Just recently I was asked, “Is it part of the charism of the Augustinians to have a keen sense of humor?  Any friar I have ever met has the ability to make people laugh in his telling of a story or finding light hearted moments.”  I responded to this person by saying that having a sense of humor  - particularly having the ability to laugh at yourself – is a necessary quality to possess for religious life.  Actually, the more I think of it, it is a necessary part of the Christian life.  Could this be another way of looking at being a “fool for Christ” to which St. Paul calls us (see 1 Corinthians 4:10)?  One of the friars who taught me in high school used to say to us in class, “I’ll be a fool for Christ, but I won’t be a fool for you!”

All of this to direct you to  two youtube videos that will be sure to highlight light-heartedness, particularly as lived by the Augustinians.  One clip is from Move-in Day at Merrimack College; the other is from the first day of classes at Villanova University.  Both involve the latest craze known as the Flash (Dance) Mob, and feature some friars who can definitely be considered “fools for Christ” at this point!  Anything for the sake of the Gospel…..   Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gkQBFLt8Co

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncFdVKuGQJg

Saturday was the feast of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine, the first Augustinian friar to be canonized.  Below is a homily given by one of our friars in the Saint Thomas of Villanova Monastery, housed on the campus of Villanova University.  For more info on the life of Saint Nicholas, go to http://www.osa-west.org/saintnicholasoftolentine.html. 

The Eucharist this morning on this feast of St. Nicholas of Tolentine celebrates the feast of one of the early Saints of our Augustinian Order.  St. Nicholas became an Augustinian Friar in 1261, at Marcerata in the Italian Marches in central Italy, not far from the Adriatic coast. He was ordained a priest in 1269 and ministered in Marcerata and its surroundings.  In 1275 he was assigned to the friary in Tolentine where we know he was active as peacemaker between the political factions of the day in their efforts for control of Italy. We know well also his prayerful devotion to the Souls in Purgatory; and his inexhaustible ministry to the poor and the sick. From Fr. Gersbach’s writings we learn the detailed truth about St. Nicholas’ extraordinary ascetical practices, during his life of very active ministry. Tolentine was a town of some 2,000 people. Most of them were poor, some few of them belonged to the new merchant classes then developing in Europe. It was to the ministry of such people that the Pope had called the religious groups of the Augustinian tradition together, in what we call the Grand Union of 1256.  Nicholas died on Sept 10, in 1305. This day marks the 706^th anniversary of the Saint’s death to this world. When he was canonized in 1466, by Pope Eugene IV, some 300 miracles were credited to his intercession.

On the occasion of the celebration of this Feast of St Nicholas and of  the anniversaries of vocations to religious life and to priesthood, Luke’s Gospel gives us pause to reflect on our own vocational call.  Luke suggests we consider, that for Christ, calling disciples and apostles was a prayer event.  The Gospels reveal that vocations, like those of the first disciples, were begotten in the prayer of Jesus—in His intimacy with the Father. Matthew, Mark and Luke witness to this truth.  Mark says, “Jesus went up the mountain, and called to him those whom He desired; and they came to Him.”  The mountain, we know, is frequently the place of the Lord’s communion with His Father—the place above the works and deeds of everyday life.  Luke underscores this point even more strongly.  He writes, “In these days He went out to the mountain to pray; and all night he continued in prayer to God.  And when it was day, He called His disciples, and chose from them the twelve.”  These texts give us the encouraging knowledge that the calling of disciples is a prayer event; it is as though those called are begotten in Jesus’prayer, in Christ’s intimacy with his Father.  The call of the disciples, and ours by inference, take on a deeply theological, as well as personal, meaning.  Vocation emerges from the Son’s dialogue with the Father, and is anchored there.  This truth helps us understand why, in Matthews Gospel, Jesus urges us to “Pray to the Lord of the harvest, to send out laborers into His harvest.”  God must always be asked for the harvesters, and He, Himself, must choose them.  And Mark writes, “Jesus called to Him those whom He desired.”  John tells us that Jesus said clearly, “You have not chosen me; I have chosen you.” Vocation is a free choice of the Lord’s will, and His will is always anchored in His communion of will with the Father. The Scriptures teach us this.

Jesus appoints the twelve apostles, Mark writes, “to be with Him and to be sent to preach.”  They must be with Him in order to get to know Him, so that intimate acquaintance with Him, might perceive His unique mystery—to recognize, that is, His oneness with the Father, and thus enable them to become witnesses. The first disciples had, and we have also, to pass from inward communion with Jesus in prayer, to outward activity in ministry. We, too, have to be with Him, in ways that enable us to be in communion with Him., Having been called and sent, our first task is preaching and teaching Jesus Christ. By our way of religious life together, as well as by our priestly ministry, we are sent to bring people the light of the Word, so that they, too, may encounter the person of Jesus, and come to communion with Him. The Kingdom of God comes in the Person of Jesus.

On the last day of his Asian journey, Thomas Merton wrote that religious life is wholly concerned with the business of total, interior, transformation.  He was writing about our life-long efforts in religious life and in priesthood, to be configured to the Person of Christ. This configuration actually begins in Baptism, and continues in every Sacrament we receive, and every communion with God in prayer.  The structures of Religious Community are intended to lead to communion both with others and with God.  Priesthood, by its very nature and ministry, should lead us priests and those to whom we minister, to eternal life of communion with God—the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

During these wintry days (at least in certain parts of the country), I am reminded how much I am a Spring & Summer person, and prefer walking along the beach, instead of in the snow.  Over this past summer, I had a great opportunity to help on a silent retreat at St. Mary's-by-the-Sea in Cape May Point, NJ, administered by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Philadelphia.  The retreat house sits right on the beach by the old Lighthouse in Cape May.  It is quite a spot!  During the first evening, as I was entering the silence myself, I decided to walk along the beach and watch the sunset.  As I was doing so, I heard a voice call out, "Kevin!"  I stopped, looked around, and noticed nothing.  I continued to walk and heard again, "Kevin!"  This time I saw a man to the right of me calling for his young son to come out of the water and that it was time to come home.  I thought to myself, "Now what are the chances that as I enter into retreat the first thing I experience is my name being called by the water!"  Certainly, it was a coincidence; even more, it was a God-incident, to be called by the water and caught between a father and his son.  What an experience, one that continues to speak to me of the power of our Baptism.  In Baptismal water, each of us is called by name.  Each of us is called to serve, to mission, just as those first disciples were called, while were by the Sea of Galilee. 

During this Vocation Awareness week, let us become aware of how God calls each of us by the water.  Let us become aware of how we too are constantly caught between the love of a Father and a Son.  Let us become aware that we, too, have to respond to this invitation to follow and to serve. 

Here is the prayer we Augustinians pray everyday for such a faithful response:

Let us pray to the Lord of the harvest
Who calls men and women to loving service.

All glory and praise are yours,
God of truth, light of our hearts,
for you guide your people
in the ways of holiness.

Help those who follow
in the footsteps of Augustine
to seek you through mutual love
and worship
and to be servants of your Church
as examples that others may follow.

Enlighten men and women to see
the beauty of common life
in the spirit of Saint Augustine
and strengthen them in your service
so that the work you have begun
in them
may be brought to fulfillment.

We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

It's hard to believe a new year has begun.  This morning as I was paging through the Philadelphia Inquirer I came across the comic Family Circus, which I often find humorous.  In it, the mother is putting up the 2011 calendar, and the little boy says, "Now we get to go back and rerun all the months all over again!"  How true it seems, as we ring in another year, we begin again.  We have many opportunities throughout our lives to start over.  We ritualize on New Year's Day with our resolutions, which many of us end up renegotiating by the middle of the first week of January! 

When I googled resolution, several definitions came up: 1) The state or quality of being resolute; firm determination; a course of action determined or decided on. 2)An explanation, as of a problem or puzzle; a solution. and 3)The fineness of detail that can be distinguished in an image, as on a video display terminal.  In many ways, New Year's resolutions have to do with all three of these definitions.  For one thing, they set us on a particular direction; they also may help us solve something, perhaps some turmoil in our lives; and they have to do with fine tuning the details of our lives.   Our God is a God of Resolution, who sets us in a particular direction, urging us to have a certain stance in our lives, calling us to reconciliation with the past, and showing up in the details of our lives.

May this new year be one in which we find ourselves, in our journey, and in our discernment, to be so resolved.

Pope Benedict XVI often draws on the person of St. Augustine in his homilies and addresses. An Augustinian scholar, he finds Augustine and his story both timeless and timely, particularly when addressing young people.  I can remember just last year, as I sat outside on the Racetrack in Sydney listening with thousands of others who also attended World Youth Day, as the Pope urged the youth of the world to turn to Augustine.  His Holiness is really aiding the OSA's cause to continue to promote the legacy and gift of St. Augustine!      

See below for Pope Benedict's latest address to youth:

STARA BOLESLAV, Czech Republic, SEPT. 28, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is the text of the address Benedict XVI gave today when he met with youth on the final day of his visit to the Czech Republic. 

 * * *

Dear Young Friends,

At the conclusion of this celebration I turn to you directly and I greet you warmly. You have come here in great numbers from all over the country and from neighbouring countries; you camped here yesterday evening and you spent the night in tents, sharing an experience of faith and companionship. Thank you for your presence here, which gives me a sense of the enthusiasm and generosity so characteristic of youth. Being with you makes the Pope feel young! I extend a particular word of thanks to your representative for his words and for the wonderful gift.

 Dear friends, it is not hard to see that in every young person there is an aspiration towards happiness, sometimes tinged with anxiety: an aspiration that is often exploited, however, by present-day consumerist society in false and alienating ways. Instead, that longing for happiness must be taken seriously, it demands a true and comprehensive response. At your age, the first major choices are made, choices that can set your lives on a particular course, for better or worse. Unfortunately, many of your contemporaries allow themselves to be led astray by illusory visions of spurious happiness, and then they find themselves sad and alone. Yet there are also many young men and women who seek to transform doctrine into action, as your representative said, so as to give the fullness of meaning to their lives. I invite you all to consider the experience of Saint Augustine, who said that the heart of every person is restless until it finds what it truly seeks. And he discovered that Jesus Christ alone is the answer that can satisfy his and every person's desire for a life of happiness, filled with meaning and value (cf. Confessions, I.1.1).

 As he did with Augustine, so the Lord comes to meet each one of you. He knocks at the door of your freedom and asks to be welcomed as a friend. He wants to make you happy, to fill you with humanity and dignity. The Christian faith is this: encounter with Christ, the living Person who gives life a new horizon and thereby a definitive direction. And when the heart of a young person opens up to his divine plans, it is not difficult to recognize and follow his voice. The Lord calls each of us by name, and entrusts to us a specific mission in the Church and in society. Dear young people, be aware that by Baptism you have become children of God and members of his Body, the Church. Jesus constantly renews his invitation to you to be his disciples and his witnesses. Many of you he calls to marriage, and the preparation for this Sacrament constitutes a real vocational journey. Consider seriously the divine call to raise a Christian family, and let your youth be the time in which to build your future with a sense of responsibility. Society needs Christian families, saintly families!

And if the Lord is calling you to follow him in the ministerial priesthood or in the consecrated life, do not hesitate to respond to his invitation. In particular, in this Year of Priests, I appeal to you, young men: be attentive and open to Jesus's call to offer your lives in the service of God and his people. The Church in every country, including this one, needs many holy priests and also persons fully consecrated to the service of Christ, Hope of the world.

Hope! This word, to which I often return, sits particularly well with youth. You, my dear young people, are the hope of the Church! She expects you to become messengers of hope, as happened last year in Australia, during World Youth Day, that great manifestation of youthful faith that I was able to experience personally, and in which some of you took part. Many more of you will be able to come to Madrid in August 2011. I invite you here and now to participate in this great gathering of young people with Christ in the Church.

Dear friends, thank you again for being here and thank you for your gift: the book of photographs recounting the lives of young people in your dioceses. Thank you also for the sign of your solidarity towards the young people of Africa, which you have presented to me. The Pope asks you to live your faith with joy and enthusiasm; to grow in unity among yourselves and with Christ; to pray and to be diligent in frequenting the sacraments, especially the Eucharist and Confession; to take seriously your Christian formation, remaining ever obedient to the teachings of your Pastors. May Saint Wenceslaus guide you along this path through his example and his intercession, and may you always enjoy the protection of the Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus and our Mother. I bless all of you with affection!

Pretty exciting stuff is on the horizon that will get the message of Augustine out there!  A miniseries on his life and influence has just been completed.  Pope Benedict XVI himself was given a private screening and gave it two thumpbs up.  What's more, it is in English!  Let's hope it airs here in the U.S.  See below:

Pope Applauds St. Augustine TV Miniseries

Expresses Hope that Many Will Watch, Find Truth

CASTEL GANDOLFO, SEPT. 3, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is thanking the producers of a television mini-series on the life of St. Augustine, and is expressing the hope that through it, many may discover truth and charity.
According to a note issued today by the Vatican press office, the Pope was shown a condensed version of the show on Wednesday afternoon in the Swiss Hall of Castel Gandolfo.

The series is a joint Italian, German and Polish production, directed by Canadian Christian Duguay, and soon to be broadcast on television.
 
The Pope expressed "great joy" over the project, given that, according to the producers, it arose out of a "rather casual" observation of his three years ago, during a radio interview.
 
On that occasion, the Holy Father had said: "I can imagine very beautiful films. I, of course, only know well the Fathers of the Church."

He mentioned the possibility of a "film on Augustine, also one on Gregory of Nazianzen and his particular figure, his constant escape from ever greater responsibilities assigned to him."
 
The Pontiff noted that many films deal with "disagreeable situations," and yet "there are marvelous figures of history, which are not at all boring, and that are of great current importance."

He affirmed, "An attempt must be made not to burden people too much," but rather to portray those figures that "inspire us."

On Wednesday, at the end of the show, Benedict XVI described it as "a great spiritual journey" and "a grandiose representation."
 
He continued: "From outside, St. Augustine's life seems to end in a tragic way: the world in which he lived ended, was destroyed. However, as was stated here, his message has remained and, even in the world's changes, it endures, because it springs from truth and guides charity, which is our common destiny."
 
The Pope added, "In fact, it seems to me that the film is a spiritual journey in a spiritual continent very far from us, and yet, very close, because the human drama is always the same."
 
"We see how, in a context that is very distant from us, the whole reality of human life is represented, with all its problems, sorrows, failures, but also the fact that, in the end, truth is greater than any obstacle, and it finds man," he affirmed.
 
This "is the great hope that remains at the end," the Pontiff concluded. "We cannot find truth on our own, but Truth, which is a Person, finds us."

--- --- ---

On the Net:

To see the trailer: www.luxvide.it/en/augustine-49.html

While it's raining here in Philly, it's still a great day for us OSAs and the Church, as celebrate the great feast of Augustine of Hippo and the gift he has been for us.  I'm getting ready to feast it up with the friars, but thought it would be fitting to blog this day, given I've been away from it for the past few weeks -not intentionally, solely on limited internet access which should be tended to shortly.  With that, I'll leave you with one of the many inspiring words from our dear patron:

"Late have I loved you, Beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved you!  Lo you were within, but I outside, seeking there for you, and upon the shapely things you have made I rushed headlong, I misshapen.  You were with me, but I was not with you.  They held me back far from you, those things which would have no being were they not in you.  You called, shouted, broke through my deafness; you flared, blazed, banished my blindness; you lavished your fragrance, I gasped, and now I pant for you; I tasted you, and I hunger and thirst; you touched me, and I burned for your peace." (Confessions X, 27, 38)

Surely, these lines give us much on which to reflect and pray - of a God who is always closer to us than we are to ourselves.  Happy Feast Day!

I just returned from taking Rich Jasper, one of our soon-to-be novices, to the airport.  He along with two others, Joe Murray (Villanova) and Carlos Medina (California) will be received into the novitiate on Friday in a small ceremony during Evening Prayer.  We Augustinian friars have been blessed with more men lately having serious conversations with us about religious life, some of whom are ready to take the plunge and enter. 

God is indeed doing something new in our world; in fact, more women and men are exploring religious life than has been in recent years.  Just today, the results of a study conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) and the National Religious Vocation Conference (NRVC) have been released to the press.  It's the first of its kind, as it surveyed 4,000 women and men who have entered communities in the U.S. since 1993.  While the findings are not at all that surprising, the study gives data that supports what many have experienced in newer members.  Here are some of the findings:

• diversity, diversity, diversity in ethnicity, age, and experience
• community more than ministry attracts: newer entrants are looking for a particular way of life, out of which ministry flows
• common apostolates, which promote greater visibility, are preferred among newer members; most want to live, work, and pray with members of their community
• while there is a great diminishment in the number of religious, newer members tend to be attracted to communities that are clear and confident about their identity and hopeful about the future

To see the full report, as well as good follow-up material, go to www.nrvc.net.  I'm curious to hear what others think.  Does the study support your experience?  As I take more of the study "in," I hope to reflect more, specifically on how the spirit of the Augustinians addresses it. 

Oh, and continue to pray for women and men to open their minds and hearts to God's call.  In particular, keep Rich, Joe, and Carlos in prayer as they begin their novitiate year on Friday.    

A few years ago I was on an Alternative Spring Break with a group of Merrimack College students.  It’s a week of service opportunities in various parts of the world, that most colleges now offer.  We were using a Girl Scout Camp as our home base that year and on our free day decided to use the canoes that were sitting there by the lake. So two by two we went into the canoes.  We had races and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly – without incident. When it came time to dock, we did so, each hopping with ease out of the canoe, until the last one came in. One of the students on this canoe thought it was close enough to the dock to get out.  As she attempted to get out of the boat, she ended up straddling the dock and the canoe to the point where she looked like she was doing a creative split.  And she said with full confidence, “That is it, I have made my decision, I’m going in.”  With that, she realized there was no way she was going to complete this task without getting wet, so she decided to give up and take the plunge.  Now it wasn’t that deep, like maybe a foot and half, but still.  We were in hysterics the rest of the day, of course never drawing attention to her “decision.”

As this blog begins, and really as the new Augustinian vocations website launches, I think of this story and really Tuesday's gospel focusing on Peter getting out of the boat and walking on the water towards Jesus.  Certainly, Peter's call to make a decision, to get out of the boat, to take the plunge, to get his feet wet, is really what we friars are doing with these new online endeavors - we are taking the plunge into the waters of the blogosphere!  Sure they may be waters somewhat unknown to us, but that is the excitement that comes with risk and trust. 

At the same time, it is our hope that this blog will be another way for us to invite others to take the plunge into Augustinian life, to get out of the boat, and step into the water of discernment of religious life and priesthood following the footsteps of St Augustine.  And so, both the website and blog will be places for you to "come and see," to get a closer look at our way of life, to hear from our friars currently in formation, and to learn more about Augustine himself and what he has to say.  Of course, your comments are always welcome, especially to keep the conversations going!  Together, let us step out of the boat and take the plunge....