Year finished, STB, Off to Mexico!

Dear friends in Christ,
As time goes by, it seems I get worse and worse at communicating. I plan on being more consistent this next year. I wanted to give all of you the brief update on my formation and life, but in short--it's simply breathtaking!
After a very hectic exam schedule and no time to pack afterwards, I came home on the 16th of June from Belgium. I received confirmation that I successfully completed the STB requirements (Sacred Theological Baccalaureate) and should be proclaimed today. It has been a great grace and I now have completed 3 degrees-BA in Philosophy/Religious Studies(Mt. Angel), BA in Theology and Religious Studies, and the STB (both in Leuven). God is so good in allowing me to finish the STB ahead of normal schedule, which should allow me to finish my Masters and Licentiate (STL) in 2 years more of school--putting the priestly ordination and return to Oregon sometime around 2013 if all goes well.
You might be wondering what I'm doing now. This year, I will be in the coastal town of Astoria, serving at Mary Star of the Sea parish on my pastoral year. It's a really small, but very close knit community and I'm really excited to be there this year, as there are many opportunities for service, teaching, as well as learning from the people. It will be a blessing to not have school for a year!
But before any of that can happen, I'll be leaving in 2 days for Queretaro, Mexico to study Spanish for 6 weeks! Please pray for me that I receive the gift of tongues and interpretation for this beautiful language so that I can serve the Spanish speaking people in our diocese better. Also pray for safety for me and my seminarian brother Jeff during our travels.
After I return from Mexico, my sister gets married in a week, followed by one week of break before beginning the year in Astoria! Life is crazy busy, but so blessed! Thank you for all of your prayers; my own desire and love for the priesthood increases with each new day and I can't wait to serve you. Please pray for me as always, that I can remain faithful to the calling of God for today and not live in the future--be assured of my prayers for you!

Christ's Peace to all,
Mark

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam!

Dear Friends in Christ,
Today, your prayers have borne fruit in this icon. The transformation over the last two weeks has simply been incredible! Not only is the icon done, but finished on a very special day for me: the anniversary of my Confirmation, and the anniversary of my Marian Consecration 5 years ago!

This image was written originally by Br. Claude of Mt. Angel at the request of my former spiritual director. He envisioned it as a "healing icon" for priests. It has truly been a blessing to write this icon during the year of the priest.

The lettering is Greek, and stands for "St. John", "Mother of God", and "Jesus Christ". The scene is, of course, reminiscent of John 19:26-27 where Christ from the cross says to Mary, "behold your son" and to John, "behold your mother". Mary is presenting the stole of the priesthood to John, emphasizing her title as "Mother of Priests".

As with any icon, everything is done for symbolic value. The colors reveal the truths of our faith as much as anything else: Mary is in Blue (Divinity, mystery, eternity) and Purple(royalty) emphasizing her as Queen Mother; John is in Red-Passion, Love; White-purity, uncreated light showing his innocence and love for Jesus and the Virgin; and the Gold leaf represents the Light of Grace and heaven. The shapes are not intended to be "natural" because it is meant to jar us into a different way of thinking: these are windows to heaven, where we will see things differently than we are used to. The perspective is skewed so that we see multiple angles at once (perhaps not in mine, because I'm not the greatest artist), and typically the "vanishing point" is "behind" the icon--drawing the faithful to look beyond the icon and into contemplation of heaven.

May Mary, the Mother of Priests and Mother of God pray for us, that we might follow her Son Jesus more closely everyday. Blessings to all of you!

Icon Progress part 5

Dear Friends,
It is almost finished! All that remains is touch-up work and the varnish. A heartfelt "thank you" to all of you for your prayers--The grace that got me through this last week was truly unbelievable. The Holy Spirit was very palpable during several of the phases. Glory be to God for all His mercy, most especially the gift of Mary, His Mother. I will post a full reflection of the meaning of the icon when it is varnished. Until then...

Icon Progress part 4

Halos are always challenging for me...Fr. Paul helped me a lot on these. Notice also the cool halo effect caused by scratching the gold with a cotton ball.

The other picture is an example of "puddling", a technique which first applies water, then dabs of paint which form "puddles" and diffuse through the water to make unique patterns. (the holy card is of John Vianney, and the small medallion is a relic of St. Faustina).

Icon Progress part 3

Day 3 picture

Icon Progress part 2

After another day of work, prayer, and iconography, here's the results: keep the prayers coming! Blessings to you all and Peace,

Mark
p.s. look at the pictures from the bottom up to see the progression, ditto on the previous post--blogger is not being cooperative...

Icon Progress

Dear Friends,
Thank you for your continued prayers! This week is the final push for me to get the icon done, and I'll be posting the pictures of the progress. Here are pictures from yesterday. There's been a lot of progress today, so stay tuned and keep praying for me! The date I'm aiming to be done by is the 21st of April: the anniversary of my confirmation and my Marian consecration. Blessings to all of you!

Love,
Mark