Story of the Summer

As my summer at home comes to an end and I get ready to return to New Jersey for another year of ministry I've been reflecting on the summer. One thing that continues to come up in my reflections is this story.

All summer long I have met with friends and family and as I tell them about my year at Seton Hall with the student athletes I always tell them about the baseball team. I tell them about how open the baseball team was to growing in their faith, that 12 men out of 35 on a team were deeply committed to a weekly Bible study. We read scripture, learned about the life of Jesus, the Eucharist and, we talked about the lives of the saints. One saint in particular that has really chose me this last year is Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. Here are a few of my favorite quotes from Pier Girogio who lived from 1901-1925:

“To live without faith, without a patrimony to defend, without a steady struggle for truth, that is not living, but existing.”

"You ask me whether I am in good spirits. How could I not be, so long as my trust in God gives me strength. We must always be cheerful. Sadness should be banished from all Christian souls. For suffering is a far different thing from sadness, which is the worst disease of all. It is almost always caused by lack of Faith. But the purpose for which we have been created shows us the path along which we should go, perhaps strewn with many thorns, but not a sad path. Even in the midst of intense suffering it is one of joy."

Pier Giorgio lived such a faithful and devout life, an incredible servant to the poor, and an athlete, all for God's kingdom. He has an incredible story and is so encouraging for young men to look up to as few people that have been on earth have immitated Jesus better. Especially interesting about Pier Giorgio is the fact that he lived this way mostly while he was a teenager and in his early twenties. Pier Giorgio climbed mountains as a hobby. On one of his last climbs before his premature death, he signed a picture of him climbing with the phrase "Verso l'alto" (To the top). He died after he contracted a disease from the poor he was serving.

The phrase verso l'alto is a great phrase for anyone in life, as a metaphor, to strive to the top as you pursue Jesus Christ. It was a phrase that we as a Bible study last year adopted as our theme. We talked about what type of person Pier Giorgio was and how we could immitate him as he immitated Christ so well. At Christmas we all got bracelets that were green, red, white, and black with the phrase "Verso l'alto" on it.

This last May when the Seton Hall baseball won the Big East Tournament after being predicted to finish 10th in the conference, they finished 5th and then beat the #1 seed UCONN twice in the tournament and then beat the defending tournament champs St. Johns to win the 2011 tournament I was so proud of the guys. A few days later as I checked the Seton Hall athletics website I saw this picture.

I got goosebumps when I saw the picture, if you look closely you can see one of the hands reaching up to the trophy with the Verso l'alto bracelet on (the red one). I was so proud of those guys in that moment, not only for what they accomplished on the field that day and season but for what they accomplished in their hearts the past year in allowing Jesus in.

I am so excited to be returning to Seton Hall to continue to help and to continue to grow with those men in Jesus Christ.

And please read my blog at the top right under the tab "popular posts" the blog is titled "The Pirate I haven't met yet" about a young man who would have been a Big East Champion this May, but he passed away 2 years ago this week.

VERSO L'ALTO

Father's Day and Porn Shop

That title should grab some attention......My Father's Day Sunday started off with mass with my girlfriend who drove down (5ish) hours to surprise me this weekend to spend a few days with me. The rest of my father's day was spent with my family, my mom, dad, and 2 younger brothers. In typical man style at about noon on Sunday my brothers and I set out to the store to get something for my dad for Father's day. Before we left I suggested we grill out and just play some yard games. My brothers agreed but we disagreed on who could grill the best steak. So went to the store, got a card for dad, 12 pack of Corona, limes, and each of us bought a steak to see who could grill the best one, dad would be the judge on this one.

We got home and turned on the grill. Each of us prepared them a bit differently, I went with the simple approach of just adding some steak seasoning and was medium rare. Andrew went for the spice effect, I'm not sure what he put on there, but it was tasty and spicy, Aaron was somewhere in between I guess and both were about medium. After my dad tried all 3 he reminded us that he has a cold and really couldn't taste much besides the meat, which got a good laugh out of us all.

After the meal we went outside to play some "Fris-beer" or as I have otherwise heard it referred to as "Polish Horseshoes" (which is not easy to say). Anyway about a 4.5-5ft pvc pipe stuck into the ground, an empty beer bottle on top and then you and your teammate throw a Frisbee trying to knock the bottle off. The object is to keep the other team from scoring. Points are scored when either the Frisbee or bottle hit the ground. So the "defending" team attempts to catch the Frisbee and bottle with one hand each. The other hand is holding a beverage of choice. Very entertaining, it was my first time playing and we laughed almost the whole time at each other's expressions when trying to catch the bottle or Frisbee or at the few times a Frisbee actually hit one of us in the face. Great father's day. Then I hit the road for a 4 hour trek back to Champaign, IL.

About 45 mins in I pulled over and took about a 20 minute power nap, it was great. I was excited to get back because yesterday, Sunday all the men of FOCUS at New Staff Training were going to be listening to a talk about purity and then praying in front of a porn shop. That's right, a porn shop. I pulled in to town to see a line of about 100 men lined up along a fence outside of the porn shop, WOW! I quickly joined them shortly into the first decade of the rosary. Appropriately we were praying the Sorrowful mysteries. I was standing at one of the ends of the line of men, I was a little nervous, but I also had a great vantage point of our surroundings. I was surprised to see several cars slow down to see what were doing, they're were a few inappropriate comments towards us from passers by, but also some cars that honked...hopefully in encouragement. I noticed that when we started the rosary, there was fairly loud music playing at the restaurant next door, that music was off when we left and there were a few people sitting in the patio. It was a great witness until we prayed the last decade of the rosary.......then it became incredible. The man that led the last decade for us has a booming voice (and I understand he has some military training)and I wouldn't be surprised if people in the store could hear him. I wonder what people thought as they walked out of the shop and all they heard was this booming voice "HAIL MARY, FULL OF GRACE, THE LORD IS WITH THEE, BLESSED ARE THOU AMONG WOMEN & BLESSED IS THE FRUIT OF THEY WOMB JESUS....." I was smiling almost the entire last decade as I listened to him and his echo as all of the response grew louder as well. After the rosary we prayed the St. Michael the Archangel prayer and finally we sang the Salve Regina. I had chills throughout the Salve. Here is a version of the Salve Regina.



Hearing and singing the Salve in Latin with 100 other men felt so powerful and I'm sure our prayers to the Blessed Mother were answered by her Son, as He cannot deny when she asks for something.

After we prayed we went back to the St. John's chapel and Fr. Jeremy led us in prayer. Here are the prayers, they are beautiful:

Prayer of Cleansing
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for awakening my sleeping spirit & bringing me into your light. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for transforming me by the renewing of my mind. Thank you, Lord, for pouring out your Spirit on me, & revealing your Word to me. Thank you, Lord, for giving your angels charge over me in all ways. Thank you for my faith in you & that from my innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. Thank you for directing my mind & heart into the love of the Father & the steadfastness of all your ways. Fill me to overflowing with your life & love, my Lord & King, Jesus Christ.

After the time in the chapel was talking with a few other men about the experience and they told me what I missed. All 100 + men walked over a mile in silence to the porn shop, they said it felt like they were going into battle. It was funny because I felt that way when I joined them at the fence, it was like we were attacking. On campus as Christians and especially as missionaries we are constantly in a spiritual battle and one way that the devil most successfully lies to men is via pornography. It's something as Christian men we must take a stand against and pray for protection from it's evils and stand strong for the Man we love most, the truest and greatest Love, the greatest Father (3 in 1) in the history of the World. Happy belated Fathers day. I am so thankful I got to spend it with my father on earth.

VERSO L'ALTO

Great article and coming soon........

Here is a link to an article about me and the ministry I've been involved with since August. Thank you Waukesha Freeman for this great article, especially to Dave, the writer. The article online did not include an important bit of information, but it is in the print edition. There will be an event with a concert on June 18th at Crabby Joe's in downtown Waukesha from 4-6:30. I will be thanking my mission supporters with some food and drink, I'll share some stories from my first year at Seton Hall, and there will be a performance by Tony Memmel and band!

http://activepaper.olivesoftware.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q1RGLzIwMTEvMDUvMTMjQXIwMDQwNw%3D%3D&Mode=HTML&Locale=english-skin-custom

Also, in the next few days I will be writing a couple of posts. One about a young man that has really inspired me lately and one about why May 22nd is a day of significance.

Until then VERSO L'ALTO

In what could we find greater joy?

This past weekend on Sunday, Divine Mercy Sunday I attended mass at Seton Hall University. At the 8pm mass we celebrated the Sacraments of initiation to the Church. 2 people were baptized, 4-6 were received into the Church, and 8-10 were Confirmed and received Eucharist or First Holy Communion for the first time.

As usual it was a beautiful celebration, but something struck me at this mass and celebration that I haven't noticed in awhile or that I may never have thought about before. As I watched the individuals receive Communion for the first time, I can remember 2 people especially whose faces lit up with absolute joy and excitement. It forced me to smile and my eyes filled with tears. And then I thought to myself, what is my reaction when I receive Eucharist, when I receive Jesus? The more I thought about it the more I realized that it was not the joy and excitement that I just witnessed others experiencing. Why shouldn't every time we receive be like the first time?

Not to say that I take receiving Communion for granted, because I don't, I celebrate each time that I receive Jesus. But I thought, could I, or should I receive Him with more joy? Compared to receiving Jesus is there a more peaceful or joyful thing that we could ever do!!?!? I've come to the conclusion of no.

In the past few weeks I have become more and more interested in the life of the late Great Blessed Pope John Paul II. So I looked to a few of his thoughts on the Eucharist.

"The Eucharist is also a great call to conversion. We know that it is an invitation to the banquet; that, by nourishing ourselves on the Eucharist, we receive in it the body and blood of Christ, under the appearances of bread and wine. Precisely because of this invitation, the Eucharist is and remains the call to conversion. If we receive it as such a call, such an invitation, it brings forth in us its proper fruits. It transforms our lives. It makes us a "new man", a "new creature" (Gal. 6:15; Eph. 2:15; 2 Cor. 5:17). It helps us not to be "overcome by evil, but to overcome evil by good" (Rom. 12:21). The Eucharist helps love to triumph in us -- love over hatred, zeal over indifference." Homily in Dublin's Phoenix Park 9/29/1979

and




"From the Eucharist springs the Church's mission and capacity to offer her specific contribution to the human family. The Eucharist effectively transmits Christ's parting gift to the world: "Peace I give you, my peace I leave you" (John 14:27). The Eucharist is the sacrament of Christ's "peace" because it is the memorial of the salvific redemptive sacrifice of the cross. The Eucharist is the sacrament of victory over the divisions that flow from personal sin and collective selfishness. Therefore, the Eucharistic community is called to be a model and instrument of a reconciled humanity. In the Christian community there can be no division, no discrimination, no separation among those who break the bread of life around the one altar of sacrifice." Homily at Seoul, South Korea 10/18/1988

I know that the next several times that I receive the Eucharist I will be thinking more about what it means and how I receive it. Please join me in doing the same and may the experience of receiving the Eucharist be transformational and may we all truly experience Christ's peace. What could be more joyful?

VERSO L'ALTO

Great Week to be Catholic and a Different Reason to Wake up in the Middle of the Night

This week it seems like there are several reasons in the Church to rejoice. First, foremost, and obvious the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Each year it seems that as a culture we celebrate less and less the true meaning of Easter. Yes, there actually is more to Easter than plastic and hard boiled eggs, jellybeans, chocolate bunnies, and annoying green tinsel. I was surprised to hear the symbolism of the eggs however.

But, my Easter week started with welcoming a good friend into full Communion of the Catholic faith. My friend was baptized a Christian and this last weekend he received his first Communion in the Holy Eucharist and was confirmed a member of the Catholic Church. The Easter Vigil celebration was beautiful and meaningful. Seeing a Church lit only by candles that each person was holding was so neat. Then each of us had our baptism renewed when the priest walked around the Church blessing us all sprinkling us with Holy Water. When I heard the Holy water hit me, it was refreshing and a renewal, just a unique experience of the water hitting me and a strange realization that went through my mind. I don’t know how to describe it other than that.

All week we have been in the Easter Octave, a reminder everyday that we should be rejoicing because not only did Jesus accept and willingly go through with His death on a cross but he rose from the dead! Alleluia!!


This last Thursday was the feast day of St. Gianna, the patron saint of doctors and of the unborn. Gianna was a loving wife and mother and stood boldly for her faith and pro-life beliefs. Gianna died after giving birth to her daughter, whom doctors suggested she abort if Gianna herself wanted to live. Gianna chose the life of her daughter. There is a beautiful painting of Gianna in La Crosse, Wisconsin at the Shrine of our Lady of Guadalupe. I learned an incredible story about her while I was there. The Shrine has gloves that belonged to Gianna and several women that have had difficulty conceiving have gone to pray with them hoping that through her intercession, God would give the gift of a child. As you can see in the painting there are several children in the picture. The children at each side and one she is holding are her own, the others are miracle children that have been born as result of her intercession. The tour guide in La Crosse told our group that he was in the gift shop when a little girl under the age of 5 came running into the shop yelling to her mother, “Look mama, look mama, it’s Gianna!” Our tour guide said that he approached the woman and began to tell her about Gianna. Not long after he started, the woman stopped the man and said, “I know, you see that child? (Pointing to one on the painting) That’s my daughter. This woman had asked Gianna to pray with Our Father in Heaven and through the grace of God this woman was blessed with a child!

The divine timing of this is amazing. Not only was St. Gianna an incredible human being and example for us all. She lived during the 1900’s and was canonized by the late (Blessed) Pope John Paul II. Now, why is he significant to mention. Well I said there was a “different” reason to wake up early and I meant different than waking up for the royal wedding. This Sunday morning in Rome, the late John Paul II will be beatified in the Roman Catholic Church, meaning he will from now on be called Blessed John Paul II. This means that he is one step closer to being a saint of the Church. And like the wedding yesterday, the beatification can be seen on tv at an odd hour in morning here in the States.


The significance and divinity does not stop there. This Sunday, the day of his beatification is Divine Mercy Sunday. Divine Mercy Sunday is celebrated the first Sunday after Easter each year. Divine Mercy Sunday is something that John Paul II established while he was Pope. He decided to have this day celebrated because of a holy woman, St. Maria Faustina Kowalska. She had visions of Jesus telling her to share prayers and ideas with the world. She did so in a book. John Paul II decided to go fourth with them and encouraged the entire Catholic Church to have a devotion to Divine Mercy through the Divine Mercy Chaplet and this image. Oh by the way, John Paul II canonized St. Faustina.

As the Easter season comes to a close please pray with special intentions and for the intercession of St. Gianna, (Blessed) Pope John Paul II, St. Faustina, and remember that it’s all possible because of what was celebrated a week ago…the greatest story in the history of the world, the death and resurrection of our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.

Emily Pochinski, may you rest in peace.

VERSO L’ALTO

Spiritually Impacted

This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend a Spiritual Impact Retreat in Emmitsburg, Maryland at Mount St. Mary’s University. I committed to attending the retreat earlier this semester, not really sure what I was getting myself into. I have led a few retreats and even a mission trip the past few years, but I can’t remember the last time I went to a retreat just to be filled. The past few weeks I gradually grew more excited as the retreat got closer.

I arrived at the retreat site on Friday night with my fellow FOCUS teammates and one student from Seton Hall. Several FOCUS schools on the east coast attended with students, in all I would guess about 30-40 people were on the retreat. It’s always great to go somewhere that there is going to be missionaries from other schools. We spend a month together during the summer growing so close spending day after day together and then we’re sent to every corner of the country, it’s great to reunite with such joy filled people. (And fun to meet students they’ve been working with!)

Early Saturday morning before the retreat started at breakfast I heard a few missionaries discussing what the retreat was going to be like, one had been on the retreat before and one had not. The person that had attended said that the retreat is a lot of intense prayer and even some healing. The person who had not attended asked him what he meant. He said that people are overcome by the spirit and presence of God; hands in the air, people falling to the ground, healings taking place. When I heard this I was a little skeptical of the possibility of the last 2 happening in a legit and unforced way(people doing it for show). Nonetheless, I wanted to remain open to everything that I would see, hear, and experience during the weekend.

The retreat began with 2 talks; 1 about the Holy Spirit and 1 on God’s Love. I soon realized that I’m very unaware of what these things are on a deeper level; this realization really set the tone for the weekend. I was eager and excited to see how God was going to work in my heart if I let Him.

Lately I’ve been struggling with feeling loved by some very important people in my life. I know they love me, but sometimes it’s just nice to feel it and see it more. After the first 2 talks I really felt like I just needed to let God love me. Some of the men and I talked about this and that as men, we sometimes find it difficult to let ourselves be loved by others, even by God. I knew there was some connection between the people that I’m longing to be loved by and needing to allow myself to be loved by God.

The next 2 talks were on evil spirits & healing. Following the talks we were given some reading materials. During the talks and after I received the reading materials I thought about how I had let the evil one into areas in my life in the past. The devil has mostly attacked me by way of sexual sin; lust & fornication. Meaning that in the past, in my mind I have justified these acts as OK to be engaging in. Certainly there have been other ways I’ve allowed the devil in, but this area of sexual sin is something that I have a lot of regret about and have not fully forgiven myself for my past actions. I know that God is all Loving & forgives us for all our sins, but my human stubbornness has gotten (and still gets) in the way of always accepting that.

Next on the schedule was “adoration, praise & worship, laying on of hands.” I was looking forward to 2 of those 3. I was a little hesitant towards the phrase laying on of hands, but really I shouldn't have been, didn’t Jesus and the disciples do this for all different kinds of healing? To add with my discomfort at the situation, (very selfish of me & petty) we cleared the chairs and we would kneel or sit on the floor. I stood at the back of the chapel until I saw some space that I thought I could spread out in. When I got to this space in the front of the chapel, it wasn’t as much space as I thought and could not even see Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, but I figured that I knew He was present. At this point there were 4 pairs of people going around the room praying for people (the laying on of hands part). 3 pairs were a man and a woman while 1 pair was two women. I started silently praying that no one would come to me to pray. But they did, and it was the pair of women. They asked if I would like to be prayed for, I couldn’t say no. They put their hands on me and began praying, just calling on the name of Jesus. And once I stopped worrying about the words that were being said and focused on Jesus, I was at peace.



In a recent blog I wrote about having a euphoric tingling feeling when I was prayed for when I was in Mexico, I experienced that again this weekend, but in a whole new way. I have no idea how long the women prayed for me or what they all said, but I felt Jesus present the entire time. Once they left, I was praying that another pair of people would pray for me. That didn’t happen but I did have almost two whole hours after the first pair left to pray on my own. Near the end of this time I rolled my head back, looked above me, and realized that the entire time I was underneath a statue of the Virgin Mary. This may not seem like a big deal, except that I’ve been praying to Mary, asking her to ask her Son, Jesus, who she is with in Heaven, to give me the strength to overcome my lustful desires and regret of my past. And then I realized what shirt I had put on that morning, the shirt is the picture you can see above. Through this series of events; 2 women praying over me, being under a statue of Mary, and wearing that shirt, I really sensed God’s forgiveness for my past sexual sin that I’ve been hanging on to. The fact that God sent two women to pray over me when it was women that I have used in the past and the sense of answered prayer from the Virgin Mary, but most importantly from her Son, our Lord, Jesus. I finally feel healed of those actions and have great thanks for Jesus and His Love and forgiveness.

That was not all the spiritual impactivity (word/sp?) that happened this weekend, but all that I care to fit into one entry. So stay tuned for more spiritual impact to be posted soon. Until then, VERSO L’ALTO!

Matthew 26-27

That's Matthew chapters 26 and 27. For the last two weeks this is what the men from the baseball team and I have read during Bible study. If you're not familiar it's the story of the Passion and there is no better time to reflect on the Passion than during the season of Lent.

I decided to read through the Passion with the guys because references to the movie The Passion of the Christ, directed by Mel Gibson and starring Jim Caviezel, have been made all year long in Bible study. As we continue through Lent and move closer to Easter; we are going to watch the movie together in a few weeks.



It has been such a blessing to read through these chapters with the guys. It's amazing what stands out to you in Scripture even when you've read something several times. The guys have really been focused as we've read through the chapters. They've asked a lot of questions and made a lot of comments about things they've never realized that Jesus went through on His way to the Cross.........things He chose to go through for each one of us.

Throughout Lent I have challenged the guys to use their Lenten fast as a way to draw closer to Jesus. That when they are tempted to have a soda or beer, or whatever they gave up to pray to the Lord and rely on Him for the strength to overcome the temptation. Last night I challenged them to read over Scripture, especially the Passion narratives, which are in each of the 4 Gospels. Matthew 26-27, Mark 14-16, Luke 22-24, and John 18-20.

I don't believe that there is a better way to grow closer and deeper with Jesus than to read His Word, especially when the Word is about His life.

My prayer is this Lenten season that we will all fall more deeply in love with the Lord as we reflect and anticipate the greatest sacrifice of all.

VERSO L'ALTO