Juventutem Miami and Floridian Seminarians Attending the TLM

It's our pleasure to announce that as of September 14, 2013, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, a new chapter of the Fœderatio Internationalis Juventutem has been recognized in the Archdiocese of Miami.

Our group, styled “Juventutem Miami” (http://www.facebook.com/juventutemmiami), grew out of the bonds of friendship formed among young people drawn to the Traditional Latin Mass, seeking to live Catholic lives amid the dynamism of our metropolitan area, and desiring to serve the local Church. We connect young people who live dynamic 21st-century lives with the timeless beauty, spirituality, doctrine, and classical practice of the Catholic faith according to the Church's Roman traditions.

Holding events on an approximately biweekly basis, Juventutem Miami is quickly becoming known for gathering cradle Catholics, converts, active members of groups and parishes across the Archdiocese, as well as others more distant from the Church, for some of the most interesting and solidly Catholic events in town. A Juventutem Miami event always offers the promise of practicing and exploring the Faith with fascinating people in a spirit of friendship and thoughtful exchange.

The Very Reverend Fr. Christopher B. Marino, V.F., rector of St. Mary's Cathedral, is our chaplain. Most of our members attend Sung Mass on Sundays at 9:00 a.m. at Sts. Francis and Clare mission, where Monsignor Oscar F. Castañeda, Spiritual Director at St. John Vianney College Seminary has recently succeeded Fr. Joseph Fishwick as chaplain to the Archdiocese of Miami Traditional Latin Mass Community.

To reach Juventutem Miami via e-mail, please write to juventutemmiami@gmail.com.

On Saturday, the 6th anniversary of the implementation of Summorum Pontificum, and the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Juventutem hosted a Mass for its members and the Miami Latin Mass Community at the Mission of Sts. Francis and Clare, with about 80 people in attendance.  The community was blessed with the presence of about 20 seminarians from St. John Vianney Seminary in Miami, the minor seminary for the dioceses of Florida. Three of the seminarians sang in my choir, whilst others served at the altar.

The informal reflections of one of the seminarians can be found on his blog.  Here's an excerpt from his thoughts about attending the Mass with his fellow seminarians:

For some seminarians, they've been to quite a few of these; for others, this was their first time. After the Mass it's always interesting to see the look on the [faces of the] guys who went for the first time. Some of them are overcome with joy, others just have a huge smile on their face and they all have the same consensus: "that was awesome." In the truest sense of th[at] word, [...] there is a certain awe and wonder about the Mass. I was planning on just sitting in choir with the rest of the seminarians but I ended up being a torchbearer--it was my first time doing that but it was great--not too hard! We also had a meeting of all the young people called Juventutem afterwards at a local restaurant. It was great to see many young people on fire for the Church!