A Mix of Thoughts

Well.

Today was VERY interesting.

I just got to New Jersey for another awesome week of Training for the new job. It's been really wonderful so far, and I can't express enough gratitude to the Lord for giving this wonderful blessing. The time I have on these trips to reflect, read, and think is really a blessing and believe me there is certainly time in the evenings to focus on God's work in my life.

Today's reading was all about when to say Alleluia. It gives a very specific formula of time and Psalms as well as indicators for duration and things of that sort...but it got me thinking about the word Alleluia itself. What a remarkable phrase in our faith, and something I wish we could say MORE. It truly encompasses the limited expression of love and adoration for the Lord in the MOST positive form of words possible. I'm not going to go dictionary on the group here, just include this thought the next time you have a chance to say Alleluia about something. Say it when you wake up and the rain outside lets you have some down time. Say it when you've lost your keys and can't drive (it might just save your life!). It's these blessings that we often take for granted that may very well be THE things that we ought to be saying Alleluia THE MOST.

Let's leave The Rule for a moment.

Today I went to church at the Cathedral. And had a very strange sensation there today. I felt like I was home. I am a parishioner at a few parishes around town...but even with changes coming to the staff, pastor, etc. the place is just home for me. And while I sat in the "unfinished" pew reading Lauds from my Oblate Liturgy book, a supreme sense of calm, contentment, and love just swept over me in such an incredible way I was tearing up. It was so wonderful...I just wanted it to last forever. Although it was a fleeting moment, it was one of those things where you could FEEL God there with you. It was so beautiful. Just beautiful.

So I got some lunch for the Mrs. and I and packed to get to the airport. While I was sitting there, I have a Missal on my iPhone and decided to check out the Saint of the Day. Well...it was I who the iPhone checked out!

St. Romuald.

There he was. Right on my screen. I read about him. He's a Benedictine...and did so after many years of a sinful life where he struggled with temptations of the flesh. He ran around and did "his thing" and enjoyed "the things of the world" to much excess. He was a nobleman and one day witnessed his father kill a friend in a duel...and was so shaken by the "death" that he fled out into the world and determined he would become a monk. As I read this...I had to do more research because his story was SO compelling and reminds me of many of the things in my past...I just kept thinking about St. Paul...and how he came into my life and suffered from similar afflictions. It just HIT me between the eyes.

St. Romuald

Click the name above for more info! While he was in the monastery he determined that he wanted to things a little differently and became a hermit for a time. He eventually started his own form of Benedictine spirtualism called the Camaldolese Order. While Abbot at one monastery his practices of reform were rejected so the monks conspired against him and fabricated a story where he was acused and ultimately removed/excommunicated for the crime which he did not commit. He continued on his was and was given Papal permission to begin preaching in Hungary but he became ill and was unable to complete his missionary work there.

He had a vision once where he saw his monks (while he was Abbot) ascending a ladder into heaven. He decided to change their black tnuics to white ones to symbolise the change from his dream. He also discovered his father, so moved by his monastic life had decided to become one, and as the story goes, his father was losing faith and Romuald restored it.

He founded many (read as hundreds) monastery's during his lifetime and it was his intense charisma which made him so very likable despite earlier circumstances. His life was a testament to many things and was very moving to me and made him a pretty top candidate for an Oblate name almost immediately. We pray to him to understand the value of prayer life AND to help us keep our priorities straight. He knows how hard that can be sometimes based on his life story, and something that I can certainly admire for my own personal reasons as some of you may know.

Since today is his feast day...it was just another amazing example of how God was with me today!

I was just blown away by my feeling in church from reading Lauds, and then I get that Saint of the Day...it was just extremely coincidental. I'd like to be clear that I was no "cad" growing up. I didn't run around after the girls or anything...but I do relate to his pleasures of the world bit in my own way...and it just resonated with me very strongly. Similarly in the way St. Paul resonated with me. Simply amazing.

I just wanted to share this with everyone and I hope you read the link attached and learn about this amazing man.

Pax!

Nick