November 2021

Even as our days remain filled with many activities, we can still remain close to God; we can still “abide” with Him (John 15:4). To remain with Him we need to develop a habit of love: hospitality toward His coming in love throughout the day. Of course, we need to go to the Blessed Sacrament to pray, but we also need to learn how to receive His love throughout the course of a workday or during family commitments. In order to receive His love, we need to be affectively vulnerable toward Him and become adept at noticing when He comes to us within these affective movements of love.  

Each year we observe the mysteries of Christ’s incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension and anticipate his second coming. This provides a cycle of fasting and feasting in our home according to the liturgical calendar. We have enjoyed reading about others’ traditions and deciding what ours will be. 

The personal call of Christ to follow Him in a life of chaste celibacy brings a seminarian into a suffering that involves his whole person. Seminary formation serves such a man by assisting him to integrate chastity within his body. Such integration is the work of grace and the acceptance of personal suffering.

The Crusader, with the Templar as his exemplar, was the perfect example of the chivalric knight, of the good knight. The formation of chivalry was tied directly to this spirituality of Crusade. At the same time, back in Europe, these knights were building kingdoms based on the monastic reform ideals.