What is the Academy?

THE ACADEMY OF HIGHER LEARNING

Very simply:

*The Academy of Higher Learning (The Academy) is the name of an institute to promote the New Evangelization through catechesis. The institution can take different forms. The first and by far the most important activity of the institute is both communal and individual prayer. This is the way taught to us first by Our Lord, Jesus Christ, the scripture given to us through His bride, the Church and the living tradition and teaching (Magisterium) of the one holy catholic and apostolic church.

*The current format of the Academy consists of traditional classes loosely based on the Socratic method, lectures, writings, biblical exegesis, blog posts and liturgies. We are primarily Roman Catholic seekers and sojourners. We also welcome other faith denominations to participate with us and those who claim no religious denomination altogether including "non-believers".

*The Academy seeks to bring us in union with the Trinitarian God.  We simply call this "communio". He whom has revealed Himself as The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit through the Incarnation and Paschal Mystery of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, who will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. He who chose a poor, simple woman, Mary of Nazareth, to enter into salvation history to save us.  He whom has elevated Mary as Queen of Angels and Saints, making her the highest creature in all of eternity in His wonder of creation.

Therein lies the explanation for the purpose of the Academy, to teach us to yearn for learning from above, grounded in Truth (Jn 14:6). Saint Augustine of Hippo, the 4th Century Roman Catholic Bishop, teaches us that our hearts (being- body and soul together) are restless until they rest in God (Confessions, Book I, Chapter I). We prefer to use the present tense when referring to the "teaching" of those like Augustine.  Those who have citizenship among the Communion of the Saints, who rest in Heaven above with our Triune God and the Angels and Saints with The Theotokos (God-bearer), Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth.

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The Academy is currently based in a Roman Catholic Parish, so sometimes you may see the prefix SSCM's Academy used in it's nomenclature (like the "blog" address above).

*SSCM is an abbreviation for the Parish of Saints Cyril and Methodius which services the villages of Deer Park and North Babylon, New York. We are one of one hundred thirty three parishes within the Diocese of Rockville Centre which is one of the largest per capita (1.6 million registered Catholics) dioceses in the United States. Rockville Centre or DRVC, is geographically aligned with New York State's suburban Nassau and Suffolk counties which were settled by the English in the early 17th Century.

*Our Pastor is the Reverend Monsignor Robert J. Clerkin.

*Our Ordinary (Diocesan Bishop) is the Most Reverend William F. Murphy.

*Our Parochial School is "principaled" by Sister Susan Snyder, S.S.J.

*Our Parish contains about nine thousand Catholics who are registered with us, and many others who stop in for liturgy, prayer and activities.

We also are blessed to have with us nearly every weekend a Vietnamese-American community which is led by our own retired priest in residence, Father Francis Sang. We lovingly refer to Fr. Sang as "Doctor" Sang, he receiving a Doctorate in Sacred Theology (S.T.D.) whilst studying in Rome in the 1970s. Dr. Sang was ordained a Roman Catholic Priest on January 6, 1973 by The Servant of God, Pope Paul VI in the Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican.

"Alright then.  Move along, son, move along..."

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An Invitation to Prayer: The Immaculate Conception and the Discernmentof Spirits (The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola)

Many of us lament that where God is most present, Satan layin the shadows.  I would endorse thissimple discernment of Spirits vs. spirits, having visited a few holy shrines.

In January of 2010, I was in the Holy Land.  It was at the behest of our Seminary’s newRector then, Monsignor Peter I. Vaccari.

He is now the Rector of the RegionalSeminary of Saint Joseph’s in Dunwoodie, NY. here

Father Peter thought then that we should all walk in the “footsteps of Jesus” in our lifetime, if nothing else than for us to experience the 5^thGospel (as the Holy Land has been widely labeled).      Click here.

It was early in the mornings that we pilgrims, by the urging of the Spirit, would go to the Holy Sepulcher to visit with our Lord before the rush of the tourists.  You see in places like the holiest sites of Jerusalem, there are at least three classes of visitors: tourists, travellers and pilgrims. 

The tourists must see everything to “check their boxes” and travelers are in the locale because of commerce or some other convenience.  Sometimes they may venture into the “sites” out of curiosity or even for a good purpose: to see with their own eyes as one might say.

It was after a few of those mornings, quietly praying at the foot of the Cross on Golgotha (literally), 

Cavalry or "Golgotha" the Place of the Skull

that I realized His proximity and that of the anti-Christ.  Some of the tourists were nearby, outside the Aedicule, the place where the Tomb of the Resurrection is.  Where?  Just a little bit away from Golgotha within the super-structure of the Holy Sepulchre (Jn.19:38‑42).

It was here that two men and a women were discerning whether to wait online for a glimpse of the tomb.  You see it was much later in the day and the local Jerusalem police had placed barricades for crowd control outside the Tomb.  

The conversation went something like this:

The Exterior of the Aedicula: Where Jesus Rose

Man 1: “Do you want to go into the tomb?”

Women: “I don’t know, I am kinda hungry.”

Man 2:  “is it really the Tomb, or just a tomb.”

You can see reason and intellect was clearly shadowing heart and soul, the place were faith rests…

Man 1 continued: “This is what they say!”

Women: “But, aren’t we inside the city walls”?

You see, He was in fact crucified outside the city walls of 1^st Century Jerusalem. Unfortunately the 13^th Century Caliph decided to extend the city walls to capture this holy pilgrimage site and the commerce that it attracted.

The point is the devil has fun with these cognitive dilemmas (See C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters).  When we decide to eat falafel instead of praying in His Tomb we may be assured of satisfying our hunger for much needed nourishment; however, perhaps we are missing something else.  What we may miss in the process can be the opportunity for real, deep communion and grace with Him.

We who travel to these Holy Places must be spiritually ready to receive His graces. As pilgrims and spiritual sojourners we are potentially hyper-receptors for grace. I think this is a good daily goal for everyday life: to be ready for spiritual awakening or risk remaining in the shadows of sin.

As we continue the liturgical season of Ordinary Time, the great season of hope and expectation, why not ready ourselves for what awaits.  Yes it will be busy and we all have our lists to compile and complete as we move into the last full month of summer.  Let us not forget the great proper Feasts that await as we move toward the "school calendar".

Sometimes we can enjoy grace readily.  Other times it is the busyness of life that can "get in the way".  Saint Ignatius of Loyola was very aware of the busyness and "business" of life.  He was a prominent lay member of society during his time as a royal courtier working for the Spanish throne in the Treasury whilst protecting his homeland as a reserve military officer.  His vocation came to him as  a member of the laity; first teaching faculties to quiet the Inquisition where he was accused thrice. Secondly, Holy Orders through discernment and finally as founder of the Society (Company) of Jesus, the largest religious order in the world today, bar none.
  

Saint Ignatius and the Discernment of Spirits

To illustrate how Trinitarian grace, the thing that The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius teaches us most to yearn for operates we can look back to last year, 2013.  During Advent of 2013 we had a great bonus and blessing.  

On the Second Sunday of Advent we had the date that many of us circle every year, December 8, typically our great Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. However, the Church shifted the Feast to Monday, December 9 because of the Sunday conflict.

There were several spiritual “bonuses”:

1.    That was the exact date, December 9 on which the Virgin appeared to Saint Juan Diego in 1531, normally also his feast day.

2.    She appeared to Juan Diego as The Immaculate Conception. He was going to Mass in honor of Her patronage under this title, although it would be more than three centuries until the Dogmatic Declaration (ordinarily, The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is on December 12).

What a great "strand of days" we had to begin our liturgical year.  The first Sunday of Advent, The Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Guadalupe within 4 days which allowed us the many graces available to enter into a mini-retreat.

Let us then, not ignore the graces offered through the providence of the liturgical calendar as we continue this year.  Let us summon all the Angels and Saints, most especially the Theotokos (Mary, the Immaculate Conception)  and her little helper, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, to help us enter into the mystery of discernment and grace.  First, in the fullness of time and perhaps soon, at the end of time.  So that we may enter into His kingdom for the greater glory of God!
ad majorem Dei gloriam. Fr. D. A. Suglia

@SSCMsacrprep

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The Immaculate Virgin and Saint Juan Diego: Cooperators in Salvation

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

From Guadalupe, Mexico City, Mexico.

Our Lady of Guadalupe (The Immaculate Conception) from Saint Juan Diego's Tilma

There has only been a few times in my life that  I have been breathless. Initially, perhaps,  in the first moments after my birth to Ann Patricia and Augustus nearly a half century ago but this is mere speculation. I recall another time, about 23 years later after a unintended penance.  We marine officer candidates were on the Obstacle Course during Officer Candidate School in Quantico, Virginia; the Marine Corps testing us to the max by having us run that behemoth of a trial not once but twice in succession (being timed, no less). Lastly, standing over the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland around my 37th year of existence, where I could only utter many times over, "My God, my God, my God" without realizing that I was uttering anything at all.

I have been told that I have an excellent memory but I cannot remember my birth and have been known to be serially absent-minded.  The breathlessness of the USMC circuit training was caused by a lack of oxygen and the anxiety of potentially passing out.  You see the fear of Marine Drill Instructors is very real.  Passing out would be met with two things: first aid to revive and secondly a good tongue-lashing by one or the other D.I.  These things were never mutually exclusive, first failure, then punishment.

Marines in the midst of the "O-course"

Finally, the third instance of breathlessness which occurred in Ireland was breathtaking, yes.  However, that must have been the spectacular realization of God's created wonder in motion and not physical exertion.  The sight of the Atlantic crashing into the the sheer cliff-side of the Western coast of the Emerald Isle is a wonder of creation. Awe at His wonder in this last case being very real before my very eyes as I witnessed the indescribable scenery of nature in motion, almost transcendent.

The Cliffs of Moher, County Mayo, Irish Republic

Today was different. As I stepped into the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe and made my way around the rotunda to find the "side altar" where we the 12 priests on pilgrimage would celebrate Mass I knew Our Lady was near.

She is over my right shoulder, centered above the white section of the national flag of Mexico.

The aesthetics of the building could be argued, but not her functionality. As I made my way around upstairs I could only gasp, standing in full view of the Sacred Image behind the basilica's sanctuary. I was breathing rapidly even though I was nearly standing still. I could not remove my gaze from her Image, yet I felt if I was moving in some bizarre way. Now a quarter century removed from the peak physical training required of Marine infantryman, I may not look as fit, but I am not unfit; breathless just the same.

I am convinced today, knowing of the history (within reason) of the apparition and its implications for the baptized (now Mexicans) who descend from the Spanish missionaries and the Aztecs, that she came to save all of us. Her appearance to Saint Juan Diego, nearly 5 centuries hence was nothing less than Divine Intervention through our Lady's Fiat to save the Western Hemisphere. Then from the ravenous and insatiably genocidal but highly civilized indigenous peoples who could not have known Christ. Yet their actions showed us of their belief system in anti-Christs, their pagan gods of false power and control. Somehow, mysteriously, they chose not to slaughter the sojourners from Spain, but instead received them.

 Click Here for a video of our tour guide's beautiful description

We need you now, Holy Mother, to help us continue to gain against the culture of death in the USA and in the world. Help us to protect our children and our souls from the false sacrifice of pride and selfishness and the human sacrifice of abortion. Teach us to believe in your Son and to receive Him in our hearts.

Viva Christo Rey!

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Unborn, Patroness of the Americas,

O' Sweet Immaculata,

pray for us who have recourse to thee.

From Underneath Her

N.B. Before and after: On the left, my hotel desk in the morning and on the right, the postcard of the sacred image that night.  She was given a rose (I suspect housekeeping)!

Class May 16

Contraception and Virtue

A great chapter is from Austen Ivereigh's book which you can find here:

How to Defend the Faith Without Raising Your Voice
available at Amazon.com

Also, essential reading for this topic comes from Pope Paul VI's historic 1968 Encyclical,
Humanae Vitae (On Human Life) found here:

Click here to be redirected to Humanae Vitae

ENCYCLICAL LETTER
HUMANAE VITAE
OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF
PAUL VI
TO HIS VENERABLE BROTHERS
THE PATRIARCHS, ARCHBISHOPS, BISHOPS
AND OTHER LOCAL ORDINARIES
IN PEACE AND COMMUNION WITH THE APOSTOLIC SEE,
TO THE CLERGY AND FAITHFUL OF THE WHOLE CATHOLIC WORLD, AND TO ALL MEN OF GOOD WILL,
ON THE REGULATION OF BIRTH

First Lines:

The transmission of human life is a most serious role in which married people collaborate freely and responsibly with God the Creator. It has always been a source of great joy to them, even though it sometimes entails many difficulties and hardships.

The fulfillment of this duty has always posed problems to the conscience of married people, but the recent course of human society and the concomitant changes have provoked new questions. The Church cannot ignore these questions, for they concern matters intimately connected with the life and happiness of human beings.

Again, as has been the character of this class-- This is an important and difficult topic with which there is sufficient reason to study and pray about.

Class: Thursday, May 2, 2013

Women and the Church: Challenges to tradition and paradigms.

The "Ecstasy" of Saint Teresa of Avila

Dr. Kaczor's entitles his chapter: The Church Hates Women: The Myth of Catholic Mysogyny

Today we will talk about her wisdom and tradition.  Who?  Holy Mother Church: The Body of Christ.  It is as difficult as a subject matter can get these days.  Why?  Because of false paradigms.

Today we "Americans" are used to getting what we want.  We are informed throughout our daily lives through mass media, mostly.  As catholic citizens, we are called to discern life through the teachings of Christ which include Sacred Scripture and Tradition.  Very few of us succeed in this feat each and every day.

The Church provides the remedy for those less than grace filled days, in fact for every day.  We are called to examine our consciousness by the end of each day, before we retire for a night's rest.

As we covered in last week's class, the Church teaches that our faith should be informed by our reason, our intellect (our thinking minds).  The reciprocal aslo holds true, our reason (thinking minds) should be informed by our faith.  Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo in the late 4th and early 5th Century teaches us (and the Church still holds as true) that our faith should LEAD our thinking minds.  "Do not seek to understand in order to believe, rather, believe first to understand."As quoted in Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John Tractate XXIX on John 7:14-18, §6.

Tonight we will discuss the Church's teaching on women's ordination, among other things.  We will learn that we are not ever called to earthly office, rather to eternity through sanctification, saintliness.  Here is a resource for what is surely difficult subject matter for further study.  Click below--

Catholic Apologist Jimmy Akin (with links to Church Teaching)

Class: Thursday April 25

Some further reading on the teaching that marriage is necessarily between one man and one women:
Jonathon Leeman "Love and the Inhumanity of Same Sex Marriage"

Jesus, the Son of God, the Word made Flesh, walked on these waters (Sea of Galilee)

ENCYCLICAL LETTER FIDES ET RATIO 
OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF 
JOHN PAUL II 
TO THE BISHOPS 
OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 

ON THE RELATIONSHIP
BETWEEN FAITH AND REASON

Click here

Class Thursday April 18

DOGMATIC CONTSTITUTION ON THE CHURCH: Lumen Gentium

IMPORTANT READING FOR ACADEMY

Dear Friends:

This first entry is a primer for our new "course", a book study of Professor G. Kaczor's work entitled The 7 Big Myths of the Catholic Church. The seminar is meant to be a primer for dialogue regarding modern conventional views of the Church and Dr. Kaczor's analysis of their relevence when discussing the Roman Catholic Church today, nearly two millennia since Her founding by God incarnate, Jesus of Nazereth.

I write this "blog" entry from Arnold Hall, a retreat house in Pembroke, MA, a suburb near Boston (The picture you see is from the JFK memorial Library in Boston, where I visited and edited my notes). At Arnold Hall I participated in a workshop called the Ars Praedicandi, Latin for The Art of Preaching. I have been impressed by the lectures bost most especially the priests who are in attendance.

There is Fr. C.J. McClosky. Although he will take no credit for it, we learned that he has been a great evangelizer of Protestant Christians. We learned this as he was being introduced by Fr. Roger Landry. Specifically, in the last 20 years he brought into the Catholic Church some prominent Washington politicians, media types and the like. People like Robert Novak, the noted journalist, Federal Justice Robert J. Bork and former Speaker Newt Gingrich. You get the picture (and may remember that Bork was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Bush the First).

Speaking of the Supreme Court of the United States, I just had a long conversation with Fr. John Jay Hughes. He is just shy of his 85th birthday and is a direct descendent of Chief Justice John Jay, the founding Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the U.S. Additionally, Fr. Hughes studied under Pope Benedict XVI (Fr. Jos.Ratzinger) at the University of Munster, Germany. Jay remained in Germany and Austria during the decade of the 1960s and rubbed elbows regularly with catholic theologians like Fathers Karl Rahner, S.J. and Hans Kung.
His last visit with the Holy Father (Emeritus) was just a few years ago where they spoke casually in German about old times at one of the audience halls in the Apostolic Palice.

Here also is Fr. Raymond DeSouza of Kingston, ONtario. Fr was the lead commentator on EWTN's coverage of the conclave that elected Pope Francis last month. Also here is two other media-savvy priests, Fr. John Trigilio and Fr. Kenneth Brighenti who co-authored the book "The idiot's guide to Catholicism" and appear regularly on TV. Another priest who I have met before who is truly a brilliant scholarly gentleman is Fr. George Rutler, pastor of the Church of Our Savior in Manhattan (Park Ave and 37thSt). Besides being a true scholar, George is another Anglican convert (like Jay Hughes) and spoke very eloguently to us about Msgr. Ronald Knox.

Finally there is a good humble priest who is laying in the shadows as they say, seemingly very understated. He is the Archbishop of Montreal, Christian Lepine (soon to be a Cardinal, perhaps). You would not even know it because he is seemingly a simple, prayerful man, just like the Chief Shepherds of our flock, notably Pope Emeritus Benedict and our current Vicar of Christ, Pope Francis.

I suppose you may be wondering what this has to do with the Academy. Well it serves as a primer for what the Academy seeks to do: evangelize and catechize. It is my desire that you will bring with you your deepest questions about the faith. Whether this is simple theology (what we believe and why), ecclesiology (why the Church is structured as She is, for instance, all male Holy Orders), moral issues (Contraception, so called same sex marriage, abortion, gravity of sin) and lastly communio. Communio is our willingness to belong and love Her, Holy Mother Church as She is. Perhaps we think She should change Her ways before we are fully willing to enter into Her mystery completely (so called Faithful Dissent)?

I hope you enjoy this session. Check back here frequently for more messages!