On December 17th, the Church’s Advent liturgy begins to focus in a particular way on the Nativity of the Lord. The prayers, readings, and preface at Mass as well as the readings, antiphons for the Gospel canticles, intercessions, and prayers at the Liturgy of the Hours concentrate more resolutely than during the preceding days of Advent on the coming feast of the Nativity of the Lord.
The great “O Antiphons” have a particular role in these days as they have been used for centuries as the antiphons for the Magnificat. Each antiphon, always sung in a very similar melody, begins with a title of Christ, usually taken from the Old Testament, and followed by the petition that he come to us (veni) and act on our behalf:
December 17: O Sapientia (O Wisdom)
December 18: O Adonai (O Lord)
December 19: O Radix Iesse (O Root of Jesse)
December 20: O Clavis David (O Key of David)
December 21: O Oriens (O Daystar) [after this date, the days begin to get longer]
December 22: O Rex Gentium (O King of the Nations)
December 23: O Emmanuel (O God-with-Us)
It has been very humbling for me to be here these last five months. I have had the privilege to see and do things that I would never have imagined - I have seen the bones of St. Peter; visited the shrines of martyrs; attended Masses presided over by Cardinals and even by the Holy Father himself; I have walked the Catacombs of the early Christian marytrs and confessors; I have walked among the sites that St. Peter and St. Paul themselves would have seen. And deep down, I know that I am not worthy of any one of these, except by the Grace of God.
Some of these amazing experiences were more woven into the fabric of everyday life. Just a few weeks ago, we Celebrated the 150th anniversary of the College. Last week, Dan and I received our Soggiorno cards - despite my veiled complaints about the whole affar, I must admit we received them quickly - much sooner than even the NAC faculty expected. Some of these things are even very simple - like the joy of picking and eating a fresh orange from one of the orange trees in our Courtyard.And some of these experiences have been the playing out of the challenges of formation. Ever so gradually I can see rough edges of my personality being smoothed out. In so many small events that take place throughout the day, I can see God's hand.
From the first times that I felt God calling me to seminary (a story to save for another day), I had a hope that He would bring me to it, with whatever changes in me that required. Time and time again He has reassured me, and time and time again, He has brought me through all of my challenges, and I trust that He will continue to do this.
Just as God has reassured my path time and time again, He promised Israel a Savior - under each one of these titles.
Now back to the reflection:
When taken together from the last title to the first, the first letters of each title form a wonderful Latin acrostic:
Emmanuel
Rex
Oriens
Clavis
Radix
Adonai
Sapientia
This is the Lord’s response to the Church’s ardent petition that he come (veni):
Ero cras (I will be there tomorrow)!
God - the Father who keeps His promises.
Today one of our professors told a funny story in class today about his
younger years... but the true joy of it was that, for once, I
understood it well enough to laugh along with everyone else.
Daniel made use of one of their videos in an earlier post after our trip to Castel Gandolfo to see the Holy Father. We had some technical difficulties and could only include a link before, but if you missed it, I now present it here in its full webpage-embedded glory (the NAC seminarians show up at about 8:00, and sing at 10:50) :
(P.S. This post is largely to see if I can actually get the video to embed properly... hopefully this will become one more option for us to share our experiences with you.)
God Bless, and enjoy your Sunday!
Those of you who have never visited Rome, or who simply wish to revisit it, may be interested to know that Google Maps has a rather interesting feature that will allow you to do it "virtually" in a rather unique way that is actually somewhat proximate to being there, walking those streets.Typing in the name of the landmark is enough to get you there if it's anything remotely famous. (I'd suggest to start, try it with St. Peter's Basilica or the Pantheon, which Dan and I pass every day on the way to classes).
...
If you go to Google Maps and double click on the maps, zooming in, eventually you will be taken to views such as these:
This past Thursday, one of my tutors decided to offer an alternative to the regular morning class -- a trip to Lago d'Orta, a lake about a half-hour from where we were staying at Verbania. Since it was a replacement for the tutoring session, we would be speaking in Italian for the trip. She extended the offer to any of the other seminarians who were interested. In all, eight of us went.
Our main sites to see were the island in the middle of the lake, where there is the Church of San Giulio and a Benedictine monastery, and the Sacro Monte, a series of small chapels run by the Franciscans. More on those in a bit.
We had to walk down into one of the towns on the lakeshore in order to catch a ferry to the island. This is a view of the island from the town.
Also, I've noticed in quite a few of these towns, there is art many public buildings other than churches. In the town marketplace, there are frescos on the building, as well as a modern sculpture (metal hats on a disc) next to it.
On the island is the Church of San Giulio. As is fairly common here, the relics of San Giulio are on display in a small chapel under the main sanctuary (you can see the tip of the doorframe for the stairway in the lower right corner of the the first picture). The church contained multiple frescoes, including the one shown of St. Christopher. The Ambo in the final picture is from the 12th Century, and is one of the few Ambos from that era in existence.
After we rode back to the town, we went to the Sacro Monte. This is one of about eight scattered throughout the Alps in Italy and Switzerland. They served as small pilgrimage sites to counter the effects of the Protestant Reformation. This Sacro Monte was quite visible from the island. The other seminarian in the picture with Dan is Scott, one of our classmates from the Diocese of Madison, Wisconsin.
This particular Sacro Monte is dedicated to the life of St. Francis. There are twenty small chapels that depict different scenes from his life, death, and canonization. Each of these scenes is portrayed using a combination of frescoes and life-sized statues. The scene shown is St. Francis speaking with the Sultan of Egypt. The Pieta that is above the High Altar in the main Church is about a thousand years old.
The final picture that I will leave you with is the magnificent view of the island that I was greeted with upon leaving the main Church, after the sun had come out again. Ciao until next time.
Happy Diocesan Feast Day to everyone!
I hope that all is well for everyone in the Diocese. Today has been a relaxed day, taking some time for rest, prayer, blogging, and a leisurely afternoon walk. One of the priests from the NAC is here visiting, and so he will be saying Mass later for the group of us here... Although my Italian is getting better, it's not quite to the point where I can always follow Mass in Italian, so his being here is a pleasure twice over.
Here in Italy, the national holiday of Ferragosto corresponds with the Feast of the Assumption, so had it fallen during the week, it would be a day off for everyone. Since it's on a weekend, it doesn't affect classes, but it did lead to an excellent meal at Pranzo.
I cannot ask enough, especially today, to continue to pray to Mary under the title of Our Lady of the Assumption for vocations, present and future, in the Diocese.
