Vocation Video Receives Five Awards

 

“I Only Show You The Cross,” a 20-minute video created for the Saint Vincent Archabbey Vocations Office by Fineline Multimedia of Greensburg, won five awards in four different awards competitions in 2008.

Planning began in the spring of 2007 and production began that July. The final edit was completed in the summer of 2008. Directed by Father Fred Byrne, O.S.B., Archabbey Vocations Director, and Fred Findley of Fineline Multimedia, the script for the video was written by Father Andrew Campbell, O.S.B. of the Archabbey Public Relations Office. It was narrated by David Safin, Director of Multimedia and Marketing at Saint Vincent College, with Dr. Ron Davis of the Communications Department at Saint Vincent College serving as the voice of founder Boniface Wimmer. Findley directed the photography, post-production and editing, while Alexander Byers assisted him with the lighting. Jared Bundy and Safin served as production assistants. Additional photography was done by Byers, Safin, Bundy and Jonathan McMahon. Bundy, Byers and McMahon are/were college students, so working on this video gave them valuable experience and a resume item.

The soundtrack included music sung by monks of the Archabbey. Archival material was provided by Father Brian Boosel, O.S.B., Archivist, and Kim Metzgar and Liz Cousins of the Archabbey Public Relations Office.

Monks interviewed in the video included junior monks Brother Elijah Cirigliano, O.S.B. and Brother Maximilian Maxwell, O.S.B.; Father Fred; Father Justin Matro, O.S.B., Seminary Rector; Father Wulfstan Clough, O.S.B., Associate Professor of English; Archabbot Douglas Nowicki, O.S.B.; Father Sebastian Samay, O.S.B., Novicemaster, and Father Edward Mazich, President of the Saint Benedict Education Foundation.

The video tracked a year in the life of the monastic community. In addition to interviews with monks, Findley and his crew filmed a priesthood ordination, funeral of a confrere, prayer and meals in the monastery, Mass, and the day to day activities of the monks, such as novices studying with Father Sebastian. 

The Aurora Awards competition is an international, independent film and video competition for cable programming, documentaries, industrial, instructional and corporate videos. The Saint Vincent Archabbey video won the Platinum Best in Show in the category of Religious Service, 2008. 

The Videographer Awards international competition is designed to recognize excellence in video productions, television commercials and rograms and new media. Entries are judged by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP), an organization comprised of several thousand marketing, communication and video professionals. “I Only Show You the Cross” received an Award of Excellence in the category of Directing, 2008.

The Telly Awards honor the best local, regional, and cable television commercials and programs, as well as video and film productions, and work created for the Web. The vocations video received a 2008 Bronze Award in the category of recruitment. The 29th Annual Telly Awards received over 14,000 entries from all 50 states and 5 continents.

Entering its seventh year, The international Accolade competition is an international, non-traditional, virtual venue. Awards go to those videographers who produce fresh, standout entertainment, animation and compelling documentaries. 

“I Only Show You the Cross” received two Accolades, the 2008 Award of Excellence in the category of Editing, and a 2008 Honorable Mention in the category of Viewer Impact.

Pope visits Monte Cassino

Pope Benedict XVI visited the Abbey of Montecassino today, the Abbey of our Holy Father Saint Benedict.

 

Papal Ordinations

This year St. Vincent is blessed to have 3 of our Brothers ordained to the Holy Priesthood on 3 different continents.  Our Joseph, OSB was ordained a priest here at the Abbey (North America) last week.  Our Brother Benoit, OSB will be ordained in Italy (Europe) in a few weeks as well as our  Brother David, OSB in Taiwan (Asia).  Indeed God is good!

By John Thavis
Catholic News Service

VATICN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI ordained 19 priests and urged them to make sure their ministry is not contaminated by a worldly mentality.

Priests should dedicate their lives to prayer and service and never lose sight of the self-sacrifice of Christ, the pope said during the lengthy liturgy in St. Peter’s Basilica May 3.

The Mass marked the annual celebration of the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. The new priests, who will serve in the Diocese of Rome, included 13 from Italy and six from other countries on four continents.

After prostrating themselves on the floor of the basilica as a litany of the saints was chanted, each of the candidates knelt before the pope as he imposed his hands on their heads, part of the ordination rite.

In his sermon, the pope quoted the First Letter of John, who contrasted the spirit of the Gospel with the spirit of the "world," a term he used to refer to all that is hostile toward God.

St. John said that "the world does not know us" because it did not know God, a lament that remains true today, the pope said.

"It’s true, and we priests experience this: the ‘world,’ in John’s meaning of the term, does not understand the Christian, does not understand the ministries of the Gospel — in part because, in fact, it does not know God, and, in part, because it does not want to know him," he said.

Accepting God would place this worldly attitude in "crisis," the pope said.

"Here we need to pay attention to a reality: that this ‘world,’ in the evangelical sense, threatens even the church, infecting its members and the ordained ministers themselves," he said.

"The ‘world’ is a mentality, a manner of thinking and living that can pollute even the church, and, in fact, does pollute it, and, therefore, requires constant vigilance and purification," he said. The Christian vocation, he said, is to be free from evil and different from the world, though living in the world.

The pope emphasized the centrality of prayer in the life of each priest. This prayer should be Christ-centered, and its highest form is the Eucharist, he said. From prayer comes the effectiveness of all other priestly ministry, he said.

"The priest who prays often and prays well becomes progressively expropriated from himself and increasingly united with Jesus, the good shepherd, and the servant of his brothers," he said.

The pope, who recently turned 82, looked good during the two-and-a-half-hour Mass. It was his last major liturgy before his departure May 8 on a weeklong pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

Afterward, at his noon blessing, the pope urged the entire church community to pray for priestly vocations.

The pope recently proclaimed a year for priests that will run from June 2009 to June 2010. In recent years, Vatican statistics have shown that the number of priests and seminarians in the world is increasing somewhat, but not as fast as the general Catholic population.

A few Pics.

Here are a few pictures of our Father Joseph's, O.S.B. ordination to the Holy Priesthood.

 

Archabbot Douglas, Bishop Brandt, and the newly ordained Father Joseph, O.S.B.

  

Father Joseph, O.S.B. processes out of the Basilica

  

The Celebration of the Most Holy Eucharist

  

Father Joseph, O.S.B. and Archabbot Douglas exchange the sign of peace to Father Joseph's family

  

Archabbot Douglas congratulates Father Joseph, O.S.B.

  

Bishop Brandt lays hands on Father Joseph, O.S.B.

 

Father Joseph, O.S.B. poses with his classmates and friends, Deacons Michael Zavage and Daniel Langa of the Diocese of Pittsburgh.  Deacons Mike and Dan will be ordained to the Holy Priesthood on June 27, 2009 at St. Paul Cathedral in Pittsburgh for the Diocese of Pittsburgh.  Please pray for these three young and zealous men of God.

A PRAYER FOR PRIESTS

Yesterday, our brother Joseph was ordained a priest of Jesus Christ in the Archabbey Basilica by our local bishop Lawrence Brandt.  Here is a prayer for all priests by the late Archbishop of New York, John Cardinal O'Connor:

 

Lord Jesus, we your people pray to You for our priests. You have given them to us for OUR needs. We pray for them in THEIR needs.


We know that You have made them priests in the likeness of your own priesthood. You have consecrated them, set them aside, annointed them, filled them with the Holy Spirit, appointed them to teach, to preach, to minister, to console, to forgive, and to feed us with Your Body and Blood.

Yet we know, too, that they are one with us and share our human weaknesses. We know too that they are tempted to sin and discouragement as are we, needing to be ministered to, as do we, to be consoled and forgiven, as do we. Indeed, we thank You for choosing them from among us, so that they understand us as we understand them, suffer with us and rejoice with us, worry with us and trust with us, share our beings, our lives, our faith.

We ask that You give them this day the gift You gave Your chosen ones on the way to Emmaus: Your presence in their hearts, Your holiness in their souls, Your joy in their spirits. And let them see You face to face in the breaking of the Eucharistic bread.

We pray to You, O Lord, through Mary the mother of all priests, for Your priests and for ours. Amen.

March, 1995