Recently in Seminary Life-St Joseph's Dunwoodie Category
In his November 11, 2009 weekly column in The Long Island Catholic, Rockville Centre Bishop William Murphy talks about the process of possibly merging the New York seminaries. Read his take on the work needed to be done.
Saint Joseph Seminary - Dunwoodie was the setting today for a clergy seminar on Natural Family Planning (NFP) sponsored by the Archdiocese of New York Family & Respect Life Offices, The Couple to Couple League International and with the generosity of others as well. Some 40 clergy types (priests, deacons and seminarians) attended. It was a blessing to have Dr Theresa Notare, Dr Kyle Beiter, Richard & Vicki Braun, Dr. Jack Burnham, Fr John Higgins, Andrew & Tracey Pappalrdo, and Erik & Anne Tozzi as presenters.
So what did I learn today?
YOU can control YOUR reproductive health care sensibly and morally without spending tons of money and selling your values. The point of the day was to introduce us to the most wholistic, safe form of family planning that there is today. This approach is pro-life, pro-woman, pro-faith, and pro-humanity. NFP is totally Catholic. It shows that it's possible for a husband and wife to communicate and to collaborate with each other on all facets of life, especially the facet of sex and reproduction.
As it was explained to us, NFP shows the users of the method how read the language of the body. Likewise and no less important are the lessons of : empowering the couple to be honest and faithful to each other, appreciating for the dignity and value of each person, and teaching the couple how to cooperate with God in the begetting of a human life. NFP also demonstrates that it is possible to have a deeper awareness and respect for the other person (that is, that one can't use the other for deceptive reasons). In the end, there is a mutual responsibility that is exercised in marriages that use NFP as a way to form a family (entailing communication, knowledge, spousal roles, decision making and prayer).
In comparison with drugs used to prevent contraception, which have a 92% effective rate, NFP has a 99.6% overall effective rate. One can also point out that use-effective rate of contraceptive drugs is only 90-96%. AND there are no health risks in using NFP.
Startling to me are the types of health risks that are possible from contraceptive drugs scientifically verifiable in reliable studies. Such health risks include: hypertension, acne, high cholesterol, weight gain, loss of libido, depression, gall bladder disease, headaches and uterine fibroides. Of course, there is the higher possibility of developing blood clots, pulmonary emboli, heart attacks, strokes, breast, cervical, liver cancers, birth defects, and infertility.
On the point about breast cancer, there's a study spanning the years of 1973 and 1993 which shows there was a 25% rise in breast disease. Saint Agatha, pray for us! In this same period there was a rise in mortality by 6%.
NFP is alive, vibrant, radiant and accepting of Truth.
The link to the Archdiocesan webpage above has a tremendous amount of resources available online. But a short list is here:
- Theology of the Body Institute - Christopher West teaches the Theology of the Body
- NY-Marriage - gives events and resources in the NY City area.
- Family Life Institute provides resources on marriage and family.
- Family Honor, Inc - a non-profit group promoting Catholic marriage and family life.
- One More Soul - gives resource for chastity, NFP, and pro-life materials.
- The International & American Associates of Clinical Nutritionists - resources for healthy living regarding diet and exercises.
It's impossible for me to summarize the brilliant lecture on "Celibacy in the Early Church," delivered by Father Joseph Leinhard, a Jesuit priest and Fordham University professor of patristic theology. Father Leinhard has spent the last 35 years working with the theological texts of the early church Fathers, teaching, researching and publishing. He is also an adjunct professor at St Joseph Seminary (Dunwoodie). Let me say that after reviewing what the literature had say about celibacy in Scripture, theology, ascetics and with some legal texts thrown in for good measure (making necessary distinctions and clarifications), Leinhard drew the audience's attention to the required interpretative keys for celibacy: the needed aspects of the eschatological, ecclesiological and the Christological to make any sense for the requirement of priestly celibacy. Without these three marks, celibacy would remain on the pragmatic and rationalistic levels which are clearly unconvincing. That is, if one argues that celibacy allows a man to do more work because he has no wife and family, then the entire point of celibacy is missed.
There are some Catholics who have forgotten that the Church is not merely a sociology, an institution understood in secular terms. There is a supernatural element of the Church, namely God's revelation that all believers are called too share in and conform their lives to. Likewise we profess in the Creed of a "life of the world to come" and we state what we believe about the Church, that is, the 4 marks of the Church (one, holy, catholic and apostolic), all of which contributes to our fruitful living in the Kingdom of God now which is
preparing us to live with the Blessed Trinity in the Kingdom to come. The Church is oriented to this world so as to be in communion with God in the next. How this is accomplished is often a mystery of the Divine Plan. The connection, however, is with the Christian reality we have in the one high priest, Jesus Christ, and his offering of the perfect sacrifice that is known to us in the efficaciousness of the Mass. Since Paschal Mystery, the Church relies on the necessary work of the priest who, in persona Christi capitis, offers Mass as Christ did, though not in the same ritual form but in substance, the effects salvation. Hence, the priesthood, particularly the celibate priesthood, imitates Christ. How does this happen? The man at ordination to the priesthood is conformed to Christ himself (ipse Christus) by the laying on hands and the prayer of consecration by the bishop.
Saint Gregory of Nyssa (d. 385), in his letter "On Virginity," concludes: Wherefore we would that you too should become crucified with Christ, a holy priest standing before God, a pure offering in all chastity, preparing yourself by your own holiness for God's coming; that you also may have a pure heart in which to see God, according to the promise of God, and of our Savior Jesus Christ, to Whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Father Leinhard's lecture will be published in the next Dunwoodie Review.
Life is exhilarating when twelve 8-year olds gather for religious ed (CCD).
Here's the bunch I pray for daily!
Any person paying attention to life is keenly aware
that the question of priestly celibacy in the Catholic Church is on the front
burner. It never seems to simmer. If you are like me, you have heard the
various theories and histories of role of celibacy in the Catholic priesthood. Likewise,
you may recall that in 2002 and immediately thereafter (until today in some
places) the value of celibacy was questioned by some and reaffirmed by others.
Jesuit
Father Joseph T. Lienhard, a professor of theology at Fordham University--and
adjunct professor of dogmatic theology at St. Joseph's Seminary (Dunwoodie) --will
present a lecture at the
seminary about "Celibacy in the Early Church."
It's TONIGHT (11/4) at 7:30 p.m. and
is open to the public.
Father Lienhard is the author, editor or translator of 12 books
and author of more than 50 scholarly articles. Since 1997, he has been the
managing editor of Traditio, a journalism of ancient an medieval thought,
history and religion published by Fordham. He is currently translating two
works by Saint Augustine into English for the first time.
The formation of priests includes spiritual formation with frequent meetings with one's spiritual director, reception of the sacrament of Penance, classes on spirituality, the annual retreat and periodic days of recollection.
Today, the major seminarians spent the day in prayer and quite reflection. In addition to Lauds and Vespers, Mass and Eucharistic Adoration there were two conferences. Meals were in silence and the normal activities of the day curtailed to focus one's awareness on the things of God. The day was led by Father Daniel O'Reilly, the spiritual director of the Saint John Neumann Residence (the undergrad seminary).
Father O'Reilly's reflections centered on being clothed in Christ. This Pauline motif has lots of currency for Catholics, especially Catholic priests. Noteworthy are the vesting prayers prayed by the priest as he is vesting for the Sacrifice of the Mass. What are these prayers? Why would we be attentive to such prayers?
Washing of the Hands
Give virtue, O Lord, to my hands, that every stain may be wiped away; that I may be enabled to serve you without defilement of mind or body.
--Think of the work to be done at Mass, the offering of self, the offering of Mass with the proclamation of the Scriptures, the prayers of intercession, the offering of bread and wine that will become of the Body and Blood of Christ. With what degree of generosity is needed to do this ministry and do it well. God is excessive in His generosity in that He created a universe and then entered that same universe because of His love. Recall the excessive generosity of Jesus at Cana and feeding of the 5000. As Benedict XVI reminds us, excess is the form of our salvation.
Placing of the Amice
Place, O Lord, on my head the helmut of salvation, that I may overcome the assaults of the devil.
--The metaphor of "the helmut of salvation" is used only in certain circles today. Its virtue is that of prudence in speech and action. As we present ourselves to God we ought to do so in holy way; not in a mechanistic manner, but in a real, human way in which we are aware of sinfulness but not held captive by sin. Here we notice the movements of grace and sin; hopefully we choose the former over the latter. The assaults of the devil come in the form of sins against chaste living. How much more do we need to have custody of eyes, ears, mouth and the imagination?
Covering with the Alb
Purify me, O Lord, from all stain and cleanse my heart, that, washed in the blood of the Lamb, I may enjoy eternal delights.
--Purity of mind and heart and body leads to real, substantial joy. Eternal joy. The controlling idea would be that our purity is not only what is obvious but applied to the ability and willingness to speak the truth, to preach the Gospel, to think with the Church at all times. This is God's truth and our task is discover it and live it. Mediocrity has no place in the preaching ministry of the Church. The purity of the alb is about sacrificing one's self for Christ.
Fastening the Cincture
Gird me, O Lord, with the cincture of purity, and quench in my heart the fire of concupiscence, that the virtue of continence and chastity may remain in me.
--Chaste living is required of everyone, regardless of ordination or not. The gift of sexuality is pivotal in our humanity as it is the most powerful gift God gives us. It is so because we cooperate with God in creating a human life that is made not only in our image, but in God's. This powerful gift has a shadow side: we can abuse it by allowing sensuality to control our being so that we denigrate our bodies and those of others. It can be a poison if we don't judge (assess) life with our faith and reason. Sensuality is beautiful and so it's necessary not to allow it to be reduced to a base level. Self-denial (fasting) exercises our freedom to live according to gift of sensuality as God intends it to be lived. Human sensuality opens the door to the Presence of God.
Placing of the Stole
Restore to me, O Lord, the state of immortality which was lost to me by my first parents, and, altogether I am unworthy to approach your sacred mysteries, grant me nevertheless eternal joy.
--The prayer here orients our thoughts to contrition, forgiveness and the process of conversion. Think of the Rule of Benedict or the Suscipe prayers: each leads the person to greater freedom in Christ by acknowledging our total dependence on God. The Ignatian method of the Examen is particularly apt when putting on the stole for liturgical services.
Accepting the Chasuble
O Lord, who said, "My yoke is sweet and my burden light," grant that I may carry it so as to obtain your grace. Amen.
--Snapping the fingers won't get you holy. Doing the sweet work of God will. Don't delay, seek the Face of the Lord. The chasuble is the vestment of Charity.
Conversion has to be seen as a process. To that end, I recommend:
-a daily schedule of prayer-->looking to live in the intimacy with Christ
-fasting to exercise human freedom
-physical exercise
-healthy friendships
-Lauds, Vespers and Mass and Compline
-Eucharistic Adoration
-Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary (rosary, a litany, Miraculous Medal)
Tonight, 5 seminarians were instituted as Acolytes and 16 seminarians were instituted as Lectors within the context of an evening Mass celebrated by the Most Reverend Dominick J. Lagonegro, Auxiliary Bishop of New York. The Rector, the Most Reverend Gerald T. Walsh presented the candidates to Bishop Lagonegro.
Let us pray for these men as they continue to respond to be ipse Christus, a call to priesthood.
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