Early September is the time when we celebrate the Mass of the Holy Spirit at our three seminaries to begin the academic year. The first of those was Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary on Friday.

At Pope St. John Seminary, the community Mass on Friday is always in Spanish. This is a nice custom they have to get their seminarians used to liturgies in Spanish. I always thank them for doing that because I think it is an important part of the seminarians' preparation for ministry since Spanish is becoming so prevalent in our Church and the majority of Catholic immigrants coming to this country are from Spanish-speaking countries. So, it's important for priests to have some familiarity with the language and be comfortable with the liturgies celebrated in Spanish.

They have a very good group of seminarians this year, and we are very happy that there are four men entering this year for the Archdiocese of Boston.



Redemptoris Mater Seminary

Sunday, I went to our Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Brookline to celebrate the Mass of the Holy Spirit there.

The Mass was also an occasion to institute several of the seminarians into the ministries of lector and acolyte.

There, we received the news of the death of Adelchi Chinaglia, one of the board members of the seminary who was very instrumental in helping us establish the seminary. He was a canon lawyer who loved the Church and had a great commitment to the New Evangelization.

We offered the Mass for him, which I thought was very fitting because he had such a great love for the seminary, and I was able to express my condolences to his wife, Franca.

His funeral Mass was celebrated yesterday in the Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute in Venice, Italy, and was presided by the Patriarch of Venice, Archbishop Francesco Moraglia. I was able to watch it via the live stream, and I was very impressed to see that they placed a palm on the coffin, which I understand is a tradition of the Neocatechumenal Way.



The Missionary Sisters of the Word

Monday, I visited the Missionary Sisters of the Word at their novitiate in West Greenwich, R.I. Our Deacon Rodrigo was with us for the Mass, and there were about 20 sisters, including the Mother General who was visiting from Mexico, Mother Esmeralda.

Afterwards, we had a wonderful Mexican lunch with the sisters.

It was very encouraging to see this community of young religious women. Though it was founded in Mexico less than 30 years ago, they are already in several countries, including the U.S., the Philippines, Vietnam, Spain, and, of course, Mexico. In Rhode Island, they have four novices who are going to be professed next Saturday and another who is going to make her final profession.



St. John's Seminary

Tuesday, we had our Mass of the Holy Spirit at St. John's Seminary. We were joined by many of the vocation directors from the various dioceses that send men to seminary. This year, we have quite a number of religious coming to the seminary, as well, including four Benedictines and seven Carmelite friars who are enrolled.

As you can see, it was something of a vocation-themed week, with the Mass at the three seminaries and with the sisters in Rhode Island. And, as I told the people at St. John's, I had just returned from the consistory in Rome where one of the new cardinals, Cardinal Adalberto Martinez Flores, was one of the vocations that came from our parish in Washington. I said what a joy it was to see the fruits of that vocation and how God has used him and his ministry in the islands and also in his own country of Paraguay.