Spring 2020
Standing on the roof of the General House of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Rome, overlooking Vatican City.
Written for the bulletin at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish at the start of the Spring 2020 Semester.
Parish family:
With the month of February pressing along and winter break having ended, Peter, Deacon Dominic, and I have all returned to our respective places of formation. For me, this means – following a quick few days in St. Paul and a week-long silent retreat in South Dakota – heading off to Rome! As I wrote last semester, I will be completing my sixth (!) semester of seminary at the Pontifical Irish College and the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (“the Angelicum”), both located in close proximity to the Vatican and the Holy Father. When I was beginning my preparations for entry into seminary around three years ago, a number of priests told me that formation would fly by – how true that has proven thus far!
While I was home for winter break, at the request of the bishop and vocations director, my brother seminarians and I spent time traveling throughout the diocese, speaking at various parishes about the capital campaign currently taking place. On these visits, I received so many graces! (Still, it also meant that I was not able to be around our parish very much; hopefully, this summer will offer me a change to ‘make up the time’!) As I spoke after Masses at four of our local parishes – which took place on the weekends of the Holy Family, the Epiphany, and the Baptism of the Lord – I spoke a great deal about how seminary provides an environment where God can, in a sense, re-create the encounters celebrated in these feats in a man’s heart. (The journey of the Holy Family to and from Egypt, for example, can be seen as the journey every seminarian takes with His Heavenly Father and holy Mother Church in leaving home to mature as a son of God and missionary disciple.)
On this note, I would like to re-state my deep gratitude to all of you for your generosity with regard to the Our Shepherds-Our Future campaign! I very much hope to one day be a holy and generous priest – and I need all the formation I can get to discern where the Lord is calling me and how He would like to lead me there. Bearing in mind that seminary expenses are the campaign’s preeminent concern, I am truly thankful for your support for my continued ability to be with Christ on this path, where every day I am given the opportunity to listen to/for His voice with growing freedom and holy desire.
This past week, after arriving in Rome, I had the chance to visit the headquarters of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (the religious order who founded ran IHM) and pray there before the heart of the St. Eugene DeMazenod. In a side chapel of the OMI’s church there, is a re-creation of one of St. Eugene’s private chapels – complete with the very altar and kneeler he used during his time as a bishop. And, across from that is a relic of the saint’s heart! St. Eugene is one of my very favorite saints, so being able to offer prayers for our parish and all of my intentions on his own kneeler was an incredibly moving moment for me. (With that said, please be assured that I will continue to pray for our parish throughout the semester. Please keep praying for us – and I would also like to ask especially that you would ask Saint Eugene DeMazenod to intercede for all seminarians and for an increase in priestly vocations in our diocese and beyond.)
While the “Eternal City” is incredible and full of new opportunities every day, I am still also looking forward to the chance to be ‘home’ at IHM in a few months – which, God willing, will be just in time for Deacon Dominic’s ordination and first Mass!
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Maxim
