the conference

Well, the Frassati Conference was awesome as usual! It's always so inspiring to see so many young adults together at once conference. The theme for the weekend was suffering and how to give our suffering meaning. Jeff Cavins gave three pretty emotional talks as he talked about his own suffering and conversion and trouble having children with his wife. Joan Ulicny also gave two powerful talks about once being a big time IBM exec, having a head-on collision with a 16-wheeler, overcoming a coma, stroke, and relearning how to speak and do basic math, and her own conversion toward redemptive suffering and running the Boston marathon!

The seminarians (17 of 'em!) for the diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana are a great group of guys. I got to stay with 4 or 5 of them. Most of them are going to either the Josephenum, Mt. St. Mary's, or the Ken-Glen (as I like to call it). They were very hospitible and seemed glad to have me for the weekend. Since everybody at the conference was uber-orthodox I felt awkward having to tell everyone that St. Mary's in Baltimore, MD (with it's "Pink Palace" reputation of the late 80's well-known) isn't the same as Mount St. Mary's in Emmittsburg, MD.

With all the seminarians serving, Mass was beautiful! They joined the opening procession, processed up the gifts, processed up the communcants (which start at the back), all knelt in front of the altar during the Eucharistic prayer, and processed out together at the end. They incensed the altar, the crucifux, the gospel, the gifts and the Eucharist at set times throughout the Mass. It was awesome.