If I had a dollar for every time someone told me to pray to Mary, I would be a very rich man. All the time you hear, entrust this situation to Mary, look to Mary for help for she will help you get through this, pray to Mary she will help you find Jesus, etc. I always knew Mary was a great person, a kind and loving Mother, but I would often wonder why we couldn’t just go straight to Jesus with our worries, problems, concerns, etc. bypassing Mary. Then, at mass the other day, the great Fr. Franco said in his homily “if Jesus needed Mary then who are we to say that we don’t need her.” That really struck me. Without Mary, it would have been impossible for Jesus to come into this world, teach us the many lessons he taught us throughout his life, and eventually die on the cross for us. We need Mary to be our loving mother and show us the way to the Father. She loves us all as children, so look to her and entrust your life to her care…she will not let you down.
I just got this phone call from the great Fr Franco saying I have officially been accepted into the Salesian Seminary for next year. Even though I pretty much knew I would be accepted, I cannot describe with words how excited I am that this is actually official. I honestly can’t believe I am officially a Salesian seminarian!!! This is it…the culmination of a little more than a year’s worth of discerning, most of which was very difficult and at times heartbreaking. I know this is where God is calling me to in my life right now and I’m so glad that I’ve taken this first step on my pathway to Sainthood. I couldn’t be more excited!!!
I want to extend some thank yous to a few people…first and foremost I have to thank God for showing me this path so clearly and answering each and every one of my prayers during discernment. I want to thank all of my amazing friends who I was so sure would leave me since during those tough times in discernment I was probably more of a burden than a friend, but they stuck with me because they are the BEST!!! Correale, Barone, Ralf, Matt, Mike, Pat, John…you guys were always there for me. Mr. Flores and Fr. Abe you guys pointed me in the right direction when I first decided to start seriously considering giving the priesthood a thought thanks so much. I would also like to thank my amazing spiritual director Fr. Dom, who did such an amazing job helping me sort out all the confusing thoughts and helping me to realize how much I do treasure my faith. Thanks to Br Sean my man the number of crazy stressed out emails you answered for me helped so much in my discernment. My amazing guidance counselors this year…Ms Tinaj and Ms Trombetta…I asked way more from you guys this year than any student ever should but you were both there for me whenever I had a problem I needed to discuss. To all of the above people…without you guys I know I wouldn’t have had the courage to say yes to God and be where I am today so I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart. You are all amazing and will always have a special place in my heart.
Yesterday at mass this song, You Are Mine, was played as the communion hymn. It is a song that I have heard many times before but for some reason this time the song really spoke to me unlike any time before. Maybe because this mass I wasn’t singing in a choir so I was able to really reflect on the lyrics and message to the song. Regardless, I was awestruck at the beautiful lyrics to this song. I really felt as if Jesus was truly speaking to me and telling me how much He loves me. The song is all about how you should not be afraid because Jesus is with you every step of the way. He has called you by name and if you just relax and follow Him throughout your life, then He will lead you into His home, the Paradise that is Heaven!!!
Today was a really special day…my little sister received the Sacrament of Confirmation and I had the honor of being her sponsor. The bishop’s homily today really had me reflecting on what it means to be a Confirmed Catholic. The bishop began asking the kids questions about the service hours that were required of them in order to receive the sacrament. One boy said they had to complete fifteen hours of community service. Then the bishop asked a couple of the kids where they did these service hours. One kid said at a soup kitchen, another at a nursing home, and a couple of others gave similar answers. Then the Bishop said something that I already knew, but hearing it kinda struck me, I don’t know why. He said that those fifteen hours aren’t over even though you are done with the Confirmation Preparation Program. He said that those fifteen hours of service now continue for the rest of your life. As Catholics it is our duty to serve others. Jesus served all of us when he died on the cross for us, and he calls us every single day to serve others in any way possible. It doesn’t even have to be something huge like going to a soup kitchen every single day or physically going to the poorest districts of Manhattan to feed the poor. Those things are great, don’t get me wrong, but if we need to serve those around us every single day, even in smaller ways. Help your mom with the dishes, mow the lawn for your dad, help your little siblings with their homework, any little thing you can possibly think of is a way to serve others and help make Jesus smile, which I said in my first blog post is what being a saint is all about.
Confirmation is such a beautiful sacrament. Let’s pray for all the kids in my sister’s class that were confirmed today that they can keep the faith burning bright now that the Holy Spirit has filled their hearts =D.
One positive thing I did notice from our trip to the comedy club last night after prom was that I really realized how much respect people today have for religious. I know some of the most unlikely people at school have shown me nothing but immense respect after hearing that I was considering to become a priest. So anyway, last night in between all the terribly inappropriate jokes about sex and drugs one of the comedians out of nowhere asks me what I plan on doing with my life. All my friends started cracking up hysterically because out of all the people there that night I was the one that was asked. I told the comedian that I wanted to be a priest surprisingly enough the man didn’t say much on the subject. He seemed a little shocked, but didn’t tease or make fun of the subject at all. Clearly even though our society has lost a great deal of respect for faith and religion there is definitely still a great deal of respect for the potential priests of our future!
Last night was my Senior Prom (which was absolutely amazing!!!). After prom our group went to a comedy club in Times Square, called Carolines. The first few comedians were quite funny, they joked around a lot about school and college and such. However, the last few comedians all joked about slightly less funny and more inappropriate topics. All they could talk about was drugs and sex (I won’t get into specific jokes because some of it actually got quite graphic and inappropriate). I just couldn’t help but think…is this what society today has come to? Do we have to talk about drugs and sex in order to be funny? I know when I hang out with my friends we never ever talk about drugs or sex and we are always constantly laughing. I just don’t understand why our society cannot support more respectable forms of humor. It’s no wonder why our world is in a crisis of faith…you can’t even have a laugh anymore at a comedy club without having to go to confession afterward.
This weekend me and my friend Matt ran a Sophomore Brotherhood Retreat for the sophomore leaders of Salesian High School. It was a truly amazing experience which bonded an amazing group of kids together as brothers, and helped bring God into their lives. I know each and every one of those kids met Jesus on that retreat during the sacrament of confession and the reflection period that followed. The retreat ended the way any retreat should…with mass. I often call mass a “Jesus Party” semi-jokingly but this mass really was like a party for Jesus. During the final song, Testify to Love by Avalon (available below) we all sang and danced like I’ve never seen before on a retreat, and I’ve been on ALOT of retreats in my years as a Salesian. We really were rocking out for Jesus during that song, it was the most fun I’ve had on a retreat in a long time =D
Anyone who has followed my blog relatively closely can see that I’m obviously a big fan of music, as the vast majority of my blog posts have some sort of a musical reflection to accompany them. This is not a coincidence, as I think music is vital to the prayer life of any Catholic. St Don Bosco once said “A School without music is like a body without a soul.” Music animates our prayer life and makes it so much more fun and lively. It is a way to praise God and have fun with it ourselves. Anyone who sings in a choir at mass can tell you what great joy it fills their heart to sing for the Lord. Using music is an amazing way to spread the word of God and make it fun and enjoyable for all =D
Jeremy Camp, one of my favorite Christian Rock Singers…
When I first saw this skit I was in tears…it is so powerful. In the beginning of the skit we see how close the girl is to Jesus. He creates her and introduces her to the world. They are both as happy as can be, nothing could be better. This is like how we are at Baptism…cleansed from all sins and just welcomed into Jesus’ community of faith.
As the skit progresses we see that society’s evils come between the girl and Jesus. The first man representing society takes the girl away from Jesus and begins dancing with her. The rest of the people representing society are tempting her with money, alcohol, suicide, etc. As we grow up leaving our baptism years behind, society begins to influence our life. Just like the first man in the skit, society makes itself out to be something much more beautiful and fun than anything Jesus could ever offer and so many turn away from Jesus and believe what society says. The rest of the people in this skit show us that society really doesn’t have the answers, and really hurts us more than it helps.
We then see the girl realize the mistake she made and try to run back to Jesus but society won’t let her. The society we live in today does not want us to live our life with Jesus. It wants us to think that money, sex, alcohol, etc. can make us happy and that Jesus would only get in the way. But this girl, representing us, realizes how untrue that is and how much she truly wants to be with Jesus. There is a huge struggle, the girl will not give up on trying to get back to Jesus just like we shouldn’t just because times are hard.
Finally we see Jesus once again come to our rescue. He sees how much the girl wants to come back to Him and he protects and safeguards her from society’s evils. Jesus loves us so much that He died for us, what greater gift can there be? If we want to come back to Him, just like the girl in this skit, He will embrace us with open arms no matter what the cost.
This skit performed to the song “Everything” by Lifehouse really moved me the first time I see it and I still get goosebumps when I watch it. You really can’t stand here and not be moved by what Jesus does for us. Make sure you let Him know tonight how much you appreciate that!
Sometimes life just seems like it sucks. Usually all the depressing stuff hits you all at once and you get so sick of having to deal with everything. We’ve all gone through it…those super depressing days where nothing seems to be going right, and life seems like the most depressing thing ever and everything crashes down all at once. There are a number of way to get out of these funks that life often throws at us but I think it is so important for us to always remember that if you look back on your life, the number of really great times will always far outweigh the number of really terrible times. Because of that you can be so sure that even though at that particular moment it may seem like life sucks, you can be sure that the good times are on the way because on the whole life is really really good =D
