Happy New Year

I would like to wish everyone a happy New Year, and I hope and pray that all may grow in love for the Lord at this beginning of a new calendar year. I will be beginning my studies again soon, kicking off the new year with a priestly formation week at the Seminary. Please pray for the Seminarians during this new semester!

In other news, I would like to offer the Archbishop's column in the St. Louis Review from December 16 for those of you who may have questions concerning the St. Stanislaus Kostka parish. In it, the Archbishop outlines the situation and explains all the details quite well.

As archbishop, it is my responsibility to explain the situation to all of the faithful of the archdiocese, who are so deeply affected by what has happened, in order that they not be subjected to further confusion and division, that they not be deceived about the lawfulness and validity of sacraments celebrated by the schismatic priest and that they pray for the reconciliation of those who gone into schism. ( Read more...)

Please pray for the board members and priest who have turned away from communion with the Catholic Church, and also for Archbishop Burke, who has definitely been misrepresented by most media outlets as well as the board members and priest of St. Stanislaus Kostka parish. Unlike what they have said, the Archbishop is not 'in it for the money' or 'not being Christ-like.' Read his column if you disagree.

Prayer Request for Vocation

I just received a prayer request from the master of the blog " To Jesus Through Mary." Please pray for his mother to be accepting and encouraging of his possible vocation to the priesthood.

Please also pray for all parents to be willing and open to any call that their children may receive. Many vocations are not cultivated because of non-supportive parents.

Pictures of Seminary's St. Joseph Chapel

I have posted some pictures I took of Kenrick-Glennon Seminary's St. Joseph Chapel (the main chapel at the seminary, used for our main liturgies) on my Seminary website; you can view them by clicking here. It is a very beautiful chapel, especially since we now have installed pews in the whole chapel, and moved our pipe organ console into the choir loft (it is a beautiful organ as well!).

Chronically Lonely People and St. John of the Cross

In addition to taking a short break from studying from exams (resting the ol' brain cells...), I wanted to tell you about an interesting insight I had while studying for my upcoming Social Psychology exam (typically, I'm no great fan of the social sciences, but they aren't all bad...).

I was reading about common traits found in people who rate themselves as being 'chronically lonely.' According to my book, chronically lonely people often think and behave in ways that reduce their likelihood of establishing new, rewarding relationships and lack social skills. This typically causes a spiral into more isolation, and leads to more problems further down the road.

This brings up an interesting point: What happens to all these chronically lonely people? And, should we let them fall into this downward spiral? The answer, of course, is 'No.' As Christians, we believe that we are part of a community united in Christ, and this community suffers as much as its weakest members. We must make the extra effort to reach out to our brothers and sisters who may be lonely or feel cut off from the world.

Is there someone in your family in this situation? In your school? At your workplace? Make an effort to sit with them at a meal. Invite them to a movie. Heck, just say a quick 'Hi, how are you doing?' in the hallway every day. You never know—you might end up liking the person! But it takes time... and can be very hard to do. This is why we must, as St. John of the Cross (whose feast day, coincedentally, is today) pick up our crosses and follow Him down the road to Calvary out of love for Him and for our brothers and sisters.

We should be especially aware of children who are becoming isolated from the outside world by watching TV, spending too much time on the computer or being alone. Say a prayer to your Guardian Angel and to the Holy Spirit to help pick you up and make you an instrument of Jesus' for helping his lowliest and poorest of brothers and sisters.

Just Watched Narnia...

After watching Disney's newest movie Narnia, I thought I'd share a few thoughts:

The movie was as good as I expected, and then some—it definitely beats the old BBC version! The movie was quite faithful to the story, cutting only a few parts of the movie where necessary, but maintaining all the Christian imagery quite well.

I think someone who is either (a) not Christian or (b) not already acquainted with the Narnia story will be utterly confused by the story and the characters, though. The themes of self-sacrifice and surrender are present, and will leave those who don't understand the message of Jesus Christ completely dumbfounded.

After reading some other reviews of the movie, I agree that some of the CG effects were a little overdone, and some of the characters had just a hint of being unrealistic... of course, none of the characters of Narnia are supposed to be found in our everyday world anyways! There were a few parts in the movie where I felt the acting or scenes could have been better, but I don't regret paying for my ticket to watch this movie.

One of the most pleasant surprises was how well the completely-computer-generated character of Aslan looked, as well as a few of the other characters who were either fully or partly CG. I think that we are beginning to see a revolution in filmmaking; for the first time, moviegoers are fully accepting CG characters—not seeing them so much as CG characters anymore, but more as actual characters in the movies.

If Disney and Walden produce more movies in the Narnia series, you can be sure I will be watching them! I hope they will continue to stay true to C.S. Lewis' original stories, though...

"God and the Internet"

Today I found that my blog was mentioned in First Things, a journal of religion, culture and public life, and it seems that there has been a small spike in visitors over the past week. Some parts of the article " God and the Internet" (by Jonathan V. Last) struck me as profound, and I thought I'd share a few thoughts on them.

Last speaks of how Steve Waldman, the founder of online religious supersite Beliefnet says that "distancing of the self from the religious act can be helpful" (speaking of a new form of 'interactive, online faith'). Waldman relates the new exploration of potentially embarrasing religious matters in the privacy of one's home on the Internet to the "same phenomenon that has led to pornography spreading." Last then asks:

"Doesn't that metaphor give you pause? Is a technique that has made pornography into the Internet's number-one business really a good idea for religion, the Internet's number-two business? The failure of anonymous online pornography to be real sex is also the failure of anonymous online churching to be real religion: In both sex and religion, incarnation—the physical body—turns out to matter a great deal."

Last's words make perfect sense; how can anyone expect to receive true spiritual satisfaction through use of the Internet? It is better to get up from your seat and walk to the nearest Eucharistic chapel to sit in the Lord's presence, humbly asking for assistance in your spiritual life, or to go to Mass every day, than to spend hours a day reading blogs or online religious articles.

I have witnessed many examples of the 'consumerization' of Religion on the Internet. And there are many online bloggers who use religion as a mask for 'preaching politics.' There are also other problem areas in incorporating our Faith into the Internet. There is one important aspect that Mr. Last did not approach in his article, though, that is one of the more important considerations Catholics must make when deciding how to incorporate the Internet into their evangelization.

I have been a member of the first 'computer-networked' generation. I know firsthand the importance of the Internet to my generation and, I am sure, to the Internet-connected generations (at least, in first-world countries) that will follow. Today's students almost always perform research for papers using the Internet and online databases of articles and texts. I have done so for almost every paper I've written since eighth grade, and I will continue to use the Internet as a primary source of information throughout the rest of my life.

Many students don't even have the will to go to a library and find a book that they may have found in an online bibliography in order to enrich their own understanding of a topic, or, even worse, they are intimidated by the way in which libraries organize their information. And there are many texts in this world which are not online. This causes a problem: what happens to knowledge and writings that are not accessible to future generations as easily as those which are on the Internet?

This is the reason the Catholic Church must come to realize the importance of the Internet in the future. Many kids are spending hours on end watching television and 'being online'; disconnecting from family, friends and society in general, and connecting to new, evolving social networks on the World Wide Web. These children are indoctrinated by what they view—and they typically don't spend their time viewing religious or philosophical material. As a seminarian, it is my goal to try to help evangelize through the Internet and other forms of media, and the Church is trying to do so as well. It is important to have as much information about the faith (including the many wonderful texts on the Vatican website, the Catechism, the Bible, etc.) easily browseable and readable on the Internet.

Of course, the Church sees a person as something much more than a simple 'online being.' The Church must also find ways to make a person who is searching for Religion and Truth seek out the real-world Jesus. You cannot experience Jesus, fully and truly, on the Internet. The Church must make that clear. We must make that clear. The Church has such a deep well of spiritual resources in it's many thousands of ministries, and She must never forget the most invaluable resources of all: the Sacraments—given to us by Christ himself! What joy a person finds by participating in the most awesome mystery of faith, the Eucharist!

This is why we must encourage the lost souls we encounter on the Internet to seek guidance in their spiritual lives from their local parishes, priests and faith communities. And we ourselves must do the same. As Last states at the end of his article, "Isn't religion supposed to enrich the world around us...? Shut off your computer. Take a deep breath. Go to church."

Please pray that the Church may discover the proper use of the Internet in its mission, and may do so in the most Christocentric way—directing all to Christ, never forgetting what is most important in this short life on earth.

Seminary Novena; End of Soccer Season; Talking Virus

Tonight is night three of our annual Christmas Novena at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary. All are welcome to visit us from 7:30-8:30, every night from tonight until next Wednesday night. Our choir sounds wonderful, and the homilists are very inspiring. Pictures, videos, etc. are posted here.

Another note: Our KGB Lions soccer team finished the season with a great game; even though it was a 1-0 loss, we played well (earlier in the season, the same team beat us 5-0!) and had a great season. It was quite cold, but that didn't dampen our spirits, or our enthusiasm for next season.

Interesting News: Viruses are now talking (CNET news)...