Angelic Smiles

Catholic News Service took a photograph of three seminarians of the seventy-two from the United States who are in Rome for their studies [1].  Their smiles on their gleaming angelic faces are sweet enough to brighten the lives of those disappointed and disheartened.

Just in their early twenties, they are full of optimism even if their respective innocence is no longer pure like fresh new snow.  Not quite fully emerged from their "bishonen" [2] image, they have already placed ahead of themselves a long and tortuous road that is likely full of temptations at every turn, for anyone who is favored by God is desired by Satan.

One can only hope that they and all seminarians have the resolve to go the full distance with Christ with the fortitude to reject Satan's most irresistible temptations along the way, so that they can humbly accept pains of all kinds, from betrayal to crucifixion, and transform themselves into conduits through which the love of God can be observed by how they behave, understood by what they say and felt by the actions they take.  This journey they embark on is not easy, one which would have been impossible for this blogger. [3]


[1]  Pictured here are "Andrew Auer, 21, from the Archdioces of St. Louis, Joe Cwik, 23, from the Archdioces of Washington and Avery Daniel, 22, from the Archdioces of Atlanta." See http://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2015/brand-new-ballgame-72-men-start-lives-as-seminarians-in-rome.cfm
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bish%C5%8Dnen
[3] This blogger who at 16 had flirted with the idea of becoming a man of the cloth but had foreseen clearly his eventual failure for he was aware of his vices and his missing virtues.  With all his faults, it was not possible for him to serve without a trace of hypocrisy the ever so patient, humble and unconditionally loving Master and Prince of Peace.  His youth now behind him but his faults still present and real, he rarely does the best he can with what abilities he has based on what he knows and he does not know much. He nonetheless proceeds, propelled by a set of norms, the course of nature and the passage of time, and hopefully a miracle or two every so often.  At the end, he hopes to be judged not by the countless times he had not done enough but by the handful of moments he had perhaps loved fully so that he would be able to smile when he sees his eternity.