Capuchin Friars Visit

This past Spring break I was extremely fortunate to be able to go spend 3 days with the Mid-American Capuchin Franciscan Friars in Denver, Colorado (my hometown) for a Friary Visit and discernment weekend! It was truly a blessing to see and experience the life of a Capuchin Friar. Upon my arrival to Denver, I met a family friend at the airport who was there to pick me up. To my surprise at the baggage claim, my luggage had not shown up. I waited for over an hour and finally after everyone on my flight had received their baggage, I went to the baggage claim desk to talk to the folks in charge. They checked their list, which I was not on, so I made one more visit to the baggage claim and saw nothing but a big bucket with a huge clear trash bag inside, going around the conveyor belt. I walked up to it slowly and couldn't see anything in it. It went around twice before I went and looked again at which point I saw a familiar logo on a black hoodie. My mouth dropped. it was my Seminary logo. I grabbed the whole plastic bucket and forcefully put it on the ground and opened up the huge plastic bag. To my unfortunate surprise it was all the contents of my bag, including my bag, all CUT UP in shreds and covered in oil!! AHHH!....more to come in a few....

Toy Story 3: A GREAT end to the Saga!

I found these cool facts online:

'Toy Story 3' Chock Full of Hidden Facts and Movie References

by Mike Ryan · June 22, 2010

"Toy Story 3" has entertained children and parents alike (and has made at least one childless, unmarried adult male in his thirties cry) to the tune of $110 million dollars in its opening weekend.
Chances are, considering the amount of money the film made over the weekend, that if you're reading this, there's a better than average chance you've seen the film. If you have, there are a few hidden "Easter eggs" (the cinematic term for meaningful images or references buried in a movie) worthy of a second look. Even if you haven't seen "Toy Story 3," it's worth reading on for some fun facts you can impress your friends with.

Slashfilm and ComingSoon.net have put together exhaustive lists of the Easter eggs hiding in "Toy Story 3," and the New Orleans Times-Picayune also did some digging and found a few pieces of trivia that bear repeating. Highlights of those lists include:

• "A113," the number of a classroom at CalTech where many Pixar animators studied, shows up as an Easter egg in every Pixar film. In the "Toy Story" series, it's the license plate on Andy's mother's car.
• Sid, the bully from the first movie who wears a skull T-shirt, appears as a garbage man in the new film wearing the same skull T-shirt.
• There's a postcard on Andy's dresser addressed from the featured characters from last year's "Up," Carl and Ellie Fredrickson.
• Lightning McQueen from "Cars" is referenced a few times throughout the film: A miniature toy car at the daycare center, on a child's shirt at the center and on a fictional train that shares McQueen's number, 95. That number is itself an Easter egg, referring to 1995, the year the first "Toy Story" was released.
• A calendar from Pizza Planet is clearly seen. Pizza Planet has appeared in every Pixar film except "The Incredibles."
• Pixar has a history of hiding a character to be featured in a later movie somewhere in a current film. Nemo first appeared in "Monsters, Inc." and "Toy Story 3" newcomer, Lots-o-Huggins Bear (who, ironically, is not very huggable), first appeared alongside a bed in "Up." A poster on Andy's wall shows a character from next year's "Cars 2." It shows Finn McMissile, a British sports car/secret agent who plays a major role in the sequel.
• Buzz Lightyear's batteries are from "Buy 'N' Large," the giant corporation responsible for ruining the planet in "WALL-E."
• Totoro, the furry, friendly creature from Hayao Miyazaki's Japanese animated classic "My Neighbor Totoro," shows up as a toy that Woody meets. Pixar founder John Lasseter has called Miyazaki an inspiration for his work, and Lasseter produced his most recent film, "Ponyo."
• A significant amount of the film takes place at a daycare center. At the daycare center, Mr. Ray the Scientific Stingray from "Finding Nemo" makes a cameo. Nemo himself appears as a sticker on Andy's toybox.
• "Toy Story 3" director Lee Unkrich performs one line in the movie, as the voice of the Jack in the Box character.
• The "Toy Story 3" screenplay took 2 1/2 years to write and storyboard.
• John Ratzenberger keeps his streak alive of appearing in every single Pixar film made to this point. For "Toy Story 3," he reprises his role as Hamm.
• Ken, voiced by Michael Keaton, was based on a 1988 version of him called "Animal Lovin' Ken" which included his "own chimpanzee to care for and love." Um, okay. The Barbie featured in the film is based on a 1983 version titled "Great Shape Barbie."
• Ken wears 21 different outfits in the movie.
• Woody has 229 animation points of movement in his face. Buzz has 215 animation avatars in his face.
• There are 302 characters in the film.

• "Toy Story 3" marks the best opening weekend in the history of Pixar, which is quite a feat, considering all eleven Pixar films have opened as the number one in their respective weekend. "Toy Story 3" is the first film in the "Toy Story" series to be released in the very lucrative 3D format. Considering the added cost per ticket, plus the demand to see the film, it's little surprise that "Toy Story 3" is on pace to pass the $400 million mark in domestic box office. 

The "C" Word.........C..e..l..i..b..a..c..y.

My good friend and brother seminarian Daniel Root just posted a good thought-provoking question on Facebook today and it did in fact make me think. His question was - "wonders why the only people who are bothered by celibacy are the ones who are not celibate?" I think one of the greatest issues with this is the fact that Celibacy is so counter to our present culture that it in a way scares people, it's not the norm, it yields no offspring, and it seems like a sad way to live - what do you mean you can't have sex for the rest of your life?!? People often ask me, don't you want to have a wife and kids? If I answered no to that question, that would be grounds for great concern. Of course I would like to have a family and kids. I have always wanted to have kids. I even had a good, healthy, generous, Catholic quota in mind - 6 kiddos! Would that have flown with my wife...eh who knows?!? hahaha!  BUT, God has called me to live me life in another way and I am at great peace with that now. Just after two years of Seminary experience and training, I have come to understand a little bit better what Celibacy is and what it means for the Priestly life. Most of my attitudes about sexuality and celibacy, up to my entering the seminary, had been shaped by our secular society and by my friends. So I had to start fresh and remain ope-minded when it came to this particular idea of celibacy. I have always understood what Celibacy is, but on a very elementary level. I definitely knew about the infamous part of not having sex for the rest of your life and this is why celibacy gets such negative attention in our world. Many if not most people see celibacy as a suppression of nature and one that is tragic and unfair. Admittedly, I saw celibacy as just that while I was growing up. After furthering my knowledge of celibacy, which I have committed my self to, I have discovered the true beauty and joy of the priest's call to live a celibate life. I now understand that the true essence of celibacy goes much deeper than just the physical aspects. It became apparent that celibacy should aim for affective maturity, which in this sense, is the ability to live a true and responsible love. Celibacy is hard for most, but I know that God will never allow me to face anything that I cannot conquer or handle. If you believe in God with ALL of your heart, anything is possible through Him! With that inspiration etched into my heart, a sense of ease is brought over me concerns about celibacy and chastity invade my thoughts. I may not ever have the opportunity to be a “biological father,” but joy fills my heart none the less, because I know that through God, if it continues to be His will for me, I will be a “Spiritual Father” and be given the grace to love and serve all of my brothers and sisters, without a wife and children. I have found my true happiness in God; He will fill all voids! Celibacy is a LIFELONG process, just like Marriage is a LIFELONG process. Both are tough and both are beautiful vocations from God! Both require trust and both require God as a central player! I will reiterate, If you believe in God with ALL of your heart, anything is possible through Him!

Below is a short video about Celibacy that goes into MUCH farther depths than I could ever go into at this point in my discernment! Please watch if you are interested or in search of answers and if any of this does not suffice, I challenge you to prayerfully and proactively continue searching for the answers! God Bless!

A Prophetic Calling

   To be “called” by God is a rather daunting and uncommon call and one that isn’t to be taken lightly. Perhaps this is why the many prophets we find within prophetic scripture have such trepidation and doubt when God calls them to prophesy.  This doubt and fear causes most of the prophets to outright reject God from the onset. However, saying “no” to God is like pouring water into the ocean, it’s very ineffective. The prophets eventually accept God’s call to prophesy and they begin to preach His message in obedience, with faith as their guide. The prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel are three men that share this similar call from God, who asks them to accept the gift of prophecy and to preach His message. Each of these prophets’ call is thematically similar, but different in circumstance, and each responds in his own unique way.
    Isaiah is an aristocratic southerner whose call to prophesy came in the same year that King Uzziah died, around 742 B.C (NAB  p.936). Isaiah’s call begins with a vision in the Temple, “I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, with the train of his garment filling the temple. Seraphim were stationed above; each of them had six wings: with two they veiled their faces, with two they veiled their feet, and with two they hovered aloft. ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts!’ they cried one to the other. ‘All the earth is filled with his glory!’ At the sound of that cry, the frame of the door shook and the house was filled with smoke.” Isaiah then cries out in anguish, “Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” (Is.6:1-5). At that cry, one of the seraphim takes an ember from the altar and touches Isaiah’s lips in order to purge his sins and remove his wickedness. Following this initial rejection and purification, Isaiah hears the Lord speak, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” Isaiah promptly responds, “Here I am; send me!” (Is.6:8). God imparts his prophetic mission onto Isaiah, whom then embarks on the task at hand.
    Jeremiah, a southerner from Judah, is also called to prophesy, but his call to that life comes about in a different, and perhaps, more personal way.  This is evident through God’s words to Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you” (Jer.1:5). This demonstrates God’s great destiny for Jeremiah, even before he was formed into being. Even more blatantly than Isaiah however, Jeremiah initially rejects God’s call with the words, “Ah, Lord God! I know not how to speak; I am too young” (Jer.1:6). To this, God replies, “Say not, ‘I am too young.’ To whomever I send you, you shall go; whatever I command you, you shall speak. Have no fear before them, because I am with you to deliver you” (Jer.1:7-8). Then in a similar act to Isaiah, God makes contact with Jeremiah’s mouth by stretching out his hand and touching it. God follows this significant act with the words, “See, I place my words in your mouth! This day I set you over nations and over kingdoms, to root up and to tear down, to destroy and to demolish, to build and to plant” (Jer.1:9-10). God continues to converse with Jeremiah and then the prophet, like Isaiah, embarks on the task at hand.
    Ezekiel, an Israelite in the exiled Babylon, is the first to be called to prophesy outside of the Holy Land. Ezekiel’s call from God seems to be more complex and detailed, in that Ezekiel has visions which none of the other prophets had. His earliest vision is that of four living creatures, eventually recognized as cherubim. Above the cherubim, seated on a throne, is God in all his glory. After God’s presence is made clear to Ezekiel, he falls on his face and is lifted to his feet by the spirit when God addresses him by saying, “Son of man, stand up! I wish to speak with you” (Ez.2:1). God again addresses Ezekiel saying, “Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, rebels who have rebelled against me…you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord God! And whether they heed you or resist - for they are a rebellious house- they shall know that a prophet has been among them” (Ez.2:3, 2:4-5). In a similar fashion to that the two previous prophets, God then makes special, significant contact with Ezekiel’s mouth, asking him to eat the scroll before him. Ezekiel, in contrast to the other two prophets immediately obeys God’s command and eats the scroll saying, “I ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.” (Ez.3:3). God then imparts his prophetic mission unto Jeremiah by saying, “Son of man, go now to the house of Israel, and speak my words to them” (Ez.3:4). Soon after this, Jeremiah follows suit and embarks on the task at hand.
    Each of these prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, receive an extraordinary call from God to preach with a countercultural approach and each responds in their own distinct way. All have their share of fear and trembling and most reject their call completely. However, God in His mysterious ways, gets all three men to eventually accept their higher calling and all go forth prophesying in faith.

Feast of Corpus Christi

I wanted to know more about this great Feast of the Church. Here is some of what I gathered:

The Feast of Corpus Christi is an important solemnity celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church, traditionally on the Thursday following Trinity Sunday. “Corpus Christi” literally translates to mean “Body of Christ,” therefore it can obviously be concluded that the Feast of Corpus Christi celebrates the Holy Eucharist. Due to the centrality of the Eucharist within our Catholic Faith, the Church has deemed it necessary to call this feast day a holy day of obligation for all Catholics.
How did such a feast day come to be? This holy day of the Church can be most attributed to St. Juliana of Belgium. Juliana, from a very early age had quite a devotion and great fidelity for the Blessed Sacrament. It was this strong attachment to the Eucharist, that always left her longing for a special feast in it’s honor. This desire was reinforced through her “vision of the Church under the appearance of the full moon having one dark spot, which signified the absence of such a solemnity” (Mershman). Her sharing of this vision caught the attention of some highly influential men, those being Bishop Robert de Thorete, the future Cardinal Dominican Hugh, Archdeacon Jacques Pantaleon, and eventually Pope Urban IV. Bishop Robert de Thorete was especially enthused by the devotion and vision of Juliana, that he used his Episcopal authority to order a local Corpus Christi celebration in the following liturgical year. He even went as far to order a specific monk to write the new office for it’s occasion.
It was the Bishop of Liege who made the push for a universality of the local feast. By the grace of God, Pope Urban IV was already an aficionado of the feast and shortly after the Bishop’s appeal, published “Transiturus” in September of 1264, which ordered Corpus Christi to be celebrated annually each Thursday after Trinity Sunday. Along with this order, he even granted special indulgences for those faithful who attended the Corpus Christi feast masses.
To this day, Corpus Christi is celebrated annually, the Thursday after Trinity Sunday and in some regions, the Sunday after Trinity Sunday. “Typically Corpus Christi services consist of singing traditional hymns Lauda Sion and Pange Lingua, both attributed to St. Thomas Aquinas” (Bennett). There are certain devotional practices that have, over the years, become the norm. One of these practices is the Corpus Christi Procession of the Blessed Sacrament, exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, ending with Benediction. Within the context of the mass, the liturgical color is white and the readings are on a specific three year cycle. This year, the readings are as follows; Genesis 14: 18-20, Psalm 110: 1,2,3,4, 1 Corinthians 11: 23-26, and Luke 9: 11-17 (Bennett).

Capuchin Franciscan Friars of Mid-America

God has led me to this beautiful and holy religious order of Priest and Brother Capuchins. If I were to ever feel the call to the Religious life, I would join these great men in a heart beat! Let us pray for an increase of Vocations to the Priesthood and Religious life and for the perseverance of those who have answered the call! Pax et bonum!

Excerpt from vocation story, followed by really cool recent story

["...In the grand scheme of things, God is the only one who knows why a particular person is attracted to the Priesthood or religious life or marriage. But in our own weak human way of analyzing it, I can say that my discernment to the Priesthood took up a long stretch of my rollercoaster ride through life. I am convinced that my Vocation was rooted from the very moment God created me and my first glimpse into that vocation occurred in 2002 while sitting before a priest in the sacrament of Confession. Up to that moment of conversion through the sacrament of confession, I was living a pretty average teenage life, just like any mainstream teenager was living in our modern society. I remember that moment like it was just yesterday, I was sitting inside the Sacred Heart Basilica on the Notre Dame campus with hundreds of other young people my age, yet I felt like the only one in that Basilica. Everyone and everything just seemed to disappear and I began to contemplate my life, my intense struggles and the fact that God seemed to be absent or at least in and out of my life. I began to tear up just thinking about my confusion and my shame and after a few minutes of fighting back the waterworks, my eyes couldn’t hold it in and I began to sob before God and all my "invisible" peers around me. It was at that moment that I became entranced by the presence of God. It was as if he was reaching his hand down from Heaven to say “Jared, I am here.” Moved by the spirit, I stood up from my pew and walked me over to one of the side altars where a newly ordained Priest was silently praying. I sat down in front of him face to face as I hung my head in shame and the minute I looked up to make eye contact with him, I lost it again. He simply put his hand on my shoulder and let me cry as the Holy Spirit did it‘s work. Shortly after, we began to speak. I began to unload everything that was weighing me down. My private struggles, I revealed to him. Pains that were inflicting me, I unleashed. Things that had held me captive for years in the deepest darkest parts of my being, were finally being cast into the light. We spoke for what seemed to be over an hour that night and he spoke some of the most powerful words that have ever been uttered my direction. He said to me, “Jared, Satan is a LIAR! He has been lying to you for all these years. Satan is nothing more than a LIAR!" Through our conversation, I came to understand that the evil one can tempt us, but He cannot touch us, unless we open the door to him. So I needed to close the door to the snares and the deceit of Satan and open wide the doors to Christ! He then said, “God is trying to get your attention, does He have it now?” He proceeded to tell me that God works in mysterious ways, ways that we will never understand, but it is up to us to TRUST, to trust in His will and to follow him with open eyes, an open heart, and an unyielding faith. My faith that had been shaken was immediately beginning to strengthen and reform with every word that Fr. Dan was speaking. And then came the moment of Absolution. The moment that would change my life forever and send me in the direction that God had always planned for me..."]

God was truly present and working through Fr. Dan in his ministry as a confessor. For that I am forever grateful. I want to point out that towards the end of my confession, he gave me his Ordination prayer card, which had his name and ordination date on the back. He also gave me two other prayer cards, one of Christ approaching the future disciples/fishermen for the first time and another prayer card (book mark) with an image of the Holy Trinity. I have kept these cards all these years and of course took them with me to college and to Seminary. One day while praying before the tabernacle at St. Joseph Abbey (& Seminary College), something caused me to look really hard at the painting above the tabernacle and all of the sudden, my contemplation was interrupted by an extreme familiarity of the painting that I had not noticed up to that point. I cut my prayer short (hopefully God understood!) and I raced back to my room in search of the Trinity prayer card Fr. Dan had given to me. Low and behold, the painting on the prayer card of the Holy Trinity was the same painting above the tabernacle in the Abbey. I was speechless; what a beautiful and overwhelming moment it was for me! The same cherished card that I had received from Fr. Dan 7 years earlier during one of my deepest darkest moments of my life, was of the same painting that was above the tabernacle I was praying before as a Seminarian! It was definitely a "God moment!"