Latest / Catholic Spirit Radio / Good News 050226: Emmaus Days: Seminarians, Sports, and a Call to Manhood

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Good News 050226: Emmaus Days: Seminarians, Sports, and a Call to Manhood · Catholic Spirit Radio

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  Welcome to Good News on Catholic Spirit Radio, a program for teens and almost
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  teens to better understand that the gospel of Jesus Christ is relevant in their
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  lives, and it's a place where your questions about faith and religion can be answered.
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  And now, here's your host, Deacon Al.
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  Good evening, and welcome to Good News. I am Deacon Al Lundy,
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  permanent deacon in the Peoria Diocese, speaking with you on Catholic Spirit Radio.
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  Happy to have you with us once again. We're here every Saturday and Sunday evenings from 8 to 8.30.
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  Normally on Good News, I'll spend the first half talking about things going
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  on in the church or going on in my life and how that relates to the church.
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  And then in the second half, we talk about the readings from the Mass,
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  the good news of Jesus Christ and how that affects us in our everyday lives.
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  But today, we're going to do a little different.
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  I have an in-studio guest, which we don't have very often, but very happy to
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  have one of the seminarians from the Peoria Diocese. This is Jared Raber.
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  Hello, Jared. Hey, Deacon. Thanks for having me. Good to have you with us. Yeah.
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  Jared's from Coal Valley by ways of Moline, right? So a Western state.
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  Okay, good to have you with us. You're here to talk about Emmaus Days.
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  And for those who haven't heard about it, this is a series of weekend,
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  I wouldn't say workshop, more of a retreat, right?
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  Yeah, I'd say retreat is a good way to sum it up, yeah.
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  For all kinds of ages, starting at 7th grade all the way up to college,
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  broken into different categories.
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  So tell us about Emmaus Days. What's the heart of it? Yeah, thanks for asking.
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  The heart of Emmaus days is really the Emmaus story. That's why we call it Emmaus days.
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  So we begin every retreat actually with reading from the Gospel of Luke,
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  the story of Jesus walking with the disciples on the road to Emmaus.
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  He comes and stands in their midst. He breaks open the scriptures to them. He walks with them.
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  Ultimately, it culminates in the Eucharist. He opens their eyes and they see
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  the risen Lord and they are moved to run back to Jerusalem.
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  They started out downcast and they end on fire.
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  And ultimately, that's the goal of Emmaus days.
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  We keep it simple. We stick to the gospel. We just, yeah, we have mass and prayer
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  and talks from the seminarians.
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  And that's kind of the spiritual core of the retreat, rosary,
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  sometimes liturgy, the hours.
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  And yeah, our goal is really an encounter with Christ. I think alongside that, it's more than,
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  There's also a very, very heavy emphasis on the fun, especially for the younger
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  ages, especially seventh and eighth grade, ninth and 10th.
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  Those are held at Great Oaks camp. So we're outside, we're in a pond,
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  you know, there's a lot of- It's a ton of fun there.
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  I've been out there a couple of times with my scouts and it's a blast.
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  Yeah, it really is. It was actually our first year, last year being at the camp.
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  So there was a lot of new things we had to learn, had to move schedules around
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  and things like that. But it was awesome.
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  Ton of fun tons of time for sports playing games capture the flag things like
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  that yeah i think one of the things i love to tell the guys when i'm doing school
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  visits is we split up all of the guys into small groups each small group is
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  distinguished by a different colored bandana,
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  and they just really they form this awesome camaraderie among themselves as
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  as teammates And there's this healthy, I think, competitive spirit that runs
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  through Emmaus days and they compete in games.
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  There's the athletics games that for those guys that love sports, you know, to shine at.
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  There's also, we had trivia last year for some of the guys who,
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  you know, rely on the intellect, you know, and things like that.
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  And they're skilled in that way. And there's scavenger hunts.
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  And so there's a variety of activities and fun to really make it come alive
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  for the guys. And we should point out that Emmaus Days is really a program for male youth. Yeah.
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  And it's run by seminarians. Mm-hmm.
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  Do you even have any priests out there, or is it all seminarians?
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  Yeah, so Father Chase is— Okay.
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  Father Chase Hulgenbrink is our—kind of the chaplain of it all.
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  Sure. But yeah, a bulk of it is carried by the seminarians.
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  Priests come out for confessions and maybe some talks here and there.
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  Father Chase is an interesting story in itself.
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  Those of you from the Peoria Diocese, you're going to be very familiar with
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  Father Chase Hildenberg, but a lot of you from some of our surrounding diocese won't be.
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  But Father Chase started as a soccer player. I mean, big time,
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  big league soccer player.
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  And while he was in Europe under contract, during his time off,
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  he would go spend that time at monasteries and seminaries.
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  And he really—,
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  grew his way into his ordination, into his vocation as a priest.
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  And it was so funny, I remember at his first Mass,
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  I was present at his first Mass, and some young ladies were there when Father
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  Chase comes up the aisle in his vestments, and the words behind me were being
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  said was, oh, what a waste.
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  He's not an unattractive young man, and to choose Christ over the life of a professional athlete.
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  Really unique, but he's become quite a force in our diocese.
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  And I think a lot of young men can attribute their growth in their vocation
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  from their experience with meeting and hearing Father Chase.
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  He's a wonderful homilist. Absolutely. Wonderful homilist.
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  And so I'm glad to hear he's going to be out there with you.
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  About how many other seminarians does it take to put the program on?
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  Yeah, so it depends on the sessions. Like you said before, there's four sessions,
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  and each one really has a different goal.
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  They're split up by age groups. So, yeah, for session one, which is early June,
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  it's for college and adult men.
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  And that's a smaller-scale retreat, so there's only about 20 to 30 guys there.
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  And so we have a handful of seminarians, probably about five of us.
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  And then but then later in the summer in July mid-July where we're looking at
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  all hands on deck right we have about 20 seminarians in the in the Peoria Diocese right now and so,
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  for those those two sessions sessions three and four it's it's pretty much all of us maybe,
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  There's a handful that aren't able to for different reasons.
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  With the younger kids, the seventh grade through 10th grade,
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  that's a lot of energy to keep up with. Oh, yeah.
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  So you need a full-time job. Right. Yeah, it's going to be pretty busy.
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  And you're really not looking to, I don't want to say recruit priests.
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  What you're looking for is to form young men, right?
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  To give them a sense of what does it really mean to be a man in this world,
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  in this society, at this time.
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  And it's a complicated life. Absolutely. Yeah, I think you put it well.
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  And again, each session has a different goal, a different aim,
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  different tactic, if you will.
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  But one thread through it all is really that manhood.
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  And a vocation, an authentic vocation, stems from that foundation,
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  I think, of just really a prayer life and of just knowing oneself as a beloved
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  son of the Father and of growing in basic virtues.
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  And yeah, any authentic vocation will flow from men who know how to do that.
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  And so, yeah, that really is our goal is to, as seminarians,
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  share the fruits of our formation.
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  And it's not just the talks, you know, it's not just the sacraments.
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  I mean, I think the walking with, when Jesus walks with the disciples on the
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  road, it really comes, it's in everything.
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  It's in the meals that we have with the guys. It's in the games we play.
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  It's in getting competitive. It's in showing them that we as seminarians love to have fun.
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  Yeah, and it's important for them to see that where that,
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  where that center, where that
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  anchor comes from. You know, this isn't something that's purely natural.
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  A lot of it, a lot of being a man in this world comes from understanding morals
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  and virtues and the existence of the Holy Spirit.
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  You know, through our baptism, we have God embedded in us, and yet we don't
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  always look that closely.
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  You know, we're wondering where is God in the troubled portions of our life,
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  at least he's in us, he's part of us.
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  And, and he wants us to realize that, but we don't often spend much time looking inward.
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  Yeah. And I think to ask these, to ask these young men to, to take a weekend.
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  And not only have some entertainment, learn a lot of really good lessons,
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  have some great fellowship, but to understand their connection with Christ is
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  really important. Absolutely.
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  So, we've got four sessions. You're looking at your session one,
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  the adults and college-age kids.
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  That's early June, June 5th through the 7th. Yep. And that's in Peoria.
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  It is. It's in West Peoria. It's actually at what we call the Emmaus House. So, it's with the theme.
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  And that's kind of like the headquarters, if you will, for seminarians in our diocese.
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  It's where it's recently been, I guess, taken over by Father Chase as a rectory
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  and, but it's an old convent actually.
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  And so it used to house, well, it started housing Roseminian fathers back in
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  the day and then Pierce Tarts were there for a while.
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  And then now it's, yeah, it's kind of a headquarters for seminarians and priests to use.
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  And it's kind of the perfect size to host the
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  number of guys we normally have and there's a chapel in the middle there
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  there's a large field for going out and playing sports we
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  hope this year in that session to incorporate Fulton
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  Sheen who's on his way to the beatification right
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  we're if it's in Peoria so we're close to the cathedral and yeah we do hope
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  to make our way over there and good what better what better man to learn manhood
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  from and to learn what it means to follow a vocation right you know excellent
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  so yeah we're really excited. It's our first year being in the Emmaus house.
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  So we're looking forward to that. Session two, juniors and seniors in high school,
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  June 26th through the 29th at the U of I Newman Center.
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  That's a great facility. It is. We're very blessed. That's just amazing there.
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  Yeah. To have that opportunity. We've been there for a while.
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  So yeah, it's great. Ton of fun. Great place to be.
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  Yeah. Session three, ninth and 10th grade students.
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  Again, this is all for young men to participate in July 12th through the 15th.
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  That's at Great Oaks out in Lakin.
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  And then session four, seventh and eighth graders also at Great Oaks,
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  July 15th through the 17th.
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  So, you know, parents and grandparents right now are looking to sign their kids
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  up for camp, all right? They're going to go to sports camps.
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  I have two nephews that go to computer camp every summer. You know,
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  you're going to go to scout camp.
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  Those are all great programs, great activities. But it would be great to take
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  a weekend, send your son or your grandson to a weekend summer camp where they
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  can have an encounter with Christ.
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  And as the story of Emmaus tells us, you can't encounter Christ and not be changed.
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  And it's always changed for the better.
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  So, what a wonderful time to encounter Christ in your life for just a couple of days.
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  And we just heard the walk to Emmaus in our gospel within the last two weeks at Mass.
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  And so, you've probably heard different homilies as to what we learned from that gospel.
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  One of the things I talked about, I was a homilist that weekend at my church,
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  was the walk to Emmaus is really the story of the Mass.
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  It parallels what happens in the course of a Mass.
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  You encounter Christ, you learn about Christ, then you sit and have a meal with
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  Christ, and then you go back.
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  You don't keep running away. You go back into the secular world and take what
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  you've learned and share it with others now.
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  And that's what you can do with Emmaus Days. You can come and what you learned
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  in this weekend, having fun with your friends and with the seminarians,
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  take what you learned and take it back home and share it with someone else.
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  So I think that's the real gift that comes from this. Is there a cost to Emmaus Days? There is.
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  So on the website, if you just looked up Emmaus Days Peoria, you could find it.
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  The cost this year is $200.
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  But there's also options. Most parishes, ask your pastor first,
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  I don't want to assume, but most parishes will cover either the full or half the cost for young men.
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  So that's on the website as well. I know our parishes have always covered the cost.
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  If a young man wanted to go of any age, wanted to attend Emmaus,
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  we would cover that cost. Yeah, absolutely.
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  If money was the problem, we'd make it work. Sure.
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  That's wonderful. Well, I hope you have a great fun. I hope everyone who attends has great fun.
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  We'll keep putting the word out on this because it is a tremendous program, and it's kind of unique.
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  I don't know if every diocese has access to Emmaus Days or not,
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  but it's been a program here through the Peoria Diocese for many years.
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  So, happy to see that continue to go and continue to grow. And let's talk about your journey right now.
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  You're a year away from your diaconate organization. Yeah, about a year and
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  a half away from diaconate. Very good. Two years of priesthood. Yep.
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  Very good. Well, I hope that goes well for you, Brother Deacon.
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  And soon to be. So far, the journey is good. Yeah. You're smiling,
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  so I'm guessing it's a good experience for you. Yep. A lot of reasons to smile.
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  It's been incredible. I've been in seminary for four years.
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  I did two years of college seminary in Winona, Minnesota, graduated from there,
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  and then have been at Mondelein for two years. Very good.
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  Yeah, currently, while I'm finishing up, my last day is just a day from today
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  in Epiphany Parish in Normal, Illinois, and I've spent my whole semester here
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  at Epiphany doing just internships.
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  Honestly, it's truly an internship. I've just been shadowing the priests and
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  getting involved in a little bit of everything.
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  And it's been incredible. It's really solidified my desire to do this and say yes to this vocation.
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  So, yeah, I'm very excited to keep going.
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  Great respect for anyone who chooses the vocation of priesthood. What a great calling.
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  Absolutely. What a great call. And thank you for being willing to listen to
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  the call. It's a noisy world.
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  We should have a lot more priests, but it's really hard. God speaks to us in
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  whispers, and we live in a noisy world, and sometimes it's hard to hear that whisper.
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  So to hear it and follow it, you deserve a lot of credit for that.
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  And look forward to your service to our faith. Absolutely. Very good.
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  Emmaus Days. Talk to your kids, talk to your grandsons about attending Emmaus Days.
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  You can find out more about it by going to the website.
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  Yeah, Catholic Diocese, or I guess you'd type it. Type in CDOP,
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  CDOP.org, and then on there you can find Emmaus Days.
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  You can also just type in Emmaus, E-M-M-A-U-S, Days, Peoria,
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  and it'll pop up. Right. Yeah.
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  Fill out the form, talk to your pastor. Yep. They'll be happy to help you with
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  everything as you prepare for that, and hope to see you at Emmaus Days. Yep.
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  Thank you very much, Jared. Best of luck to you, sir. Absolutely.
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  God bless. Thank you, Deacon. God bless. Bye-bye. We'll be back with more good news right after this.
• 15:58
  Stay tuned. Good news will be right back on Catholic Spirit Radio.
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  Ray tab, and sign up today.
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  And welcome back to Good News. You're listening to Catholic Spirit Radio.
• 16:27
  I'm Deacon Al Lundy. I have Jared Raber in the studio with me.
• 16:31
  Jared is a seminarian with the Peoria Diocese, and we're about to go through
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  the readings for the fifth Sunday of Easter.
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  Our first reading is from the Acts of the Apostles. Our second reading is a
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  letter from Peter, and then we go to the Gospel according to John.
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  So, I'm going to bounce this back and forth between me and Jared.
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  So, I'll start with the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles.
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  As the number of disciples continued to grow, the Hellenists complained against
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  the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.
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  So, the twelve called together the community of the disciples and said,
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  It's not right for us to neglect the Word of God to serve a table.
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  Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men, filled with the Spirit
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  and wisdom, whom we shall appoint to this task, whereas we shall devote ourselves
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  to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.
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  The proposal was accepted by the whole community.
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  So they chose Stephen, a man filled with faith in the Holy Spirit,
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  and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas of Antioch, a convert to Judaism.
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  They presented these men to the apostles who prayed and laid hands on them.
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  The word of God continued to spread, and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly.
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  Even a great number of priests were becoming obedient to the faith.
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  So before I move on to the second reading, touch bases on just a couple of quick things.
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  One being that what we have here is the foundation of the diaconate.
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  These are the first seven men to be ordained deacons by the Catholic Church.
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  Stephen, as you might recall, is going to become the first martyr for his faith.
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  And so, in fact, all of the deacons end up as martyrs.
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  They all have really interesting stories. Phillips, one of the most interesting
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  of all of them, I think, and Nicholas of Antioch.
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  So, these are all great, great saints to look to in our faith as men of great
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  virtue, as we talked about with Emmaus days.
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  This is one of the things we try and teach young people through our faith, is the teaching,
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  The glory of virtue, what comes
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  out of virtue and following the gifts that the Holy Spirit gives you.
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  Our second reading from Peter is kind of a continuation of the last two weeks.
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  So, Jerry, do you want to take that, please? Yeah, let's do it.
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  A reading from the first letter of St. Peter.
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  Beloved, come to him, a living stone, rejected by human beings,
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  but chosen and precious in the sight of God.
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  And, like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house,
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  to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
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  For it says in Scripture, Behold, I am laying a stone in Zion,
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  a cornerstone, chosen and precious, and whoever believes in it shall not be put to shame.
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  Therefore its value is for you who have faith, but for those without faith.
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  The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,
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  a stone that will make people stumble, and a rock that will make them fall.
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  They stumble by disobeying the word, as is their destiny.
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  You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own,
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  so that you may announce the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
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  And I think one of the beautiful parts of that letter is to realize who Peter is talking to.
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  You have to remember, this is a new church, new people that come from all walks of life.
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  Some were followers of Judaism, some were Greek. It's just...
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  These are people who are new to this faith and trying to find their place in
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  it. They knew what their place was in their old one.
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  In their old faith, they were either worshipers or they served the priests or
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  the Pharisees and the scribes. They were all servants.
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  And now Peter is calling them all to a form of priesthood. And this is really new.
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  They never considered themselves as priests before. But Christ changed everything.
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  And now Peter is letting them know that you're no longer just called to serve the priesthood.
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  You're called to be the priesthood.
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  And so what does that mean to be a priest? But to evangelize,
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  to call more people to Christ, to share what you've learned with others,
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  and to let Christ live out his life through your life.
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  And so Peter shares this with all of us. And so, this reading from this Sunday
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  is reminding us all of our priesthood that we were baptized into,
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  and our role as to—we're not just asked to come and worship on Sundays. That's not our role.
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  Our role is to become more Christlike in our everyday lives so that we can draw
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  others to Christ as well. We are the new priesthood.
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  We're different than the ordained priesthood. but yet we are a priesthood in
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  our own rites through our baptism.
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  Our gospel today from John, some of you will probably recognize,
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  has some lines here that are, if you've ever been to a Catholic funeral,
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  you've probably heard this reading.
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  Jesus said to his disciples, Do not let your hearts be troubled.
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  You have faith in God, have faith also in me. In my Father's house there are many dwelling places.
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  If there were not, would I have told you that I'm going to prepare a place for you?
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  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you
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  to Myself, so that where I am, you also may be.
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  Where I am going, you know the way.
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  Thomas said to Him, Master, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?
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  Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life.
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  No one comes to the Father except through Me.
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  If you know me, then you will also know my Father.
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  From now on you do know him and have seen him.
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  Philip said to him, Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.
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  Jesus said to him, I have been with you for so long a time, and you still do not know me, Philip?
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  Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, show us the Father?
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  Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me?
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  The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing His works.
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  Believe me that I am the Father, and the Father is in me. Or else,
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  believe because of the works themselves.
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  Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do,
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  and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father. The Gospel of the Lord,
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  So, Jared, I'm going to put you on the spot. What have we learned from this?
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  I'm in the Father, and the Father is in me.
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  There are brothers and sisters in the Christian faith who see God and Jesus,
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  not only as separate persons, but as separate beings.
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  How many times does Jesus have to tell us, we're the same, I'm in him, he's in me, we're one?
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  And that seems to come out pretty clearly in this. Yeah, Jesus is,
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  he is very clear about his relationship to the Father. And yeah, I love these readings.
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  I think the theme for me that has popped out is priesthood.
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  It's very easy to see it in the second reading. But yeah, even in this gospel,
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  like Jesus is talking about going to the Father.
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  And when I think about priesthood, we're just talking about Emmaus days and
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  then just the vocation of priesthood and ultimately it's about offering something
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  and where does everything,
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  where is everything offered to if not to the father right and that could be
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  that's everything like that's all of creation that is our own lives that is
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  the mass if you read if you listen to the prayers and the Mass,
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  everything is directed to the Father, all the prayers.
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  And Jesus, I mean, there's no priesthood without Jesus.
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  There's no, humanity cannot make it to the Father.
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  When Jesus says at the end of this gospel, you will do even greater things than
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  I have, what do you think he's referring to?
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  That's a good question. There's, yeah, a lot of things.
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  You will do greater works than I, is a very humble statement from the lips of the Savior.
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  He's giving us a share, I think. I think so too. In this priesthood. Yeah.
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  And you see it even in the first reading. I love the early church and the freedom
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  and the creativity they have.
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  You see already they're working things out and there's no blueprint.
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  There's no Jesus didn't sit down. Well, maybe he did, but we don't have a record
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  of him saying, all right, guys, there's going to be three orders to this,
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  you know, holy orders thing and you're going to have deacons and all this stuff.
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  And no, he sent them out on mission.
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  He trusted them to make decisions through the Holy Spirit.
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  And there they are doing it. And yeah, they're letting the Spirit really allow
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  them to be creative and organize themselves.
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  And there's the hierarchical priesthood. But like you said, too,
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  the baptismal priesthood is evident in these readings, too.
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  Yeah, I think you're right. It shows the church's ability to be not necessarily imperfect,
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  but certainly not prepared for every possibility that comes up.
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  And yet they don't just shut themselves off and say, okay, that doesn't matter.
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  Okay, I know you have problems, but we don't have time for you.
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  They stopped and they listened.
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  And they said, okay, explain to us what's going on. How can we do this better?
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  How can we help more? How can we love more completely?
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  Yes. And then they made the changes that were necessary. And they didn't just
• 27:15
  say, well, good luck to you. They said, no, let us help.
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  And so they created new ministries to address new problems. And I think the
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  church continues to do that. Absolutely.
• 27:27
  Yeah. And if you look at the history, what, what.
• 27:32
  Jesus had to overcome in his three years of ministry compared to what the church
• 27:37
  has had to overcome in its 2,000 years history.
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  Jesus didn't have to worry about world wars and how do you keep a church going?
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  Jesus didn't face the problems of abortion being so rampant.
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  So many things that the church has looked at and come away with new solutions
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  and new ways of living out Christ's love within the community,
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  I think it shows that we've done amazing things and continue to do amazing things.
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  But that's going to depend on more people continuing to come to Christ.
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  The church has to continue to grow and to adapt in some ways,
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  but never adapt to the point of leaving the teachings of Christ.
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  It's all done within a framework, but you have to know the framework.
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  You have to be strong in that framework in order to be able to do that.
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  So, I think it's very promising for the future of our faith through a gospel like this.
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  Jared, it's been a pleasure having you here. God bless. Have a wonderful life.
• 28:41
  Look forward to hearing your first Mass. I'm sure you're going to be a wonderful priest.
• 28:46
  Thank you, Deacon. It's been an honor to be here with you. You take care.
• 28:49
  May Almighty God bless you, protect you from all evil, and bring you to everlasting life.
• 28:55
  We'll speak to you next week again on more good news.
• 28:58
  You've been listening to Good News on Catholic Spirit Radio,
• 29:01
  a program for teens and almost teens to better understand that the gospel of
• 29:05
  Jesus Christ is relevant in your life.
• 29:07
  Submit your questions to Deacon Al at goodnews at catholicspiritradio.com.
• 29:13
  That's goodnews at catholicspiritradio.com.
• 29:16
  Deacon will answer your questions about faith and religion. Thank you for listening
• 29:20
  to Good News on Catholic Spirit Radio.