Serving Midnight Mass with the Archbishop

The Archbishop has informed the five of us who are to be ordained priests this June that he will be calling us downtown for some of the major liturgies this year to deacon those Masses. For this year's Christmas Midnight Mass, myself (John) and Deacon Sean Danda served as deacons. It was a beautiful liturgy, and the Archbishop delivered one of his best homilies that I've ever heard from him. The liturgy was really well done.

Although it was an honor to be with the Archbishop, I regret that it knocked me out from being able to serve Christmas Masses at Nativity. I was originally hoping to still make it to Nativity for the Christmas day Mass, but I was too wiped out when I got home, and plus, Christmas morning is still pretty chaotic at the Hollowell house. I figured since I'll be doing 4 or 5 Christmas Masses for the rest of my life, the good Lord wouldn't mind if I just did the Midnight Mass this year.

I do hope to serve the Vigil for Mary, the Mother of God on New Year's Eve, and I hope to also be at the 11 o'clock Mass at Nativity this Sunday before I have to head back to school.

Have a blessed Christmas and a happy new year!

Dcn. John Hollowell

Living at St. John's

As a 29 year old still getting Christmas breaks, I get the following a lot from friends and family, "So..(with a little embarassment)...what are you...up to these days?" However, I experience absolutely no shame in announcing that I'm on break for the next month.

This is probably the last time in a long time that I will be getting an entire month off, and instead of bemoaning that fact, I'm making the best use of it that I can.

First of all, I'm staying in the rectory at St. John's across from the RCA dome (until it is demolished next Saturday!). I first lived here two summers ago when I was a hospital chaplain at Methodist. I returned last Christmas, and the folks here signed off on me doing it again this year.

St. John's is a wonderful set up. First of all, it is downtown, and there is obviously a lot going on downtown during the holidays. St. John's also has a daily Mass (including Mondays and Saturdays, when most parishes don't have a daily Mass). When I stayed with my parents the first few years of seminary, it was probably a good 20 minute commute on Mondays and Saturdays to go to a daily Mass, and even Nativity was a good 15 minute drive in the morning for Mass. Now, I walk downstairs any day of the week, and I'm ready for Mass. Also, anytime I want to pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament, I can just walk into Church and do that. St. John's is also, in my opinion, our most beautiful church in the Archdiocese.

I plan to spend a lot of time reading over the break. For me, that has been the biggest thing that I've grown into as a seminarian. To see my ability and desire to read grow exponentially has been awesome. I still remember my first summer as a seminarian. I stayed at St. Monicas, and I think I watched about two or three hours of TV a day. Now, the TV hardly ever comes on, and I have grown into thoroughly enjoying and drawing life from reading all types of literature, and sometimes some theology as well.

Jeremy and I will be around for Christmas. One or both of us may get called down to the Cathedral to deacon with the Archbishop for some of the Masses, but we hope to have at least one of us at all the Christmas Masses at Nativity. I know I'm looking forward to a blessed holiday season. All the best to you and your family!

St. Nicholas Banquet

Hi All:

The semester is winding up. Today was the last day of class and finals (for those who have them) are Wednesday and Thursday. None of my classes have a final test. I think John just has his Latin III Final. We both had a few final papers.

Last week was very busy. Not only was it the last full week of class riding right on the heels of Thanksgiving break, but the school also had a 40-hours Eucharistic Devotion starting Tuesday and concluding with evening prayer on Thursday. The Blessed Sacrament was reposed each evening following Compline, which explains why the 40 hours took 3 days. It is the first time we have had such an extended devotion since I've been here at Meinrad. I think it went very well and was well received by the seminarian community. The final thing that made last week busy for John and I, and the whole deacon class, was the St. Nicholas Banquet.

St. Nicks is an annual banquet held every year on the Thursday closest to the Feast of St. Nicholas (December 6th). It serves a liturgical reason to have a Holiday party in the midst of Advent (something that the school and monastary are otherwise watchful of). The banquet is planned and hosted by the Deacon class. Ever year has a slightly different 'theme' around which some entertainment and jovial roasting of the faculty takes place. In my time here, I have seen a Midieval feast, a "Home Alone" theme (when the rector was on sabatical), a Meinrad Orientation year, and a Vontrap Christmas.

Our class decided to have a "Christmas Carol" theme. We began the evening with Evening prayer. After which there was a reception and then banquet. Two of our classmates wrote a five scene script which poked fun at many of the changes that have taken place in the seminary since the inauguration of a new Rector of the seminary this year. We began with a Marley - Fr. Mark O'Keefe - visiting the current Rector Fr. Denis to warn him to change is ways and of the visitation of three ghosts. Fr. Mark was the previous rector and was played by one of our classmates. It was of course very hammed up to make it ammusing. Fr. Denis played himself in the evening's entertainment which shows his willingness to laugh at himself. We then at three differ scences where the three ghosts of Christmas past, present and future came to show Fr. Denis his ways. It ended with the rector making a firm purpose of amendment. The guests all had a good time and laughs were had by all. See the pictures above.

Other than that, the school has now slipped into paper writing and test taking mode. I think everyone is ready for the end of the semester and a much deserved Christmas break.

I will be serving and preaching in and around Indianapolis over the break. I will be preaching at St Pius X on the northside on Dec. 20-21, at Holy Family in New Albany on Jan 3-4 and at Nativity on Jan 17-18 to wrap up vocations week. Hopefully, I too will get a little R&R in there as well.

Happy Advent to all. "For you, O Lord, my soul in stillness waits, truly my hope is in you." ~ Dcn. Jeremy

Two Videos

I (John) wanted to pass on two videos I've made in the last year for school. The first is one that myself and a classmate, Deacon Josh McCarty, put together for our class on the Eucharist. We had to make something that we would use to help teach about the Eucharist to a certain age group. We both chose the youth, and we were both interested in working on a video, so we paired up. It was a great experience. We put way more time into it than we needed to, but we learned a lot and had fun doing it. It can be seen by clicking on the video below:



The second video is a video I made based on footage I took at last year's March For Life. The video is to help encourage youth and young adults to consider joining the pilgrimage. Each year the number from our Archdiocese grows. I think last year somewhere around 500 from Indianapolis attended the March For Life. Anyway, that video can be found below: