Merry Christmas

I hope that everyone is having a blessed Advent as we wait to celebrate the birth of Christ! My thoughts and prayers will be with all of you back home as I spend Christmas here. In a few days, all of the seminarians will be released for about two and a half weeks from school. Christmas is one of the times when all of us here are required to travel, so the house will be empty as everyone scatters across the globe. Some of the men here will be visiting the Holy Land while a large majority of us will be spread across all of Europe. I am going to be making a quick stop in Louvein, Belgium because we can stay for free at the American Seminary there. I hope to visit Cologne becuase my great grandparents were married there before immigrating to the US. The Cathedral in Cologne is also said to hold relics of the Three Magi, so I think this will be a good place to spend some time before Christmas. After Christmas, I will go to Krakow and Prague. I have mixed emotions about visiting Krakow. We will be seeing some of the places where John Paul II lived as well as visiting Auschwitz. In this one city, we will see the both the heights and depths that man is capable of. I was hesitant to visit Auschwitz during the Christmas season, but I know that it is important for me to see.

I realized that I have yet to speak much about my normal day in Rome. It is somewhat of an oxymoron to speak of a normal day in Rome because I have yet to have a week that was the same as the one before. Our schedule is dominated by the liturgical schedule of the Church. Many of the major feasts celebrated by the Church have some importance or link with the city of Rome. There are many days when we might visit one of the churches in Rome to see the body of the saint who is being remembered. On other feast days, we might be attending a mass with the Pope or having a large celebration within our own home. Each day in the liturgical life of the Church is the source of something that occurs here in the city which we attempt to experience whenever we can. Our weeks are also dominated by the number of guests that we receive into our house. It is a blessing to see friends and family members from back home, so we are constantly adjusting our schedules to see people when they make it in town.

That being said, there is some constants that I can count on every day. Our community life begins every day at 6:15 with Morning Prayer and Mass. I usually wake up around 5 so that I can wake up and do a little reading before Mass. After Mass, we have breakfast which is quickly followed by all of us scrambling to gather our books before walking to school. I attend the Gregorian University which is near the Trevi Fountain. I have to leave no later than 8 so that I can make the 30 minute walk to school. I really enjoy the walk every morning because I am able to walk by the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain every day. I will occasionally take the bus if it is raining too hard, but I generally walk every day. If anyone has followed the news, the rain this past week was horrible to the point where the Tiber was dangerously flooded. This was a bus week!

At the Greg, our classes are arranged in 45 minute periods with 15 minute breaks in between. Those 15 minutes are critical because they give you time to scramble downstairs to fight for a coffee at the bar before running back up the stairs in time for class. Some days I have four classes while on other days I only have three. By the end of four hours of Italian, I am usually brain dead for the rest of the day. At 1:15 we have pranzo which is our big Italian lunch. This is a sit down meal which we need to be at with the community unless something absolutely prevents it. Cena (dinner), on the other hand, is a light meal that can be missed whenever you want. In between pranzo and cena, the day is ours unless we have seminars, apostolate work, or any of the other required events. Evening prayer with the community is also required every day at 6:45. By the time we do our Holy Hour, exercise, and other requirements, we don't have much time left in the day for many other things.

As busy as it is, I do love my time here. Living here is forcing me to be exposed to new cultures, new thoughts, and new ways of doing things. Every day I am still bombarded by new things which requires internal growth. God is using all of this to help me grow and to put Himself at the centerof my life.

As we all approach this season of Christmas, take some time to reflect on what Christmas really means. God Himself became man 2,000 years ago. This is the simple truth preserved by Christianity which should dumbfound us when we hear it, yet we are often blind to its power because of our familiarity with the Christian message. For all of our understanding, we should be knocked to our knees at the thought that the Creator of the world chose to be born as a man. Rome has made me more and more aware of the historical roots of our faith. As I pray in the churches here, I can not help but be struck by the fact that I am praying at the remains of the names preserved in our New Testament. Peter and Paul, James and Phillip, Bartholomew and Andrew. I am also surrounded by those Saints who passed on the message given to them by the first followers of Jesus. All of this, in an unbroken chain down to us today. We stand in the shadows of men and women who experienced Christ living in this world. We should not let ourselves forget Christ's humanity while we bask in His divinity. It is this simple truth that God became man which sets Christianity apart from every other religion in the world. It is this simple truth that allows us to become children of God.

Mary gave herself whole heartedly to God, and was given the gift of having Christ dwell in her very womb. May we ourselves say yes to Chirst during this season of Advent so that he may dwell in us as well. As we celebrate His birth into this world, let us not forget that we also have the grace of being used to bring Christ into this world through our actions and choices. May Christ dwell in you richly during this Season, and may He bless you abunduntly.

In Christ's Love,
Luke