It's been a month since my last post, and even longer since I really shared something here. Tomorrow morning my family and I will fly out to attend our sister, Sr. Anna Sophia's first profession of vows with the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia in Nashville, TN. This is a really special moment for her and for us, considered in the terms of religious life to be her wedding day! And I think I can share similar sentiments with the exclamation: "My little sister's getting married!" Only in our case, without the anxiety that often accompanies it.
So I humbly ask your prayers for her and for our travels. I also ask you for your prayerful support of our newest Oblate priest, currently Deacon John Luong, OMV, who will be ordained by Archbishop José Gomez the following Saturday, August 4, 2012 at St. Peter Chanel Catholic Church.
This summer has been a very packed summer for me, working full time doing technical work and having little time at home. The family time that I have had has been great, and it's nice to be in my hometown to also visit with friends from high school and college and go to some of the places we frequented when we were studying together.
It has also been nice to be close to the Oblate community here, to have that sense of continuity, even though I am not living at the rectory or taking part in all of their daily schedule.
In my ongoing discernment, I am continually reminded of one of the more common signs of vocation, identified in a powerful way by an Apostle of the Sacred Heart sister during my visit with the Redemptorists in New York a few years back. And that is that we can discover our vocation and become convinced of what we discover by the deepest desires of our heart. A question I pose to myself and which others have asked me recently is: "How sure are you?" And by boiling down the signs I have received and my peace of mind and precisely these deepest desires, I am able to say: "I'm sure!" We have to leave room for God to intervene and understand Him to have said that I was supposed to be there then but that there are new plans. That is a possibility, and it is also a possibility that I have made mistakes in discernment and treated as clear something that was not. But moments like the one I had last week serve to confirm what I have discerned thus far - waking up with the singular phrase and sentiment: "In my heart of hearts, I want to be in Boston." And it is these treasured moments that carry us through.
So we set off with a lot of excitement to spend time with our new extended family of new Dominicans and their families, and then visit more family in the southeast before coming home for a couple weeks before I return to Boston for First Theology. Again, quite the appropriate finish to my jam-packed summer!
Love the Immaculata!
Mariam cogita, Mariam invoca
