For those of you familiar with the Liturgy of the Hours, part of Morning Prayer involves praying the Gospel Canticle or what is commonly referred to as the Canticle of Zechariah. The last stanza says the following:
In the tender compassion of our God
The dawn from on high shall break upon us,
To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death,
And to guide our feet into the way of peace.
I have always loved these words as I think it paints a beautiful image for the rest of the day. All of us have been or are in darkness at one time another. Some days, the dawn is brighter than others. For me, there are some days where the hand of God and the love of God is so apparent and obvious that it is almost blinding.
As we pulled out of the seminary I was looking East towards the Dallas skyline. Normally I am not that taken aback by the view but this morning the sky was bright red and orange as the sun was just about to rise. I thought to myself, “the dawn from on high shall break upon us.” I smiled to myself and thanked God for the view.
My brothers and I arrived at the Omni Mandalay in Las Colinas just before 7AM and began to set up for Mass. The conference was for the National Evangelization Conference which is “an Episcopal and lay initiative that emerged from the deliberations of the Special Assembly of the Synod of American Bishops held in 1997.” Bishops from the U.S. and many South American countries gather every two years to discuss ways to use the media to help in the evangelization of the Americas.
As we were vesting for Mass we were a little intimidated by the many Bishops and Cardinal that were in the room with us. The Bishops all seemed to gather in these little huddles of two and were no doubt discussing the most serious of Church matters (tongue in cheek). I recognized a few of the faces in the room. I recognized the Bishop of Nashville, the Bishop of Dallas, and Bishop Pat Zurek from Amarillo. As I was taking in the sight, an elderly priest (who is still quite energetic) walked past me. I thought that he looked strangely familiar. I leaned over to two of my brothers and told them, “I think that is Fr. Tom. It looks a lot like him, but I am not sure that he would be at this conference.”
A few minutes later, the priest came back and stood next to me and began to talk to me for the next ten minutes or so. I said to him, “Please excuse me Father but I did not catch your name.” He put out his hand and said, “I’m Father Tom Forrest.” I smiled like a kid who had just met a comic book hero or a celebrity and said, “I thought that was you.” He looked at me with raised eyebrows and then I told him that I had the privilege of hearing him speak at the Youth Arise International Festival in Brisbane, Australia. He lit up and said, “Don’t you just love the youth.” I told him, “Yes Father. Yes I do.” Here is a picture of him and the link to a blog entry that I wrote while in Australia:
http://sta2wyd08.blogspot.com/2008/07/jesus-is-in-our-midst.html
By that time we were ready to begin and since I had the processional cross I quickly realized that all eyes were on me to get moving!
The main celebrant of the Mass was His Eminence Oscar Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga, S.D.B. who is the Cardinal Archbishop in Honduras. For those who don’t recognize the name, the word is he is one of six Cardinals to receive a significant amount of votes in the last conclave. Of course there is no way for us to know for sure since those matters are kept secret. The Cardinal gave a wonderful homily and his passion really shines through. After Mass as we were headed back to the vesting room, I heard several Bishops mention how he would make a wonderful Pope. The good news is he is very young at 66 years of age. I must admit, it would be pretty cool to have served with a Cardinal who later became Pope. It was a great opportunity all the same.
The entire morning just seemed to be a gift from God. Any time we are able to experience how universal our faith is and to see in real ways how God draws us all back to Himself through the unity of the Church, it is a great gift. We have a busy rest of the day. Tomorrow we should have a special guest watching the Super Bowl with us. I will talk more on that later. Until then, I better get started on my studying. Latin is calling my name.
Ora pro nobis,
Tom
Administrative Note: I hope to update this at least once a week but please be patient with me. While I am flattered that people are interested in sharing my journey in seminary, my primary obligation is to be faithful to my formation. Please know that each of you are in my prayers.
UPDATE: I just got back from a dinner at the New Evangelization Conference. What an experience! I sat at a table with two of our Bishops from Texas. They were both amazing men and were very gracious. I also ran into Bishop Pat Zurek and he sends his love to the people of St. Thomas Aquinas in College Station. One of the speakers tonight was Eduardo Verastegui from the movie Bella. He was sharing his conversion story with us and he said, "It is not for us to condemn the darkness in Hollywood, instead we must be a light that shines on that darkness and brings it into the light." I thought it fit well for what I thought the theme for the day was. Also, just a quick teaser...watch for the movie Kingdom Come in December of 2010. It will be amazing!
