"Seminary Sex Ed?"?

You think they could have come up with a better title?

Live from Rome...

Seminary Sex Ed

Holy Week in Rome!

Some pics with Coach Childress and his wife...

Look! It's Coach Childress and his new quarterback! Ok, maybe its more like Coach Childress and his new water boy.

Another Lent come and gone. I hope your lent has been fruitful. Mine has been good. I haven't done everything I wanted to do. I haven't been as faithful to my penances as I would have liked but its ok. Its not about completing a certain number of tasks or checking things as done. Its about realizing that God's grace is alive and working in each of us. Its about responding to the Holy Spirit guiding us through life. By denying ourselves, we are saying I realize this Coke is good for me but that there is a greater good in the end for me, and that's what I really want. In the end its about being free. Free to naturally choose what is best. I'll talk more about freedom below.

Two Fridays ago, on the feast of St. Joseph, I had the pleasure with some of the other Viking fans of having dinner with Vikings' coach Brad Childress and his wife. My rector, Msgr. Checcio used to be the chaplain for the Philadelphia Eagles. He got to know Coach Childress is Catholic and who would come to the team mass every week. Coach Childress was the Eagles Offensive coordinator during that time. He is a good man and it was a night that I'll remember for a long time. And because I know you are all curious, he believes Brett will be back next year.

Soccer continues to go well, we are 4-1 with 2 regular season games left. I have one goal and two assists so far. I've been playing outside midfield which is more my sister Melissa's and my brother Joe's position. My sisters Naomi, Cassy, Rosie and myself have always played more center midfield. So I feel a little out of place on the outside. We play the perennial power house, Redemptoris Mater, the Neo Catechumen seminary the first Saturday after Easter break. If you wish to keep informed here is the ClericusCup official website.

My former rector Fr. Baer is in Rome as we speak. He visits here once a semester. SJV sends 10-15 guys each semester as a part of the Catholic Studies study abroad program through the University of St. Thomas. My cousin Kayla has participated in it before and my cousin Abby will come next Spring semester. Not only does he visit the SJV guys, he also makes a visit to the NAC. It is always a joy. This time specifically he gave a conference at the the NAC as a part of the preparations for diaconate class of 2010. I really miss his preaching. He is great at exhorting individuals to "be magnanimous" to "make no small plans." Its what the world and the Church needs. We, SJV alum, also got some time with him last night, and I was able to speak with him one on one yesterday as well, which was a real blessing. He was the first priest that really had an effect on me and continues to be a living model of the priesthood for me. This is his last year at SJV. I can't wait to see what he will do as a pastor of a parish.

My classes continue to go well. I enjoy Theology more and more. The more I learn the more I love the Catholic faith. It is so hopeful, so optimistic, and it is so real. One thing for example. I, like a lot of people, had a misconception of what Christian morality is. We think it is a set of obligations. And if that is the case that Christian morality is a bunch of obligations, then Christ didn't bring anything new. We hear of the Old Law and the New Law. St. Thomas Aquinas says the New Law is law only in the broad sense, it is first and foremost the Holy Spirit alive and working within us. With a correct understanding of Christian morality necessarily entails a correct understanding of freedom. Freedom isn't the ability to chose right or wrong, good or evil. The equal chance of choosing either. With this understanding, being more virtuous, more inclined to doing good would mean we are less free. This is incorrect. Our will has a natural tendency for the good. Freedom is true freedom when this natural tendency is enhanced and we are able to choose the good because it is what is most natural to us. Being free entails a sort of spiritual spontaneity. That we naturally and instinctively choose the good. This is why the Virgin Mary can be said to be the most free of all. It is not despite her immaculate conception, but because of it. Her will was always naturally drawn towards what was truly good.

I am currently planning my summer. At the NAC, we are expected to spend the summer between first and second year away from home, unless your bishop insists on the seminarian coming home (Bishop trumps NAC). My family, minus two, will be visiting mid June. I very much look forward to seeing them. After that, I'll be going to China. I'll spend the month of July in various parts of the East: Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China. I'll be with Maryknoll missionary priests already established there. One priest in particular baptized 65 Chinese college students last Easter! After returning from China I intend on spending 2-3 weeks at a summer Catholic Youth Camp in the south of Italy. I hope to be a good witness to the youth as well as improve my Italian during that time.

I pray your Easter Triduum is a prayerful and fruitful time. Try to attend each part of it, the Mass of the Lord's Supper (Thursday evening), The Celebration of the Lord's Passion (Friday evening), and the Easter Vigil (Saturday evening). Our whole life and being is centered around this mystery, the Paschal mystery. You'll notice a number of unique things, particular to the Triduum. For example, all three celebrations are considered one continuous liturgy, no consecration of the Eucharist Friday evening, and the singing of the Gloria and A-word during the Easter Vigil for the first time in over 40 days. God bless!

From the front page of the Catholic News Service. (Pele has put on a few pounds since the days when he was playing in his prime.)

What's new?...

With our new bishop in the Clementine Chapel at St. Peter's Basilica. The bones believed to be of St. Peter are just behind the altar here.

Time for another update!

I met my new bishop for the first time. We celebrated mass with him almost every day he was here and we able to spend ample amounts of time with him. Duluth is so blessed to have such a humble, simple, normal priest for its Bishop. Praise God. With God's grace and the humble response of all of us in the diocese, I see a lot of hope for our diocese. In fact there is a lot of hope for the whole Church and therefore the world in the priests that Pope Benedict is choosing to be bishops. They are all simple, orthodox, prayerful pastors who love Christ and his Church.

I just finished my first set of exams. I finally can say I have been fully initiated into life over here. As I mentioned earlier I had eight classes my first semester and consequently, I had eight finals, five of which were oral finals. There is a technique to doing well on an oral exam and it isn't all studying. At least that is what they tell me, however, I haven't figured it out yet. I did do well on the oral exams but I still feel more comfortable taking a written exam.

We also had our first soccer game yesterday. We won 2-1 in penalty kicks. (I scored on my pk attempt! my siblings would be proud I know) Its really neat. There is a league made up of all the national seminaries in Rome. There are a couple of sponsors that provide uniforms and the Knights of Columbus organize the whole competition. We play seven regular season games, one every weekend, and then there are playoffs. Our whole seminary gets into it, we even have a booster club. Here is an article from the Catholic News Agency on the game

I also officially started my apostolate last week. I spend a little over an hour visiting patients at a local hospital. It is a challenge because most of the patients only speak Italian, but the people are always cheerful and very patient with my Italian. I am going to need to find a way to improve my Italian throughout the week, because visiting patients for an hour a week isn't going to help and it will just get frustrating. Praise God though, its good to struggle, its humility, I need to be knocked down a few pegs every once in awhile and doing this once a week should help. One of the good things is that there are usually always new patients every time I go. So no matter how bad I bomb one day, the next time I go, those new patients won't have a clue about the previous week. There is also a woman who is always in the hospital's chapel when we visit. She is like the prophetess Anna in the Gospels. Every time we go she gives us 5 euros for coffee. So before every visit we get a little pick me up. Although my Italian isn't great I still feel I can bring some joy, or at least a break in the monotony for the patients. Its one of the corporeal works of mercy.

I am happy that Lent is finally here, and its not because I am some holy aesthetic who enjoys doing penance. On the contrary, I was put in charge of organizing the Mardi Gras party for the seminary, and I am glad that that is over with. It turned out well and everyone had a good time. Its just not the easiest getting guys interested in helping out and excited about the party while finals are going on.

Anther sweet thing about Lent in Rome are the station churches. For every day of Lent their is a particular church associated with it. So every day we celebrate mass at a different Church. It is a tradition going back to the 3rd century and made a Latin practice by Pope Gregory the Great in the 6th century. Over the years though it fell out of practice until Pope Leo XIII at the turn of the 20th century and John XXIII fully restored the custom in 1959. Our seminary organizes a mass at each of these churches for all the faithful to attend. So depending on where the church is we leave at different times ranging from 6am to 6:45 to arrive at the church for 7am mass. Some bus, some cab, some bike, but most of us walk, which I have done so far. The great thing is that some of these churches are closed for most times of the year and when they have their station mass, it is one of the few times that they are actually open to the public. Its a great way to see some of the oldest and most beautiful churches in the world. Walking through Rome early in the morning when it is completely dark out and rainy (it has rained three of the four mornings), you really feel like you're on a pilgrimage.

Anyways, I pray that your Lent will be a fruitful one. Remember that we are a sacramental Church. All our external actions point towards an internal reality. So that the prayer, fasting, and almsgiving all represent our desire to grow closer to Christ. It is our making room for Him to come into our lives. These actions also allow us grow in solidarity towards others. They allow us to turn our hearts outwards, we are then more disposed to others' needs and wants rather than our own. An internal conversion needs to take place otherwise we are all just Pharisees, and we all know what Jesus thought of them.

Please feel free if you have any questions or comments to email me @ nnelson@pnac.org

I also wanted to give a shout out to my good friend from back home Ryan who was just engaged to his girlfriend Taylor. Please keep them in your prayers.

God bless!

Pope Benedict!

This past week we celebrated the sesquicentennial (thats 150th for you in Duluth) anniversary of the Pontifical North American College. There were hundreds of priests and thirty or so bishops, all alumni of the college, who were in town for the reunion. Because of this great anniversary Pope Benedict invited the whole college, alumni priests, faculty, and seminarians, in for a private audience.

He came in from the back of the room to our applause and shook everyone's hand who was on the right side as he walked to the front. I couldn't believe that he was going to take that much time to shake everyone's hand who was on the aisle. It took a lot of time for him to do that, but I think he realized how much it meant to each and everyone of us. When he got to his chair we all sang "Ad moltos Annos," which means "may you live for many years." He then sat down and our Rector, Msgr. Checcio addressed him on behalf of the college.

Sidenote: Msgr. Checcio is a good friend of Brad Childress, the vikings coach. So he gets weekly updates on the team. So although from Philadelphia, Msgr. has invited all the Vikings fans for a pre-game tailgate party this evening, the game starts at 7pm Roman time. Go Vikes!

After, Msgr.'s address, Pope Benedict addressed the college. He thanked the college for their work over the years in forming over 5,000 priests and exhorted us to continue to grow in virtue, fidelity to the Church, and pastoral zeal.

Pope Benedict then headed to the back of the room, this time shaking everyone's hand on the left side (facing the front). This is when I was able to shake his hand. I can remember when he was walking in. I thank God for these pictures, because it happened so fast. I grabbed his hand, looked into his eyes, I said, "God bless you," I kissed his ring, and the next thing I knew, he was past me.

Catholics may kiss the pope's ring as a sign of respect, a sign of respect for the authority he holds as the Vicar of Christ and the successor of Peter. Non-Catholics usually just shake his hand.

Also, he gave us his apostolic blessing. But he mentioned how he wished to bless all our families and friends as well! That's YOU!

If this is the first time you have seen these pics, its because you aren't on facebook! Not to name names, Dad, Melissa!

Buon Natale e Boun Anno!

in front of an old castle in Ghent, Belgium

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I just recently returned from Belgium and northern Italy. We started Christmas break on the 18th and we will resume classes on the 7th (so I have a few days yet to finish a paper). It has been a remarkable break. On Friday evening of the 18th myself and four other seminarians hopped on a night train to northern Italy. We spent the night in our ski attire (snow pants, gloves, hats, jackets and all) because the heat had gone out in our car. The train stopped a number of times throughout the night to see if they could fix the problem. They were unable to and at 5am we were awoken to an Italian lady giving an earful to the TrenItalia employee for the lack of heat and delay all the stops had caused. So an hour or two later at our next stop, the TrenItalia manager took everyone in our car to a local cafe and bought everyone a cornetto (sort of like a croissant) and a cappuccino. Honestly, it made the whole night of intermittent sleep worth it.

We spent six days total in the Dolomites, a section of the Alps. We stayed in a small skiing town called Santa Christina in the region of Trento. It is part of Italy that used to be part of Austria, but is now Italy since its annexation after World War I. So both Italian and German are common there, with German being the most common. We spent four entire days actually skiing which was just enough for me. It wasn't that I was real sore since I had spent the weeks leading up to the trip doing squats (it had been awhile) and other lower body exercises entirely for that reason. It was that I was getting a little too confident on those skis and another day may have allowed me to try some things I probably shouldn't have.

We returned Christmas Eve to Rome and on our third try with our third type of ticket we were able to gain entrance to St. Peter's Bassilica for "Midnight" mass (it is in quotes for a reason, mass was at 10pm!). I'm sure you have all heard about the pope being knocked over and want to her my eyewitness account of the event...I'm sorry to disappoint you but I didn't see a thing. Mass started, the lights went up, the organ started to play, the choir began to sing and all the people stood up. Everything seemed fine until maybe the second verse, then there was a scream, some "ooohs" and deep gasps, and the choir and organ stopped. I was sitting in the people's choir which is directly behind the main alter, so couldn't see a thing. But a few minutes later I heard a little clapping, the music started up again, the procession resumed, Pope Benedict came around the altar, went up and kissed it and went on with mass as if nothing had happened. Now we didn't hear any reports or details on what had happened that evening. It was only when I went home and checked the news did I find out that the pope had been knocked to the ground, and at that time there was still no video of the actual tackle. It was only the following morning that I saw what exactly took place. The wild thing is, I would have never assumed that the pope was even touched much less pulled to the ground. He celebrated mass like he always had, in a prayerful, focused manner.

A few days later I flew up to Louvain, Belgium. There is an American seminary there and we have relationship with them that we can go there, eat and stay for free, and they can come here and do the same. So I spent the week leading up to New Years and the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God in Belgium. The coolest thing is that the seminary is only four blocks from the body of St. Damien of Molokai who was just canonized this fall at St. Peter's where I was in attendance. It was good to spend some time there in quiet prayer. Please take a minute to get to know him, he was a remarkable man. There is a movie that we watched of him that was really good called Molokai. We took one day trip outside of Louvain. This was to Ghent, Belgium. They have a number of beautiful churches, but the most famous thing there is an altar piece down by the Van Eyke brothers called "The Adoration of the Lamb". It was marvelous especially with the audio guide that allows you to see all the meaning behind the piece. I pray everyday that artists can come to the forefront and do great art like was done in those times.

The Adoration of the Lamb

Anyways I returned from Belgium New Year's night and NAC feels more and more like home now. This is my home, at least for the foreseeable future.

Something that I have been thinking about and praying about recently is patience.

Sidenote, when we used to pray a decade of the rosary as a family, my dad would pray for "patience" but we would always joke that he has plenty of "patients" already because he is so busy. That was just a good memory that came to mind.

But I think we all want to do big, great things. God calls us to do big, great things. Whether that be getting married, getting a job, having kids, making a team, getting a degree, etc. And we are impatient, wanting things to happen now. For myself, being in the seminary is somewhat monotonous, prayer, study, formation, etc. I get anxious, I feel as if I'm not doing much yet. I want to be a saint to bring Christ to people, give them that same hope and peace I have.

But it gives me reassurance to reflect on the lives of saints, and even Christ himself. The saints really only did their real big, saintly stuff when the opportunity arose. They weren't always doing what we attribute to them. For example, St. Damien of Molokai, it was only is last 16 years that he was at Molokai. Mother Theresa, she wasn't always a Missionary of Charity sister. St. Francis Xavier, he wasn't born in the far east it was only after some time that he went there and baptized thousands. And Jesus himself, it was only his last three years that are considered his public life. There was much time of preparation and perseverance before the call, before the opportunity arose for these Holy men and women.

So while we are waiting for that next big opportunity in life, whatever that may be, lets be prepared so that when it comes we are able to respond in the most complete way possible. For the man or woman waiting for that perfect someone to come by, really strive for virtue so you can be the best self gift to the other. For the one who is waiting for the job offer, or some other career opportunity, study, practice good self-discipline now as far as eating, sleeping, drinking, etc. so you are ready to hit the ground running. For myself its a time of study, lots of it, prayer, self-discipline, becoming more comfortable preaching in front of people. I would describe it as an active patience, a time of preparation for the time when God will call us to that particular vocation he wants of us. So lets realize that we can't always do great, big things, be content with being in preparation, but our time will come, and we must be ready for it!

Congratulations to Megan and Dad! They win free Lake Superior floats! for posting comments following my last post. (this is just ice water, my old hockey coach Larry Trachsel used to say that to us when we had a team meal at perkins)

"And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankf

the Duluth Seminarians in front of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls

Happy Advent!

Advent is my favorite season. Its a time when we Christians can really reflect on our readiness for Christ. Not only his first coming in the Incarnation, but more importantly his second coming and our personal judgment before God. You'll notice that the readings during the Sundays of Advent also touch on Christ's second coming and judgment. Advent is a time of waiting for Christ, a time to be sober and alert, a time of hope, Christ the King is coming!

We just finished our Thanksgiving weekend. Obviously different in Italy, but being America's seminary in Rome, we did it up. Turkey, stuffing, and even pumpkin pies. Pumpkin pies that were served while four priests were singing about pumpkin pies "I believe in pumpkin pies" to the tune of "I believe I can fly" by R. Kelly. It was amusing I must admit.

Saturday evening we had a pair of shows. One produced and put on by the newmen, and one by the oldmen. We did ours to the theme of SNL, complete with the Weekend update and the Real Men of Virtue (take off of real men of genius, budweiser radio commercial) which poked fun at few prominent seminarians here. In another skit, I played the part of one of our vice-rectors speaking at a vice rector's conference. Since it is the 150 anniversary of our Seminary, this skit took place in 1859 and did a spoof on our internet network system here, it being a carrier pigeon messaging system back then. It went over real well.

Sunday we had the big flag football game, newmen versus the oldmen. We lost by 3 points, the closest any newman team has come in ten years. Both teams spent a month preparing for the game and I can now see why we only do it once a year. It was real intense and physical. I had the wind knocked out of me and another guy fractured part of his face.

Classes are going well. You need to force yourself to study during the semester because there is no test or paper until a final 10 minute oral exam for most of the classes. At the opening lecture for the University, Father Giertech spoke on "why are there so few Thomistic saints?" Fr. Giertech is the Papal theologian and he teaches moral theology at my university. This gives you an idea of some of the professors we have here. Also at the opening ceremonies, the new rector spoke. He mentioned how he was happy that enrollment was up, and about other things including finances but he mentioned that in the big scheme of things all that matters is that the Truth is being taught and sought out at the University. This was neat to hear. When was the last time any of our presidents of our Catholic universities said anything of the sort in the States? The Angelicum is a great place to be. So many holy men and women pursuing the truth of the faith. When I'm there I feel like I'm in a holy place. In fact my classroom is the same room in which JPII defended his doctoral dissertation.

The week before Thanksgiving the five other guys and myself from the diocese of Duluth went to Siena for the weekend. Siena is the home of St. Catherine of Siena the patroness of Europe and a doctor of the Church. She is an incorruptible, they have her head on display in one of the churches there. We also visited the Cathedral there whose architecture is common for the time. It is like the Cathedral in Orvieto and the basilica of St. Claire in Assisi. I call them prisoner churches for the stripes of alternating colors of bricks. I think their pretty cool.

Siena also is the home of a Eucharistic miracle. There are consecrated hosts, Jesus, that are over 230 years old, yet have not shown any signs of decay. Someone stole the ciborium containing the hosts one night. The whole town prayed for the safe return of the hosts. They were found some days later in the charity box of a nearby church. They had some dust on them, so instead of consuming the hosts they were going to let them decay, which is a legitimate option. However, they didn't decay. There have been numerous scientific tests done that have only upheld the belief in the miracle. We were able to spend an hour in prayer with the hosts exposed in a class ciborium which is behind the glass in the picture below.

Again, I will try to keep on this. Keep me accountable by sending my messages or comments telling me to post more. I need motivation.

"But, since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we wake or sleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing." 1 Thess 5: 8-11

This painting is in the Cathedral of Siena. Its for all you mothers out there!

"Nostra Donna Del Latte"

our lady of the milk