Currently reading: 2666 by Roberto Bolaño 📚
Currently reading: Treatise on the Love of God by Francis De Sales 📚
I just took the last exam of the last class of the last year of our formation and have completed all work required of our MA program. There’s one more session next month to cover best practices when working with the tribunal; otherwise, we’re done.
Deo gratias, alleluia, alleluia.
Coming up for a bit of air after some business travel directly on the heels of a A Very Busy Triduum. I was saddened, but not surprised, when the announcements about Pope Francis hit on Monday. When I saw the pictures of him after he left the hospital, it seemed very much like he intended to die at home rather than in a hospital bed. And other than being found face-down in a breviary (which is how I want to check out), is there a better way to go than on Easter Monday? The next few weeks will be interesting. I pray for the repose of the soul of our Holy Father, and for the cardinals preparing for the conclave. I pray also for our own bishop and the pastor of our parish.
I took a couple days off so that I could jump with both feet into the Easter liturgies and was able to serve on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Vigil. It was exhausting, and I wasn’t even on the hook to come back for Masses throughout Easter Sunday. This will certainly not be the case next year, so I’ll probably plan on taking Monday off as well. It was exhausting, but profoundly moving, to be in the middle of every single bit of it. Probably never too soon to start practicing the Exultet, with apologies in advance to the rest of my family.
This weekend is the last class of our last academic year. If the instructor follows her usual pattern, the exam will post on Monday and I’ll probably do it on Tuesday, at which point I will have completed all necessary requirements. Once this is in the rear-view mirror, we have some travel planned - Mexico, for some work-related stuff which will also be fun, and the UK later this summer which is purely fun.
Reading: Azuela has stalled out a little bit. I took St. Gregory’s Book of Pastoral Rule with me for the trip, but spent the return flight watching Severance instead. Finally getting around to this and so far, so good. For upcoming travel, I have Roberto Bolaño’s 2666 (in English) on deck. After that, I have Como agua para chocolate in queue.
One of our catechumens comes to me before class last week and says “here, I got this for you,” and hands me a beautiful scapular.
My Lady, I can take a hint.
I carried it around for a few days waiting for a good moment with a priest, and was enrolled on Sunday after Mass in the vestry. I should probably go back and revisit some of the books on the Carmelites soon but for now, I just want to linger with her a bit longer in these final days of Lent.
Currently reading: Los de abajo by Mariano Azuela 📚 🇲🇽
This past weekend was our penultimate class. I’m just waiting for the instructor to post the exam so I can get started on it. Our final course completes our moral theology sequence, covering sexual and biomedical ethics. An assembly of the diocesan deacons and wives was also planned for the same weekend, and we all came together for mass, a brief meeting covering some new things coming our way, and (naturally) dinner with cocktails. A day of recollection was provided for the wives of men in formation, so I wasn’t up there alone the whole time.
Friday morning, our bishop came to our parish to celebrate the school mass. I tagged in to serve and managed to wind up having breakfast with him, our clergy, and some representatives of the student council (one of whom is our daughter). The school masses are always a lot of fun, and I’m glad for the chance to be there for them once in a while. The night of the assembly mass, I was asked about 4 hours prior to serve as cantor, which seemed to go fine. It turns out I have a decent voice for singing, or at least chant. I know this because others have told me, and I frequently seem to get pencilled in whenever our families are attending formation masses or other guests are present. I’m leaning in, as they say. Saturday was the first time I ever had to use a microphone and it seemed to go fine. No one got up and left, and I got several compliments, so there we go. Never too early to look over the Exultet I suppose.
School reading is going to push the leisure stuff to one side for a bit; the biomedical ethics book is pretty hefty. I’m helping our final Lenten Stations of the Cross and will be leading the Spanish portion.
Too rainy for wildflower pics today. We were dodging polygons last night as a front of severe weather blasted through the area around midnight, which set the weather radio alerts on and off for about an hour. All is well, though wet. April showers and all that.
Springbeauty grows in large areas which are beautiful, but also in these little clumps off by themselves. We’re getting close to needing to mow, but honestly I can wait a little longer.
William Roper: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!
Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
William Roper: Yes, I’d cut down every law in England to do that!
Sir Thomas More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned ‘round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man’s laws, not God’s! And if you cut them down, and you’re just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake!
― Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons: A Play in Two Acts
Met with my deacon mentor today, probably for the last time before ordination unless something comes up and I need advice. We’ll see each other this weekend (big deacon meeting coinciding with our formation weekend) and will probably cross paths before December. He’s got a great perspective, having been in the role for awhile and at a parish that’s at some distance from all the goings-on downtown.
One of the things I’ve been working on a little is Marian piety - discovering ways to approach the Blessed Virgin in ways that don’t feel forced to me. I love the idea of the Rosary a lot, but it’s never been a go-to for me during times of mental prayer. This has felt like something that needed a closer look, so I made it part of Lenten devotions and as luck (?) would have it, our director of vocations invited many of us to join him in a novena to Our Lady Undoer of Knots. Why? It turns out that the incoming group of seminarians is so large that there’s some concern about where they’re going to be housed. This is a good knot - maybe the very best knot - but a knot nonetheless. So I joined in and managed to make all nine days without missing one, leaning on the Rosary tab of the Universalis app which has the option of including scriptural reflections for every single bead. This forces me to slow down a little for each prayer, rather than letting autopilot take over - hammering out a decade as my mind begins to drift.
I’ve also found it helpful to just ask her to sit with me before the Blessed Sacrament, letting her point me towards Him. Soon I was asking her intercessions before falling asleep. It’s happening slowly but surely. The novena was timed to end at the Solemnity of the Annunciation, which is today. When we draw closer to Mother of God, we also come closer to the humanity of Christ. We also approach Joseph, husband of Mary, protector of the Church, and model of deacons. The Holy Family has much to teach us, even - maybe especially - if all we do is rest quietly in Nazareth for awhile.
Bluets, another backyard native. These are tiny and a little tricky for me to photograph with a phone. They range in color from this pale color to dark blue/purple.
