New Floors!

We have new floors! New room furniture is still en route, but the rooms are nice and simple, but very bright-feeling due to the new floors. Here are some pictures I took over the last couple days while unpacking things in my room.

Now we're off on retreat - please pray for us as we pray for you!


Love the Immaculata!
Mariam cogita, Mariam invoca

Airplanes and Chinatown

Sounds like another fantastic movie I haven't seen!

Actually, "Airplanes and Chinatown" abstractly defines my imminent return to Boston for my third year of seminary formation. I'll fly a 1-stop flight from Los Angeles to New York's La Guardia, and then hike to Chinatown NYC to catch a bus to Boston's Chinatown, a solid 20-minute walk from home at St. Clement's. If you see me after this ordeal, ask me about it!

I am excited to go back. I'm told I often hide my excitement, so here it is in writing: I'm excited! It has been an incredibly busy summer, with lots of work and lots of get-togethers, and I've enjoyed being busy. But the time has come, as inevitably it does, and now I must return to the seminary in Boston.

In one sense, I haven't left - keeping most of the Liturgy of the Hours over the summer months is a constant reminder of the community I belong to. And I've kept in touch with my brother Oblate seminarians, hearing of their adventures and sharing mine. In another sense, I have definitely been away. The type of work I was doing (technical writing, computer programming, and various technical labor) was inconsistent with the work and study of a seminarian, and the spectrum of social interactions I was a part of during the summer are not typical of seminary life per se.

This discord or discrepancy is, at least, an opportunity for discernment. Seeing the contrast, to which lifestyle am I being called? What elements of each am I called to combine, and are they altogether compatible with one another? This is by no means science built from matrices of experimentations, most of which yield no result. But in our humanity, these questions can begin to frame our discernment.

For me, general sentiments have played a large part in my discernment so far. Noticing how I feel as I begin to consider one state or option is so very important - is this situation troubling me and how? How would I characterize my discomfort in considering this option - do negatives rightfully deter me from it or are perceived negatives actually positive challenges I am called to face? This is at the heart of St. Ignatius' discernment of spirits - understanding that for a soul in a particular state, the good spirit may either challenge or encourage, and the bad spirit the same, but we have to train ourselves to recognize and follow the possibly painful good, always.

So off I go, with good material for meditation, and with plenty of time to do it! I greatly appreciate and humbly request your prayers for me and my brothers, and offer mine for you. As Fr. Jeremy articulated this morning, your prayers bear the fruit of men and women being open to hear God's voice calling to them, and being open to his strengthening graces to respond to that call.

As always, let us place our lives in the hands of our Blessed Mother and beg her to offer us to Her Son!


Love the Immaculata!
Mariam cogita, Mariam invoca