Seminarian Blog

This past Saturday, I needed to spend a good deal of time inside doing computer things - which was nice because that gave me a chance to talk to my brother who knows about all those things.

I did, however, receive a random invitation to go out that afternoon and watch the annual hot-air balloon race in Forest Park. Saturdays are nice times for us at Kenrick to relax and get out of the building because we do not normally have scheduled events, and Sundays are normally spent in the parishes (and sleeping afterwards).

Forest park is a very nice park in St. Louis. It was the site of the World's Fair in Saint Louis back in the early 20th century. The parents of one of my friends in seminary happen to live across the street from the park and that's where the picture here was taken. We had a nice time sitting on their front lawn, swimming in the pool in the back, and ordering Papa Johns to be delivered to the street that you can see.

You can see the Energizer Bunny balloon in the background. The hot-air balloon race is a hound and hare race. The hare - literally a hare in this case - takes off and picks a spot for all the other balloons to land. Then the other 40 or so balloons take off and follow.

One of the frequently asked questions I receive as a seminarian is, "What am I learning about at seminary?" I think often, people have such a hunger to learn more about Christ and His Church that they are curious about what people in theology school actually study.

The video to the left is a project I had to put together for my catechesis course taught by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart. The apostolate of these sisters is education and catechesis. One of their trademarks is using illustrated explanation - or in laymen's terms - stick figures. The theory is that children love to use their imagination, but they need a little help. Therefore, when the sisters tell stories and teach concepts, they illustrate them with simple and easy to draw figures so that the children can better pay attention and remember the lesson.

Our project was to explain our thesis that we're working on in 2 minutes using this illustrated explanation. Enjoy the result - it was kinda fun.

-David

One reason I love being from Wichita is because of the Wichita Eagle. Sure, the size of the paper has decreased these past few years, but I have come to appreciate our newspaper more and more since I've been away from home.

One reason is because the Eagle has reported frequently on Fr. Emil Kapaun. The latest article is regarding the death of Fr. Kapaun's brother, Eugene. You can see the article here.

Fr. Kapaun has a special place in my heart because ever since my junior year of high school at Bishop Carroll, God has been drawing me closer and closer to Fr. Kapaun's home town, Pilsen, Kan., and Marion county in general. That year of high school, I went on my first tech, #78, and one of the leaders was Wayne Rziha, then youth minister for our Diocese. Wayne is the oldest son of a large family near Pilsen and ever since then, God has been introducing me to more and more people from that area of Kansas.

Two weeks ago, a group of pilgrims from the Salina Diocese came to Saint Louis and visited Kenrick to present a statue of Fr. Kapaun (a replica of the one in this Wichita Eagle picture) since Fr. Kapaun went to this seminary - yet another way God has been leading me closer to Fr. Kapaun. I encourage everyone to foster a devotion to outstanding Servant of God and ask for his intercession - he has truly done great work in my life so far.

Stay tuned for more Fr. Kapaun stories,

-David

Kenrick Seminary is very unique in how we arrange our pastoral assignments. Every seminary has some type of apostolic/service outreach program for their seminarians. At Kenrick, the Archdiocese has arranged for all of us to work in a particular parish throughout the school year. We go there on Sundays and participate in their parish Masses, then we do our outreach through that same parish during the week.

The parish I'm assigned to this year is Anunziata parish in Saint Louis (actually the city of La Due - but it's still Saint Louis). This past Sunday was my first time in the parish, and it was a great experience. The people there were very friendly, the church was beautiful inside and out (as you can see from the pictures), and they even had Starbucks coffee for the coffee and donuts in the basement.

One reason I was especially excited to be sent to the parish is because it is just down the street from a cloistered Carmelite Monastery that I love to visit. I'll save that story for another post, but I'll say right now that there are two Sisters there from the Diocese of Wichita.

God Bless,

-David

For Labor Day weekend, the seminary allowed us to have an "open" weekend. This meant that we had no official obligations at the seminary, so we could travel or stay put, depending on our preferences.

One of my favorite "preferences" is to go camping. As a young boy, I was heavily involved in Boy Scouts and grew to love camping. Ever since then, I take every opportunity I can to get outside and be with God in nature.

Camping is a very peaceful and fulfilling experience namely because you get to do the things that mankind has always done - build fires, look at the stars, try to stay clean, and of course, worship the Lord. There is something special about doing things that humanity has always done for thousands of years.

This past weekend was the 18th annual "Nature's Call". Nature's Call is a campout hosted by Kansas City young adult groups and is located in Central Missouri at lake Pom de Ter. Over a hundred people showed up this past weekend including two priests who came to celebrate the Sacraments with us.

Five of us came from Kenrick to take part in the weekend and have a little break from the seminary building. I'll post pictures from the weekend when people get them off their cameras this week.

-Peace

Many back home are shocked when they hear about our Mass schedule at Kenrick. To have Mass in various languages and degrees of solemnity is not uncommon to seminaries across the country. Many places indeed, have weekly Masses in Spanish for the sake of the growing Hispanic population in the United States.

On Fridays at Kenrick, however, we have Mass in Latin with many of the traditional chants of the Church. Today, we had a very simple yet very beautiful liturgy in Latin. We still had the readings in English, but all of the other parts were our normal prayers that we all know, except said in the language of the Church.

This schedule was a little shocking for me when I first came to Kenrick, but I have grown to love Friday morning Mass here. The Latin and the chant gives us the chance to slow down and think carefully about what should be the most important part of our day.

This video is Archbishop Naumann from the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kan. He is from St. Louis originally and is an alum himself of Kenrick. The chant you hear is a traditional chant of the Church directed by Fr. Samuel Weber, O.S.B. - the founder of the Institute of Sacred Music in St. Louis: http://archstl.org/worship/page/institute-sacred-music (I'm the one who updates the website, so please come and visit).

-David

We are at the end of orientation week and at the beginning of our first week of school at Kenrick. There are many new things to adjust to at the beginning of the year. We have new students, new security procedures, new classes, a new rector, and very importantly, new parking spaces.

This past Wednesday was our famous and annual parking parade. Since all of us have to transition from random parking spaces to our new assigned spaces, Kenrick likes to have a little fun in the process. We get dressed up in costumes, all line up in the street in our cars, and have a parade!

Pictured to the left is our new rector Fr. Michael John Witt, dressed in his engineers cap. To his Left is Brian Fallon wearing something like a picnic tablecloth and some random guys in the lead car dressed like doctors on a summer stroll. I was dressed as a Frenchman with a cool hat with a large feather.

Back to our new rector. The rector is the priest in charge of the seminary. Fr. Witt is only our temporary rector. This means he is only hired for one year while the Archbishop is on a search of a more permanent candidate. Fr. Witt in the past has already served as director of the director of the 300-man-strong diaconate program in St. Louis and as professor of Church history (both jobs which he still has to juggle while being rector of 97 men).

In addition to being a good administrator, he's also an incredibly intelligent Church historian. For many years in St. Louis, he produced a weekly hour-long radio show on topics in Church history. All of the programs are cataloged at http://www.michaeljohnwitt.com/. He actually has us listen to the programs as supplement to his classes when he doesn't have enough time to teach everything.

-David

As the summer comes to a close, you'd think my mind would be filled with thoughts of coming theology classes, formation at the seminary, preparations for the last year before ordination ... but what else is very important? Clothes. I keep coming back to the thought that this will be the last summer I'll have need of a suit and tie. The 5 of us men at Camp Totus Tuus got dressed up for one of our events with the High School girls a few weeks ago. If I remember right, Drew Hoffman won the best-looking-guy-in-a-suit contest. This past weekend, I was a groomsman in a wedding, and I had a tux with a blue bow-tie.

No more of that for me now. I go back tomorrow to a seminary where we wear cassocks and clerics every day, and I come back home in May to a Bishop hopefully ready to lay hands on top of my head. At the ordination reception, we can have a tie-burning party to put some closure on my previous life and the previous lives of the other two deacons to be.

There's a good lesson here as well, though. With every new vocation and every big life-changing decision, your clothes reflect a change in responsibility. Having to wear a white collar day in and day out is a great preparation and reminder that future priests are no longer just random guys on the street, but rather representatives of Christ to the world.

Besides being one of the coolest names I've every heard, Maverick was also an amazing movie by Mel Gibson, and of course the famous handle from Top Gun. (We did actually have a boy this summer at Camp Totus Tuus named Maverick.)

What do seminarians do to relax? Do we pray on our knees in our rooms together for 3 hours? No, that'd be a little strange. Do we talk about our favorite new devotions that we just finished? Sometimes, but that's a little odd to do all the time.

I love to play cards - really any type of card game. In this picture, Aaron Babbige (new seminarian) and I are playing E.R.S. with two girls from the Camp Totus Tuus team. I also love pitch, 10 point or 13 point, spades, hearts, pinochle, or even euchre on occasion. (It's an Indiana game - one of the monks at seminary is from Meinard, IN.) I have to say, seeing a Benedictine monk get really competitive over a card game I barely know is a very unique seminarian experience.

Can't say my hopes and dreams for the summer included having a group of 7th and 8th grade girls shave my head, but it works. They won the privilege of shaving my head in whatever design they wanted by winning the Camp Totus Tuus Olympic events for the week.

Yes, in seminary we are required to have trimmed hair and no facial hair. This is a big issue for some people, but we get over it. The rule makes sense because many of the seminarians are too young to grow decent facial hair, so they just have to wait till they're ordained to grow a sweet beard like newly ordained Fr. Chad. I need to ask the Bishop, but I think growing a beard comes with the special graces attached to Holy Orders.

In the mean time, I suffice with having my head shaved by 7th and 8th grade girls and by my friends at school in the barber shop we set up there.