Fr. JC Maximilian

I have only been a priest for about 19 months, so while I cannot say I have done hundreds of funerals, I am not a rookie either. Today I officiated at the saddest funeral I have done so far in my priesthood. It was the first child funeral I have done.

Little Jaime Lynn was only two years old. I did not know the family. That is one of the more difficult things about being a priest in this day and age in the Northeast. Our parishes are often so very large, that it can be a challenge to get to know most of one’s parishioners. Of course I have only been at OLS-St. Anthony’s for a week, so it would not be likely that I would know the family. I met Jaime Lynn’s parents for the first time just a few minutes before the funeral. From the many pictures they had at the funeral parlor, Jaime Lynn certainly seemed like a beautiful, happy child — very much loved by her parents and older sisters. From what I am told she got sick in the Spring, and then passed away this week. The turn out for the funeral was very large. Even grown men were moved to tears. The father’s cousin, a deacon from Philadelphia, assisted me.

Since this was my first funeral for a child, I had never read the prayers that the funeral liturgy has for children. They are very beautiful and comforting. The image of the Good Shepherd carrying His lamb in His arms is very promenient. One of the Gospel readings you can choose is the passage where Jesus tells the apostles to let the children come to Him, and how He then embraced them and blessed them. It is the Gospel selection I use for baptisms.

Please pray for Jaime Lynn, although since she was baptized and really below the age where she could commit mortal sin I think we can be fairly certain that she is with Christ Jesus in paradise. Pray also for her parents, sisters, and the extended family.

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I know that I have not been posting to the blog as much as I had hoped; not even as much as I had before I left for Rome. It has been nearly a month since I posted the last Liturgical Footnote. I apologize to the readers of this blog (not that I think there are many of you, but numbers is not all that important). October has been a challenging month.

I have not mentioned this on this blog (although I talked about it when I was writing for Catholic Ragemonkey), but last November, six months after being ordained a priest, I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Thank God, thyroid cancer is very treatable, and after two surgeries and very easy radiation treatment, I was placed on Synthroid to make up for the fact that I no longer have a thyroid to produce the necessary hormone. It has taken months to get my hormones back on track. When they were out of whack I was very tired all the time.

A few days after returning from Rome I was my endocrinologist, and she told me that my “numbers” were finally in the range she wants them to be. That means no initial sign that the cancer has spread, and I am not so fatigued all the time. Wonderful news, and all due to the many prayers of family and friends. Now my doctor just wants me to be stable on the meds for 6 months and then I will have a body scan to confirm that they got it all.

At the same time I started to breath some relief about my cancer, my father was diagnosed with lung cancer. This week we got the shocking news that Dad’s PET scan shows that his cancer is also in the liver, spine, thigh, and lymph nodes — classifying him as Stage IV, the worst stage. Dad has as positive an attitude as I think you can expect, he plans to fight the cancer the best he can, but he and my Mom knows that it is going to be a difficult road. I ask you to please keep Dad (and my family) in your prayers.

All this, on top of the regular stresses of being a priest in a big parish, has given me a new fatigue. It has also lead to a writer’s block when it comes to my homilies. The last few weeks I have really struggled to write something, not finishing until Saturday afternoon.

This week it was even worse. While I knew the points I wanted to reflect on this weekend, Priesthood Sunday, the words were not coming. In prayer I felt that maybe I was putting too much pressure on myself, too much emphasis on MY writing something “good,” that I might not be allowing the Holy Spirit the room He needs to say what He things needs to be said. So for this weekend I am just going to let the Spirit do His thing. I have read and prayed over the Scripture for this weekend, and have looked at commentaries and “homily-helps” to help me reflect on the Scriptures. Tomorrow I will ask the Holy Spirit to speak through me. As one Jeremy Camp song (”Empty Me”) puts it, “…more of You and less of me….” Maybe I will be able to give a recap of what the Spirit prompts me to say.

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St. Peter’s from a distance
Originally uploaded by frjcmaximilian.

OK, it has been a while since I posted a picture, so this is just to see if I remembered. I took this picture on my recent trip to Rome. I walked my feet off this day. The next I learnt how to ride the bus.

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I am writing this post from Rome. I arrived Monday afternoon, October 3rd. My travel to Rome was unpleasant. I left Sunday afternoon after the Sunday Masses and RCIA. I elected, because they were inexpensive, to fly Portugal Airlines (PAL); first from Newark, NJ to Lisbon, and then from Lisbon to Rome. I will admit the main source of my unpleasant experience is my own fault. See, I am obese. I don’t say “heavy” or “fat,” but stick to the medical term, “obese.” I am not happy this way, but I have struggled all my life with my weight. The malfunctioning thyroid (which is now removed) did not help matters, so I am at my heaviest. However, this is not an unusual situation, so why are airplanes designed for people about 5 feet tall, and 120 lbs? The flight was full, so I could not find a place to spread out in, so it was a very cramped 7 hours to Lisbon. The AC was also not working on the plane so it felt 90 degrees. I got no sleep.

Matters only got worse when I got on the plane from Lisbon to Rome. Incredibly it was even more cramped. When the person infront of me leaned his seat back, I ceased feeling my lower half of my body. When the flight mercifully came to an end in Rome, as I got up the fold down tray (which I could not us during the flight) fell and caught on my shirt, ripping two buttons off. So when I entered Rome Airport I was very tired, and very disheaveled.

After getting my bag, I head to get some euros and a cab to the Casa Santa Maria, the residence for American priests studying in Rome (a fellow Trenton priest sponsored me to stay here). As I passed through the security area a man came up to me and said, “Father, you need a cab? I take you.” I told him I needed to get euros first, but he said that was no problem, he would stop at an ATM for me, then he took my bag. I was so tired that I had forgotten that my friend warned me about avoiding the “taxi drivers” that wait at the gate. Despite their “badge” they are not official cabbies, and well, they rip you off. He wanted me to pay 195 euros for a trip that should only cost 50 euros tops. I did not have that much (thank God), so he demanded what I had before getting my bags out of the trunk. An incredibly expensive taxi ride.

Now I am rested and enjoying Rome. Yesterday, after breakfast I walked to the American Express office to cash in some of my traveler’s checks for euros, and on the way passed the Trevi Fountain. Near the office was the Spanish steps. Then, looking on my map, I saw that Ss. Ambrose and Charles was nearby, so walked there. Practically across the street from the church was the masoleum of Ceasar Augustus. Then it was across the river to Castel San Angelo. Of course the thing with Rome is that everywhere you turn there is history, and churches. From Castel San Angelo I saw St. Peter’s so started walking there. Before I got there I decided to go to the North American College, where another friend of mine is studying and will be ordained a priest tomorrow morning in St. Peter’s. Then I walked back to the Casa Santa Maria. It was a very long walk, and I developed a blister on my foot which made it longer and more painful. But still, its Rome! I rested in the afternoon and evening.

Today was a leisurely morning; did some shopping nearby, and visited another old church (Santa Maria del Minerva, I believe). After lunch I walked to the Anphitheater of Flavius, better known as the Colosseum (I learnt that the area was know as Coloseo because of a large bronze statue of Mars, which is now gone, and the name was mistakenly attached to the antipithreater). For 18 euros I had a marvelously interesting tour of the place. On the way back I stopped at the Basilica of Ss. Cosmas and Damien. I have taken lots of pictures, and I will post the best when I get back. Caio for now.

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I leave for a week of vacation tomorrow, after my Sunday Masses. I head for a week in Rome, the Eternal City, and where the heart of the Church is. This will actually be my second trip to Rome; I first went there in the year 2000 for the canonization of St. Katherine Drexel. I was a theology student at St. Charles Seminary in Philadelphia at the time, and since St. Katherine is from Philly, the seminary wanted a many of us as possible to go. Actually it was almost the same dates as this trip; early October, for 5 days. My parents were able to go with me, and they celebrated their wedding anniversary in Rome. This time it will just be me, although I will be meeting up with some people I know.

The main reason for the trip is the ordination to the diaconate of a man studying for the Diocese of Trenton. Mike did his one year of pre-theology at St. Charles, so I got to know him then. Being that it is in Rome, I wanted to make sure that he had some brothers in Christ present. The Diocese seems to have had the same idea because they are sending the other two transitional deacons so they can be present when their classmate joins them in the Order of the Deacon. The three of them will be ordained priests, by the grace of God, in May 2006. Mike will then return to Rome for further studies.

One aspect of the trip that I am looking forward to, is praying Mass at some of the churches in Rome. Mike will actually be assisting as deacon for the first time at a Mass at the church of Santa Maria della Fratte. When he told me that, I was very excited. That is the church where Alphonse Ratsibone had a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and was grace with the infusion of the Faith. His witness was an inspiration for St. Maximilian Kolbe, who heard of the story while he was a seminarian studying in Rome. Kolbe of course founded the Militia Immaculata as an association of the Faithful to help crush the head of Satan by refuting heresy, especially Modernism and Freemasonery, in word and deed. St. Maximilian celebrated his first Mass at the altar there in Santa Maria della Fratte, where Mike will preach for the first time at Mass. It is hard for me to pinpoint why and how I developed a devotion to St. Max, but in keeping with an old tradition, since Holy Order also puts a mark on one’s soul, I took the name Maximilian when I was ordained a deacon.

I will not be taking my computer to Rome, so I will not be doing any blogging, but don’t forget about this site. One of the commentors recently said that I need more comments, and I agree. Please feel free to share your thoughts (as long as they are in keeping with Christian charity). I hope that when I get back from Rome, to start sharing my reflections on “The Spirit of the Liturgy,” by then Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict). There are also some exciting developments/projects at the HS I am chaplain at.

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If you are someone who likes to leave a comment to this blog (though there are not many of you), you will notice a small, and yes, annoying change. Due to the consistent annoyance of spammers leaving automatic comments each time I posted an entry, I have initiated a process so that when you want to leave a comment you will be shown a screen with a word in weird print, which you will need to type. This stops the automatic spammers. I hope it is not too much of an inconvenience.

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