World Day of Prayer for Vocations

The following is a letter from Bishop Thomas Wenksi, Bishop of the Diocese of Orlando, regarding the World Day of Prayer for Vocations on May 3rd.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Vocations to the priesthood and religious life are a priority within the Diocese of Orlando. Today, as we experience a growing population in Central Florida, we are also experiencing an increase in vocations, partly because of the prayers of our faithful for more vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

I appeal to you to pray for an increase in vocations so that we can continue to minister to the increasing number of Catholics in the Diocese of Orlando. Our seminarians need your prayers as they grow in their formation during this period. Our parents need your prayers so they might encourage their children to consider the possibility of a vocation to religious life. Our children need your prayers so they might discern the call of God and say yes to the possibility of becoming a priest or religious sister. Our priests and religious sisters need your prayers as they continue to lead members of Christ’s faithful in their spiritual life.

I ask you to pray daily. There are many ways you might pray for vocations, such as praying the Rosary or Chaplet of Divine Mercy daily or as often as you are able. You might consider receiving Communion or participating in the celebration of Mass with a vocations intention.

Jesus said to his disciples, “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” (John 13:34) God calls each one of us to a future of love. To give ourselves as a gift to God as Jesus did when he died for us on the cross is the way to true joy.

May our prayers for vocations lead those who hear the call to serve the Lord in this special way to say YES and may our prayers support them on this journey.

Most Reverend Thomas Wenski
Bishop of Orlando

Prayer for Vocations

God, our Father, we turn to you in this time of great need. We trust in your loving kindness and ask you to hear the prayers we offer for your Church.

Through your grace, we seek men to generously offer their lives to you in the vocation of priesthood.

We seek both men and women who may offer their lives to you in the vocation of religious life.

Bless and guide those who are discerning your call to holiness and service.

Give them courage, steadfast love and a spirit of charity as they seek to respond faithfully to the call to priesthood and religious life.

We offer this prayer for the Diocese of Orlando and for the whole Church in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, who is Lord, forever and ever.

Amen.

Friendship

“Yesterday brought the beginning, tomorrow brings the end, and somewhere in the middle we became the best of friends.”

-Unknown Author

August 7, 2008 was my first day at St. John Vianney College Seminary. As I drove down in the car with my mother next to me, I was extremely nervous about leaving home for the first time and being away from my family and my friends. I was stepping into an unknown environment; an environment where it would be rather difficult the first few days to find anyone to talk to about how I was feeling or what I was experiencing. But, that all changed when I got to my room the first night and I got a chance to talk with my New Student Experience (NSE) roommate.

My first roommate was a seminarian for the Archdiocese of Miami who had just arrived in the states from Colombia. The first night of NSE we found ourselves talking about each other and our lives before entering St. John. In the midst of that talk, we shared the same concerns about leaving family and friends. I realized that I had made my first friend at the seminary; a friendship that I know will last forever.

As the year has progressed, the seminarians I have shared my thoughts and feelings with have all become more than just friends – we are more like brothers. As Eustache Deschamps puts it, “friends are relatives you make for yourself.” The brotherhood that develops in the seminary is something that is truly remarkable. We walk with each other down the path to ordination experiencing great struggles and challenges along the way. Sometimes, it is the brothers that actually prompt these challenges. But, these challenges are good for all of us because in the midst of the struggle there is tremendous growth.

The friendships that form in the seminary would not be possible without the presence of the Lord because without Him there would be no substance to them. They would simply be fleeting moments of chit-chat. We would not be able, or willing, to share any of the things that reside in the deepest recesses of our hearts.

In modern society, people are broken! Rather than developing friendships where emotions and feelings can be freely expressed, people look for “stuff” and “things” to make them happy. This increasingly materialistic society is something the church must address. The future is uncertain, especially now with this economic crisis. My hope and my prayer is that people will begin to realize that there is more to life than “stuff.”

In the words of our Rector/President, Msgr. Michael Carruthers, the conversation needs to deepen. We should not be afraid to put our hearts out there. Trust that the Lord will be present and that He will guide the conversation, sparking an incredible feeling of love and support.

Month of April

Hello all! I hope you are all enjoying the new website!

The month of April has been and will continue to be hectic as Final Exams approach. In fact next week, I have three papers due, two of which are due on the same day. Throughout this week, I will be continuing to spend a little time on all of them. I should be done by Wednesday of next week with all the papers. So, over the next two weeks, I will not get a chance to post much on the site. My studies do come first!

Throughout the month of April, I will be praying for a special intention and I ask that you pray along with me. If you go to my Contact page, you will see that I do have one special cause, the ASPCA. Throughout this month, the ASPCA is honoring Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month. During your prayer time this month, please remember the ASPCA and all the homeless, neglected, and abused pets in your prayers.

As the end of the year approaches, the seminary is already preparing for the upcoming year. Today, I got to pick my classes for next year. (Well, technically, I didn’t pick them – they were picked for me.) As it stands now, my first semester next year is going to be extremely busy. The classes that are required have a lot of writing involved with them. They include: Metaphysics with Dr. Solis, Modern Philosophy with Fr. Ferdi, Church History with Dr. Morgan, Themes of the Catechism with Dr. Morgan, and Intermediate Spanish with Dr. Jimenez.

Well, I am going to get back to writing my New Testament paper. May God continue to bless all of you! Bye for now…

He is Risen! Alleluia, Alleluia!

This past week, the church celebrated Holy Week, beginning with Palm Sunday and coming to a close on Easter Sunday. As we journeyed with the church, we experienced Jesus’ triumphal entrance into Jerusalem on a donkey, the celebration of His Last Supper, the pain and suffering of His Passion and death, and the greatest triumph of all, His Resurrection. As we journey through this week and the rest of the Easter season, let us not lose sight of all the things our Lord, Jesus Christ did for us by dying for us upon the cross.

Over the past few days, I have been reflecting on this year, my first year of seminary formation. A few weeks ago, I mentioned how a year had passed since I had begun the process of becoming a seminarian fro the Diocese of Orlando. On that Monday of Holy Week last year, I had no idea of the things the Lord had in store for me for the upcoming year. It has been a year of extreme challenges and triumphs.

The challenges came from being away from family and friends for the first time, being in a completely different environment. I pretty much grew up at my parish. In fact, just the other day, when I was home for Holy Week Recess, I was talking to my mother about how the parish raised me. I have been associated with St. Charles Church ever since I was 3 DAYS old. So, you can imagine, leaving that environment was tremendously difficult. However, when I got to the seminary in August, I quickly found a new home and I grew to love my brother seminarians as if they were my biological brothers. The Lord truly does work in marvelous ways. Throughout the next year, I am sure the struggles will be even more difficult to deal with; but, I know that if I believe the Lord is there with me, I can conquer anything that challenges me along the way!

Here are some pictures from Holy Week 2009 at St. Charles!!

Summer Assignment

On Friday evening before the Operation Deliverance Prayer Service at Blanchard Park, Fr. Miguel informed all of the seminarians of their summer assignments. During the months of June and July, the majority of the seminarians will be placed in a parish within the Diocese of Orlando to gain some experience in various aspects of ministry. This summer, I will be staying in Merritt Island at Divine Mercy Catholic Church.

Interior of the Church

Exterior of the Church

More information to come soon! I am meeting my supervisor, Fr. Karl Bergin, on Wednesday at the Chrism Mass at Mary, Queen of the Universe Shrine.

The Fourteenth Station

Jesus is Laid in the Tomb

Jesus, your body is prepared for burial. Joseph gave you his own tomb. He laid your body there and rolled a large stone in front of it, then went home. What a sad day it has been for so many people.

As a child, sometimes I try to keep everything for myself. I find it hard to share my things with my brothers or sisters and with my friends.

As an adult, I can be selfish too. I can accumulate things and keep them for myself. I try to make sure I have what I want before I share what I have with anybody else.

Help me think of Joseph of Arimathea, who risked his own life as he accepted Jesus’ body for burial. Help me think of how Joseph loved Jesus so much that he gave him his own tomb.

My Jesus, beside Thy body in the tomb I, too, would lie dead; but if I live, let it be for Thee, so as one day to enjoy with Thee in heaven the fruits of Thy passion and Thy bitter death.

The Thirteenth Station

Jesus is Taken Down from the Cross

Jesus, how brutally you were put to death. How gently your are taken from the cross. Your suffering and pain are ended, and you are put in the lap of your mother. The dirt and blood are wiped away. You are treated with love.

As a child, sometimes I treat others better when they’re sad or in pain. When somebody dies, I become very gentle and kind. I notice the good and kind things people say about those who have died.

As an adult, I seem to be kinder when someone dies. If only I could learn to see the good things about them while they were alive. If only I would tell those around me how much I love them, while I still have the opportunity to do so.

Help me look for the good in those around me, especially those I love the most. Help me live this day as if it were the last. Help me become a more gentle and loving person through my greater appreciation for those around me.

O Mary, Mother most sorrowful, the sword of grief pierced thy soul when thou didst see Jesus lying lifeless on thy bosom; obtain for me hatred of sin because sin slew thy Son and wounded thine own heart, and grace to live a Christian life and save my soul.

The Twelfth Station

Jesus Dies on the Cross

Pilate also wrote a title and put it on the Cross; it read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews”. Many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek.

John 19:19-20

Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” That is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “This man is calling Elijah”. And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him”. And Jesus cried again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit”. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe, and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

Matthew 27:45-50,54

In Greek and Latin, the two international languages of the time, and in Hebrew, the language of the Chosen People, a sign stood above the Cross of Jesus, indicating who he was: the King of the Jews, the promised Son of David. Pilate, the unjust judge, became a prophet despite himself. The kingship of Jesus was proclaimed before all the world. Jesus himself had not accepted the title “Messiah”, because it would have suggested a mistaken, human idea of power and deliverance. Yet now the title can remain publicly displayed above the Crucified Christ. He is indeed the king of the world. Now he is truly “lifted up”. In sinking to the depths he rose to the heights. Now he has radically fulfilled the commandment of love, he has completed the offering of himself, and in this way he is now the revelation of the true God, the God who is love. Now we know who God is. Now we know what true kingship is. Jesus prays Psalm 22, which begins with the words: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Ps 22:2). He takes to himself the whole suffering people of Israel, all of suffering humanity, the drama of God’s darkness, and he makes God present in the very place where he seems definitively vanquished and absent. The Cross of Jesus is a cosmic event. The world is darkened, when the Son of God is given up to death. The earth trembles. And on the Cross, the Church of the Gentiles is born. The Roman centurion understands this, and acknowledges Jesus as the Son of God. From the Cross he triumphs ­ ever anew.

Lord Jesus Christ, at the hour of your death the sun was darkened. Ever anew you are being nailed to the Cross. At this present hour of history we are living in God’s darkness. Through your great sufferings and the wickedness of men, the face of God, your face, seems obscured, unrecognizable. And yet, on the Cross, you have revealed yourself. Precisely by being the one who suffers and loves, you are exalted. From the Cross on high you have triumphed. Help us to recognize your face at this hour of darkness and tribulation. Help us to believe in you and to follow you in our hour of darkness and need. Show yourself once more to the world at this hour. Reveal to us your salvation.

The Eleventh Station

Jesus is Nailed to the Cross

You are stretched out on the cross you have carried so far. The soldiers take big nails and drive them into your hands and feet. You feel abandoned by the people you loved so much. People seem to have gone mad. You have done nothing but good, yet they drive nails through your hands and feet.

As a child, sometimes I hurt others. Sometimes I join with friends and decide not to like another. We gang up against another and cause them hurt and pain. Sometimes I say or do hurtful things to my brothers and sisters. I can wonder what they’d think about themselves if they believed everything I told them about themselves.

As and adult, sometimes I discriminate against others. Even without thinking, I judge others because of their color, intelligence, income level or name. I forget that I am to live as a brother or sister to all people. Sometimes I use harsh words when I speak to my children and family members. I can find it easy to look for something that isn’t very important and make it very important.

Help me look again at the people around me. Help me see the hurt and pain I have caused in others. Be with me to help me make amends for the harm I have done.

My Jesus, by Thine agony when the cruel nails pierced Thy tender hands and feet and fixed them to the cross, make me crucify my flesh by Christian penance.

The Tenth Station

Jesus is Stripped of his Garments

And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means the place of a skull), they offered him wine to drink, mingled with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots; then they sat down and kept watch over him there.

Matthew 27:33-36

Jesus is stripped of his garments. Clothing gives a man his social position; it gives him his place in society, it makes him someone. His public stripping means that Jesus is no longer anything at all, he is simply an outcast, despised by all alike. The moment of the stripping reminds us of the expulsion from Paradise: God’s splendor has fallen away from man, who now stands naked and exposed, unclad and ashamed. And so Jesus once more takes on the condition of fallen man. Stripped of his garments, he reminds us that we have all lost the “first garment” that is God’s splendor. At the foot of the Cross, the soldiers draw lots to divide his paltry possessions, his clothes. The Evangelists describe the scene with words drawn from Psalm 22:19; by doing so they tell us the same thing that Jesus would tell his disciples on the road to Emmaus: that everything takes place “according to the Scriptures”. Nothing is mere coincidence; everything that happens is contained in the Word of God and sustained by his divine plan. The Lord passes through all the stages and steps of man’s fall from grace, yet each of these steps, for all its bitterness, becomes a step towards our redemption: this is how he carries home the lost sheep. Let us not forget that John says that lots were drawn for Jesus’ tunic, “woven without seam from top to bottom” (Jn 19:23). We may consider this as a reference to the High Priest’s robe, which was “woven from a single thread”, without stitching (Fl. Josephus, a III, 161). For he, the Crucified One, is the true High Priest.

Lord Jesus, you were stripped of your garments, exposed to shame, cast out of society. You took upon yourself the shame of Adam, and you healed it. You also take upon yourself the sufferings and the needs of the poor, the outcasts of our world. And in this very way you fulfill the words of the prophets. This is how you bring meaning into apparent meaninglessness. This is how you make us realize that your Father holds you, us, and the whole world in his hands. Give us a profound respect for man at every stage of his existence, and in all the situations in which we encounter him. Clothe us in the light of your grace.

The Ninth Station

Jesus Falls the Third Time

Jesus, your journey has been long. You fall again, beneath your cross. You know your journey is coming to an end. You struggle and struggle. You get up and keep going.

As a child, sometimes I fail time and time again. I find it hard to get along with my sisters and brothers, sometimes I’m not honest, sometimes I’m lazy. I’m tempted to stop trying. It’s just too hard sometimes.

As an adult, I often feel I should have conquered my weaknesses by now. I become discouraged when I’m confronted by the same problems over and over again. Sometimes I get weary. When I have health problems, I can become discouraged and depressed.

Help me think of the cross you carried. Help me continue to hope that I can make the changes in my life I need to. You didn’t give up. I can have the strength to get up again as well.

My Jesus, by all the bitter woes Thou didst endure when for the third time the heavy cross bowed Thee to the earth, never, I beseech Thee, let me fall again into sin. Ah, my Jesus, rather let me die than ever offend Thee again.

The Eighth Station

Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem

My Jesus, I am amazed at Your compassion for others in Your time of need. When I suffer, I have a tendency to think only of myself but You forgot Yourself completely. When You saw the holy women weeping over Your torments, You consoled them and taught them to look deeper into Your Passion. You wanted them to understand that the real evil to cry over was the rejection You suffered from the Chosen people – a people set apart from every other nation, who refused to accept God’s Son.
The Act of Redemption would go on and no one would ever be able to take away Your dignity as Son of God, but the evil, greed, jealousy and ambition in the hearts of those who should have recognized You was the issue to grieve over. To be so close to God made man and miss Him completely was the real crime.

My Jesus, I fear I do the same when I strain gnats and then swallow camels – when I take out the splinter in my brother’s eye and forget the beam in my own. It is such a gift – this gift of faith. It is such a sublime grace to possess Your own Spirit. Why haven’t I advanced in holiness of life? I miss the many disguises you take upon Yourself and see only people, circumstances and human events, not the loving hand of the Father guiding all things. Help all those who are discouraged, sick, lonely and old to recognize Your Presence in their midst.

Amen.

The Seventh Station

Jesus Falls the Second Time

My Jesus, one of the beautiful qualities the people admired in You was Your strength in time of ridicule – Your ability to rise above the occasion. But now, You fall a second time – apparently conquered by the pain of the Cross. People who judged You by appearances made a terrible mistake. What looked like weakness was unparalleled strength!

I often judge by appearances and how wrong I am most of the time. The world judges entirely by this fraudulent method of discerning. It looks down upon those who apparently have given their best and are now in need. It judges the poor as failures, the sick as useless and the aged as a burden. How wrong that kind of judgment is in the light of your second fall! Your greatest moment wasYour weakest one. Your greatest triumph was in failure. Your greatest act of love was in desolation. Your greatest show of power was in that utter lack of strength that threw You to the ground.

Weak and powerful Jesus, give me the grace to see beyond what is visible and be more aware of Your Wisdom in the midst of weakness. Give the aged, sick, handicapped, retarded, deaf and blind the fruit of joy so they may ever be aware of the Father’s gift and the vast difference between what the world sees and what the Father sees that they may glory in their weakness so the power of God may be manifest.

Amen