3 is a "Magic" Number

     The Holy Trinity (Father, Son and Spirit).
     Faith, Hope and Charity
     Jesus, Mary and Joseph
     Track numbers 7, 8, 9 from John Mayer's "Heavier Things" album.
     August 26th, 27th, and 28th.

     3 is a "magic" number.  These words from the schoolhouse rock song come to mind today on the Feast of St. Monica.  Even though the above references to wonderful things that come in 3s are substantially different with the Trinity being the Truth of all truths and John Mayer songs being merely my opinion.  Nevertheless, great things do come in threes.

     August 26th, 27th, and 28th fall somewhere in between the Trinity and the John Mayer songs (undoubtedly these days are closer to the Blessed Trinity).  August 26th happens to be the birthday of one of the most special ladies in my life, my mother.  I can't even begin to describe how much I owe to this wonderful lady.  She has not only fulfilled her motherly duties, but has gone above and beyond to make sure that I (along with my siblings) am happy.  She has also helped my dad to hand down the beautiful Catholic faith to me for which I am preparing to give my life as a priest.  This last aspect of caring for my eternal happiness and well-being is what ties her and her birthday to today, August 27th, the Feast of St. Monica.

     St. Monica was the mother of St. Augustine, arguably the most influential saint in the history of the Church.  However, Augustine may never have come to know Christ if it weren't for his mother.  See, Augustine is the poster child for people who search for the truth.  His search led him to embrace many creeds during his early years.  All of the religions he tried came up short.  The entire time that he was searching, Monica, like a good mother, was praying for him to come to Christianity.  Finally, after much resisting and searching, Augustine came to faith in Jesus Christ in the Church.  One of my favorite quotes from Augustine's Confessions is when Monica is begging the bishop to speak to her son to talk some sense in to him.  After much pestering, the bishop turns to Monica and tells her to stop crying and to go away, "for there is no way that a child of this many tears will go unsaved."  Augustine says that Monica went away confident that the good bishop was right and worried no more.

     This brings us to day 3, August 28th, the Feast of St. Augustine.  St. Augustine changed my life, plain and simple.  Through a class I took on The Philosophy of St. Augustine, I came to know this renegade truth seeker turned saint.  I took the class during my 3rd of 4 semesters of philosophy.  Up until this point I had made my way through philosophy, but certainly did not love it.  I found it rather difficult coming from an engineering background.  And to think, this relationship with St. Augustine could very easily not have happened.  See this course was an elective, and it put me up to 18 hours, which was not too bad in itself.  The real kicker was that it was my 3rd class with one particular professor, who though very good, was very demanding.  Even the professor told a friend of mine that I shouldn't do it.  However, there was one thing I couldn't overlook.  It was my last chance to take the class as he does not offer it every semester and the last day to drop the class was August 28th, St. Augustine's Feast day.  I just couldn't do that to Augustine, so I decided to stick it out.  I learned a great deal about St. Augustine during this course, and a great deal about myself.  It was also a nice window into Pope Benedict's thinking as he sees himself more in line with Augustine's thinking than St. Thomas Aquinas (another contender for greatest saint/theologian ever!).  Just think, some of the most moving lines in the Christian world come from St. Augustine who may not have even become a Christian were it not for his mother.  We certainly thank God for the gift of St. Augustine, but we must in the same breath remember to thank God for Monica too.  Anytime we read "Late have I loved You O Beauty ever ancient and ever new, late have I loved You," or "Our hearts are made for You and they will not rest until they rest in You," we should offer a prayer of thanks giving to God for raising both Monica and Augustine to the glory of heaven!  Finally, one of my favorite quotes is when Augustine is speaking about how his mother kept after him when he was younger.  He states that back then, he thought it was just his mother harassing him, but as he looks back after his conversion, he sees that it was really God speaking to him through Monica.  What humility and wisdom he must have had to be able to realize and admit this.

     I will end by giving thanks to God for the wonderful opportunity to pray at the tombs of both Monica and Augustine over the past two years.  Augustine is buried in a small town outside of Milan called Pavia and Monica is buried in the Basilica of St. Augustine in Rome.  I go to that church often to pray at her tomb.  I especially like to offer prayers for my mother, grandmother, sister, sister-in-law, and all of the mothers who contact me to ask for my prayers.  May St. Monica continue to be an example to mothers of how their faithfulness in desperate times can truly work miracles.

In Christ,
Patrick

Show Me Love...Show Me Love and What It's All About

In a homily towards the end of this past year, one of the faculty members said that the way we can measure our love for God is by how we recognize His love for us.  This hit me like a ton of bricks (in a good way) as I had been praying that I wanted to love God more, but I didn't know exactly what that meant.  Now, I had a clue; come to realize more how much God loves me!  I began doing this in prayer by reading Scripture, especially the Gospels to see how God has loved His people throughout history.

This continued for a few weeks, thinking about it off and on until I went to confession one day.  As a penance, I was told to go walk around the track at school and pray a decade of the rosary.  I did so and started thinking about the homily mentioned earlier.  It was then that I asked God, "How do you love me?"  No sooner had I thought the question did I hear, "I'm calling you to be My priest!"  Wow, OK God I get it!  O how He loves me.  He wants me to be His representative here on earth.  He wants me to be a visible sign of His love.  He wants me to bring the Body and Blood of his Son to men on Earth, to forgive sins, to welcome people into His Church through baptism, to bring people together for life in the Sacrament of Marriage, and to prepare souls to return to Him in the Anointing of the Sick.  He loves me...He really loves me!  I shouldn't be surprised, God IS Love!

Continuing this realizing how much God loves me line of thought, this summer has been a tremendous blessing for me in many ways.  Coming home after two years away has been one of the best experiences of my life.  From the moment I hit the ground in Lafayette on June 9th, I have felt God's love through others.  I had about 30 people waiting for me at the airport to welcome me home, including a niece and a nephew that I had never met...how can I not feel God's love?  I have had the chance to have dinner and visit with many of my family and friends over the past two months and have vacationed with my family and friends...how can I not feel God's love?  I have been welcomed and thanked time and time again at my summer assignment at Our Lady of Fatima with the assurance of people's prayers for me and for all seminarians...how can I not feel God's love?  I have been asked about my experiences from family, friends, parishioners and shut-ins that I visit and have watched them listen with wonder at only a few of the experiences I have had over the past two years...how can I not feel God's love?

My family waiting for me to arrive at the Lafayette Airport!

My two beautiful nieces and my handsome nephew!

Thank you for making this summer so wonderful!  I look forward to the experiences of my last month in town and I look forward to serving you one day as a priest of the Diocese of Lafayette by the grace of God!  Thank you for showing me God's love and for calling me to love and serve more each day.

In Christ,
Patrick

Insight: John Paul II, George Weigel and The Liturgical Year

You may be thinking what in the world the John Paul II, George Weigel and the Liturgical Year all have in common and rightly so.  Throughout the Lenten Season of my first year in Rome Mr. Weigel was a guest at the North American College (NAC).  He and his son journeyed with us to the Station Churches each morning taking notes and pictures for a book that Mr. Weigel was preparing to write on the Station Church tradition.  While he was at the NAC, he gave us a series of talks on John Paul II in preparation for now Blessed John Paul II's Beatification Ceremony on the First Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday.  Mr. Weigel was well qualified to give this series of talks as he was Pope John Paul II's official biographer.

During one of his talks, Mr. Weigel mentioned that in speaking to the Holy Father on one occassion, he told John Paul II that he had figured out how his brain worked and how he wrote.  Mr. Weigel said that Pope John Paul II circled the topic about which he was writing and that each time he circled it he went a bit deeper into the subject matter.

In praying during this past Holy Week leading up to Easter, I remembered his words.  I was particularly struck when I thought about John Paul II's thought process as described by Mr. Weigel.  This is when I had the insight.  I realized that every year, I come to appreciate the Holy Days in the Liturgical year more and more.  The reason for this is that every year I continue to learn a little more about God and the Catholic Faith.  Therefore, I am able to circle the events once again, each time go a little deeper, appreciating them a little more.  The more I grow in knowledge, the more I grow in love for God, His Son Jesus Christ and the beautiful Catholic faith which he left us (This comes as no surprise to anyone who has had even a slight encounter with St. Thomas Aquinas...you cannot love what you do not know).

At this point, after being in school for the past 25 years with only 1 semester off, after 8.5 years of college and 2 or 3 left to go, I have to admit I get tired of school at times.  However, this idea of circling and growing deeper because of knowledge gained, experiences had, and relationship with God strengthened, helps me to push on towards the finish line.  I pray that my focus and passion for learning will continually increase so that I can come to know as much as possible about the God who loves me more than I could ever imagine.  I continue to be amazed at the wisdom of the Church and the Liturgical Calendar with its ability to draw us into the mysteries of Christ through outward practices, which help our interior focus to remain on Him.  The colors, sounds, smells, etc. which we experience in the liturgy (or the lack of some of those things during Lent and Advent) all help to draw us deeper into the mysteries that we celebrate.  I pray that we can all continue to give ourselves more fully to Him who is the source of our joy.

In Christ,

Patrick