Seminarians in Cassocks - Picture for Open House

Since all the hectic weekends of the month of Februrary are now over, I have a little time to post this picture that was taken of all the 2006-2007 Cardinal Glennon College seminarians in their cassocks (following a tradition that was lost a few years back of taking a college picture every year on the steps in front of our building's main chapel).

'Twas Another Busy Weekend - Open House & 40 Hours

This past weekend, Kenrick-Glennon Seminary held its annual Open House, along with its annual 40 Hours of Eucharistic adoration. Pictures from both events can be found on my Seminary Pictures page.

In other news, some major changes to the structure of my whole 'Life is a Prayer' website will be coming in the next few weeks. Not only will I be moving everything to a new server (off the .Mac servers... more on that at a later time), but I will also be reorganizing everything into one site, that is much easier to navigate (and it will look a lot nicer).

One Word for this Weekend - AIEEE!

This weekend's probably been my most hectic weekend this year, and it will continue to be so until tomorrow (Monday). And yet, I feel less stressed out than I have for a while! I guess prayer does help lower stress levels ;-)

On Saturday morning, a group of the seminarians (as is tradition at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary) travelled to the St. Louis area Planned Parenthood to pray for the women and unborn whose lives are harmed by the abortion and 'health' clinic. Here's a picture of the small group (I was behind the camera) that braved the snow at 6:30 in the morning:

Also occuring this weekend is the Archbishop's Retreat (an annual tradition). A group of men around late high school to college age comes to the seminary to learn from and pray with Archbishop Burke and the Kenrick-Glennon Seminarians. The men arrived Friday evening, and will be leaving this afternoon. Please pray for clarity in their discernment. Following is a picture from this morning of all the retreatants and Archbishop Burke:

In addition to these events, I gave a Eucharistic Witness last night at my parish, and was very glad to do so for two reasons: (1) being back near your family's house, away from the Seminary for a night can be very relieving and heartening, and (2) witnessing to my faith is one of the best ways (in my opinion) to become more attuned to your own beliefs. For those who weren't present for this witness, I related the 'lembas' or 'waybread' from Lord of the Rings to the Eucharist as our Catholic spiritual 'waybread.'

Finally, I have an epistemology paper due tomorrow by noon. But that's the least of my worries! As a Seminarian, I believe this kind of weekend is a great preparation for how the parish priesthood will be. I need to embrace the hectic schedule, and savor the times when I truly am able to relax for a short time; this will help me when the true tests come.

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Children and Online Exposure to Pornography

Making the rounds in the news today is a report on the rising number of children who are exposed to pornography through the Internet. Reading over the report, it is truly disheartening; especially when statements about the completely disgusting tactics some obscene websites are using, such as including words like 'Teletubbies' in their pages so children will find them through Google searches.

Something I find even more distressing is the way most analysts are reading the news. From Kansas City Fox news: "Exposure also could skew [the children's] perceptions about what constitutes a healthy sexual relationship, said Janis Wolak, the study's lead author and a researcher at the University of New Hampshire's Crimes Against Children Research Center."

Not only will exposure to pornography skew children's perceptions about sexuality, but it most definitely also skews adults' perceptions about sexuality. Our society is so removed from a healthy sexual perspective that we legalize, and even promote the culture of fashion, sexual promiscuity and supposed 'sexual freedom.'

Children are not the only ones at risk from exposure to pornography. If many of the children in the survey "were not disturbed by what they saw," how many hundreds of thousands of adults have been desensitized to what used to be a beautiful mystery, that is, human sexuality.

I found a good countercultural exposé of sorts in Dawn Eden's book, The Thrill of The Chaste. Another anecdote to this problem is a review of Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body in Christopher West's concise, easy-to-read Theology of the Body for Beginners.

The 2007 Catholic Blog Awards

The folks running the 2007 Catholic Blog Awards have begun accepting nominations for everyone's favorite Catholic blogs (among many different categories). I personally hope Dawn Eden and The Curt Jester do well in this year's voting (Ms. Eden's 'The Dawn Patrol' wasn't in last year's contest, as she wasn't yet Catholic! But her blog will likely make it this year).

Happy nominating and voting!

Family Day at the Seminary... and a Drop of Water

Last night, the College Seminarians (myself included) invited their families to join them for Holy Mass, dinner, and an evening for visiting. Most of my family (including my sister and new brother-in-law) were able to come (Nikon D40, 1/100, f/5.6, ISO 200, Vivitar 285 with OmniBounce):

And, I have done something I think most first-time digital SLR camera owners do—take some pictures of water drops. I probably looked funny crouching down to take pictures of my room's sink faucet, but that's okay - I took home a few keepers! This one shows clearly how water drips in perfectly round droplets... (Nikon D40, 1/160, f/9.0, ISO 200, Vivitar 285 with OmniBounce):

Kenrick-Glennon Seminary Open House - February 25th, 2007

On February 25 of this year, Kenrick-Glennon Seminary will be hosting its third annual Open House, and everyone's invited - you can take a tour, enjoy refreshments, and talk to some of your future priests (myself being one of them). Check out the Open House page on the Kenrick-Glennon website for more info.

This year, the Open House was moved from the fall to the spring, so now all the soccer players will be able to attend. (Last year, and the year before, we were playing a soccer game in the middle of the Open House...).