Check out our latest video… hope it makes you smile!

We recorded this a few hours ago… it was part of our celebration of the feast of Mother Mazzarello.

A blessed and happy feast to all of my Salesian brothers and sisters, and to all of you!

I will be headed to one of our houses up north tomorrow, so I will be out of touch for the next week.

Favorite kid quote from this morning, when I was telling the kids that the school Mass was in honor of Mother Mazzarello:

What? Who is she, the Mother of all Cheese?

I love kids.

Mother Mazzarello blog recap (just in case you are wondering who she is - where have you been?!):

I needed that… Thanks, Mom.

Short (relatively) biography of Mother Mazzarello

Why Mother Mazz is Awesome

Wikipedia Entry which I wrote about Mother Mazz (and need to edit)

I said that when I found the Salesian Decalogue among my things I would post it. As I had been cleaning and packing to go home for a month and then head to summer camp, I have had to root through many things that were buried in the bottom of my drawers. Among the many pieces of random paper I seemed to accrue (and which are now in the recycle bin), I found it! (Words in parenthesis are mine.)

The Salesian Decalogue

1. Seek to please God. (In the end, His opinion is the only one that really matters…)
2. Nothing by force and all for love. (We must respect the dignity and autonomy of others… and do whatever we do with love.)
3. Ask nothing, refuse nothing. (Basically, if you do not create extra wants, you will not have so many extra needs. Be grateful for whatever you have.)
4. Go from the internal toward the external. (Our goodness must come from outside of us and be deeply rooted in a living relationship with God.)
5. Proceed tranquilly.
6. Think only of “God’s today”.
7. Begin again each day.
8. Glean profit from all occasions. (Even if it is a “bad” experience, there is always something to learn.)
9. Be happy!
10. Live with a free spirit.

I think that it basically has to do with living in the present moment and having your priorities straight. I am trying to live in the present moment, but as I pack up all of my belongings and prepare to go home on May 25th for my home visit, I cannot help but wonder what is going to happen. Am I going to be accepted into the postulancy? What is summer camp going to be like? (We work at summer camp end of June - July.) I am trying to live with a free spirit, as well. The song from my childhood, “Que Serra”, comes to mind a lot these days.

Meanwhile I have been saying goodbye to unnecessary items, and trying to simplify. Thanks to the airlines only allowing one free checked bag, it is going to be interesting traveling from now on!

Religious Ed is over. The school year is winding down. Tomorrow is Mother Mazzarello’s feast day, so we have invited about 17 of our SDB brothers over to celebrate with us (somehow we will stretch the walls and fit). On Wednesday we are headed up north to another FMA convent/school for about a week for a class and to relax a little bit. (They have dogs… need I say more?)

Speaking of dogs, we were able to visit some benefactors the other day and they had this magnificent English Mastiff named Roxy. What a sweetheart. below is a picture of her and I.

I cannot believe that this year has gone by so quickly. It feels like I got here only a month ago, yet the abundance of experiences reassures me that it has been more than that. Time has never passed so quickly. Amid the laughters, tears, frustrations, joys and adventures, our group has really bonded and we have all grown. I am a stronger person now; I do not regret a moment.

Last week we went on an overnight retreat with our Intercongregational Novitiate Class. The Sisters of St Joseph of Orange lent us their house, which is right on the beach. (See picture) It was a lovely time, but being with the different Congregations only confirms that I could never be anything but Salesian. There are many groups that have education as their aposolate, but no one does it quite like us. The Oratory Model sets us apart.

Finally, because we are dorks, we wanted to share with you a little glimpse into our life… and what we do when we are bored and waiting for someone to show up. Please, do not be scandalized… I hope you feel pity for our poor Assistant who has to put up with our craziness.

Please click this link to see our video.

Behold God beholding you . . . and smiling.

– Anthony de Mello SJ

Beautiful.

Stop for this moment, as you are reading this, to do just that. Behold God beholding you… and smiling.

Do you often stop to think that God is actually smiling upon you? How different would we be if we lived with an image of a smiling God? What is our image of God? What is that image made from - experiences of family, spiritual leaders, or friends?

I pray to not make God in my own image or that of anyone else. It is hard, though. We project a lot onto God, and for some reason we are really very good at projecting the negative. Why does God become the receptacle of our bad experiences? Let us begin again to let God be God in us.

So, for a change, take a *deep, cleansing breath* and

Behold God beholding you… and smiling.

Kind of a nice feeling, isn’t it?

Roza peformed by Philippe Quint

Check it out.

One of the funniest things about living with the Sisters and praying the Divine Office with them is the great variety of opinions about how the opening hymns are to be intoned. For example, the leader announces “The opening Hymn will be #423 in the blue book” (and mind you, the “blue book” is actually black, but for some reason everyone calls it the blue book).

So we fumble through the “blue” black book and find the hymn, which is aptly named “Alleluia No. 1″; how descriptive.

I glanced a few pages forward and backward book and there are no less than 5 hymns which are entitled “Alleluia” one way or another:

• Alleluia, Alleluia
• Alleluia No. 1
• Alleluia
• Celtic Alleluia
• Alleluia with Response (or something like that)

So we begin “Alleluia No. 1″, which someone actually intoned as “Alleluia, Alleluia” should be intoned and you hear a chorus of “No… That’s not it.” Then someone else ventures a try and comes out with the plain “Alleluia”. Again, “No…”. At this point I am really making an effort not to laugh out loud; the successive intoning and “no…”s at 6:05am is really too much for my half asleep brain.

On the third try we get it because one of the postulants started it. For the life of me I could not remember how “Alleluia No. 1″ differed from “Alleluia” or “Alleluia, Alleluia”. If I ever name any songs that have an alleluia in it, I think I am going to try for a more distinct Alleluia.

Alleluia.

It has been quite the month for the multimedia on the internet. Here is my selection of the best of what I have found this April:

Video:

The Salesians - This video made me smile as soon as the music started! Good job, Bro Mike!

A summary of the life of Don Bosco… its in italian, but has subtitles in several languages.

A great skit “God’s Picture”, set to music - its worth watching until the ending.

Gloria.TV - similar to “GodTube”m but with a more Catholic bent.

Missioni Don Bosco - Basically Salesian TV

Websites:

Yahoo Pipes - build RSS feeds, blog lists, and more. Check out the blog feed in the left hand column of the Salesian Ning for an example of a pipe that I built.

SlideShare - upload and download powerpoints on different topics. There is even one on Lectio Divina, and interesting Catholic Trivia.

Books:

Everything but Money - A funny, exaggerated, wonderful memoir of a young boy growing up in 1940s New York.

Yesterday we had our last Inter-Congregational Novitiate class (ICN). I have to say that as tedious as some of the classes where, there were some absolutely fantastic presenters during the year who really helped me to reflect more deeply on my dedication to Christ; yesterday was one of those days.

The presenter began by discussing how we are all beloved of God. She said, “God does not love us if we change, God loves us because we can change.” That is an important distinction, for it is so easy for us to think that if we pray more, if we do more, if we were somehow more than we are at the moment, then God would love us more. We find it hard to accept that God loves us for who are are right now and where we are at, because we have a hard time even loving ourselves in the present. God loves us because we have potential, we have the ability to grow and become better people, to give of ourselves and to mirror His love to others. In a word, God thinks that we are simply marvelous (he called all of creation “good”, but mankind he called “very good”), and if we are not convinced of our own goodness, then we, in effect, insult God’s handiwork!

Discipleship, she said, is all about being confident and grateful: Confident that God loves us, and grateful because of what we have been given.

In testing the call to discipleship, and in this instance specifically that of religious life, we have to avoid three “dangers Ps”:

• Power
• Perk
• Privilege

She said that anyone who enters religious life because they want more power, want to be esteemed by others, or to be treated better than others, is entering for the wrong reason. Many things can be included under this, such as seeing it as a way of having job security, an education, not having to worry about bills, clothing, etc. Those are nice things, but they should not be the motivating factor.

After this we all broke up into small groups to discuss the story of our “call” and to see if we could draw out any common themes. Out of about 30 people, following experiences were common:

• Passion for the charism/ministry/apostolate
• Feeling at Peace with the idea
• A desire to serve and give one’s whole self in service
• It may have been unexpected
• There may have been signs and uncanny coincidences pointing you a certain direction
• You questioned and really examined the motivation for the call and it continued to remain firm
• You may have felt resistant to the idea (a sign that it was not coming from simply inside of you!)
• The timing may have been inconvenient
• Your dreams may have been “co-opted” by God, only to find out that they were later fulfilled beyond your imaginings
• You were given the strength to continually reaffirm the yes to this choice
• You were able to surrender yourself to God’s action
• You may have entered a completely different Congregation than the one you planned on entering
• Life before religious life may have seemed empty for you, although you were never unhappy
• There were people in your life who pointed the way, even when you could not see it (hey, have you ever considered religious life or priesthood?)
• When you visited your community you felt that you fit in and were at home

Certainly everyone’s experience will vary, but these were the basic themes. Essentially, “Someone”, not “something” should bring you and keep you in your vocation. It is good to ask “Why did I come?” and to know that, but she told us that it is a lot better to ask yourself “Why do I stay?”.

I pushed the topic a little further and I asked, “Now that we have seen what helped people to know that they should enter religious life, does anyone have any ideas about what helps them to stay?” I was very curious about this point.

There were several reflective answers given, among them:

• Even if it is hard, how could you say “no” to someone you love?
• The “yes” is renewed daily
• You examine the call and test it everyday (this is seen as healthy, if done with a spiritual director/guide) - know your motivations
• Ask yourself, “Am I going deeper, loving more, and growing as a person?” (i.e. the “fruits”)
• We have to keep in mind that feelings are not reliable, so we have to not make judgments when we are not at peace about a matter; it is better to wait, pray, and seek counsel.
• A feeling of peace does not always indicate that we are called somewhere. Sometimes we can feel so relieved that we finally made a decision, that the act of decision making is what caused the peace - not the decision itself, so it is important to have someone to discern with you.
• A story was told of someone who was doing wonderfully in formation in an active order; a gregarious woman who one day told her formators, “I am called to be a Trappist. This community here it too like me and I do not feel challenged to growth. I know I am being called elsewhere.” She went onto become a Trappist nun. Perhaps an extreme example, but if you are not growing and being challenge to grow, that is something to look at.
• Ask yourself, “Does this experience make me more aware of who I am?”
• And finally, keep in mind that Religious Life is not about what we do, but who we are.

The class was concluded with various biblical reflections, but the speaker offered us this final thought: “Someone once told me, ‘If you want to be a good disciple of Christ, you better look good on wood.”

wow.

I am curious, for my readers who are in religious life, what do you feel about these reflections? Agree/disagree? Have anything else to add?

For those who are unfamiliar with how this whole formation process works, we are currently in April, which is the month in which aspirants write petitions to be accepted as postulants, postulants write petitions to be accepted as novices, and so on. From the 15th - 24th of the month (every month) we make a novena to Mary Help of Christians, because our Institute was founded by Don Bosco and Mother Mazzarello to “be a living monument of gratitude” to her. We commemorate her love and guidance on the 24th of every month. April 24th, though, is the day when our petitions are supposed to be handed in. Around May 24th, which is the actual feast day of Mary Help of Christians, we shall find out if we are accepted.

I am not going to sugar coat this and tell you all that I am not nervous. I am definitely nervous. I love this life, I love the Institute, and I love the apostolate/charism, but I have NO IDEA what God is going to say or do in my regard. He may ask me to leave, or he may ask me to continue, or he may ask me to do another year of aspirancy/candidacy. I have no idea. It would be like ripping out part of my heart to leave, but may His will be done. I am not here to do what I want, but what God wants… it is just very hard and kind of scary at times!

It has been a rich year for me. I have grown a lot as a person, especially in the last month (which has been a real roller coaster of experiences and opportunities to trust more, love more, give more, and be more fully convinced of the love of God and of my Sisters). Even with all of the tears and moments of uncertainty, I would not exchange it for anything; I am profoundly grateful for all that I have experienced, no matter what God (and the Sisters) decide.

Recently we received a number of books from another convent and since I do a lot of work in our library labeling and moving books around (perfect job for a bookworm), I got to see them before anyone else. I have to admit, I was a little selfish… I spotted a book with reflections for every day of the year drawn from the letters, conferences, and recollections of Mother Mazzarello and snatched it up. I have been trying to invest more time into building a real relationship with her, so I saw the book as an opportunity to learn from her. I have not been disappointed.

One of the reflections directly addressed the nervous feeling I am trying to prevent from overcoming me. Mother said:

I am glad that you are well and that you work and study, but I should like you to be cheerful all the time. You must not think of the future. Think only of perfecting yourself in virtue and in the work and studies of the moment. When the moment of sacrifice comes, be sure that God will give you the strength to do His holy will.

Phew. Ok, so basically she is saying to me to dwell in the present moment, which is my resolution for this year, so I think I can do that! Whenever I have a moment of melt-down, though, I have found myself going to her and asking for her help and prayers. She never fails… Whereas I do go to Don Bosco for so many things, I have found that my relationship with Mother Mazzarello, as this point, is really one of bearing my heart to her and asking her guidance (I do the same with Don Bosco, but it is very different with a woman saint!). I did not expect it to be that way, but she has been so good with somehow communicating with me what she wants me to know (either through people, places, events or so on), that I cannot help but feel a great confidence in her now. I am very fond of her. As much as I dislike the way certain books about her are written, it is true that she is a remarkable and gifted woman. I can only hope that I shall be allowed the privilege of following in her footsteps as a FMA.