Our Intramural Reign has Ended
Mood:  sad
Topic: Theology III '05-'06
Well, the UST Intramural Champs have been dethroned. Tonight was the intramural basketball playoffs for the championship to be played on Dec. 3rd. We knew we had our work cut out for us, becuase we were starting with a team that beat us miserably during the regular season, and in the event we were victorious, we probably would face another team that beat us just as bad. As time expired we looked at the score and noticed that neither team had made it to the 30 points required for the early win and that neither team was up...the score was tied at 26. Overtime baby! The two minute clock started with us with the ball. We scored a three pretty early and only needed one more point to put the game away or to stall until time ran out. We got the ball back off of a missed shot by the other team and then ran the rest of the 40 seconds off the clock playing keep away...not the most graceful of wins, but still a win and advancment to the semi-finals.

Here we met "The Brown Squad," and in the "comissioners" grand wisdom, we (the older team of seminarians) had only six minutes of rest before having to start the game that would decide who went to the final game on the court and who went in the stands. This was another hard faught battle, and surprisingly we were up for about half of the game of multiple lead changes. As game time winded down to a close we found ourselves up by a basket. Then out of nowhere the Brown Squad made a three to go up one. We quickly responded with a two taking the lead back. After a few hard faught shots and rebounds, the Brown Squad went up by one with about one minute left. Now was their turn to play waste time off the clock, which they did by fouling everytime we went up to take a shot. The clock never stops when you check the ball so they continued to foul and we continued taking the ball up top and the feeding down low to Berger who would juke and take it to the hole getting fouled. In one last shot of desperatoin with three seconds left, our shooting guard put up a three and then the slow motion started...as the ball went spinning in the air where no one could touch it and all depended on this one shot. As the ball unserimoniously clanged off the rim and fell to the floor, the victors began celebrating becuase they knew what this win meant.

It meant more than just playing in the final game. You see I left out an important piece of information as to the prize we were playing for. The final game is to be played on Tuesday night, December 3, in front of ten's of twenty's of thousands of fans and fellow student on the floor of the Toyota Center during half time of the Rockets Game. This game is designated as UST night at the Toyota Center. Earlier in the afternoon they have activities for students and faculty culminating in watching the UST Intramural Basketball championship...oh and the Rocket also.

I did not realize how much I wanted this until we lost. I was absolutly crushed, though proud of the way we played. I still wanted that last basket to fall. Well, as they say: "You win some and you lose some."

Three Decades of Life
Mood:  celebratory
Topic: Theology III '05-'06
I have now reached a mile stone year. I am no longer in my 20's. Today marks 3 decades that the world has been blessed with the life of Michael John Rother. Just thought you would like to know.

New Deacons
Topic: Theology III '05-'06
We now have 7 newly ordained deacons running around the seminary. The whole 4th year class has now been ordained along with one Redemptorist. Six were done last Saturday, Nov. 5, and one today. They now look toward priesthood in June as a deer does headlights...I am starting to get similar looks as I come to terms with my own demise...ordination next November 4.

Once, Twice, Three Times a Champion!
Mood:  celebratory
Topic: Theology III '05-'06
It was an 8 inning nail-bighting wiffleball game. After a regular season (three games) of basically easy wins, yet in the championship game we could not get our act together. Our pitching, batting, and fielding were off. For 4 innings the game was scoreless, until on a dropped fly ball I scored from second with two outs. As I sat on second base, knowing that I had to go "on contact," I knew I was not stopping at third base...I was going all the way home. The opposing team was not expecting this which is why I crossed homeplate for the score. At the bottom of the inning and the next, the other team got a two run home run in each inning making the score 4-1. The last two innings saw the lead change hand three times. We would pull ahead and then they would at the bottom of the inning. Our last at bat, with one out and two men on base our second hitter smacked a homerun to put us up by two (8-6). We took the field for the final inning, with only three outs standing in the way of yet another champion's t-shirt. One run, one out into the inning with runners on first and second our win was not yet clinched. The next batter came up to the plate, and I thought only if he would pop up and we catch it for two outs, with only one more to go. No sooner did I think this than did the batter pop up to our shortstop who was quick to react to the runner who had jumped off of second and was able to tag the runner out for the third out and the game. So yet again, the seminarians stole a championship from the UST undergrad students. (Let the record show that the seminarian team did consist of two girls and a lay grad student.)

Intramurals Walleyball
Mood:  celebratory
Now Playing: "We are the Champions"...again
Yet another championship effort by the "Bump, Set, Pray" team of the seminary. We took the championship for this volleyball off shoot (volleyball in a racketball court) in two straight games, though the second one was a come from well behind victory. At one time..for about 20 minutes...the score was 7-11 against us. To quote the Rockets of the mid-90's, "Never underestimate a champion. When our back were up against the wall we came out fighting."--Ruty T.; "We are unbeatable."--Hakeem Olajuwon
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Electricity suposedly has been restored to the Port Arthor/Groves area, but I haven't talked to anyone to know the extent of the Rita damages. Please continue to pray as these Texans and Louisinans look to repair any damages.

Return to Houston
Mood:  happy
Topic: Theology III '05-'06
We have returned to St. Mary's Seminary after a nervious and stressed filled weekend. I returned to a room that was unchanged from when I left it, but a seminary that was not...a few trees were downed by Rita. Though I did not have class it was not a restful time. I was worried about family the whole time. Please pray for them and all who were affected by Rita as they return to their homes to assess the damage and start looking toward needed repairs.


Rewind to Thursday morining when we left for College Station. -- We started out at 5:45 am planning on taking mostly back roads knowing that the major outlets would be parking lots literally. Due to the help of a map program on a guy's lap top we navigated away from packed thoroughfares and off of roads when they became backed up. We knew we were off the beaten path when a paved road we took ended and a dirt road continued in its stead. Twenty minutes and four roads later we were back on black top and moving North by Northwest, with the occasionaly jaunt eastward to catch our next back road. Five hours and thirty minutes from the time we pulled away from St. Mary's Seminary in Houston we pulled up to St. Mary's Catholic Center in College Station...Our Lady Queen of the Highways was surely looking after us and guiding us to open roads. This trip on a normal day takes approximately one hour and thirty minutes, but on this day took others up to sixteen hours. In all the trip was adventerous and a blast though it was tiring and I was glad to be out of the car.

Now we are back in the seminary with classes resuming tomorrow. Pray for us!

UST Intramurals Volleyball
Mood:  celebratory
Now Playing: "We are the Champions"
Topic: Theology III '05-'06
Tonight the bottom seed team from St. Mary's Seminary; Bump, Set, Pray; went 4-0 to get past the first two teams (one being "The Killer Bunnies" looking frightening in their pink shirts) to make it to the finals to play the top seeded team, "the Blue Team," that had two volleyball players. The first game went to the lose collomn with a score of 25-14. Knowing we had our work cut out for us...we had to win the next two in the best of three set. We returned the favor with a win of 25-8. The third and final game would be our 7th game in a row to play. Though fatigue was starting to set in, we played like bandits and came away with the game and the championship with a final score of 25-9. The final point was scored by our manditory girl (coed teams are manditory) who claimed she wasn't that good but scored many points for us, including the one to clinch the championship. Now we can be seen sporting our new maroon and gold trophy shirts.

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This excitment comes amidst thoughts of concern as we might be evacuated out of Houston due to Rita's unwelcome landfall projected to be Galveston on Friday afternoon. Please pray for the Katrina victoms that are being forced out of Houston to Arkansas and for those who will be displaced from their homes if this storm hits the coast of Texas. The seminary may be evacuated Thursday if need be, with Austin guys going to the heavenly land of Bryan-College Station, and all others (including me) going to San Antonio until we can return to Houston. I hope to have another entry soon with good news, but time will tell.

Wassup Pre-K Style
Topic: Funny/Cool
Here is a video of the original "Wassup!" comercial, but done Pre-K style.

http://www.davesdaily.com/videoclips/116-wassup.htm

World Youth Day Pictures
Topic: World Youth Day 2005
I finally have the pictures ready to go up on my blog from my experience in Koln. These are just a few of the pictures. I don't have enough memory to put them all on my blog.

Here is the "first among equals," "el Papa," "Papa B."

This is a picture of the cathedral (dom) whose two steeples can be seen all over town, literally. If you look in the back ground of the picture on the right, you can see the dom which is about 5 miles from where I was standing taking the picutre.

Here is a picture taken at the volunteer Mass where everyone is wearing their red volunteer shirt and/or rain coat. In all, we were told there were 20,000 volunteers working this World Youth Day.

We hosted groups from France, Italy, and the Ivory Coast at the school that I was stationed. One morning while they were waiting to group up and leave the school, the pilgrims from the Ivory Coast gathered and started playing the drums and dancing. This, a typical World Youth Day activity, serves to praise God and bring everyone together, because others begin to join in the circle and follow the movements of the others.

After big events, mainly those in the evening, everyone decends upon the train stations to catch the train "home." With an overwhelming number of people on the platform, when the doors open everyone rushes for a door and tries to push their way on, making each train car like a package of pilgrim-sardines.

One day we were waiting in the que (line) for food near a basilica when its doors opened and a newly married couple emerged from the church to thunderous applause and cheers from us. They were grinning from ear to ear.

The pilgrimage on Saturday, though we tried to make it as close as possible, it ended up turning out to be about 13 kilometers. We thought since we were volunteers we could minimize this hike, but reluctantly we set out on the pilgrimage. However, once on the road, I was glad to be amongst the other pilgrims as we were being gathered into one flock by the shepherd of the Church Militant (us on earth) in order to join our voices in praise of the Good Shepherd of us all. As you can see in the picture on the left, the path set before us led us down community roads. A nice gesture these people offered, was their presence by leaning out the window or siting along the road waving as we went by. Some even gave out little treats and water to help nourish us on our journey. They were exemplifying what it means to be Christian. The picture on the right shows the goal the sight (white dome-like object to the rifht) just across a pasture. Here you get a sense of the number of people present.

This is a time exposed close up of the cloud that was the sactuary for the weekend Pilgrimage destination. There were candles set all over the hill that added to the prayerful feel of the area. Off to the right of the Sanctuary was a cross and a Marian icon prsent during the time we were in this sacred place.

Meet my team...the whole team. I work with a small handful of this big group over the week, but still got to know the other members before and after the pilgrims were there. My team was comprised of Americans, Germans (one local of Koln), Polish, Hungarians, Slovanians, one Kenyan and one Lithuanian.

Now you know I can't go to Germany without partaking of the food and refreshments. The chunk of meat set before me is basically a leg of pig slowly roasted where the meat is juicy and tender and the skin is perfectly crispy. This was served with, whatelse but, German potatoes and Saurkraut. Delicious! The beer is a Kolsh. Everyone in Koln produces their very own Kolsh, so there are sign everywhere advertising the infinite brand names of this local recipe.

This last picture has nothing to do with World Youth Day, but shows a bit of the culture of the area. These are small adjacnt plots of land where poeple who live in the city have a garden. There is a maze of small ally ways that the owners walk down to get to their garden. This was the view from our window of the school at which I was stationed.

Cajuns forced to Houston
Topic: Theology III '05-'06
I just came from Reliant Center where the one of the "temporary homes" for Cajuns that has sprung up in Houston. I use the term "home" loosely becuase the meaning here is cots on either the Astrodome Field, the floor of the Reliant Center (not stadium), or George R. Brown Convention Center (not counting the ones in Dallas or San Antonio). The unfortunate people who lost their homes in Katrina have now fled to Houston, Dallas, or San Antonio (Houston being the main Texas location) for shelter. This afternoon, myself, a few other seminarians, and our rector went to do our part. Though I kind of expected to be there more in a pastoral care role the greater need today was setting up the Reliant Center for 12,000 to 18,000 people. My part was to help set up cots and arrange them in an orderly fashion. When this was done, we prepared ourselves to reveive and feed bus loads of people who had been sitting on their buses for approximately 13 hours and could not get into the Dome due to fire codes. Yet before the people could get over to my station, food lines, we had to return to the seminary. My plans...our plans are to return over the up coming weeks and months to continue giving aid where needed, especially spiritual care. Sunday Mass is already in the workings to happen on Sunday at 10:00am. These people could be here for 6 months or more.

Lastly, aside from this, St. Mary's may, for the next 6 months be busting at the seams when or if seminarians from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans come here to continue their formation during this semester or year. Fr. Brendon has extended the invite as did many other seminaries across the country from Philly to Houton to Ohio (that I know of) so that the seminarians don't fall behind.

Please pray for these people of New Orleans who are the weak and weary, and who are in need of God's love and hope. Also, pray for those giving of their time, because it is exhausting work, physically and/or emotionally and we all could use your prayers. Thank you and may God bless you with His graces of faith, hope, and most importantly love.