Iconography

It's been a while since I last wrote, and many things have happened, both good and mediocre. One of the real blessings has been the opportunity to write an Icon. An icon is not technically a work of art, but rather a prayer form of the Eastern Church, which has its roots steeped in an artistic tradition that is highly symbolic. Simply put, an icon is not about artistic talent, but obedience to a set of artistic forms to proclaim the Gospel in pictures. It's really fascinating, but I don't have the time to elaborate more right now. Below are some pictures of me working on it in various stages. Please pray for me, as the process of creation is a spiritual journey. Hopefully, I will be finished sometime this spring. You can see the finished image in the second picture next to me. The name of the image is "Our Lady of Kazaan"

Blessings to you!

Mark

Silent Retreat and Week of Homilies

(pictures of the retreat house)

Grace and Peace to you and your loved ones!

My friends, God is good to us, more so than we deserve. Last week, I was priviledged to spend a week in Silent retreat at a Jesuit retreat house in Dronghen. The Grounds were beautiful and the time was so necessary to come to terms with the new life that I am living. I realize that nothing is familiar to me here except my faith, and the foundational relationship with Jesus Christ is all that remains when the other externals are stripped away. I thank you all for your prayers, because even in the midst of such turmoil and change, the Lord has been a constant presence to me here. I must mention also, the effects of your rosaries and mass intentions: Mary has long been my mother, and she, through the mercy and grace of God, has been comforting me during this time of transition. I know, in the depth of my heart, that the Lord will not abandon me, or any of us for that matter. Thanks be to God for His generosity!

In addition to the retreat, we were graced this week to have a homiletics workshop with Fr. Jim Wallace, C.S.S.r. His talks were excellent and I had the opportunity to write my first homily! I hope to be able to continue learning techniques for crafting better sermons and, through prayer and study, grow in deeper awareness of God's mystery.

(picture: a path at Dronghen, metaphor for spiritual journey)


We begin classes on Tuesday! I can hardly wait to get started. God continues to confound me and bless me more than I deserve. According to my study program, I could potentially be finished with my bachelors in one-and a half years! This is a civil degree, but it pairs up with the cannonical degree of S.T.B, which could also be finished in a little under 2 years! Afterwards, I would do my Masters, which pairs with the S.T.L. lasting about 2 years. In 3 and 1/2 years from now, I could be done with what would normally be 5 years! This is both a shock and humbling, for I know it means that I will be working very hard. Yet, I know that I am here by grace anyway, and the Lord will not give me more than I can handle. Please pray that I have wisdom and discernment regarding what exactly God is asking me to do with studies, so that I don't bite off more than I can chew.

I miss you all and hope that you are doing well. May God's love be with each of your families and fill you abundantly this day. I have Skype with an American phone number now, if you would like to call me. Just drop me an email and I'll give it to you. Until next time...

(Just a picture of a rib-dinner that I had with my brothers not too far from the college...amazing food...yes I know I'm random, but I liked it!)

New Life in Leuven!

It has been a wild ride these last few days! Thanks to all for the birthday greetings. I can honestly say that it was one of the most wonderful birthdays I've had, beginning with the airlines upgrading my seat for free--business class is really nice! When I arrived, my luggage was still in London, so I was stuck with the clothes on my back and my computer. Thanks be to God for answered prayer! (don't ask for poverty unless you really want it :)) That evening, we had a BBQ social and my first Belgian beers, which were pretty good. After not sleeping well, we had a full day of orientation conferences and dinner at an Italian restaurant with the priest faculty and new seminarians in town. Yesterday was spent at town hall and the International student office taking care of registration in the morning, followed by a free afternoon of wandering in the city. That evening we watched "Molokai-the story of Fr. Damian" in preparation for today's activities.

Today, we celebrated morning mass at St. Anthony's church, where the relics of Blessed Damian of Molokai (a Belgian saint) are kept. Afterwards, we boarded a bus and drove to his birthplace and took a tour of his home. For those of you unfamiliar with his story, blessed Damian went to the leper colony on the island of Molokai in the 19th century, caring for the sick, building houses and churches, and living in solidarity with the lepers who were quarantined by order of the government. He faced many hardships, since there were an average of 1000 lepers at any given time, no laws or law enforcement, and he was literally their only caregiver. His requests for better aid were largely ignored by both the government and his superior. Yet he endured slander and ridicule with profound humility, and continued to care for the sick and administer the sacraments. Eventually, he contracted leprosy and died from it--but the witness of his life and death changed the world and brought public attention to the disease of leprosy. Largely due to his witness, medicine was developed in the last century to cure it. Incidentally, Blessed Damian's canonization is due this year or next, and we will all go to Rome for the mass when it happens. You are probably wondering what my accommodations look like and such...well, they are modest but quite comfortable. It is probably the same size as my room at Mt. Angel, but it is split into two levels: the ground level with sink, desk and bookshelf, and the loft with my bed and clothes. We are on the fifth floor, so I have a great view of the city and the garden in the backyard. here are a few pictures.

Life is good here. There are 11 of us in the house, so it is very small, but they are all really good men. The Lord is already beginning to work on me, so prayers are appreciated. We begin our retreat this Sunday, so the rest of this week is still orientation stuff. I miss you all and pray that our Lord bless and keep you. Until next time...

World Youth Day 2008

Peace be with You!

My World Youth Day experience was quite interesting. My cousin Ali, her boyfriend Kyle, and I went to Australia with a group called ICPE (Institute for World Mission) who train missionaries from all over the world to do Catholic evangelism. Here is a picture of our sleeping accommodations the first night at the airport.Our first two days were at a charismatic youth conference called Firebrandz (http://www.firebrandz.net/) and I was privileged to help out as an MC for the first day. We were blessed with great speakers, powerful preaching, and anointed praise bands during our time there, and it was a great way to set the tone for the next two weeks. I also got to meet quite a few people from all over the world, and they all told me that I look like Jim Carey. I have never been asked to be in so many pictures in my entire life!

During Days in the Diocese, we stayed with Angela and Sam, our wonderful host family, along with three youth from India. Angela is a hairstylist who specializes in making wigs for people who have lost their hair. My cousin Ali and Swathi (one of the Indian girls) really enjoyed getting their hair done every morning! Our hosts were more than gracious, taking us to the zoo (kangaroos, apes, lions, elephants, and a tiger), providing our meals, and being available to take us anywhere we wanted to go. They are truly beautiful people who love the Lord. This is a picture of us atop the Realto towers, one of the tallest buildings in the world. Days in the Diocese was fairly uneventful after the opening mass at the Telstra dome, as the schedule was taking pilgrimages around the city at your pleasure, visiting churches, and so on. Since several people in our group got sick, it was a good opportunity to rest and get over jet lag. Probably the most "touristy" time of our stay in Australia. I did some shopping and got a cool hat, which I now wear everywhere. I was a little frustrated with the lack of doing pilgrim things, but knew I needed the rest as well.
The event "World Youth Day" is actually a week of activities leading up to the Sunday when the Pope has the mass with all the youth. The schedule for the week was morning catechesis at the nearest parish (next to our lodging) and an afternoon of youth festival--activities ranging from concerts, conferences, exhibits, film screenings, plays...almost anything you could imagine...which made it difficult to decide what you wanted to see most! I ended up going to two of Christopher West's talks, a talk on Creation and Evolution by Cardinal Schoenborn, and a couple other random things during the week.

The Pope arrived on Thursday and gave a welcome speech. Within the course of 11 minutes, he welcomed everyone, thanked everyone, offered reconciliation to the Aborigines, showed how every modern evil comes from moral relativity, showed that Christ is the only way to heal our world, and called everyone to deeper holiness--all the while doing it so gently that I was simply blown away. The full text is here http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2008/july/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20080717_barangaroo_en.html .

Friday we had living stations of the cross which traveled throughout the city for each different station. If was quite a spectacle of faith and the artistic creativity of the Australians. I recommend looking for youtube videos of it, or searching for the official media player of world youth day through XT3's website.

Saturday was the big walk to Randwick racecourse for the Saturday night vigil with Pope Benedict and camping out under the stars. The afternoon was spent listening to concerts by Fr. Stan Fortuna, Matt Maher, and several others. The vigil was absolutely beautiful, with a quarter million catholics holding candles praying with the Pope. We had adoration of the blessed sacrament (in one of the biggest monstrances I've ever seen) for about 5 minutes and during that time there was a silence that I don't think that racetrack has ever experienced. The Pope prayed for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and at that moment, I felt a ripple flow out from his extended hands and wash over everyone. It was truly breathtaking. Here's a picture of our "campsite" as we finish up dinner and the pope, via video screen.

Looking back, the thing that sticks with me the most is the effect of joy on our world, a world which seems so pessimistic and sarcastic. The media in Australia began the week by telling the world how bad the Church is, airing all the "dirty laundry" of abuses right before the Holy Father's arrival. Yet, within the course of a few days, the tone changed. Testimonies flooded in from bus drivers, tram operaters and so on saying things like, "we've never seen such joy on the public transit system before...we want them to come back soon!" Indeed, genuine joy so flabbergasted the pundits that the worst they could do was say, "too bad it can't be like this year round"--implying that joy is fleeting. My friends, let us be counter-cultural and never stop showing the world that we have a cause for joy and it is Christ, the Light that never fades! I have hope for our future, a hope that isn't based on a feeling, but on Christ, because of His Spirit who reigns in our hearts through our baptism. This week was about empowerment, "receiving the Power" to be a light to the world. May all of us be this light, not just priests and religious, but all the baptised, bringing Christ into every corner of the world! Amen.