It's been a phenomenal week back! After returning from our retreat, we had a break until classes resumed on Wednesday.
We began preparing for a busy week of visiting discerners and a weekend seminar by Fr. Timothy Gallagher, OMV on discerning the will of God, according to St. Ignatius of Loyola (of course). Monday morning we cleaned out 13 bedrooms and prepared them for our many guests, men discerning a call to the priesthood. We dusted and mopped and vaccuumed and did laundry, made copies and stuffed folders and arranged schedules for airport, bus station and train station pickups. Weather (see previous post) interfered with about half of our guests' arrivals; we finally had a full house Friday night. Our guests attended class with us, slept, ate, and prayed according to our schedule, and formed a fairly cohesive sub-community in the few short days they have been here.
It is really powerful to sit around and swap vocation stories and hear how various things influenced our many and varied lives. Wednesday night, Fr. Greg Staab, OMV gave a talk on Consecration to Mary, which was completely full-circle for me in terms of the circumstances within which my particular discernment for the priesthood began - taking a class from him in the Ignatian style (this week has been completely Ignatian for us) in preparation for my Consecration to Mary, which, further, was made on the titular feast of the Oblates, the Holy Name of Mary (September 12). Preparing to share my vocation story and recent developments was also a great chance for me to reflect on how things have been going and look for trends and interesting threads that manifest themselves in my life. The thing that amazes me is how powerful every aspect of our lives is, and how fully we embrace the depth of everything that we do, from classes to prayer to prudence in living and working and dealing with each other, and also how interconnected each of those components are. In a word, seminary formation is comprehensive; it is holistic but not to the detriment or neglect of the constituent parts, that is, it is complete and big-picture oriented while not overlooking necessary details. That is what makes it so amazing!
Anyway, we are also preparing to teach Confirmation again, this time the curriculum mainly consists of the Sacraments, and we are preparing second-year (8th graders) students for their reception of Confirmation this coming May. Next weekend, we begin by celebrating Br. Tom's final profession of vows on Friday night, and Saturday, Br. Tom will be ordained to the transitional diaconate. Dark and early Sunday morning we'll hop on a bus to go to Washington, D.C. for the March for Life, to return the following day.
Needless to say, it will be a busy week!
Love the Immaculata!
Mariam cogita, Mariam invoca
1 comment:
Hello Paul!
I've been reading your blog for a few months...it was a link from Rachel Gray's post once... around September I believe. Anyhow, through Rachel's blog I also heard about your sister, Teresa, and how she was entering the Nashville Dominicans.. however this was earlier.. around May or June 2010. Anyhow, so we e-mailed a bit and skyped before she entered.I've written to her in Nashville but hadn't heard back. She's terribly sweet and wonderful as I am sure you know but there was this crazy order of events and we got to meet in DC a few days ago. It was such such a blessings things worked and we were both there. It's quite crazy really. I'm from St. Louis and it seems both Nashville or California are quite far when you don't have a car. Anyhow, I told her I read your blog and she told me to comment and such so here I am ;). I hope you're doing well and I am sure it's not the last you hear from me! Take good care Paul!
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