Welcome -- or welcome back --to Connecticut College

"I feel the earth move under my feet; I feel the sky tumbling down..." Carole King's lyric has certainly been the theme song for recent events ... other than your arrival on campus, that is. An earthquake and a tropical storm both announced and impeded your arrival.

The campus has seen significant changes in paving and parking. The Science Center construction is underway and, although I haven't seen them myself, I heard the food lines in Harris have been reorganized. Through all of this the celebration about the college's Centennial continues as a leitmotif.

There are messages in all this, I'm sure. Flexibility, about which we have perhaps heard too much, is really indispensible as a habit and even desirable as a character trait. Change, while it is inevitable, may be both an advantage or a disadvantage ... or even both at the same time. And there is really nothing to get you back on your feet like a good celebration.

The schedule of weekly Masses for the fall semester has been somewhat revised to accommodate the changes wrought by the delayed opening of the college. This weekend there will be no Mass on Saturday evening (September 3rd) at 5 but there will be a Mass on Sunday morning, September 4th, at 10:30 a.m. in the Harkness Chapel. I hope you will plan to attend and meet new friends and renew old friendships. I've got a great story I can't wait to tell you about two students who met at this Mass in their first year at Conn.

Beginning next Saturday, September 10th, Mass will return to its usual time 5 p.m. every Saturday during the fall semester.

Despite meteorological appearances to the contrary, it was a "fair wind" that brought you to a great place to learn and seek. Please make the Catholic Community here at Conn a resource in that enterprise. Come and invite your friends to join you for the Vigil Masses on Saturdays at 5 and for community suppers. (The first is Saturday the 17th in the Hood Dining Room in Blaustein after Mass.) Join the choir. Become a Eucharistic Minister or Lector. Catch up on the sacraments by preparing for First Communion or Confirmation. Stop by to visit me for a chat at the chapel or invite me to dinner chez Harris. It won't cost you anything but the time. Visit our website, www.conncatholics.com, for the latest on the Catholic Community's activities and events.

I look forward to getting to know you better. I hope to offer you an opportunity to get to know more about the Church and your faith as a resource to the many important choices you make every week. And I hope this will be a spectacular Centennial semester for us all.

Devotedly Yours in Christ,

Fr. Larry

Palm Sunday, Holy Week and Beyond!

Here we are in the final days of the Spring semester and it really appears that the long Winter is over and gone. There are still a number of events in the Catholic Community's calendar for the semester. Some of them are corrections of the information I gave you in the letter at the beginning of the semester.

On April 16th at 5 pm in the Harkness Chapel we will observe Palm Sunday and begin Holy Week with Bishop Michael Cote, the local Bishop. A reception will follow Mass so you can meet him.

On Wednesdsay April 20th there will be a Penance Service in the Chapel at 5 pm.

A Good Friday Service will be held on April 22 at 5 pm in the Harkness Chapel.

There will be no Mass on Saturday, April 23 but on Sunday, April 24, at 5 pm we will celebrate the Mass of Easter in Harkness Chapel. A reception will follow Mass in the Chapel Library.

Our usual schedule of Vigil Masses on Saturday evenings at 5 pm will continue until the weekend before Commencement.

On May 8th at noon we will gather for Mass in Buck Lodge to celebrate our graduating seniors and to round out Floralia weekend. Brunch will follow Mass. Bring your friends.

On Commencement weekend teh Saturday night Mass will take place at 5:30 pm.

You can always stay in touch at http://www.conncatholics.com/

I hope to see you Saturday or on some of the services of Holy Week or some time in the remaining weeks of the semester.

Devotedly Yours,

Fr. Larry

Mardi Gras & Ash WednesdayA Message From Fr. Larry

Tuesday is Mardi Gras! Bring in the clowns! Fat Tuesday (loose translation) will give way to Ash Wednesday (no translation needed). Lent, a very late Lent, will begin and will help us to prepare for the celebration of Easter and the renewal of our Baptismal Promises.

We are always in need of renewal and Lent is always about Baptism. Our Baptism into the Risen Christ is how it all starts for all Christians. The wild ride of our spiritual life begins in the waters of Baptism. No matter how long ago ours actually was, it is refreshed at Easter with the renewal of Baptismal promises and the sprinkling with Easter water.

Some students always ask about fast and abstaining from meat. These days Lent isn’t the grueling ordeal your grandparents knew. Here’s the short course on a Catholic observance of Lent.

Voluntary acts which take the focus off of ourselves and place it on the needs of others are a good way to enter into the spirit of the season.

Still, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of fast and abstinence from meat. There is a limit of one full meal on these days for all between the ages of 18 and 59 inclusive. I doubt this will induce any of you to long for the age of 60. ‘Though, trust me, it’ll come soon enough. Why do you think they call it “Fast”?

So, after we’re 14 we abstain totally from meat on all the Fridays of Lent. Now you know where Carnivale gets its name. Bye-bye Meat! Until fairly recently that applied to the whole of Lent.

After we receive First Communion, we Catholics are bound by the obligation of receiving Holy Communion at least once a year. This is called the Easter Duty. The prescribed time for fulfilling the Easter duty extends: from the first Sunday of Lent to Trinity Sunday, in the United States. Catholics are also bound to confess serious (mortal) sins at least once a year, but this is not limited to the Lenten /Easter Season.

The rules are pretty minimalistic but they emphasize the most important qualities of our lives: other-centeredness, self-control, repentance for our sins and union with Christ in the Eucharist. If we were told we had to breathe every 3 minutes we would probably go for a more frequent pattern of breathing.

Before we go blithely into Lent, let’s celebrate Mardi Gras with Pizzas from Mr. G’s and a Piñata full of candy in the Chapel library after the 5 pm Mass this Saturday March 5th.

On Wednesday, March 9th, there will be Mass and the distribution of ashes at 5 pm in the Harkness Chapel.

Then we’re off to Spring Break! When you return we will celebrate Mass on the Wednesdays of Lent in addition to the usual Saturday Vigil Masses all at 5 pm.

On April 16th we will observe Palm Sunday and begin Holy Week with Bishop Michael Cote, the local Bishop. A reception will follow Mass so you can meet him.

On Wednesday April 20th there will be a Penance Service in the Chapel at 5 pm.

A Good Friday Service will be held on April 22nd at 3 pm in the Harkness Chapel.

And on Sunday, April 24, at 11 am we will celebrate the Mass of Easter in Harkness Chapel. A breakfast will follow Mass in the Chapel Library.

I’ll remind you again about all the events after Break but I just wanted to give you a “heads up” on all these events for your calendars. You can always stay in touch at http://www.conncatholics.com/

I hope to see you Saturday or on Ash Wednesday.

Devotedly Yours,

Fr. Larry

Anticipate Christmas with Us December 11

Here’s a quick question: what are we celebrating at Christmas?

Jesus’ birth? Peace and love? Family and friendships? Our shared sense of community, both locally and globally? Christmas is all of that, and so much more. It is a celebration of Christ’s arrival.

The “arrival” is less about Jesus’ birth and more about Christ’s presence among us and within us – the Incarnation. That presence gives dimension and meaning to the peace and love, family and friendships, and shared sense of community. It is the source of the hope we celebrate. It is the reason why the symbols of Christmas are light (Christ’s presence brings light to the world) and evergreens (the Incarnation is a perennial reality now, today and forever).

So there is plenty to celebrate. With all the preparations – and the stress of finishing papers and exams – it can be a struggle to keep the meaning of the season in mind. But Christmas will be so much more meaningful if you can. We are here to help. You can get into the Christmas spirit with our annual celebration of Christmas after 5 p.m. mass this Saturday, Dec. 11. Please join us in the Chapel library for a festive reception with good food, good cheer and good fellowship before you rush off to dinner and studies.

December has a whole host of celebrations honoring Mary. In this season of preparing for Christ, it seems natural to turn to her. After all, she awaited Christ’s arrival with greater anticipation than anyone else. For more about Christmas, the Marian celebrations this month and other news about the Catholic Community, visit our website at www.conncatholics.com. You might also find inspiration at Christmas Vespers: A Service of Lessons and Carols, Wednesday, Dec. 15 at 5 p.m. in the Chapel.

This can be a stressful time. If you would like to talk, please stop by my office in the Chapel basement or stop me if you see me in Harris, the library or walking across campus. I’m here Wednesday and Saturday afternoons and evenings; I’m always available after 5 o’clock Mass on Saturday. Our last liturgy of the semester will be Dec. 18. You can also reach me by phone at 860-423-0856 or by e-mail.

You will be in my prayers and in the prayers of the Catholic Community during the next few weeks. I wish you a joyful Christmas and all of God’s blessings for 2011.

Devotedly yours,
Father Larry

Honoring John Henry Newman

A Message from Father Larry:

Strange, isn’t it, how hyphenated dates pop up in our reading? References to past historic figures, terms of office, academic terms and careers, all have dates separated by a hyphen. I remember hearing it said that the hyphen represents more than the dates because it’s what happens between the dates that’s really important.

Here we stand at the beginning of the 2010-2011 academic year. The hyphen here doesn’t stand for midnight between the 31st of December 2010 and the 1st of January 2011 but to the period between Convocation 2010 and Commencement 2011. This modest little hyphen represents all the potential in that space and time for growth of learning, deepening of friendships, new insights, hard-won wisdom, laughter, tears, sweat and goose bumps. A whole magnificent academic year of choices and challenges!

Wherever you’re coming from in your own journey of discovery, it is my hope as we begin this new academic year that you will continue some of the spiritual practices that were yours before you came here, or that you will seek to imbue abandoned practice with some new meaning. You will likely question the value of your familiar habits, beliefs and practices as you explore your convictions. That is, after all, the purpose of your education. But it is difficult to study or critique the absent subject. Ask all the questions, but hold yourself to the same high standard you have for the Church. Forge bravely the foundation of your own heroic sacrifices and please remember that many great women and men have found inspiration and encouragement in their faith and many in the very faith you may be inclined to let slip for a while. As John Henry Newman (1801-1890) (another hyphenated date!) said, “Follow the truth, wherever it leads.”

Newman, priest, scholar and theologian, will be proclaimed “Blessed” by Pope Benedict this Sunday, September19th. This is the penultimate stage in the lengthy process of being proclaimed a saint. And October 17th will see the canonization of Andre Bessette (1845-1937), the Holy Cross brother who, as a young man, worked among the mill workers of eastern Connecticut and was the uncle of a Conn alum.

As the Catholic Community at Connecticut College we have an interest in both of these gentlemen but particularly Cardinal Newman. He is the inspiration for catholic campus ministries at secular colleges and universities all over the world and beginning in the United States at the University of Pennsylvania in 1893.

Newman had a lot to say about higher education. His struggle with truth led him by various paths to Jesus as if guided by what he called a “kindly light”. He professed his love of truth in word and deed. It brought him both condemnation and a cardinal’s red hat, each in their turn. Neither distracted him from his quest. He was neither destroyed by the criticism nor too impressed by the hat. It is difficult while we are young (or, honestly, at any age) to have that kind of focus and perseverance. But in Newman, as in all the saints, we have a virtual image of what the finished product might look like.

Good fortune has brought you to a great place to learn and to seek. Please make the Catholic Community here at Conn a resource in that enterprise. Come and invite your friends to join you for Vigil Masses on Saturdays at 5 pm in the Harkness Chapel and for community suppers. (The first is this Saturday the 18th in the Hood Dining Room in Blaustein after Mass.) Join the choir. Become a Eucharistic Minister or Lector. Catch up on the sacraments by preparing for First Communion or Confirmation. Stop by to visit me for a chat at the chapel or invite me to dinner chez Harris. It won’t cost you anything but the time. Visit our website, http://www.conncatholics.com/, for the latest on the Catholic Community’s activities and events.

I look forward to the opportunity to get to know you better. I hope to offer you an opportunity to get to know more about the Church and your faith as a resource to the many important choices you make every week. And I hope this will be a spectacular “hyphen” for us all.

Devotedly yours,

Fr. Larry

Holy Week

Welcome back! There is some misguided belief that the Chinese came up with the threefold curse: May you live in interesting times. May you come to the attention of those in authority and may you find what you seek.

These last few weeks have been filled with “interest”. The Health Care Act and its lead up and response, child abuse mismanagement charges leveled at the Pope and the Boy Scouts of America, a surprise Presidential visit to the Afghani war zone, and that doesn’t even include weird weather, earthquakes and tsunamis. So much for interesting times! The 2010 census will take care of curse #2 and that only leaves number three… finding what you seek!

I hope that among the things you seek are inner peace and serenity. It’s true, the next two months are the most hectic of the year, and I’m sure we will all become very busy very quickly.

But I hope you will take time this week to do something important for yourself. Easter is this coming weekend. Take a few minutes to celebrate community, life, hope, renewal. Find some quiet time. Take a walk. Sit on the Green and enjoy the sun. Read a favorite poem. You can find inspiration with the Irish Jesuits at http://sacredspace.ie/ or if you want to focus on your Lenten observance, try Busted Halo’s “Five Ways to Make a Strong Finish.”

I hope you can join the Catholic Community to celebrate Easter at 8 p.m. Saturday with a vigil mass in Harkness Chapel. A reception with breads, chocolate, other snacks – and of course Easter eggs and Peeps – will follow in the Chapel library. Bring your friends, whatever their faith tradition. The weather looks good, so plan to gather at the Chapel pit near Williams Street a little before 8 pm on Saturday.

But before that you might also want to observe Holy Week. There are three special services, all in Harkness Chapel:

A Service of Penance and Reconciliation (Wednesday, March 31, 5 p.m.)
After a communal service, Monsignor Richard LaRocque, a long time friend of the Catholic Community, and I will be available to hear individual confessions. If you’re not sure how to make a good confession, you can find some pointers here: http://www.thelightisonforyou.org/.

Holy Thursday: Liturgy of the Lord’s Supper (Thursday, April 1, 5 p.m.)
We commemorate the Last Supper and remember how great a gift the Eucharist is. The roots of this core Christian celebration are in the rituals of the Passover Seder. This year Holy Thursday coincides with the fourth night of Passover.

Good Friday: Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion and Death (Friday, April 2, 5 p.m.)
We “stand beneath the Cross” with Christians around the world.

You can find details and links to more information at our web site, http://www.conncatholics.com/.

As we rush through these final weeks of the semester, please remember that the comfort and encouragement to be found in community. Join your brothers and sisters for weekly Mass – the schedule is on our web site – and don’t hesitate to stop by and see me. I am on campus Wednesday and Saturday afternoons, or you can reach me at 860-423-0856.

Devotedly yours,

Father Larry

P.S. – There will be no 5 p.m. mass on April 3. If you can’t get to the vigil at 8, you are welcome to participate in the Easter liturgy at the Coast Guard Academy chapel on Sunday morning at 9.

Holy Week 2010

The Catholic Community will observe Holy Week (the week of March 29) with a series of special services that explore the central mystery of our faith: the nature and meaning of life -- life here on earth and eternal life.

These services include some of the Church's most ancient and meaningful traditions and rituals. Washing of the feet. Veneration of the cross. Renewal of baptismal promises. More about Holy Week rituals.

All services are in Harkness Chapel. Note that because of Spring Break, there will be no Palm/Passion Sunday mass at the College this year. The schedule is:

Service of Penance and Reconciliation. Wednesday, March 31, 5 p.m.
After a communal penance service, Father Larry or a visiting priest can hear your confession. Not sure how to make a good confession? The Archdiocese of Boston has some advice.

Liturgy of the Lord's Supper. Holy Thursday, April 1, 5 p.m.
We commemorate the Last Supper and remember how great a gift the Eucharist is. The roots of this core Christian celebration are in the rituals of the Passover Seder. This year Holy Thursday coincides with the fourth night of Passover.

Liturgy of the Lord's Passion and Death. Good Friday, April 2, 5 p.m.
We "stand beneath the cross" with Christians around the world. What's the meaning of Christ's passion?

Vigil of Easter. Saturday, April 3, 8 p.m.
A joyous celebration begins symbolically in darkness as we wait for Christ to bring light to our lives and the world. We start with the blessing of the new fire at the Chapel pit and then process into the Chapel for readings, music, prayers and a celebration that is the central liturgy of the Church year. Mass will be followed by a reception in the Chapel library. There is no mass at 5 p.m. If you can't attend, you are welcome to participate in the Easter liturgy at 9 a.m. Sunday at the Coast Guard Academy chapel.