I drove down to my Gradual School where they were Inaugurating a new President Rector this weekend. Fr Denis is one of my professors whom I love dearly because not only did he make me learn much more than I thought I was capable of learning, but he also made it amazingly fun in the process.
I had him for Early Church History. He walked in the very first day of class and announced that since he was not a historian, but rather a systematic theologian we were out of luck if we thought we were going to get some dry lecture on the history of the early church. I think that was probably when I fell in love with him. From then on what we got was the Systematic Theology of the development of the early church along with every humorous story he could think of thrown in.
To say he is a genius isn't giving him near enough credit. He has a PhD and an STD (received concurrently from Louvain. He it totally devoted to Liturgy done well. I think I may have written about the Byzantine Liturgy he did at our parish a few months ago that just blew us all away. He has a very sarcastic sense of humor that makes evryone feel welcomed and he has a knack for making everyone in a room feel as though they are the most important person to him, great skills for a man in his position. He also is a man of great vision apparently, there have been many changes already in just the little bit of time since he took his new job last June.
His only flaw (everyone has to have one ) is that he is a Newman Schollar. He quotes JH at every chance he gets whether you like it or not. Not being a fan of Newman --mostly because I find his writings to be way over my head -- it takes a lot of dumbing down to get to a place where I can actually appreciate what Newman was trying to say. I suppose if I were as intelligent as Fr. Denis I wouldn't have so many problems with Newman, so I will give him that love for Newman. Come to think of it, one of my previous spiritual directors, another priest who was also extremely intelligent, and who I also loved very much also had a great affection for Newman. Wow.
Anyway, It was a great weekend and His Inaugural Address was one of the most awe inspiring talks I have ever heard. I taped it with my little camera, but I am hoping that they put a much better copy up on the St Meinrad website. If they do I will link to it, because it is truly something that should be shared with the world.
I hope Fr. Denis has a long and illustrious career as President Rector at St. Meinrad. I hope he enjoys his new post and doesn't work too hard.
Pax
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Sounds like you had a wonderful time!
Sometimes I wish I could walk in people like Newman Schollar shoes. You were talking about Paul Newman were you not? But I, being just a simple man, you probably didn't know it but I don't even have a
PhD and an STD. I'll be honest with you and say that I've only really got, maybe a grade ten two year occupational course. If I was honest there also, I would say that I did not even complete that course cause I was hired as a printer for the Queen and I thank my lucky star for that cause I was going to quit school anyway without a job.
Truth be known I must thank our Blessed Mother Mary for my future cause I asked Her when I was a child to take good care of me.
Let me try to explain, You see, as a child I went to Saint Paul school and during the month of May we always went and prayed outside to Her cause we honestly believed that it was Her month. Some might say that Catholic teachers were pretty mean back then and they were, right? You know that we had prayers in the morning and even had to say the beads in the afternoon also in school. I recall asking myself while kneeling on my chair, what if this Spiritual Mother Mary does really exist so I put her to the test. I never did any homework and what I learned was only in class so I asked Her if I could pass a friend of mine and to make a long story short, I did! I also recall asking her if I could win 1st place in a bunch of French exam which they called "Concour Francais" in grade five. To make another long story short I recall a teacher telling me that I was in second place and the first place student was ahead of me by only four points and she went on to say that if I went to church that night, who knows I might get first place but to make another long story short, I played marbles instead and still came in second by four points.
That year they had a religious play and I was chosen as the bad guy throwing stones at a poor innocent person and after the play, I was given a statue of our Lady for placing second.
I must have been dreaming, not because my mother and everyone in our family was proud of the Virgin Mary Statue I had received but because I was able to keep it for a few years without anyone braking it on me.
I remember one night, I had a dream that my mother died and I woke up with tears in my eyes as if it really had happened. But my mother was still alive and then I recall sitting on a chair while I'm looking at the statue of our Holy Blessed Mother Mary falling to the ground and braking into pieces. Of course there was more to it but that's all I really remember clearly in reality at this time.
Anyway later on, Saint Paul School started to think that it was more important to protect their language then to go on the way they had been and to make another very, very long story short. I was not chosen to join this new elite French School and at the time I really did not have a clues cause no one had ever told my mother about it and if they did, well we were way too poor to do anything about it anyway.
Please let’s not jump to any conclusions even though, I eventually had to make new friends which were mostly English.
I could go on and on but let's jump up to the twenty first century where we now find ourselves.
God tells me that He knows everyone’s future and He's really anxious to give US our marks and forgive me if it now brings tears to my eyes. In all honesty, should I dare say that I think that they are tears of JOY?
I could say so, so much more but I’ll simply thank you for allowing such a long comment.
God Bless
Peace.
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