Our Blessed Lady

By: Rick James
Seminarian, Third Theology

This month of May belongs to our Blessed Lady, the Mother of risen Savior. All seminarians and priest rely greatly upon her intercession at all times to remain close to her Son.

But what does it mean when we ask for our Blessed Mother’s intercession—or for that matter, any saint’s intercession. We can wonder: why do we go through the trouble of asking the saints to petition God for us? Could we not simply ask God for what we need directly?

Of course we can! However, when we pray to our Blessed Mother and all the saints, we ask them to make our prayers efficacious by their prayers and merits. But why are the prayers of the saints helpful for us? The answer to this requires remembering that the saints are in Heaven. When a person arrives in heaven, they are not in an unchanging or simply rigid and fixed state. In other words, when you arrive in heaven, you’re not just ‘done’. How boring! How could our encounter with the Eternal and Infinite God just be ‘done’, God has much more in store for us!

Heaven understood as it truly is, we are never finished with our communion with God—rather we will constantly grow in perfection. We will continuously grow in the eternal and all-loving Communion of the Blessed Trinity. Therefore, when we ask the saints in heaven to intercede for us, we are not just asking them to ‘put in a good word’ on our behalf. Rather they pray for us, and they apply their gifted state of increasing perfection in heaven to our needs.

We know that we can pray for others here and now, and we have faith that God hears and answers us—and helps those for whom we pray. The saints now in heaven, beholding our Heavenly Father’s face, also pray for us—in a state of grace far surpassing what we are capable of on Earth. Perhaps St. Jerome put its best:

“If , while still in the body, (people) can pray for others, at a time when they must still be anxious for themselves, how much more after their crowns, victories, and triumphs are won!”

So much more does all of this apply to our Blessed Mother, who is Queen of All Saints. She, who was redeemed from the moment of her Immaculate Conception, has been growing in perfection from that moment—and it is through her that the world receives her Son, Jesus Christ—the source of all grace and Eternal Life.

We recall Jesus’ attentiveness to Mary’s requests while they still walked the Earth. How much more is this continued in heaven! She was the first and only completely perfect response to the Father’s will to create, and to bring mankind to Communion with Him: “Be it done unto me according to Thy Word.” Our Lady’s intercession for the world is brought to the Father by the mother of His only Son. She is the mother of God, and the Mother of us all. She loves and cares for us— and she applies her fullness of Grace to our needs— and cares for us in a way that only a mother could.
Mary, Queen of All Saints, we love you. Pray for us!

First Apostolate Assignment

By: Albert Camburn II
Seminarian, Pre-Theology I

Albert Camburn II (center left - with other first year men)

Nearing the end of my first year at St. Charles Seminary, I can think of so many wonderful aspects of life here, the beautiful liturgies, the rich community life and the gift of learning about the faith, but what really stands out is the immensely rewarding experience of having spent each Thursday at my apostolate parish of Holy Infancy in Bethlehem.


Leaving early in the morning, my partner Kevin Lonergan and I would spend the morning at Holy Infancy grade school, where I would teach religion to Kindergarten through Fifth grade. There may be nothing in the world more gratifying than seeing a class full of children light up when you enter the room. Honestly, the smiles on their faces and the welcoming joy in those kids deeply touched my heart and I hope to never forget them. If I am lucky some of what I taught them will remain as they grow and help them to be closer to our Lord.

In the afternoons we would go out with one of two Poor Sisters of St. Joseph, Madre Rosa or Hermana Adelina, and go to the hospital or to the home of someone in need. We would either read the next Sunday’s gospel and reflect on it or recite the rosary, both in Spanish, and though I do not speak Spanish the sisters were able translators. Again, while I thought I was bringing something to them, it was the remarkable faith of people in great suffering that showed me what a Catholic can and should be. I can hardly express how humbling and enriching this experience was and cannot thank the sisters enough.

After dinner with Msgr. Biseck, I would assist with the Youth Group while Kevin taught CCD. Again, to see such strong faith in the hearts of teens struggling to live holy lives in an environment of great temptation and sin did so much to inspire me that I can only hope I had some of the impact on them that they had on me. Overall, the whole staff and parishioners of Holy Infancy were simply fantastic in how they welcomed us and nurtured our vocations.

It is with the ardent hope of being able to serve devoted Catholics one day as a priest, that I am able to find the motivation to study and submit myself to the formation process. By the great gift of Thursdays at Holy Infancy Parish I was given an abundance of such motivation and I can’t thank them enough.

Liturgy Class at St. Charles Seminary (First Year)

By: Daniel Lisella

Seminarian, First College

I want you to imagine that you are on the seashore with Jesus. You are walking along the beach with him. What does the atmosphere feel like on the beach? What are the sounds of the birds and the waves like? What does the water feel like? What do you feel you want to say to Jesus? Take a moment now to express to Jesus what you are feeling right now and tell him anything you want. At this moment, you are with Jesus, what are you desiring from him? What is he saying to you? What does it feel like just to open up and be with Jesus? Many of us have these different things we think, feel, and desire when being with the Lord. For myself personally, I think about how great a place to be at and being with the Lord. I feel at peace and very calm that I never want to leave his side. Also, I desire to be closer with Jesus in my life; to allow him to work in me so that I may do what he wants and just not what I want all the time. God wants us to be open to him and to receive what he has to say to us.

Daniel Lisella with this year's new men, and Frs. Mahoney and Bongard

“Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you!” If some person randomly walked off the street and said this to you, you would probably feel very uncomfortable. In many ways this line can be applied to all of us. The mystery of the Annunciation has very deep meaning in the Liturgy. First, Mary is viewed as being the perfect model of Christian life. You may ask yourself, why is that? Well from the beginning God chose this woman to bear his Son and raise him until the day of his death. Through her “Yes” she started how we are taught to live according to the will of God. We are to always carry Jesus with us and to give that response of “Yes” to God and never denying that he will let us down. “The angel said to her in reply, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.’” Mary had no idea what was going to happen with her life, she was afraid, just like the first people were afraid, just like we are afraid, and so on. However, she did not turn away from the Lord she accepted just as how we are called to accept God’s call in our lives.

Two parts I learned from Liturgy class is the importance of having that deep connection with the Lord during a time of silent reflection which can be seen in the first paragraph. Also, the significance the Annunciation has in not just the Blessed Mother’s life but in our own lives as well. We must be willing to pour ourselves out to the Father just has he gives his total self to us. We have to give our own “Yes” to God to allow him to enter our lives deeply and intimately. Furthermore, this is just a piece of the many things I have learned in Liturgy class as a First Collegian.

2nd Annual Lenten Concert

By: Brendon Laroche
Seminarian, Pre-Theology II

On Saturday, April 9, 2011, St. Charles Borromeo Seminary held its second annual Lenten concert. The concert's title was "Into Your Hands, Lord... Lenten Lessons Through Word & Song." The concert featured the St. Charles Borromeo Seminary choir. Numerous seminarians also served as musicians, soloists, members of small ensembles, readers, technicians, etc.

Brendon Laroche

The Lenten Concert is a new tradition at St. Charles. It had its modest beginning during Lent of 2010. This year's concert showed an evident increase in attendees. It is the seminary community's hope that attendance will continue to rise and put the Lenten Concert on par with the seminary's traditional Advent concert.

The Lenten concert is an almost entirely student-organized event. Dr. Theodore Kiefer, the seminary's Director of Liturgical Music, provides invaluable assistance by helping direct the choir, arranging music, and playing the organ. Ultimately, however, the Lenten concert is directed, coordinated, and performed by the seminarians themselves. The seminarians also provide all the publicity for this concert.

Like the Advent concert, the Lenten concert is not just about entertainment. It is about using music to bring into clear focus the penitential nature of the Lenten season and the great and saving work of Jesus Christ that it commemorates. It does this through a variety of music: Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony, as well as contemporary pieces. Interspersed with the music are readings from Sacred Scripture, the Fathers of the Church, great spiritual classics, and papal documents. The readings seek to further draw out the spiritual message of music. The ultimate goal of the concert is to enrich the spiritual lives of its attendees by presenting them with a prayerful meditation on the Passion and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ.

IPF Symposium

By: James Harper
Seminarian, First Theology


The Institute for Priestly Formation held a symposium at St. Charles Seminary from the 17^th to the 20^th of March.  The symposium was a great opportunity for the seminarians to experience a taste of the IPF program for what it is as well as for a break from the standard track of studies at the seminary.

James Harper (front right) with other seminarians and Fr. Rafferty during the IPF Summer  Program

Logistically speaking, each day of the symposium held two conferences, one in the morning with a second in the afternoon.  Other trademarks of the IPF program were present with evening opportunities for Eucharistic Adoration and healing prayer.  The theme for the symposium at St. Charles was Good Shepherd:  Living Christ’s Own Pastoral Authority which reflected upon the integration of spirituality with the pastoral duties of a diocesan priest. 


As one of four Allentown seminarians to have been on IPF’s summer program in Omaha, I had a particular connection when the program came to St. Charles.  Furthermore, my seminary responsibilities as technical coordinator led me to a frequent interaction with the same staff from my summer experience.  All in all, these conditions led me to a great personal reflection and connection with my previous experiences from last summer.  With the symposium at the seminary, I found it a blessed experience to have reflected upon my spiritual growth during and since the summer program.  It was also comforting to find the symposium was well received at the seminary and that my peers who did not attend the summer program were also able to benefit from an institute that does so much to benefit priestly formation.

My First Practice Homily

By: Mark R. Searles

Seminarian, First Theology

After almost a whole year in 1st theology, my classmates and I passed another milestone this past week, our first practice homily! Starting this Spring semester, we have had our first class in homiletics. The first half of the semester was a typical class with lectures and discussions on public speaking in general and some helpful specific insights on giving a homily. Now in the second half we get our first chance to prepare and deliver several homilies.

Mark Searles with his Mom and Dad



My first assignment was a Sunday homily for the 3rd Week of Lent, just this past Sunday. At first I was nervous about the length of this Gospel as John tells the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:4-41), but the sequence of readings for this Sunday have a beautiful theme regarding water and thirst as the Israelites wander in the desert seeking water from Moses in the 1st reading and the Samaritan woman finds living water in Jesus. So after carefully reading through the selected passages, I began to pray with them in a Lectio Divina-style, meditating on God’s Word, and noticing what pops out. I also read a few commentaries and quickly saw how very many awesome themes and images there were to choose from as the Holy Spirit led me to a very specific focus: the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

As I began to sit and write, I felt drawn to speak about Reconciliation as I noticed how the woman at the well talks to Jesus and despite her troubled past, she admits to her struggles and Jesus is not harsh or criticizing, but loves her and offers her mercy in the waters of eternal life, something much greater than the well water she originally came to find.

In my own experiences with this great sacrament, I was drawn to speak about a story from the 2nd grade as I stood in line for my 1st confession. I remember the night vividly going over the sins in my head that I practiced at home with my parents and standing behind some of the CCD kids I did not know while my other friends were in shorter, faster-moving lines! So I got nervous and then a few tears started to fall as I thought this was a pretty intimidating sacrament and hopefully 1st Communion won’t be so bad! But one of the nuns came over to me and brought me to a kind, young priest who cheered me up, calmed me down, and then I experienced the beauty of God’s love in a unique and new way through the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time. It wasn’t hard or scary after all, I even enjoyed it. It was really myself and Jesus sitting there as I opened my heart up a little bit and Jesus spread out His arms wide to embrace me, pouring out His infinite love and mercy upon me, a little kid about 7 years old.

After writing my first homily I was especially glad that the Holy Spirit put this comical experience from the 2nd grade on my heart. Despite some nerves standing before my class delivering this first practice homily, I thought back to my days growing up and thinking to myself, maybe I’ll be a priest some day, but I bet giving a homily will be hard and intimidating. My initial anxiety, just like I was standing in line again for my 1st Confession, quickly went away when I realized how much grace and love God pours out upon me and I began to feel that I can do all things through and in Christ. In the end, it wasn’t scary at all and all of my classmates enjoyed listening to each other and hearing the various ways God inspired each one of us. Now we’re on to tackle our next big assignment in homiletics, the Easter homily!

A Seminarian’s View on the Historic Egyptian Revolution

By: Stephan Isaac
Seminarian, Pre-Theology I

While studying Political Science and International Studies at American University, I spent a semester abroad in Cairo, Egypt during the Fall of 2009. I continued my studies in Middle Eastern politics and Arabic at the American University of Cairo (AUC) and it was some of the best four months of my young life.

During my time there, I encountered so many Egyptians who were kind, compassionate, hospitable, and friendly. I can honestly say that I had no negative experiences with any of the Egyptians I met simply because I was an American or a Catholic Christian. I would also say with confident joy that I had truly recognized Christ in many of the Egyptians I met due to their generosity and warmth, and it was a wonderful experience! I couldn’t help but notice that the Egyptian people are so full of life and joy and like Americans, they truly desire genuine peace, freedom, and prosperity for their families and loved ones.

When the news broke in late January that the Egyptian people were rising up in massive numbers for the first time against the brutal authoritarian regime of Hosni Mubarak, my heart was hopeful because I had seen first hand in many ways how the regime abused and neglected its own people. One thing that fascinated me while I was there was that no matter who you talked to outside of AUC, Egyptians on the street would not openly discuss anything about domestic politics or the Mubarak regime, presumably out of fear of persecution and imprisonment. I was even scolded once by one of my Egyptian friends for publicly cracking a joke about Hosni Mubarak!

Egyptians outside of the confines of AUC would be so eager to talk about American, international, or Middle Eastern politics, but you would never hear them criticize Hosni Mubarak or discuss their country’s political situation in any open and meaningful way. Under Mubarak, there was absolutely no freedom of speech, especially political speech, in terms of publicly challenging or criticizing the regime in a serious manner. There was also a noticeable fear among the people of the Egyptian police force, which was essentially the “hammer-hand” of the Mubarak regime. Since 1981, the U.S. government and many international human rights groups have catalogued the many instances of unjust imprisonment, torture, and execution of hundreds of thousands of political prisoners and opponents of the regime.

My friends and I even witnessed an incident of police corruption on our way to a resort on the Mediterranean coast an hour west of Alexandria. While we were on our way to Porta Marina, the police stopped our van and demanded that our Egyptian driver and friend step out of the car and pay them over 200 Egyptian pounds (which is a lot of money in Egypt). They claimed that it was a travel fee, but our driver and friend said that there is no such thing in Egypt and told us it was simply an act of police corruption, which according to many of my Egyptian friends was rampant in the country under the Mubarak regime.

What was also sad is that I noticed that the Egyptian government and its police would treat foreign tourists much better than their own people! For example, we went with one of our Egyptian friends to a FIFA World Cup U20 match between Egypt and Costa Rica in downtown Cairo. The line of people trying to get into the stadium was immense. Our Egyptian friend told a police guard outside of the line that he had Americans with him. The police guard immediately shuffled us past hundreds of people, all Egyptians, in order to get into the stadium. Not only did the police bypass the hundreds of Egyptians waiting patiently in line to get us into the stadium, but once we entered, we were placed in “first-class” seating, which we didn’t even pay for! Given the vital relationship between the U.S. and Egypt at the time, it was in Egypt’s political interests to make sure Americans residing in and visiting Egypt were not only well-protected, but well-treated. It was frankly a very troubling experience for us Americans.

That’s why I was overjoyed when I heard the news that the Egyptian people were peacefully rising up against the Mubarak regime in massive numbers for the first time since the dictator assumed control of the country in 1981. It’s important for Americans to know that the Egyptian revolution of 2011 was not an “anti-American” or extreme Islamic revolution like the Iranian Revolution of 1979 which led to the taking of American hostages and the attack on the U.S. embassy in Tehran. Anyone watching the protests in Cairo saw that Egyptians were demonstrating peacefully for their God-given human rights, calling for an end to a brutal dictatorship, and demanding a pluralistic democracy. Unlike the regressive Iranian revolution of 1979, the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 was a progressive, democratic revolution, fueled by the products of modernity: Facebook, Twitter, and the use of cell phones. Muslims and Christians joined together in calling for fundamental democratic change; the protesters weren’t burning American flags or denouncing the U.S. or Israel, but rather courageously standing up for their God-given rights and for a new era of genuine freedom and justice for all. The 2011 Egyptian revolution was truly historic.

Due to my limited access to Facebook here at the Seminary, I tried my best to keep in touch with my Egyptian friends during the upheaval and to make sure they and their families were safe. One of my friends, a Coptic Christian, sent me a long Facebook message describing the revolution from her perspective. Here is an excerpt of what she wrote to me:

After just two weeks of battle, the voice of truth and love won! Young people who truly love this country decided that they will either live with dignity or die trying…Also, if you look at Tahrir [square], a different spirit was there...a spirit of selflessness, of honesty, of generosity, of purity, of sacrificial love…It’s otherwise known as the Holy Spirit…What a battle it was! A very fierce spiritual battle! But the Egyptian people didn’t give in to Satan’s lies such as fanaticism (the divide between Muslims and Christians)…or even despair! Today, Egypt is being cleaned up. Corrupt officials are constantly being taken to court…and the Egyptian youth have been doing all they can to build this country (by cleaning up, packing food for underprivileged families, donating, etc.) It’s really beautiful here!

It is my hopeful prayer that the world’s most populous Arab country will one day become the most populous Arab democracy, built on justice, prosperity, and authentic freedom. I pray that the Egyptian people will forge a government that respects the basic human rights of all Egyptians, Muslim and Christian, and pursues peaceful and productive relations with all nation-states. Tyranny should never replace tyranny in times of political upheaval and given the oppressive nature of Egypt’s political history, it’s difficult to foresee the Egyptian people freely and deliberately replacing one repressive regime with another sometime in the future.