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On November 19-20 my Theology Department organized a theology congress at our university entitled “The Kingdom of Christ: History, Theology, Life.” I was involved in its organization, and that’s why I’m only writing about it now (in short, I was too busy participating in it to write about it), two liturgical seasons later (Advent and Christmas, in case you were wondering). On January 3rd the Legion of Christ celebrated the 75th year of its foundation, and so we’ve also begun a jubilee year (along with the Year of Consecrated life, which will conclude on February 2nd, and the Year of Mercy that was announced after we’d announced our jubilee year–in case you’re counting, that means as of this writing there are three “Years” underway). The congress in part was a theological preparation for our jubilee year, since our Movement, Regnum Christi (for the Latin-impaired, that means Kingdom of Christ in Latin) focuses a lot on the Kingdom of Christ as something we need to help extend: it’s a point of focus for how we understand our mission.

It wasn’t just of theological interest to us. Do you realize how often you pray “Thy Kingdom Come!” without really realizing what that Kingdom consists of or why Jesus in his earthly life said it was already here (“at hand”)? It’s not just something coming soon: it’s something that was inaugurated by Christ and still present and active. The congress considered the Kingdom of Christ from various perspectives: biblical, historical, dogmatic, spiritual, and pastoral. Almost all the presenters were from our university, and the great majority were also Legionaries and consecrated members of Regnum Christi, so it was a chance for us to reflect profoundly and theologically on a mystery of Christ so closely linked to our charism. Every ecclesial movement tries to articulate and understand the particular charism it has received from the Holy Spirit for the good of the whole Church, since understanding and living the charism is a key to its identity.

As the ecclesiology professor I presented a paper on The Church Past, Present, and Future and the Kingdom of Christ with the goal of understanding the relationship between the Church and the Kingdom of Christ. Some have thought they’re completely identical, others have thought they’re completely different, and others have even thought that they’re completely at odds with one another. What do I think? You’ll have to wait until the paper is published, hopefully in a few months (I’m working on the publication of all the proceedings, so please say a prayer for me that we manage to publish in Spanish and English), but rest assured that the Kingdom is present and active in the work of salvation and the Church is involved.

Advent in Rome is always an exciting time, and not just because we’re preparing for Christmas. On December 12th, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, 44 of my Legionary brothers were ordained priests at the Basilica of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls (where I was ordained a deacon in 2006). During the ordination Mass I heard confessions along with a dozen fathers or so, and we were busy dispensing mercy.

Two of the new priests were members of my community, and on Sunday the 13th I concelebrated in the first Mass of my confere Fr. Sameer Advani. I’d been one of his candidacy assistants when he entered the Legion and I am very proud of him. He gave a wonderful homily too.

Classes concluded this week before the Christmas break (something joyous for professor and student alike), and early Saturday morning (December 19th) I had an opportunity to pass through the Holy Door for the Year of Mercy and then celebrate Mass for the Brothers Lorenzo (two of them, anyway) and their family from the Philippines (twenty in all). If the pictures are a little fuzzy it’s because everything is fuzzy at 7 AM on a Saturday morning…

Have a wonderful last few days of Advent and a Blessed Christmas.

Today, nine years ago in the chapel of the Center for Higher Studies in Rome, I received the grace of the ministerial priesthood. So today I complete my ninth year of priestly ministry and begin my tenth. It’s no coincidence that my tenth year of priesthood begins with the Year of Mercy: this year I’ll be celebrating the mercy of God in a special way by helping with confessions at the parish of San Salvatore in Lauro in Rome.

The best way to show your appreciation for God’s mercy in life is to show mercy toward others as well. Let’s all pray that this be a year of mercy for all.

A few weeks ago one of my brother Legionary priests passing through Rome (who’d prefer to remain anonymous–not to be confused with Anonymous) treated me to a gelato, which anyone who has visited Italy knows is ice cream, but taken to another level. If you ever pass through Rome, have a gelato at Old Bridge (and if you need someone to show you where it is, I’ll be glad to help you[mental note: resist temptation to request reimbursement in gelato, and erase this mental note before posting]): they have a website and its great gelato. But I digress.

It was a beautiful warm fall day where the weather had not decided to turn crisp yet, and that combination of climatological factors where the gelato starts to melt and drip as soon as you try to eat it. In that moment, looking down and seeing drops of it spattering on the ground, I had an insight in how much life at times it like a gelato: every drop spilt was a moment of fulfillment wasted, so every moment was to be lived to the utmost to savor as much as possible. That’s not a cause for regret, but for relishing every moment of life like it’s one big gelato. Before anyone takes that in a hedonistic sense and goes off like a weapon of substance-abused destruction, the point is not the gelato, but the joy and reason behind it. Even when life is not feeling like a gelato, there can be a joy behind living it. That joy come from having an attitude of gratitude and not just an attitude of simple fleeting “fat-itude” (don’t bother looking it up on Google Translate or in the dictionary).

An attitude of gratitude gives thanks and gives back for blessings received; an attitude of fat-itude just enjoys a stomach full of turkey and passing out on the couch in the afternoon watching football games, and then the moment is gone. An attitude of gratitude stems from always counting your blessings, even when they don’t seem preset or forthcoming. It goes from gratitude for one gelato to gratitude for a life of blessings exchanged with family and friends, and a desire to share those blessings with others in thanksgiving so that they too can adopt an attitude of gratitude. This gelato was just one stop along a lifetime of friendship lived in mutual gratitude.

The Eucharist is an act of Thanksgiving. I haven’t celebrated yet today because at midday a person from an Islamic country who’ll be joining us for Mass has just recently converted to Catholicism (another cause for thanksgiving), but I’ll be remembering you all with gratitude. Happy Thanksgiving.

 

 

During my summer visit to the United States I heard the expression “staycation” for the first time. Since I had been absent for about a month and a half from Rome for various reasons, this year I decided, before even knowing the term existed, to do a staycation there for my vacation: day trips to places around Rome and relaxing at home. As of this writing I’ve lived in Rome, off and on, for eleven years. As a brother, and as a priest occasionally, I’ve had to opportunity to see the city with family, friends, and pilgrims. I never went out into the city to see things that just interested me; usually I just suggested places to the group I was with and accompanied them wherever they wanted to go. This staycation was the perfect opportunity to visit those little places away from the beaten path that I’d always wanted to see, and to visit some places I’d not visited for a while for lack of an opportunity. This is not a recommended itinerary for people visiting Rome for the first time; there are tons of things that are a higher priority.

Day 1: The via Appia Antica, Domine Quo Vadis? Church, and the Catacombs of St. Sebastian.

I drew on old knowledge to find the bus stop for heading out to the area of the Catacombs, and much to my chagrin found out the bus stop had been moved. With the triumph of modern technology I was able to find the new bus stop without losing much time, but then the bus didn’t come…and didn’t come…and didn’t come. Undeterred, I checked on Google Maps how long it would take to walk from the bus stop to the first stop, the Domine Quo Vadis? Church (around 35 minutes), and went walking to it instead. Part of the walk was on the via Appia Antica, closed to traffic, so it was a beautiful, peaceful walk. This was probably the road in which Paul was led in custody to present his case before the Emperor when he came to Rome.

The Domine Quo Vadis? Church is built near the spot where tradition says what when St. Peter was going to abandon the city during the persecution, he saw Our Lord heading into the city, and when he asked Our Lord, Domine quo vadis? (Lord, where are you going), he replied that he was going into the city to be crucified again. Peter got the message and returned into the city. According to tradition the Lord’s feet left an imprint in the stone where he stood; the original is at the nearby catacombs of St. Sebastian (right photo below), and a copy is here. I visited both sets on the same day, not sure which was a copy of which. I also prayed at St. Sebastian’s tomb.

Day 2: The Capuchin Ossuary at Immaculate Conception Church, Santa Maria sopra Minerva, and Castel Sant’Angelo

There’s a church in Rome nicknamed the “bone church” because it contains an ossuary with the bones of deceased Capuchin friars from the convent built there. I’d always heard about it, but never visited it. Pictures aren’t allowed, out of respect for the dead, but beyond morbid curiosity that attracts visitors of all stripes (the skeletons and bones are arranged, sometimes artistically), for me, as a religious too, it made me remember how even our bodies are at the Lord’s service in death, and it puts all the grand plans you have for life into perspective.

Santa Maria sopra Minerva is a beautiful church with Gothic architecture (a rarity in Rome–I love the blue arched ceilings) and the tomb of St. Catherine of Siena and Fra Angelico (it’s a Dominican parish). Castel Sant’Angelo is now a civil military museum, but I’d never gone close to it, so I just admired it from the outside.

Day 3: San Nicola in Carcere, the Holy Stairs, and Santa Croce in Gerusalemme

After my trip to Bari a few months ago one of my confreres (a fellow Nicholas) told me about a basilica dedicated to St. Nicholas in Rome, commemorating when he was censured at the Council of Nicea in 325 for denouncing the heretic Arius and reinstated after a miraculous intervention by Our Lord. The basilica had a side altar dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe where a special Mass is celebrated on the 12th of every month, and an interested interpretation of the Way of the Cross. Little did I realize that it would set the tone for the morning. It was Friday, and Friday is when we remember Our Lord’s Passion. From there I visited the Holy Stairs (after passing through the Imperial forums) that a tradition says were the stairs to the Praetorium where Pontius Pilate condemned Jesus, and Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, where a relic of the True Cross and other objects related to the Passion are kept, including the titulus, the wooden sign that was placed over Our Lord’s head on the Cross.

Day 4: Villa Borghese

This day happened to be our weekly community day, so we spent the morning walking in the Villa Borghese, a beautiful large park with some fabulous views of the city, and then I orchestrated a lunch rendezvous for the community in a nearby Burger King.

Day 5: San Lorenzo fuori le Mure, Campo di Verano cemetery

This day I visited the basilica of Saint Lawrence Outside the Walls, which has the instrument of martyrdom of the deacon and martyr, as well as the body of Blessed Pius IX. The basilica is on the outskirts of a huge cemetery, the Campo Verano (summer field), with various artistic tombs and monuments.

Day 6: The Isola Tiburina and the basilica of St. Bartholomew

There is a small island on the Tiber river that winds through Rome that is named the Isola Tiburina (the Tiberine Isle) that you can walk onto. On this island is the basilica of St. Bartholomew, where the bones of the apostle are kept. I also walked along the Tiber a few times (up on street level).

Day 7: Piazza del Popolo

On this day I walked from our center down to the Piazza del Popolo, which has three churches. I spent some time in Santa Maria del Popolo that has two works by Caravaggio: the crucifixion of Peter and the call of Paul.

Day 8: The Tre Fontane Abbey and St. Paul’s Outside the Walls

For my last excursion I went to the Tre Fontane Abbey (Three Fountains), the place where St. Paul was martyred. When he was decapitated, as the story goes, his head bounced three times, and at each spot where it bounced sprang a fountain. A church is now built over the three fountains. Considering Paul’s amazing journeys as an apostle I think it can rightly be considered one of the greatest finishing lines in salvation history: he raced for the crown of eternal life and won it here. It’s a beautiful, quiet place. From there I walked to St. Paul’s Outside the Walls, where Paul is buried (under the main altar, as was recently confirmed by archaeologists) and I was ordained a deacon in 2006.

Day 9: Mass at the Clementine Chapel, St. Peter’s

Although it doesn’t exactly count as a vacation excursion, a brother asked me to celebrate Mass in St. Peter’s for a couple celebrating their fortieth wedding anniversary (congratulations Paul and Barbara). It was scheduled at the Clementine Chapel beneath the main basilica. I’d never said Mass there, and always wanted to; it’s the closest you can celebrate Mass to the place where St. Peter’s bones are located. Paul and Barbara renewed their wedding vows and then treated us to breakfast. It was a great grace to conclude my staycation outings.