July 2006 - St. Michael's Abbey

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Letters from Rome The procession into Mass on Wednesday morning was not your usual procession. As I made my way to the altar, vested in red to honor the blood of the martyrs, I wandered through a maze of dark, narrow, underground passages dug from tufa stone. Empty niches and hollows were carved into the stone on every side. The simple stone altar stood alone over a tomb in a small chapel excavated in the heart of the earth some seventeen centuries earlier by Pope St. Damasus. The tomb was that of St. Sebastian, a martyr of the early Church, and we were in the catacombs, an ancient Christian burial site where the first generations of Christ’s disciples were laid to rest to await the glorious day of their resurrection. As I began to pray the opening words of the Roman Canon: Te Igitur clementissime Pater per Jesum Christum Filium Tuum Dominum nostrum…a prayer which has its origins in Rome from the time of the same Pope Damasus, an intense and tangible sense of unity with the first Christians overcame me, and I recalled that they too prayed to the Triune God in this same place and with these very words. Fotograpia Felici R. Belcher Life at St. Michael’s During his visit to Rome in May, Abbot Eugene Hayes had an audience with our holy father, Pope Benedict XVI. R. Belcher May Crowning (May 21) Holy Week on the Hilltop R. Belcher R. Belcher It is a beautiful thing to be a priest in Rome. Each of the confreres from St. Michael’s here in Rome has experienced graces such as these, graces which place us in closer contact with the first Christians, with the Apostles, and ultimately with Christ. Like Sts. Peter and Paul, and the first martyrs who shed their blood in testimony of Christ, Rome herself stands as a visible witness to the presence of Christ in the world. I pray that, as we leave the Eternal City, those of us who have been fortunate to live here as students may receive a portion of the spirit of those holy Apostles and martyrs so that we may be zealous for the cause of Christ until the end. Laudetur Jesus Christus in aeternum, amen! Fr. Sebastian Walshe R. Belcher R. Belcher Congratulations to the winners of the Father’s Day Sweepstakes! 1 st Prize $3,000 – Mr. and Mrs. Michael Kelly 2 nd Prize $1,000 – Mr. Gaynor Ryan 3 rd Prize $500 – Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Richter Thanks to everyone who contributed to the Sweepstakes! With your help, the Seminarian Education Fund raised over $40,000!
Graduation 2006 Congratulations As students arrive week after week at St. Michael’s Prep, the high metal cross looms over everything they are going to be and do, marking the one place in their lives that perhaps has affected them more than any other–the abbey church. Every morning for four years, St. Michael’s students begin their day by attending the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass; before lunch they pause briefly there to pray the Angelus; when sun sets they bless their night by adoring our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament and availing themselves of Confession. But now, after all such good practices provided by our holy faith, their graduation into the world at large is marked by a ceremony within the same sacred walls where their stability was most nurtured, mercy so frequently received, and their characters enriched and deepened. Ranging in ethnic backgrounds from Scottish to Filipino, Romanian to Taiwanese, and various sorts of European descent, these ten young men, the graduating class of 2006, have this one common denominator–their Catholic faith; one of them is a convert. Personalities collide over four years; friendships are formed, broken, and re-forged; but all take pride in "one faith, one Lord, one baptism" (Eph. 4:5). Their academic accomplishments have not been overshadowed by their athletic prowess, both of which have been considerable, and the universities to which they applied have not been slow in acknowledging this. Universities of California at Irvine, Berkley, San Diego and Los Angeles, Cal Poly Pomona and San Luis Obispo, Auburn, St. Mary’s at Moraga, USC, Virginia Military Institute, Thomas Aquinas College, Christendom College, Ave Maria College, Notre Dame University and the United States Naval Academy–these are just some of the higher institutes that have indicated they will be enriched by having a St. Michael’s graduate attend their schools. And so the commencement exercises on a warm June evening bring to fruition a project much broader than mere book learning, much deeper than character building. Ending their sojourn at St. Michael’s in the church which has nurtured them so, with parental support surrounding them and the presence of friends congratulating them, these men now venture out to share the Gospel of Christ with everyone they meet for the rest of their lives. R. Belcher R. Belcher Jeremy Anoc ‘06 A great number of unexpected things will happen to the average student attending St. Michael’s Prep. One of the most unexpected things to happen to me was becoming a Godparent. Needless to say, when my good friend and fellow Senior Richard Chen asked me to be his baptismal sponsor, I was speechless. Interestingly, this came as even more of a surprise to me than finding out that he wanted to become a Roman Catholic–a testament to the commitment to proclaiming the truth which St. Michael’s has, and more importantly, to the power of Divine Providence. The gravity of what was going to take place did not strike me until the rehearsal for the combined ceremony of Baptism and Confirmation. Having been baptized as an infant, I then was unable to see the beauty of choosing to receive the immense graces of Baptism after realizing that one had been experiencing a spiritual drought beforehand. I now see a bit more clearly what a privilege it is to have the gift of the Sacraments as a Catholic. Although I was not able to choose to be baptized, I was blessed enough to have gone through something nearly as efficacious–learning much about and growing in great love for my faith here at St. Michael’s.
Page 1: JULY 2006 The St.Michael Messenger
Page 5 and 6: Senior Reflections Kyle Abramson -
Page 7 and 8: Saints Adrian and James, Norbertine

July 2006 - St. Michael's Abbey

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