Pictures!

While it is true that the cable for my camera is home in South Bend, I just realized that I took some photos of the Seminary's Eucharistic Procession with my phone and thus can send them to my computer via blue-tooth.  So alas some of my actual pictures from my time here in Guadalajara.

The seminarians used colored sawdust to create a "carpet" of sorts for each altar.

The first altar, constructed by the seminarians in theology.

Our Lord, on the move.

The procession makes its way to another altar.

Recap: Mexico City

It has been a fairly busy couple of weeks down here in Mexico.  Trying to cover everything in one post would be information overload, so I will probably break things down into a couple of different posts over the weekend.  However before we get to the recap of the events of the past few weeks, a soccer note.  Mexico is most certainly in the thick of World Cup fever.  The past few weeks of group play have been exciting and the Cup seems to be the primary topic of conversation for just about everyone.  Even us Americans at the language school find ourselves trying to sneak a peek at games during our breaks or even during class every now and then.  I figure if the commentators are speaking in Spanish, it counts towards learning Spanish.  With group play now over things have intensified as the tournament enters its elimination rounds.  The US bowed out this morning against Ghana and the Mexicans play tomorrow against Argentina, which will certainly be interesting to watch/experience.  The rest of this post will cover Chris and I's trip to Mexico City last weekend.  Yes there are pictures and again I will put them up once I get home and find my cable.

Last weekend Chris and I ventured to Mexico City for a whirlwind trip.  We left on a bus at 11:30 PM Friday night and got into Mexico City just about 6 AM Saturday morning.  Before any of you conjure up images of a horrible Greyhound trip it needs to be noted that there are actually some extremely nice bus lines down here in Mexico, some might even say luxurious.  The bus line we took from Guadalajara to Mexico City and back certainly fit into this category, with only 3 seats a row (1 seat - aisle - 2 seats) with plenty of leg room and a fair bit of recline to be about as comfortable as you can be on a bus.  Each seat also had a personal entertainment system fully stocked with all sorts of TV shows and movies, of course all in Spanish.  Anyway after making it to Mexico City at 6 AM Chris and I quickly familiarized ourselves with the Metro and went straight to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe to see Our Lady on Juan Diego's famed tilma or cloak (the primary purpose of our trip).  The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe really is not so much a singular church as it is a complex.  The actual Basilica is a relatively modern church built in 1976 after the original Basilica began sinking into the ground and was deemed unsafe.  It is the current Basilica that currently displays the tilma of Juan Diego and in which St. Juan Diego was canonized in 2002 by John Paul II.  After Mass and some time to pray in front of the image of Our Lady (which is made slightly difficult by the moving sidewalks that are employed to keep people moving) Chris and I headed to the Old Basilica, which was eventually shored up by engenieers, though still very much tilts to one side.  The interior of the Old Basilica however is quite stunning.  The third major building in the complex is the Chapel of St. Michael which is at the top of Tepeyac hill and provides great views of Mexico City and the Basilica complex.  Our Last Guadalupe related stop was the museum our Our Lady which is more or less in the sacristy of the Old Basilica and houses some great religious art in a variety of styles.

After finishing up at the Basilica Chris and I headed to Chapultepec Park, Mexico City's version of Central Park, the park is very large and home not only to green space, but also to several museums, a zoo, and other odds and ends.  We headed to the Museum of National History and the Chapultepec Castle (they're next to each other).  These two buildings sit at the top of a hill in the park and provide more spectacularly great views of the city.  The museum itself details the story of Mexico from its indigenous beginnings to the present day, with much emphasis on its colonization and its war for independence.  The Castle has played home to a variety of things over the years, but is now a tourist attraction, being re-decorated to appear as it did when it was home to Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico, during the short lived Second Mexican Empire.

After the park it was downtown to the Zocalo or main plaza of Mexico City, with the Cathedral on one side of it and the national palace (think the West Wing, or the offices of the President) next to it.  The plaza itself which is usually wide open was occupied by tons of high end booths and several large TV screens because it was declared the national gathering spot to watch the World Cup, but alas Chris and I were not deterred. While the national palace was off limits (we didn't have our passports), Chris and I made our way to the Cathedral which is certainly unique, with a strange interior design, it is sort of like 3 different worship spaces in the body of 1 church.  The highlight of the visit however was certainly a trip up to the top of the Cathedral bell tower, which again led to some great views of the city.

After finishing up at the Cathedral many of the museums and public buildings were closed so Chris and I planned to walk around the downtown area and get a general feel for the city and to see what might cross our path.  This was going well until it started pouring torrentially which drove Chris and I into a random mall to come up with a better game plan (and have a beer).  After leafing the guidebook we came upon the Torre Latinoamericana, one of the tallest buildings in Latin America, and conveniently nearby and open late with several indoor observation decks and a bar at the top.  After taking in a little museum on the history of the tower and the view of the city from the observation decks, Chris and I capped our day in Mexico City with a drink or two at the Bar on the 41st floor with a great view of the city.  Then we caught the 11 PM bus back to Guadalajara, where we arrived 6 AM Sunday morning.  While there was a minor stir when I left my wallet in the cab that took us from the bus station back home, all eventually ironed itself out after someone graciously found my wallet (with my phone number in it) and graciously returned it and importantly everything that was in it, later in the day.  This certainly counted as a minor miracle, but was a great reminder that there are still people in the world who have the best of intentions and are willing to do that which is right. 

That's all for now, more to come later in the day!

Congratulations to Abbot Austin Murphy, OSB

For the past several years we at Moreau Seminary have been blessed to have Fr. Austin Murphy, OSB as one of our guest residents as he worked toward a Doctorate in Patristic Theology.  Always a pleasure to talk to and renown for his athletic talent, Fr. Austin and I often talked about our common childhood roots on Long Island and of course the Mets.  We just received word today that Fr. Austin was elected yesterday at the 10th Abbot of St. Procopius Abbey in Lisle, IL.  While his presence will most certainly be missed at Moreau, his talents will certainly  aid him as he takes on the leadership of his monastery.  Ad Multos Annos!

Whooah were halfway there...

It's hard to believe, but Chris and I have come to the end of week 3 here in Guadalajara, the official halfway point of our summer in Mexico, to mark the occasion Chris and I made a special weekend trip, but more on that later.  On Tuesday the students at CIRIMEX (our language school) participated for the 3rd time in a mass and procession to mark the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, this after already celebrating on Thursday and Friday.  This time we celebrated the Solemnity at the Archdiocesan Seminary here in Guadalajara.  Every year they have their own mass and procession the Tuesday after the Thursday of Corpus as an event to invite family and friends to as well as to gather the entire seminary (both major and minor) community.  Usually the Cardinal Archbishop presides, but alas this year he was in Rome to attend festivities for the closing of the Year for Priests, a worthy exemption indeed.  In his place, the seminary Rector, who also happens to be an auxiliary bishop presided with 3 of the other auxiliary bishops con-celebrating, one of whom gave the homily.  It sounded like a good homily to me, but then again I caught maybe a word or two a sentence.  However the highlight was the procession after the mass.  There were three extremely elaborate altars set up, each by one of the respective seminary communities (the philosophers, the theologians, and the minor seminarians).  These altars would put just about any altar in the US to shame.  For being temporary, two of them were close to 30 feet high and one of them had large depictions of the sacred hearts of Jesus and Mary, complete with blood (dyed water) running from their sides.  The altars also all had elaborate "carpets" set up in front of them to welcome the blessed sacrament.  There were created by packing together dyed sawdust to make some pretty elaborate pictures (again pictures to come one I get back to ND and find my camera cable).  Alas yours truly was extremely impressed, it was an amazing way to spend a morning (not to mention we got to skip class for it).  On another liturgical note this Friday was the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Patronal Feast Day of the Holy Cross Priests.  It was a school day so there was not much partying to be done, however Chris and I did find some time to celebrate with mass (of course), some adoration, and a trip to Dairy Queen (it was after all a Holy Cross Feast Day).


The other major event of the week was a little cultural field trip that Chris and I made on Saturday to mark our halfway point.  The town of Tequila is just a 45 minute ride away from Guadalajara and there are more than a few groups in Guadalajara that offer tours of Tequila.  Chris and I caught the tour bus at a local hotel and it took us first to a farm (owned by the Cuervo company) where Agave plants (the base for Tequila) are grown.  There we had a demonstration by a Jimador (an agave farmer) on how agave is planted and then harvested and prepared for making Tequila.  I have to admit that this was actually pretty fascinating (more so for me than Chris) as the tools required include a 3 foot machete and a 6 foot (height) spade with a ridiculously sharp end called a Coa:

On Being Sick, Other Seminarians, and Processions

Sorry folks, it has been a while since I updated the blog. As you might guess things are starting to pick up here in Guadalajara which has left these pages untouched. Last Saturday Chris and I headed into the historic downtown area of Guadalajara where we took in some of the local attractions. We started at Templo Epiatorio which is outside the downtown area and then walked the few blocks to the downtown area. Our first stop was the Cathedral which is beautiful inside and out, but mass was going on so we didn't get to look around too much. After the Cathedral I tried to pick up a breviary in Spanish at a local Catholic bookstore to no avail. But the kind lady behind the counter did give me a monthly program of the Liturgy of the Hours that is put out by a local press and in Spanish. After Chris and I checked out El Museo Regional de Guadalajara which has a fairly simple look to it, but has some awesome art inside. We also checked out the Palacio de Gobierno, which is essentially the State Capital. It was striking for us Americans to see the State Capital relatively free of security. There were two guards at the main entrance (with one hand on their gun, the other held a cigarette) while the other entrances had no guards at all. We concluded our day just by walking around the various plazas and shops in downtown Guadalajara. Unfortunately by the end of the day, I felt a bit of rumbling in my stomach and sure enough, I had the beginnings of Montezuma's revenge. Which put a damper to the rest of the weekend, but by Monday I was fine again.

On Monday, Chris and I finally received some company at school, for the first few weeks, it was just Chris and I, which made our daily 30 minute breaks fairly bland. There are now 9 other students from the (Arch)dioceses of Chicago, St. Paul, St. Cloud, Evansville, and Tulsa. It has been nice to begin to get to know them and they've added a bit of variety to our daily coffee breaks. They also have given us some company going to some of the local events here in Guadalajara.

Unlike a good chuck of the world, here in Mexico the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (or Corpus Christi) is still celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday and is a Holy Day of Obligation. Mass for Corpus was on Thursday, but we went again to another Corpus Mass on Friday, this was the big diocesan celebration which was followed by the diocesan Eucharistic Procession. The Mass was held in a large outdoor plaza in front of the aforementioned Templo Expiatorio with the Cardinal Archbishop presiding and then the Procession made its way nearly a mile to the large plaza in front of the Cathedral where the Cardinal gave the benediction. Describing the Procession is no easy task, I do have some video, but alas the cable for my camera is still at home so I can't post it anytime soon. The best way to describe it would be to say that if "solemn" for Americans means incense and silence "solemn" for Mexicans still means incense, but also marching bands, chanting, shouting, and singing. Jesus was not carried like in most Processions, but was rather placed in a 6 foot monstrance which was on top of an elaborately decorated parade float, complete with lots of flowers and even a few fountains. The float also had a kneeler for the Cardinal so that he could adore the Blessed Sacrament during the trip. There were about 2000 or so people at the procession which often times felt more like a political rally than adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. There was a man in a car that had speakers attached to the top that was in charge of leading the people in prayer. We said a few decades of the rosary, often broke into song (mostly refrains of Alabaré) and did a lot of shouting. The leader would often shout out VIVA CHRISTO REY! Which would be met with shouts of VIVA! VIVA! by everyone else. It was amazing to see such a public demonstration of faith by so many people down the main streets of Guadalajara.

On Saturday Chris and I got to see another procession of a different kind. The statue of Our Lady of Zapopan travels to many of the parishes of Guadalajara each summer and on Saturday she made it to one of the parishes close to here so Chris and I decided to check out her arrival. The church was elaborately adorned with candles and flowers as it awaited her arrival and they had constructed arches in the street for her to pass under (they also held confetti). Our Lady arrived with quite the entourage. There was a large band (mostly drums and trumpets) and a ton of children divided into groups based on age and sex. Each group was led by a banner and color guard of sorts. The statue of Our Lady is only about a foot and a half tall, but she travels in a converted pick-up (which sort of looks like the popemobile) and is in a large plexiglass case. The pastor had the privilege of taking her out of the car and bringing her into the Church, but he was closely surrounded by 6 security personal and a Franciscan friar who is the official "custodian" of the statue. After a few minutes to wipe the fingerprints off the glass, Our Lady was put on display and the everyone started saying the rosary. It should be noted that the statue only stays at the parish for a day, and the next day it moves to a different one. So the Church remained open all night and took on a sort of festive atmosphere with a mini carnival in the streets around the parish.

Well that is about it, more school is on tap for the week to come, but we will also join the diocesan seminarians for yet again another Corpus Christi celebration at the major seminary with the Cardinal. Chris and I are also planning a trip to Tequila soon enough so that should present some things to report back to you all. Until then I hope all of you are doing well and are enjoying the summer.

Traffic, the Heat, and life in General

Chris and I have started school and begun to sync into a rhythm so I thought I would give you a little update on how life is going.  Our primary goal so far has been trying to manage the traffic.  The traffic here in Guadalajara is about the same as in Rome, if not a little worse.  I know many folks are slightly concerned for our safety while in Mexico, I assure you all that drug lords and roving bands of thieves, while exotic are very low on the list of ways we could die here in Mexico.  Walking to school everyday however, is a daily leap of faith.  However I promise you all, that Chris and I take great caution crossing the streets.  It is not that the volume of cars is greater than say Chicago or New York, rather it's just that the number of traffic lights is far less and the practice of weaving through traffic is much more common, which makes crossing a street slightly tenuous.  There is a 3 lane "glorietta" or traffic circle on the way to school and it amazing to see cars every day make it from the innermost lane to turning out of the circle in a matter of 10 or so feet.  However to the credit of the drivers, I have only seen one accident since I have been here and it was just a small fender bender.

Unlike the States, May is the hottest month of the year in Mexico and all of you know how much I love the heat.  The average high has been in the mid 90's but thanks be to God, the lows are in the low 50's.  The mornings are fantastic and the walk to mass and then school is very pleasant.  The walk back in the afternoon and then again in the evenings, however, are quite the uncomfortable trip.  However I am told that the summer rains are coming soon and that when they do, things get more bearable.

Now that I have sorta mentioned our schedule I should probably give you all a clearer picture of what life looks like down here in Guadalajara.  Chris and I live with separate host families about 20 minutes from each other with the school sort of in between us.  Mon - Fri we meet at the Church of St. Rita (more on that later), which is sort of in between us (but closer to Chris) at 8AM for mass, which usually begins around 8:05 - 8:10.  Remarkably despite the usual delay, daily mass is always over by 8:30 at which point we make the 10 minute walk to school, which begins at 9.  The good folks at the language school have graciously allowed us to get there a bit early so that Chris and I can pray Morning Prayer together and they also let us stay a few minutes late so we can pray evening prayer as well.  From 9 until 1, with a half hour break at 11 we have class (each person has a private tutor) where we work on grammar, vocabulary, tenses, conjugations, etc.  Then everyone returns to their host family for lunch, which is the main meal of the day here, which generally starts around 2:30/3, this of course leaves time to take a little siesta as well!  At 4 we return to school where there is a 2 hour session with another teacher.  The afternoon session is a bit more laid back and is focused more on conversation.  There is no real formal agenda, it is meant really just to get you speaking in Spanish.   After class and Evening Prayer we head home, or to another nearby Church which conveniently has Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament  at this time.  After I get back there is time to study and do homework, do some reading, and maybe update this blog.  Dinner is usually pretty light (a sandwich or something similar) and pretty late, usually around 9:30  Chris and I have been warned a couple of times by a few different people that going out later at night (past 10ish or so) isn't the best of ideas and those who know either of us fairly well, know that the two of us have no real problem with that.

Saturdays and Sundays we are off, so today Chris and I made use of our free time in search of a luxury we had been missing all week: Air Conditioning.  Luckily there is a massive (and fairly high end) mall close to us with a movie theater, which provided 3 hours of air conditioned bliss.  The movie itself: Robin Hood, was pretty good, but as Chris put it, "for 46 pesos ($4.60) I'd be willing to sit through anything, the air conditioning alone is worth it."  But before the movie we made it to mass at noon at our usual Church, St. Rita's.  What we overlooked was that today is the feast day of St. Rita.  A church's feast day is a fact that often passes without much notice in most American parishes, but not here.  What we thought would be a half hour mass was actually a 70 minute mass with a 20 minute homily and some sort of special blessing, on the forehead of each person.  Given the fact that the church was packed, this special blessing alone took 10 minutes.  I did want to make a couple of quick observations about mass today, not critiques just observations, which might help folks understand the nature of the Church in Mexico.  The actual Eucharistic Prayer took no more than 4 minutes and was fairly well lost in the 70 minute mass and while everyone went up to get the special "St Rita Blessing" about only half of the church went up to receive communion, which is still only given under one species and on the tongue.  There was also a priest hearing confessions during Mass and it was fairly common for folks to get up from Mass, go to confession and return to the mass 20 or so minutes later.  There is definitely a difference in attitude and piety in the Mexican Catholic experience.

Well that is about all for now.  I hope that everyone has a blessed Pentecost tomorrow.  I am headed with my host family to their local parish, while Chris is going with his host family to the diocesan Ordination, where 31 men are being Ordained to the Priesthood tomorrow by the Cardinal Archbishop.  Please pray for these men as they enter Christ's Holy Service.

En Guadalajara

Well today was my first day in Guadalajara. My flight down here was as smooth as could be (time wise, the actual flight was fairly turbulent) and I got to the airport a little before 10PM. After a quick trip through customs I found my ride and got to my host family's house around 10:45. I live with an older couple named Sergio and Carmen and they are extremely hospitable.

Chris and I purposely decided to start classes tomorrow so that we should have a bit of a chance today to explore a bit and at least to get to know the local neighborhood. We found where our school was, some local eateries, the Wal-Mart, some local parishes, and eventually the mall. We kept our adventures relatively short because it is pretty hot out (lower to mid 90's) and after awhile just walking around, especially in jeans (the usual wear down here) got a bit uncomfortable, though the mall was air conditioned and provided a nice little respite.

Probably the most notable thing today was check out the local churches. Guadalajara is a very Catholic city and for the couple of churches we saw, they both had mass every hour in the morning from 6 to 8, then at noon, and a couple more in the evening, during the week and from the noon mass that Chris and I attended, they are pretty full.

That's all for now, the rest of the day has been spent unpacking and settling in. School starts tomorrow so that should present a fair bit to talk about. I apologize; there will probably be a minimal amount of pictures on the blog for the next few weeks because the cord that connects my camera to my computer is sitting safely on my desk in South Bend.