URL change...

I have (for a few reasons) changed the URL of the new blog: http://WelshSeminarian.blogspot.com - is the new URL.

Keep calm and carry on!

In Domino

new blog...

Dear Readers,

I point you in the direction of a new blog - it is my new blog, I decided to start a new one which will (hopefully) follow my path through seminary. Please, if you want to, add it to your blog roll.

In Domino

Enthronement

© Mazur/catholicchurch.org.uk
(L-R) Gary Dench (seminarian for Brentwood), Myself, the Archbishop, Daniel Stanton (seminarian for Cardiff) and Andrew Saunders (seminarian for Wrexham).

As I'm sure y'all know, last week the Most Rev. George Stack was enthroned as Archbishop of Cardiff in the Metropolitan Cathedral Church of St David. Pictures can be found on the bishops' conference flickr site, as well as here. His Grace's homily can be found here.

It was a joyful celebration with 114 priests (priests of the Archdiocese and a contingent from Westminster), 30 bishops, the emeritus Archbishop of Westminster and the Apostolic Nuncio as well as the leaders of numerous faith communities throughout South Wales and Herefordshire (the diocese covers a large portion of South Wales and the county of Herefordshire).

The choir sang Parry's I was glad as Archbishop Stack made his entrance to the Cathedral, which is the main reason why I will include the next link; this link is to the BBC's iplayer site and (hopefully) it will enable you to listen to the 30 minute show (it contains the edited 'highlights' of the enthronement), the programme begins with the choir singing. It also contains the entire homily preached by the Archbishop.

His Grace is off to Rome this week to receive the pallium from the Holy Father (Wednesday - Feast of SS Peter and Paul) please pray for him as he embarks on his new ministry here in Cardiff.

Our Lady of Vocations - Pray for Us

St David - Pray for Wales
St David - Pray for Us.

Revelation.

Dear followers,

On the feast of two holy witnesses to the Faith I have decided to reveal who I am.

© Mazur/catholicchurch.org.uk

This picture, taken before the Enthronement of His Grace the Most Reverend George Stack, 7th Archbishop of Cardiff, shows myself with a seminarian of the Cardiff diocese who is now off to Oscott.

I thank you for your prayers, but ask for them to continue as I venture into the next phase of my life. As you may already know I was accepted by His Grace for formation to the Priesthood and will begin my studies with the propaedeutic year in Valladolid.

I also ask you to pray for Archbishop Stack as he undertakes his episcopal ministry in Cardiff.

In Domino.

Thank you all.

I would like to thank you all for the prayers. I have been accepted for studies by the bishop of the diocese and will be going off to Valladolid in September!

Know that I continue to pray for you all, and be safe in the knowledge that I intend on picking up regular blogging again.

In Domino.

Prayers please...

I request your prayers at this time, as you may (or may not know) I made formal application to my home diocese this year and since then have taken part in all that the process requires; I met the bishop a few weeks ago and that went very well. I am now awaiting his decision and if it is positive (for me) I will also find out where I am going.

Therefore I ask your prayers for me, as you can imagine I am in a state of 'limbo' - I don't quite know what's going on, all I can do is trust in the Lord.

I thank you in advance for prayers, and I also wish to thank you for those you may have offered. Know that I will pray for you.

In Domino

It must END now.

*Warning, the link from this blog contains images that will disturb*

After finally getting the courage to look at Bryan Kemper's most recent blog post (click here) I must confess I cried. How can this still be going on? It must stop.

Lent.

I'm yet to post on 'Lent' - in fact, I've been so caught up with uni work of late that I haven't done a lot of what I have intended to, for this I apologise!

Lent is a wonderful time of year, it allows us to renew our relationship with God, it is a time of preparation for Holy Week; it is a time of real renewal. In his 2009 Lenten message the Holy Father spoke of the importance of fasting.

In quoting St Basil on fasting the Holy Father stated that "Saint Basil observes that “fasting was ordained in Paradise,” and “the first commandment in this sense was delivered to Adam.” He thus concludes: “ ‘You shall not eat’ is a law of fasting and abstinence”".

Fasting allows us to remember how much we depend on the God in our lives "one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Matt 4:4)

You have my prayers for a blessed Lenten journey.

In Domino.

40 Days for Life.

15 days in and still going strong! I encourage all persons who are Pro-Life, be they Catholic or not, to go along and show your support for quite possibly the most important fight of our modern age.

http://40daysforlifelondon.blogspot.com/

Abolutely wonderful!

I was told about this yesterday:



There are plenty of similar 'flash mobs' on youtube - I suggest you have a look!

...movements

There are rumours abound that the Lord Bishop of Menevia, the Right Reverend Tom Burns SM is to be translated to the See of Cardiff - watch this space.

And so it came to pass...

It happened. Last Friday (4th February) the formerly young Catholic Student became 22. Yes, the day Wales lost to England; closely followed by a defeat for the local ENL Ice Hockey team (of which my brother is captain) - I even found myself shouting...

HOWEVER the South Wales Derby resulted in a win for my home team (Cardiff) so the weekend finished well (especially being as Cardiff then jumped from 6th to 3rd).

Anyway, the 'process' continues and I still require your prayers, and assure you of mine.

I'm currently writing a report for this blog on the Ordinations at Westminster Cathedral in January, I'm trying to write it properly.

In Domino

Cause for Archbishop Fulton Sheen - Suspended

I was told about this over dinner yesterday, I was shocked then (partly because I didn't believe it), but it's true. The Diocese of Peoria has had to suspend the cause for canonisation of Archbishop Fulton Sheen.

It is with great sadness and disappointment, Bishop Jenky announces that after nine years of effort and sacrifice, the Diocese of Peoria is suspending its efforts on behalf of the Beatification of Fulton J. Sheen. The Archdiocese of New York has made it clear that it is not likely that they will ever transfer the remains of Fulton J. Sheen to his home diocese of Peoria. The Bishop hopes that the Archdiocese of New York, in whose Cathedral crypt the earthly remains of the Servant of God are still entombed, might now assume this responsibility. In this endeavor he would pledge the cooperation of his diocese. The bishop urges the clergy, faithful and religious of Peoria to continue to pray for the Cause of Archbishop Sheen whose heroic virtues in announcing the Gospel and serving the poor were an extraordinary blessing in the life of the Catholic Church. The bishop would also like to remind all in his diocese and all those throughout the world who have so enthusiastically supported the Sheen Cause that finally it is only God who makes saints, not men.

The Diocese of Peoria remains committed to promote the message of the great priest, Fulton J. Sheen within our Diocese and to continue to develop our museum and research center devoted to his life.

I pray that the Archbishop of New York may change his mind!

In Domino

I'm not sure when this happpened, but having just found out about it, it is new to me!

Veni Creator Spiritus

One of my favourite chants is that of Veni Creator Spiritus (I also like Veni Sancte Spiritus) - trawling the internet, like most students do, I came across this so I thought I'd share it with you.



We're nowhere near Pentecost, but I think we should invoke the Holy Spirit every day.

In Domino

Saturday!

Well! I'm rather excited!

Saturday I will be travelling to London (rather early in the morning I hasten to add). I'm going to try and attend the ordinations of the former Anglican bishops at Westminster Cathedral! The three very brave men and their families were received into full communion with the Catholic Church a couple of weeks ago. I've never been to an ordination before!

Wahey!

In Domino

Prayers needed.

I thought I'd (rather cheekily) ask for your prayers at this time!

Why? Well, I've recently applied to my local diocese for seminary formation. It quite literally came down to a conversation with a priest, during which he said "decide" - and I decided :-)

As I say, your prayers will be most appreciated as I prepare for the numerous tests/interviews I have - God willing I'll know by Easter; which isn't that far away!!

In Domino

New year, more blogging...

This time, I'll try and keep to this promise!

2010 has flown by, and so much has happened! 2011 is going to be an interesting year - my nieces first birthday, my brothers wedding and my parents 30th wedding anniversary, as well as my graduation and another personal event which I'll fill you all in, as and when!

So, memories of 2010! My brother proposed to his girlfriend, and she accepted, the new generation of my family came into the world. A new government was formed, I visited Rome on my own and of course, the Holy Father visited.

But there were so sad times during 2011 as well, the death of my grand father in February was quite a shock, and I fell out with a lot of my friends due to their lifestyle choices.

But anyway, enough of my blabbing over the events of this year, and what is to come next year.

I pray that God may bless your 2011.

In Domino

New Nuncio for Great Britain

It's official then:

NOMINA DEL NUNZIO APOSTOLICO IN GRAN BRETAGNA

Il Santo Padre ha nominato Nunzio Apostolico in Gran Bretagna S.E. Mons. Antonio Mennini, Arcivescovo titolare di Ferento, finora Nunzio Apostolico nella Federazione Russa e in Uzbekistan.

[01818-01.01]

Mea Culpa

I ask your forgiveness readers, I have been a bit lazy of late with regard to posting on the blog. I must confess that I have, quite literally, been enjoying my summer break!

Anyway! What has happened? A fair bit. I have a full time job (until I go back to university), I'm doing filing for the local council's social services department. I have passed my second year (only just passing Greek) and of course, I went on pilgrimage to Rome!

Pictures I hear you cry, PICTURES!

Well, here we go!

Anyone who has been to Rome should have visited this church. It is on the Via di San Giovanni in Laterano and the name of the church is the Basilica di San Clemente. The story goes that Pope St Clement was martyred when he was thrown over the side of a boat with an anchor tied around his neck. When the tide went out there became visible a tomb made of stone, inside the tomb was the martyred Pope. In the 9th Century, St Cyril translated the bones of St Clement to Rome where they were 'deposited' in the high altar of the church of St Clement.

The Mother Church of the world, and one of my personal favourites!

THE AUDIENCE! I was seven rows from the front! Ahahaha! The Holy Father was sporting a rather fetching red saturno.

...I am considering uploading the pictures of the Three Peaks and my Rome pilgrimage to an image hosting website so, if you ever get that bored, you can trawl through them!

I believe that Miss Ellen E. has tagged me in a post so I shall now get on to thinking about my three favourite prayers.

In Domino.

Apologies!

Sincere apologies readers for my absence! I have no excuse apart from that of laziness! Well, that and the fact I've been busy recently, work, uni, mountain climbing etc...

It has been well over a month since I last blogged and I think its pretty safe to say a lot has happened! I could not write a blog without congratulating our new Prime Minister, the Rt Hon. David Cameron MP. I pray that he and his cabinet with breath fresh air into what was a dead and decaying governmental system!

As well as this we (in Cardiff) had the last Mass of his Grace, Archbishop Peter Smith. It was a sad affair for all and his last Mass was on Pentecost Sunday during which he confirmed 14 youngsters from St Johns College (the Cathedral choir school).

As previously mentioned I've been climbing mountains, three mountains are worthy of mention. Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon. Alas we didn't climb them in the 24hr challenge, instead we allowed ourselves some rest (drink and food) and we did them on three separate days. Sunday 30th May (Ben Nevis), Monday 31st May (Scafell Pike) and Tuesday 1st June (Snowdon) - what an experience! I managed to get a few decades of the Rosary prayed whilst climbing these three 'Goliaths'.

I shall post a few pictures here, but I'm looking into posting them on a website and linking it here.


I think this is when Ben Nevis started to level off a bit before the massive hike to the summit... but it's still not half way up!


Finally at the summit after a trek of 20 minutes in snow. The pole was sinking 2 feet deep into the snow at some points!

This is my favourite picture taken walking up the second of the three mountains (Scafell Pike)

And finally...

Wales (Snowdon), at its gloomiest and wettest! We (or rather I) got soaked coming down, I was foolish and didn't put my coat on, it wasn't raining there was a lot of moisture in the air...if that makes sense!

Anyway, I'm off to Rome on Monday for a few days rest-bite in the Casa di San Brigida...I will be attending the Papal Audience on the Monday and will listen out for my name!

In Domino