I'm now a quarter of the way through formation program with the Oblates! Of course, the numbers are less significant than the progress of actual formation, and the 8-year program that is mostly governed by academics is really meant to be sufficient foundation for ongoing formation.
All of that said, it is great to close out a wonderful year in Boston! We all grew tremendously, both individually and as a community. I continue to stress that my favorite aspect of this year's experience is the community aspect - recognizing that our having come together and everything that we shared together and all of our interactions and the ways that we learned from our struggles and supported one another are really a work of God in which we are mere cooperators. Yes, we came as full persons, each with his own story of calling, and yes, as persons, we engaged in all of the community experiences that we shared, but it was the grace of God that was present drawing us together and sustaining us through the exams and the housework, our ministry and our vacations.
Now I'm home for a few months (until late August), with time to relax (and enjoy the Long Beach weather) and time to work. I'm a bit sad, being separated from the Oblates who were involved in formation directly, as well as the others in the Boston community around St. Clement's Shrine, and the other seminarians at St. John's. But it's great to be home with family and friends, and still to be near the Oblates in Hawaiian Gardens.
As much as I get to look back on this past year, I also get to look forward to what the Fall will bring. Hopefully, we will have some new postulants in the house, and we'll also have some changes in the professed community. I will begin Theology studies, which will be a bit of a transition for me, with probably more reading and writing and a different kind of precision from science or philosophy, though the hand-in-hand operation of fides et ratio will certainly be in play.
So here's to an enjoyable summer!
Love the Immaculata!
Mariam cogita, Mariam invoca
2 comments:
welcome! hey, this summer you should go to stuff at the Carmelites' places that would be encouraging to seminarians :) someday you may be a visiting priest to give talks/retreats for them. keep praying for them always. I went to every single Handmaiden meeting, and then some. This summer I plan to volunteer more time. Pray for me. I'm glad you recommended them to me. :D All this time has been a blessing.
i didn't volunteer there really this summer after all, but we get to read a book: Interior Freedom - they have it at their bookstore, but I'm wondering if I could find it in their library... here's a quote from it that I discovered online on the author's webpage somebody made:
"True freedom is not so much something man wins for himself; it is a free gift from God, a fruit of the Holy Spirit, received in the measure in which we place ourselves in a relationship of loving dependence on our Creator and Savior. This is where the Gospel paradox is most apparent: “Whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” In other words, people who wish to preserve and defend their own freedom at any cost will lose it, but those willing to “lose” it by leaving it trustingly in God’s hands will save it. Their freedom will be restored to them, infinitely more beautiful, infinitely deeper, as a marvelous gift from God’s tenderness. Our freedom is, in fact, proportionate to the love and childlike trust we have for our heavenly Father.
— Interior Freedom, p.14-15"
then 2 of his other books has quotes about freedom as well:
"Faithfulness to mental prayer is a school of freedom. It is a school of truth in love, because it teaches us, little by little, no longer to place our relationship with God on the shaky, unstable basis of our own impressions, moods, or feelings, but on the solid foundation of faith—God’s faithfulness, which is as firm as a rock. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, and forever” (Heb 13:8), for “His mercy is from generation to generation” (Lk 1:50). If we persevere, our relationships with other people, which are likewise superficial and changeable, will become more stable, more faithful, deeper, and hence happier.
— Time for God, p.32
“For you were called to freedom, brethren” (Gal 5:13). So says St. Paul in the letter to the Galatians. God calls us to freedom. But instead of being given to us instantaneously and in full measure, this freedom is built up progressively and patiently day by day, by being faithful to God’s calls.
— Called to Life, p.11"
FREEDOM!!!! :)
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