I’m two days shy of not having blogged here for five months, and I have no excuse. I can only characterize them as quiet and uneventful. In December we prepared for Christmas with priestly ordinations and I helped with confessions at the retreat for the families of the deacons about to be ordained priests. I was also invited to give a talk at the International Pontifical College Maria Mater Ecclesiae on preparing lectures (looking for video clips to illustrate my points was the funnest part), and various Christmas parties, followed by a nice quiet Christmas at the Center for Higher Studies with my religious family. I had a serious attack of the lazies and didn’t blog post-Christmas as I usually do.
Before I knew it, the first semester ended, exams came and went (the students did very well this year), the second semester began, then Lent and Easter went by as well. During Holy Week I helped out a group coming from Canada and New England whose chaplain got sick at the last minute. I’d helped the same organizers for similar reasons ten years ago as a newly-ordained priest. This time it was Mass and confessions at home, then a day in Assisi (a beautiful day; below is a photo of St. Clare’s, where I prayer for all the Poor Clare’s I know, including those in Aptos and the nuns of EWTN, and the chapel of St. Damian, where the crucifix miraculously spoke to St. Francis of Assisi and Our Lord asked him to rebuild the Church).
I would characterize the second semester as unplugged (with apologizes to musicians, since the metaphor is a little forced). This semester I’m doing a Licentiate-level theology seminar on the theology of Henri de Lubac. I have six students, and each week we read and discuss selected readings from de Lubac’s Catholicism and The Splendor of the Church. It’s unplugged since no laptop or PowerPoint are needed, unlike my bachelor’s level course during the first semester. Just reading and discussion. It’s nice to have quiet time to read and reflect.
I also finally published the American edition on Amazon of the proceedings of the university’s theology congress on the Kingdom of Christ (in Spanish). If you know any Spanish speakers who’d like a systematic theology reflection on the Kingdom of Christ, this book is for them. I hope someday to translate it into English. Included is my paper on the relationship between the Church and the Kingdom of Christ.
Have a wonderful summer everyone. I’ll be visiting California in August and will post Mass times when they’re finalized.