Rome Yr 1

My last update had been quite some time ago – way back in 2009 end. Life from then till now has been very exciting, with plenty of new experiences, new encounters, new learning and new travel. Hope to capture a jist of all this together with developments that have been taking place in my faith journey during this period.

The primary purpose.

The main purpose of me being here in Rome is for a wholesome formation towards the Priesthood. In addition to the intellectual formation that I receive at the University, life in the seminary takes care of the Spiritual, Psychological and Human formation.

The facade of the main university building.
 My classroom windows are those on the foreground.

Many people ask me what is it that you study for 3 years, in a nutshell it consists of a study of all the books of the Bible, Church History, Canon Law, Moral theology, The writings of the Early Church fathers, The Dogmas of the Church, The Social teaching of the Church, Spirituality, Missiology, Sacraments, Pastoral Theology, Liturgy and more. In addition we have to study Greek, Hebrew and Latin and at least 2 modern languages.

I study at the Pontifical Urbaniana University one of the 6 famous pontifical universities in Rome. The standard of teaching matches up to the best in the world, with professors having years of experience behind them. I thoroughly enjoy the classes and feel richly blessed to have this opportunity to be studying here.

Its an intensive schedule of study, formation, activities in the seminary, pastoral work on weekends clubbed with a host of events that keep coming on and off.

Sport

It’s a great way to unwind and get refreshed. Even though I earlier mentioned that we started to play cricket, it doesn’t happen as often as in the initial days because each one has different class schedules and it’s quite difficult to find a common time where we can make up two teams for a good match. I soon moved to tennis, I have begun to enjoy it and play it quite regularly. It’s quite easy to find another person free at the same time that I am too.

Holidays

We get 2 short periods of Holidays for a week and a half, immediately after Christmas and immediately after Easter. I have always used these times to stay back at the seminary, catch up with some rest, do some reading and some study too.

With Aliston our first Priest and Francis 

An exception being the Easter of 2010, where I went back to India for the priestly ordination of the first priest of our community. It was a significant moment for us as a community, celebrating 25 years of its foundation worldwide and its 10^th year in India. It was a short trip for just 10 days. The ordination took place in Mangalore, the Indian community celebrations took place in Bangalore and my family gathering took place in Chennai. It was an exciting trip. To know more about us you can check out www.icpe.org .

After getting back it was right into the most important part of the year in the seminary. In the months of April and June are ceremonial celebrations. Each week in batches, seminarians go one step higher in the ladder towards priesthood with the minor ministries that each one is conferred with. By order its Candidacy at the end of the first year of theology, Lector at the end of the second year, Acolyte by the end of the third year and finally the Deaconate Ordination which signals ones entry into consecrated life. 

Each of these ceremonies one after the other, happen every week until the big day of the deaconate ordination which is usually in the first week of May. I was conferred with candidacy this year.

Shortly after, we began end year exams extending until the end of June. Exams for me are a special time where in addition to study, I get to relax quite a bit because we can plan and register for our exams online well in advance, enabling us to space them out, according to our own convenience. I have been immensely enjoying what I study and thanks be to God have been performing reasonably well too.

The big summer break.

Every year the months of July, August and September are off and every seminarian is expected to go to a parish, community or charity home to help out and gain some pastoral experience. Thanks to a senior of mine, for the first month I was recommended to go to a Parish Sant’ Ilario in the North of Italy close to the city of Bologna.

The Parish Priest was an elderly but dynamic, vibrant and was always on his feet. I was in fact struggling to keep pace with his schedule and energy. Every July most parishes in Italy have a summer camp for kids and youth, and I helped out with it.  Every evening we would visit a family for dinner, most families were very cordial, welcoming and keen to know much about the culture and practices in India. The dinner would invariably extend for about 4 hours, with not just the talking but as I call it the Solemn eating – the starters, aperitif, first course, second course, dessert, a café and finally a digestive – Hmmmmm !

For the second month I went to another Parish close to the city of Padova, in contrast I had nothing much to do here, just relax, study and meet up with all the people of the Parish. The sacristan was keen to show me around and almost every day we would visit the beautiful places nearby.  I visited a monastery run by the Benedictines. It is one of the most ancient, beautiful and flourishing monasteries in Italy. In the past I always wanted to have an experience of monastic life and see how the monks live - without much contact with the outside world. So I asked them if I could come and stay with them for a short period and they were more than willing.

Following my stay in the parish I went to this monastery for 2 weeks. It was a marvelous experience. Their schedule of the 8-8-8 (ora et labora – 8 hours of Prayer, 8 hours of Work and 8 hours of rest) was remarkable. Their day would begin at 5.30 am and end at 10.30 pm. The things that I liked the most was their chanting of the psalms- with such grace, order and melody, the silence in an around the place, the work at the fields or the confectionary & honey processing units and their food. It was awesome. www.praglia.it

For the final 2 weeks - I went to my relatives place in Padova, felt so much at home and got to taste lovely Indian food after quite some time. From here I left to Switzerland, to the city of Lugano just across the Italian border. I was invited by a senior seminarian to visit his aunty who is a nun and to spend some time, going around the beautiful mountains, meadows, lakes and just enjoying Gods beautiful creation. It was a Wow experience, not just the nature but the hospitality offered by this community of nuns and a Swiss couple who took us around. We were really blessed.

After this lovely holiday experience it was quite tough to get back to Rome and start the new academic year beginning in the month of Oct. But with the grace of God and a clear focus of what I am here for, it dint take much time, I was soon prepared to face a challenging year ahead with Greek, Hebrew and Latin to overcome.

Catch my experiences of the following year on the next page. Adios !