisis - as evidenced by the low rate of births, refusal to deal with an impending financial crisis from its entitlement programs, and most importantly its radical phobia of having God, Jesus, or religion mentioned in the public square - that will lead to Europe's downfall if current trends are not reversed.

Hopefully in the next few days we will get our membership cards to the fitness center at Regis University. Reading and praying doesn't take nearly enough energy.

Tomorrow we're going to get a big debriefing on what is really expected of this year and our schedules and all that so I will let you know what's going on once I figure it out myself.

That's all for now. Take care and God bless.

It Begins

2006-07-24T22:54:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone! Welcome to my blog.

I've been with the Dominicans for a little over a week now and things are going pretty well. For the time being I'm staying at the Priory Campus of Dominican University which was the old House of Studies (grad school) for the province. Tomorrow I will be flying out to Denver to see the guys there make their temporary vows. Then the three of us are off on retreat for a week. When we come back we will be given the Dominican Habit (the uniform) (for a picture of it just google "St. Dominic" and click on the images page). More on the Denver weekly schedule once I have more information.

Many people have asked about how long it takes to become a priest and all that so here is outline of the path ahead:

year 1: Noviatiate - no vows taken but you live as if you had taken the vows - spent in Denver
year 2: Begin by taking temporary vows for two years - begin graduate studies in St. Louis at the House of Studies there
year 3: more studies - do some sort of ministry in the summer
year 4: begin by renewing temporary vows for two more years - start doing ministry full-time for one year at one of the Order's centers
year 5: complete graduate school - at the end of year you decide whether or not to make your solemn vows (life-long committment to the Order) - get ordained a deacon
year 6/7: depending on how much theology you need and other considerations you spend either 1 or 2 years as a deacon doing studies and lots of pastoral work - at the end of year 6 or 7 you get ordained a priest

One odd thing to note: most religous orders take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience and perhpas a fourth special vow depending on which order you join. The Dominicans only take a vow of obedience - we live a life of chastity and poverty but those flow from our obedience and are not separate vows.

The other two guys with me in the novitiate couldn't be more different. Tony is from Indianapolis and a graduate of Noter Dame University and of the ACE program (got his masters in edication after teaching for 2 years at a poor Catholic school in Mississippi) who is a sports nut and seems to have endless reserves of enthusiasm. He also uses the word "awesome" a lot. It is possible that he knows some other adjectives too but I cannot attest to that fact from personal experience. However, he also has a very contempitive side to him which I'm sure most people don't get to see.

Mike is the exact opposite. He's from Kentucky and went to Thomas More college there. He is a very interested in literature and loves to read and write. On top of that he is generally pretty quite and really likes to observe what's going on around him and take it all in, which is sort of like me at most times. Also like me, he is not a avid sports fan or athelete but unlike me he does not fight the desire not to work out and still manages to be the thinnest of the three of us. Being vegetarian probably helps in that regard.

We've spent a lot of time in the past week and a half working on our prayer lives, taking plenty of time for both private and communal prayer. We've been thrown headfirst into the Divine Office (aka the Liturgy of the Hours) which is a set of prayers that are done at various times during the day which can be said or sung. A big part of them is the psalms which I've never really paid much attention to in the past but have grown on me tremendously - they really are very beautiful and you begin to see how they really the outpouring of the heart to God, whether in good times or bad.

Seeing and talking to a lot of the older brothers has really been rewarding. The vocations director, Father Andrew-Carl Wisdom (yes, that is his real name), always wants the recruits and the new members of the order to spend time with the older guys because he wants to see what it's like to be a friar after you've pasted your prime. So last week we went to visit some of the older guys who could no longer live at our own retiremnt community and had to be in the nursing home. It was really great to see these men, who were still mentally very sharp but physically handicapped in various ways, and to see their own joy at being a Dominican. One of the priests we saw, Fr. Joe Hren (who taught my dad and then talk me for about 2 months as a sub) recognized me and remembered my name almost immediately even though I haven't seen him in years and he had a rather bad stroke which partially paralysed his right side. Then there is Fr. Gramm who probably one of the funniest people I have met in my whole life - when it was time to go I didn't want to leave. Last night I was at the retirement center with most of the Dominicans in the Chicago area celebrating the Feast of St. Dominic. Well after dinner Fr. Walter O'Connell, who used to run Fenwick High School and is now 77 years old introduced to his tradition of arm-wrestling the novices. I'm ashamed to admit that it took less than a minute for him to beat me in a fair game. I didn't feel so bad when I found out Tony had failed on a previous visit and that he vanquished some of the novices last years who had much bigger arms than I did.

Well that's all for now. I will try to update this site once more before I go on my week-long retreat beginning Sunday. Take care and God bless.