Day Two at the NCDVD

Well day two is drawing to a close, and it has been a long one. Up early, we travelled from Baltimore to Emmitsburg, Maryland for Morning Prayer at Mount Saint Mary's Seminary. The drive was beautiful, as was the seminary and chapel. After morning prayer we were treated to a talk by Father Benedict Groeschel, CFR. For the most part Fr. Groeschel spoke abouth the errors that psychology has interjected into our faith, especially into our seminaries. I'll post my notes from his talk later, but the long and short of it was that striving to live a virtuous life was the answer, and that as vocations directors we should seek out men of virtue. The talk was very good, at times very funny, and as we've come to expect from Fr. Groeschel, brutally honest.

After the talk there was a holy hour in the chapel followed by Mass with Fr. Groeschel as homilist. After Mass I was able to get the picture above with Fr. Kyle Schnippel, Director of Vocations for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and moderator of the Called By Name blog, Fr. Groeschel, and me. What a blessing! I should add here that it has been a blessing to meet Fr. Schnippel after months of comments and posts back and forth on each others blogs. Unfortunately due to the schedule and going in different directions we haven't really had a chance to talk, but I hope to tomorrow. What I can say is that the Archdiocese of Cincinnati is blessed to have Fr. Schnippel as their Director of Vocations.

Fr. Shlesinger and I had an opportunity to visit the National Shrine to Our Lady of Lourdes behind the seminary. It was really beautiful, and I can only say it should be a pilgrimage site for those in the mid-atlantic states.

From the Seminary we headed up the street to the Minor Basilica for the Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. Truthfully I had know idea how impressive this Basilica was. This a pciture of the Sanctuary.

From the basilica we headed to Gettysburg. I'll spare you my interest in Civil War history. In short it was incredible to see the battlefield. It was strange to drive around a place were so many men gave their lives. Think about the fact that in three days 51,000 Americans were killed, wounded, captured or went missing! When I get back to Raleigh I'm going to watch Gettysburg again - it will certainly be different watching it now.

Tonight we went to an Orieles game at what has to be one of the nicest ballparks in the country. The game wasn't terrific, but then again when the weather is perfect, there's a full moon in the sky, you're at a baseball game, can it realy be bad?

More tomorrow.