“…a light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel.”

I have a bit of a confession to make. I am sure that none of you will relate to this, but I will tell you about it anyway. I am not all that interested in the Super Bowl. I do not follow football as much as I used to and frankly I have a lot of work to do to get ready for the week ahead. Despite my lack of interest in the game, for some reason I went through a process of preparing myself to watch it.

About 3:30 PM I walked downstairs to the room where we had set up a big screen television, surround sound, couches, food, drinks, and all the essentials. Some of the guys were working hard at making food for us to enjoy. We were having technical difficulties with our satellite and were not receiving any of the local channels. Two of our seminarians who are technology geniuses were able to use a ‘sling box’ from one of their homes in Houston, his laptop, and a 100 foot cord strung from the computer lab to project the image on our big screen television. The picture wasn’t perfect, but we would be able to watch the game. As I watched the two tech guys work, I realized that they were speaking a language I did not understand. Now I am not old at all but I sure felt it when I did not even realize that a laptop could be used in this manner. I thought maybe the Holy Spirit had descended and they were speaking in tongues. Then I quickly panicked thinking that if they were speaking in tongues, I should have been given the grace to understand them. I decided instead they were speaking techno Babel [sic] and felt better about myself (tongue in cheek).

Seeing that the preparations were in good hands I went back to my room to study for a while before the game started. However, I made sure to get downstairs in plenty of time to get a front row seat. I was the first one in the room and had a perfect seat. Then I was reminded of another scripture verse. You know, the one where it says not to take the seat of honor in case a guest more important than you should arrive and you want to be spared the embarrassment of moving. Well, about midway through the second quarter I look up and see His Eminence Daniel Cardinal DiNardo walk into the room. His Eminence was in town for the NEA Conference and decided to come watch the game with us. He is obviously a Steelers fan. Out of respect we stood as he entered the room. He graciously shook all of our hands before taking my...I mean…his seat. I smiled to myself and walked to the back of the room to sit down for the remaining of the half.

At halftime, I decided that I would go to the chapel and pray Evening Prayer. When I finished I was reflecting on my day and quickly felt a little embarrassed. I realized that I spent more time and energy preparing myself for school and the Super Bowl than I did for Mass this morning. I realized that I rushed through my morning prayers in order to get to the chapel on time. I did not read the readings ahead of time. I did not do the things I would normally do to prepare myself. To me it was a gentle reminder that my priorities needed to be adjusted and that I should spend more time preparing not only for Mass but living out my day according to the Gospel.

Tomorrow we celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord. The morning will start with the blessing of the candles and a procession into the chapel. The Feast commemorates forty days after the birth of Christ when, according to Jewish law, Mary and Joseph presented Jesus in the Temple. As the child Jesus was presented to the elderly priest, Simeon, he said aloud:

“Lord, now let your servant go in peace;
your word has been fulfilled:
my own eyes have seen the salvation
which you have prepared in the sight of every people:
a light to reveal you to the nations
and the glory of your people Israel.”

This prayer is prayed every night as a part of Night Prayer. The procession of candles is meant to symbolize how our lives as Christians should give light to the lives of others. While Christ is the true Light of the world, we are each called to bring that light into a world full of darkness. For me, I am going to try to focus this week on taking the light to others by the manner in which I live my life. I do not have anything extraordinary planned. I just hope to be faithful in the little things.

We have a busy week this week. I will try to post sometime this week to give you an idea of what our schedule is like. After being home over Christmas, I realize that not everyone is familiar with how seminary life goes in terms of schedules, classes, activities, etc. I will try to post some of that later on.

Until then, from the words of one of my favorite Catholic artists, “Shine like the Sun [or Son if you please]”

Pax Tecum,
Tom