Sunday, September 12th, 2010

I stayed last night at my house on Long Island, and I went to work with my dad this morning. He works in Jamaica and we went to breakfast at a diner called Pete's Diner right in Douglaston. It was really good. I tend to be a picky eater so that is saying something. Afterwards, Dad dropped me off at the residence with some new school stuff (a mini-vacuum, water bottles, a new laptop bag, etc).

On Sundays, we wear very formal attire. Dress code? Cassock and Surplice. Below is two pictures of my two friends at the seminary, Roger and Larry. The one just below is me struggling to get dressed for 9am Morning Prayer and the one under that is "The Trinity" as we call ourselves in our regular goofy stage.

In addition to today being our first Sunday at Douglaston, we were visited by by Axillary Bishop of Brooklyn, Frank Caggiano. Morning prayer went til about 9:25ish and the Bishop presided. Immediately after, we had breakfast in the Seminarian Dining Room, but we had to eat fast because we had a Conference in the common room at 10am sharp.

The Bishop gave a very motivational and emotional speech. Some were moved to the point of being on the verge of tears...but SOMEHOW, Larry managed to fall asleep. He has a pure skill. I wish I had the guts to fall asleep in front of a bishop! HAHAHAH. The points that effected me the most was the acknowledging of the transformation from the "Average Joe" to a Collegiate Seminarian and realizing the joy in changing into that Collegiate Seminarian.

We were fortunate enough to not have to deal with this for a long period of time, but we had a period of silence that was to be observed on the third floor (our residence) from 9am-3pm...but we were busy for half the time, and both breakfast and lunch weren't silent so the time passed quickly. It was nice to put my cell phone down, sit with a pair of rosary beads and just be at peace with myself for a while. I was so at peace, that I was almost late to 11:30 mass. HA!

I ran and got there just in time. On Sundays, all the seminarians process in together. Its a pretty cool sight to see. I'll see if I can get a video to post on here of that.

We finished mass at 12:45 and had lunch with the Bishop right after. Even talking with him with for a short period of time, I could tell that he is a real and brilliant man. When I say real, I mean he is down to earth and humble. He reminds me of my role model back in my high school on Long Island. You could tell when you were talking that he cared about everything you said. It didn't go in one ear and out the other. He even remembered my name when he was leaving (when I'm pretty sure I said it once to him before morning prayer, when he was meeting everyone)

At 2pm, we had a Holy Hour in the Crypt Chapel on the lower level. I went to confession and adored the Eucharistic Christ. I felt renewed in Sacrament and internally.

The rest of the day was pretty much to ourselves. All I have to do now is get a current event article for my Mass Communications class and read Father Marc's pamphlet! AHHHHH! I love procrastinating. I hate me for doing it, but I love procrastinating.