Founders Day at Don Bosco Cristo Rey

One can look at going back to school in two ways. It can either be a not so beloved interruption to one’s summer vacation or it can be the kickoff to new adventures, new experiences, and new chances for personal growth and learning. The Salesian family at Don Bosco Cristo Rey definitely opts to look at back to school in the latter. Founders Day is a special day that kicks off the school year at DBCR in Takoma Park, Maryland for the student body. It is day of heritage, prayer, recreation, and celebration ending with the traditional Salesian “good night” that helps set the positive tone for the coming year.  To be present to see the excitement shared by the student body and faculty was a blessing that I could only think to liken to the inception of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Everyone in attendance at Founders Day gathered on DBR’s campus with joy filling their hearts. As they heard messages from the principal, Mr. Larry Savoy, and the school president, Fr. Mike Conway, I watched as our Salesian family grew. All were truly set on fire for the new school year and challenged to live their lives well by aspiring to holiness, a way that leads to life and community.

                I was fortunate enough through an invitation from, Lisa Stacy, the Coordinator of Youth Ministry, to speak to the student body along with Br. Rafael Vargas during this wonderful day.  Br. Rafi shared his vocation story as he highlighted that his journey began to take shape in his Junior Year at Don Bosco Prep.  The Salesian presence that he experienced at his alma mater inspired him to think about a vocation with the Salesians.  With a power point presentation, Br. Rafi also told the story of Don Bosco’s life in a way that the students could relate to.  The trajectory of his talk animated the youth to see the relevance of how Don Bosco pursued holiness in the everyday by doing everything with zeal and dedication.

                The rest of our time at Founders day offered great opportunities for dialogue with the young people about the message of Don Bosco and the call to holiness.  Br. Rafi and I shared more of our vocation stories and insights in a mini Q&A, and even shared the video project, “The Life of a Salesian”, with them in the hopes of continuing to inspire them to be open to finding and living their vocations. After our vocation presentation, the students were called to be presented into their particular house. This is a unique tradition at DBCR as each member of the student body belongs to one of twelve houses in the school. This custom, which mirrors much the tradition from placing ceremony in the Harry Potter series, is a much-loved part of the DBCR experience as these houses help to create a deeper sense of family, belonging, and community for the students.   We would go on to sing happy birthday to Don Bosco in honor of the bicentennial, share in delicious cake, and end our time together with a good night by Fr. Manny Gallo, the chaplain for DBCR.  As the Founders Day celebrations wound down, I couldn’t help but be filled with a reassured sense of knowing that being Salesian is truly being Jesus to the young through Family, Fun, and Faith.

Lowly Porter of Mount

While in Montreal last week, I was able to visit St. Joseph’s Oratory on Mount Royal. This is the shrine where St. Joseph came to be honored through the ministry of Br. Andre Bessette.  The magnificence of the shrine is certainly contrasted with the small stature of Br. Andre, the lowly porter, who referred to himself as the dog for St. Joseph. 

At Andre’s birth, the midwife, recognizing the poor health and frail condition of the infant’s health, performed an emergency baptism.  His ailing health would follow him throughout his entire life, as many feared and doubted his abilities at many things. At the end of his novitiate, the superiors declined to approve him for first profession.  Andre accepted this as God’s will, but made it known that happiness had pervaded his life in the novitiate, where he felt alive and content through the practice of hard work and prayer.  He was given the concession to continue with an extended novitiate.  Six months later he professed and despite his frail health, he would be strengthened through prayer and hard work to live for ninety-two years. 

For sure, everything at the shrine shows God’s power being channeled through the lowliness of a porter which echoes Mary’s Magnificat from the gospel of Luke: “God looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness…the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name” (1: 48).   Four sure, God’s healing presence was revealed to many by simply touching the hands of Br. Andre, the humble servant of Mount Royal, whose whole life drew from the patronage of St. Joseph. 

Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”

We all have many key moments in life that help to shape who we are and have most certainly been guided by God’s plan in our lives. For many of us, those moments are shaped by a family/life event, reaching a milestone, accomplishing an important task, or meeting someone remarkable.  For Michael Eguino [now Fr. Mike], all of those key moments happened all at once very recently. The ordination of Fr. Michael Eguino into the Salesian priesthood took place on June 27 at his home parish of  St. Benedict’s Church in Bronx, NY.  Surrounded by countless friends, family, fellow Salesians, and many more, Fr. Mike embarked on a new journey in his life that has been many years in the making. While the best part of the entire experience was watching this very dedicated and faith-filled young man cement his vocation to God, there were many beautiful moments that made the day that much more special.                 

One such moment was having Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, there as the principal celebrant. His Eminence began his homily with a touching address directly to Fr. Mike and his entire family. As he addressed each member of the Eguinos, he seemed to highlight the impact that each person had had on making that day the celebration of love and God that it was. During the homily, Cardinal Timothy Dolan also surprised the congregation when he stated that Fr. Mike was “unworthy” of being a priest.  I was particularly struck when Cardinal Dolan went so far as to say that even Michael’s family knew that he was unworthy, after his special opening to them all. However, Cardinal Dolan was not putting down Fr. Mike in his address, but rather wanted to emphasize how important it was for Fr, Mike to respond to God’s call in his life despite the many limitations in life we all have as imperfect perfect creations of God.  

The cover image and scripture passage about St. Peter from the Gospel of John [John 21:17] seemed to capture the point that Cardinal Dolan was making.  St. Peter was a good example of being unworthy as the Lord’s servant.  He had many good starts in faith and even professed it. However, he fell short when it really counted because he could not walk with Jesus on the road to Calvary.  Despite Peter’s manifold limitations, the Lord still chose him to head the Church as a growing family.  With the help of grace, Peter came around to rally the faith community and bring many people to the love of God through the examples of Christ.

 

Despite Fr. Michael’s unworthiness to enter into the Lord’s service, and all priests’ unworthiness as well, it is family that links a priest to serve.  The Eguino family, as active parishioners of St. Benedict’s, led Fr. Michael to be nurtured in faith so that later he could make his own faith response to follow Jesus as a Salesian and then as a Salesian priest.  In a similar vein, The Salesian Family, provided a faith environment for Fr. Michael to grow, so that, moved by the faith from his family of origin, he would mature and avail of himself for priestly service in the Church.  

     Those of us that participated in the ceremony have been enriched in faith as well.   Gathering as a family, we experienced life with Fr. Michael in the celebration of his call to priestly service, and being united as Church, we were renewed with zeal to serve as well. As the Salesian priesthood grew by one more that special day, it was a wonderful reminder of just how we’re all called to walk with God and follow the example of Christ to bring light and love into the world. Fr. Mike is a testament to that!

Rejoice - Rebirth - Renew

Thirty Salesians gathered at Bethany Center in Lutz, Florida from last week for their annual retreat. And being among that number- surrounded by my fellow Salesian brothers was a blessing through and through.  The Bethany Center, owned by the Diocese of St. Petersburg, is home to 200 acres of protected wildlife and game.  Toward the end of our retreat, an alligator, which grew curious about us, hunkered down just thirty feet from our cottage. This brought an entirely literal meaning to communing with nature.

The preacher for our retreat, Fr. Manuel Camilleri, SDB chose the theme to be, “Rejoice-Rebirth-Renew”. This theme sought to remind and recommit us to our callings as Salesians during the Bicentennial of St. John Bosco’s birth. Early on in the retreat, Fr. Manuel pointed out the need for balancing what had occurred in our lives over the last year with conversion. Through this process that leads us to be more accepting of our daily crosses, we were called to think of Jesus and his example of steadfast faith even in the face of trials.  Conversion, in turn, opens us up to an attitude of renewal so that we can listen attentively to The Word and place God as a protected sanctuary of our lives.

Conversion also takes us from one way of looking at life to look at life in another way. That is to say, we move from being focused inward and on the self, to looking outwardly and seeing our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Through conversion we are also moved to open hearts and embrace positivity in place of the negativity that is sometimes all around us.  Luke the evangelist identifies how Martha was moved from negative to positive energy by looking at life through the lens of contemplation (10: 38-42).  For Martha, conversion became the way to take in the Lord’s presence in her life, and then take His presence to others. 

I walked away from the retreat experience with a deeper understanding of how I can use my own conversion to find moments to rejoice in my vocation each day. Though we all may accept and carry our daily crosses in all that we do, like Don Bosco we must remember that true joy lies in the love of God and doing the ordinary extraordinarily well. 

"I'll Be With You Always" E.C. Atlanta 2015

The 20^th annual Atlanta Eucharistic Congress took place from June 5-6 at the Georgia International Convention Center in Atlanta, GA.  At its inception in 1996, Archbishop John Donoghue envisioned the event as a source of spiritual renewal while promoting vocations to the priesthood.   Later, Archbishop Wilton Gregory expanded the Congress to include vocations for single life, married couples, the diaconate, and consecrated religious. 

 

The exhibit halls opened on Friday afternoon to a crowd so eager for Christ and for fellowship, that the sheer joy of it could be felt instantly. Thousands gathered in the convention center and visited exhibits, breakout sessions, and got to meet with many people of our greater Church family. There was a welcoming Mass in the evening led by Bishop David Talley that concluded with a healing service. There seemed to be something there for everyone to enjoy and partake in. From games to adoration, from talks to music. There was even a young adult track which featured live music and a talk by Lino Rulli, who hosts “The Catholic Guy” from Sirius XM Satellite Radio.  That young adult gathering also had a holy hour of adoration and concluded with a reception.

Saturday’s program began with the procession of numerous groups carrying banners representing the diversity of parishes in the archdiocese of Atlanta as well as its unity.   As I watched on I couldn’t help but think that the procession was in many ways like a Mardi Gras parade as each colorful banner went by and the crowd cheered and applauded. And still, much in the same way that a Mardi Gras parade ends by bringing us all together around the solemnity of Ash Wednesday, the end of the procession gathered all of the participants into the packed convention center around the Body of Christ.   

 

We were all there, as one, united to adore Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.  Bishop Robert Munch gave an exhortation during adoration that stressed how believers “need to be themselves, but must become the Body of Christ”. That was such a fitting sentiment seeing as we would be celebrating the feast of Corpus Christi in the Church on Sunday.

By the time we joined with Archbishop Gregory in the afternoon for the closing Mass, over 30,000 participants had participated in the two-day event. It was a blessing to see so many there embracing the diversity of the Church, The Word, the sacrament of reconciliation, and Eucharistic devotion as the Body of Christ.  Attending these conventions has become more than just a piece of the work that I do as I leave each one with a re-ignition for vocation I say yes to every day.