Sunday, October 22, 2017

Rector's Ruminations, October 22, 2017



Rector’s Ruminations
October 22, 2017
Dear Seminary Community,
Many great things have been happening at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary since the beginning of the semester and the arrival of 52 new men. Speaking of which, we were featured in a wonderful article in the National Catholic Register. Check out the story and the picture of our new men:
The Big news this semester is, of course, the beatification of one of our own – Blessed Stanley Rother. 16 seminarians with Ms. Julia Parker, Director of Music, formed a special schola and sang beautifully at the Mass on September 23 in the Oklahoma City Cox Center. This 1963 graduate of the Mount was martyred in 1981 and now he intercedes for us in heaven. Archbishop Coakley, Archbishop of Blessed Stanley’s home archdiocese of Oklahoma City, gave the Mount a first class relic of the new Blessed. We are in the process of having a special statue made and will display both the statue and the relic in St. Bernard’s Chapel. A number of Mountaineer priests came to the Mass and we all had the privilege to concelebrate. Here is a video filmed in part at the Mount about Blessed Stanley’s life and his time at the Mount:
After the beautification, Msgr. Frontiero, Vice Rector and Director of Human Formation, and I went to New Orleans to participate in the National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors. We were able to meet many vocation directors, tell them about the Mount, and share the story of Blessed Stanley. Yes, gumbo and grits were on the menu!
The following weekend our soccer team successfully defended the Vianney Cup with victories over St. Mary’s Seminary and St. Charles Seminary. Go God! Go Mount!
The Seminary Alumni reunion brought many of our graduates back to campus October 3 – 4. It culminated in a special Mass celebrated by Archbishop William Lori, class of 1977 in which Blessed Rother was honored.
During their fall break, 36 of our seminarians organized an Evangelization Mission Trip to Temple University in Philadelphia. They went out two-by-two to engage people on campus in conversations about life, God, faith, the Catholic Church, etc. Many people’s lives were changed and our seminarians became instruments of divine grace as well as better evangelizers.
On the weekend of October 20 -22 we hosted 136 family members of 47 seminarians for a total of 183 participants in our 12th Annual Family Weekend. Through Our Lady’s intercession, God provided us with outstanding weather. It was heartening to see just how much our families support us and have been a real seed bed for the vocations of our men. Diane Favret and Mary Anne Shields, from the Seminary Development and Alumni Relations Office, had everything well organized.
Tomorrow, October 23, the seminary will participate in the Inauguration of Timothy E. Trainor, Ph.D. as the 26th President of Mount St. Mary’s University. There will be a special Mass at 10 am and an inauguration ceremony at 2 pm. Let us together pray for President Trainor, who has been a tremendous support of the Seminary since his arrival at the Mount, and for a strong future for the university.
Coming up in the near future is, first of all, the ever-popular Oktoberfest party on October 27. We look forward to all the wonderful food and drink and the great comradery and fraternity. Then we will have our special All Saints Day and All Souls Day celebrations with the traditional procession to the cemetery on the hill. Throughout November many of our vocation directors will be visiting us in order to see their seminarians and to hear of their progress in formation. On Sunday, November 12, the entire Seminary community will attend the 100th anniversary of the founding of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishop in Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption in Baltimore.
Please continue to pray for more vocations to the priesthood.
In Christ,
   Msgr. Andrew Baker

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