Fr. David Versus the Volcano

It has been a while since I have had the opportunity to sit still and update this blog. Classes have been very good and we have been covering topics such as St. Paul of Tarsus, Women Doctors in the Church, Moral Theology and ethics as well as studying the art, architecture and theology of the major basilicas of St. Peter, St. Paul outside the wall, St. John Lateran and St. Mary Major.

(Left: Coronation of Mary at St. Paul's Basilica)

(Right: Mary's Coronation at Saint Mary Major)

St. Paul's Basilica

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to take a break and travel to the island of Sicily with one of the priests that is participating in the Institute with me. Since we arrived in Catania, we were staring straight up at Mount Etna. Click here for the Mt. Etna description.

Fr. John Giel, who is the Vicar General from Orlando, and I rented a car and drove up the mountain. On the way up we were joking about how great it would be if there were a gondola ride over the volcano. As we pulled into the parking area we looked up to see gondolas moving higher up the mountain. It was a sign!


After a long gondola ride and another ride in a special four wheeled drive bus...










we were dropped off at about 10,000 feet elevation at the base of a smoking crater.

Smoking Crater

Crater at Mt. Etna

The guide led us around one of the smaller craters and we were able to see views of Sicily on every side. The wind was pretty intense and the large crater above was releasing sulfur and other gases. Check out this video of us walking around the top of the crater! 

It was an amazing experience to get that close to an active volcano. What was even more fascinating to me was the hundreds of thousands of people who live all around the volcano. They either have great faith or they have just tuned out the fact that they are living on the edge of oblivion every day.

It helped me to realize that we all do the same thing. Every day life is so precious and fragile, but we rarely take notice. We have been living this way for so long that it doesn't even seem strange to us. We may not be on an active volcano, but our whole world can be shaken in an instant. If we lived with the constant realization that each moment could be our last, would we treasure the gifts we have received more? Would we be more generous and kind?

Peace and Goodness,

Father David

Trifecta (October 11, 2012)

Santiago de Compostela, Rome and Jerusalem ; the trifecta of Christian Pilgrimage.

Today I leave for the Holy Land as part of the Institute for Continuing Theological Education. I have never been to the Holy Land and I have to say that I am pretty excited about walking in the footsteps of Jesus.

We will arrive in Tel Aviv around 4pm and then travel to the Mount of the Beatitudes where we will stay for the first half of our trip. From there we will make day trips to Cana in Galilee, Caesarea Philippi and Mount Tabor. On Monday we will go to Jerusalem and stay there for the remainder of our time while visiting the sites nearby such as Bethlehem, Ein Karem (site of John the Baptist's birth and the Visitation), the Mount of Olives and sites in Jerusalem itself.

I have no idea what to expect, but I know that my faith will be richer for having been able to visit the earthly home of our Lord and see and touch the places that He loved.

As we prepared to leave this morning the following verses stood out in our morning prayer song.

"Jerusalem the golden, with milk and honey blest, Beneath thy contemplation sink heart and voice oppressed. I know not, O I know not, what joys await us there, What radiancy of glory, what bliss beyond compare."

" O sweet and blessed country, the home of God’s elect! O sweet and blessed country, that eager hearts expect! Jesus, in mercy bring us to that dear land of rest, Who art, with God the Father, and Spirit, ever blessed."

"Come, let us adore God the Creator."

I am not a city person by nature. Living in Rome is amazing, but every now and then the big city gets a little too claustrophobic for me. Saturday, I had the opportunity to get out of town for a while and visit the place where the Pope goes when he needs a break; Castel Gandolfo.

The city of Castel Gandolfo

One of the things I really wanted to see while I was there was the Vatican Observatory. Unfortunately, because Pope Benedict XVI was still at the residence, that was not going to happen.

Pope Benedict at Castel Gandolfo

It was not a wasted trip. The town was beautiful and because it is located in the hills above Lago Albano, the temperature was refreshingly cool.

I was content to just look from a distance at the papal palace and the observatory with its telescope on top.

As I looked at pictures of the observatory, I noticed that there is a plaque with an inscription on the side of the observatory. In Latin it says, Deum Creatorem Venite Adoremus. Meaning, "Come let us adore God the Creator."

This of course led me to look a little more into the phrase on the observatory and I encountered an article by one of the Jesuit priests who works at the observatory, Fr. David Brown, S.J. I am including the link to his article. It well worth reading the whole article, but for those who might not read it I will attempt to use some of his thoughts with some of mine as well.

Vatican Observatory

"As a Jesuit astronomer working for the Vatican’s observatory, the Specola Vaticana, I am often asked, 'Why does the Vatican have an astronomical observatory?' I offer three reasons for the Catholic Church’s patronage of such an institution:

1) for the sake of the truth;

2) in order to promote and to foster dialogue between the world of faith and the world of science, especially in an age when many people believe the two worlds to be fundamentally incompatible, and;

3) for the benefit of providing answers to people of faith who deserve substantive and sensible responses to the genuinely good questions that arise either through curiosity or from their interactions with others.

The second and third answers are certainly of paramount importance in these times, especially in light of challenges facing the Church in a scientific age, which include stereotypes often attached to it in the aftermath of the Galileo affair since the 1600s. However important these two reasons may be for providing a rationale for the continued involvement of the Church in the sciences, they are not the primary reason for why the Church founded the Specola (and its predecessors). From a historical point of view and with regard to its fundamental mission, the first answer -- for the sake of truth -- is the most important justification for the existence of the Specola: it reveals much about the Catholic Christian worldview and about its engagement with science." (Fr. David Brown. New Jesuit Review 2011 vol. 2, # 8)

To seek the truth is always the mission of the Church, but the popular misconception today is that the Church is standing in the way of truth and is an obstacle to science and progress. It is frustrating that many people have no concept of how much the Church has contributed to the development of science and how it continues to contribute to the search for truth. This link features a list of many of the clerics in the Church who made major contributions to science.

What is challenging to popular culture today is that the Church is asking the deeper questions of truth in a holistic context. The Church seeks the truth through faith and reason. It does not make the false choice between faith or reason, because it knows that both are necessary to know the truth about the world and about ourselves. Faith doesn't start where reason stops. They are like the two eyes of a person. With only one eye, a person's view of the world around them changes from three dimensions to two. What is lost is depth perception.

A person who insists on faith without reason or reason without faith lacks depth and the world becomes very shallow.

"Confronted by the majesty, intricacy, and vastness of the cosmos, the person becomes aware of being part of something that goes beyond him, of something which is greater than he, but of which he is intrinsically connected at some deep level...the pursuit of God’s truth involves everything, including something as humble as an observatory run from the Vatican." (Fr. David Brown, New Jesuit Review 2011 Vol. 2, # 8)

Together on the Way (October 7, 2012)

Rome has been invaded by Bishops and experts from around the world to participate in what is called an Ordinary Synod. The word “synod” is derived from two Greek words syn meaning “together” and hodos meaning “road” or “way”. One way to describe a synod is the coming together of the Church on its way to God.

This Synod is anything but ordinary. It is focused on the "New Evangelization" and how the Church can reenergize the faith of the baptized.

The Church has to deal with the practical problem that many have abandoned the faith. What will help the Church to reach those who have left their faith behind or even those who's faith has grown luke warm?

"Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses. [...] It is therefore primarily by her conduct and by her life that the Church will evangelize the world, in other words, by her living witness of fidelity to the Lord Jesus, by her witness of poverty and detachment, and by her witness of freedom in the face of the powers of this world, in short, the witness of sanctity."

www.vatican.va/roman_curia/synod/documents/rc_synod_doc_20110202_lineamenta-xiii assembly_en.html#PREFACE

Mary's Gift

Last week we studied religious art and architecture in a city filled with examples of every style and form from the last several thousand years. We were blessed to be able to walk through St. Peter's Basilica with art historian and author Dr. Elizabeth Lev.

As we reflected on the Pieta by Michelangelo, Liz helped us to recall that this was one of Michelangelo's first works that was originally commissioned to be a part of a funeral monument. He made some very dramatic choices in how he depicted the Pieta.

The image of the Pieta had been common in Germany and Spain in the Gothic period before Michelangelo, but it had always focused on the gruesome death of Christ and the anguish of Mary.

German Pieta

Michelangelo did not carve Mary to look like the mother of a man in his thirties. He carved Mary to look like the young girl who had encountered the Archangel Gabriel at the Annunciation. When asked about her face he said that pure women never age.

Close Up of Mary's Face in Michelangelo's Pieta

As you look at her face it is not covered in the grief and anguish of a mother who has lost her son, but it is a face that says,"Let it be done to me according to your word."

It is important to note that the sculpture was originally located above an altar. As the priest, facing the altar, held up the Host and said,"this is my body which will be given up for you", all would have been facing the image of Mary offering the body of her son.

Michelangelo carved the image in such a way that the body of Jesus is smooth and shines out of the midst of Mary's garments. Her left hand is letting go of the body of her son and it would have looked like it was about to fall onto the altar.

Before the Archangel Gabriel and at the foot of the cross, Mary was saying yes. Her gift to us was her yes which remained yes all the way to the end.

Saints, Secrets and Tombs (September 11th)

Our first week in Rome has been filled with many exciting moments as well as the typical orientation type information: how you do laundry; where you can get a haircut; which restaurant has the best bruschetta? There were many important things to learn, but the highlights would have to be celebrating Mass at the tomb of St. Peter, visiting some of the Vatican Secret Archives, and exploring the tombs of the Ancient Etruscan civilization.

There are 33 priests from the US, Canada, New Zealand and the Solomon Islands studying here together at the Institute for Continuing Theological Education(ICTE). We are based in Casa O'Toole at the North American College which is technically part of Vatican City State.

Last Friday we had the opportunity to celebrate Mass together at the tomb of St. Peter.

 

It was a humbling experience to stand in front of Peter's bones and hear the Gospel which proclaims, "You are Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church".

Father David & St. Peter

We were also lucky to be able to see some of the documents from the Vatican Secret Archives that were on exhibit in Rome. The fallacy about the secret archives of the Vatican is that the Church is hiding something. The reality is that the archives are not hidden, but restricted to those who are doing research. Learn more about the archives here.

It was fascinating to read the letters from President Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis to Pope Pius IX responding to the Pope's efforts to encourage a peaceful resolution to the American Civil War. These letters and many other incredible documents of history are preserved for us today because of the foresight of many popes in establishing and preserving the secret archives.

Necropolis of the Etruscans

  

Estruscan tombs

The Etruscan people preceded the Romans and had an extensive culture in Italy from ancient times. In many ways they were like the ancient Greeks. On Saturday, I visited an Etruscan necropolis or cemetery that dates back to 700 B.C. The Etruscans buried many things with their loved ones because they had a strong belief in the afterlife. Their concept, however was very materialistic. They left farm tools and food for their ancestors so that they would feel comfortable in the next world.




Since today we remember the many people who lost their lives on September 11th, it seems like a good time to reflect on how we respect our beloved dead. What are our hopes for the next life and how do we prepare ourselves for it?

Our classes this week have been focused on religious art and architecture. Tomorrow we will take a break to attend an audience with Pope Benedict and then back to class to learn how to read art. I look forward to sharing some of what I learn with you.

Peace and Goodness,

FD

Good Morning, Rome

This is the view from my room on my first morning.

Peace and Goodness,

FD