Christmas Break is finally upon us!! On Saturday, December 12th, the seminarians drove away from the seminary and headed home to spend the Christmas season with their families and friends. I  was so thankful to be able to get home and immediately enter a brief period of hibernation. Finishing papers, studying for exams, and actually taking exams really wears you out. The break will not be all sleeping, however. I will be volunteering at the church office for a majority of my time home, something I absolutely love doing!!

For Christmas, I am serving at St. Charles for the 7:00 p.m. Christmas Eve and Midnight Masses. I will also be playing my trombone with the choir at the 10:00 a.m. Christmas Mass. It is going to be an exciting time gathering family and friends together for the celebration of the Nativity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

As all of us are aware, the United States Congress has been debating the issue of reforming America’s health care system over the last few months. There is no question about it; there is much reform needed within the health care system. The first major hurdle for the debate came on November 7, 2009 when the Affordable Health Care for America Act was voted upon by the U.S. House of Representatives. However, before the vote was carried out an amendment was proposed by Representatives Bart Stupak (D-MI), Joseph Pitts (R-PA), Brad Ellsworth (D-IN), Marcy Kaptur (DOH), Kathy Dahlkemper (D-PA), Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Dan Lipinski (D-IL) that would ban the use of federal funds in abortions.

There has been some misunderstanding about what the Stupak Amendment actually does for the health care bill. To help Catholics

Good morning, everyone!! Sorry I have been out of the loop a little over the last few weeks. Things have really been hectic around the seminary with the celebration of the 50th Anniversary, the Fall Vocations Awareness Weekend, and now papers and approaching final exams. However, I did want to share some news with you about the site.

Today, I write the 100th post for the website!!! To tell you the truth, I expected to write the post earlier-in fact, I wrote something a couple of weeks ago and forgot to post it. Nonetheless, I would like to thank you all for constantly checking up on the progress of a young man trying to discern God’s will in his life. Seminary life is not always easy!! Everything I write on the site allows me to reflect on my seminary experience. For that, I thank you all tremendously!

Now, for the next few weeks:

• Vocations Awareness Weekend Article: There will be an article coming out in the Florida Catholic very soon that I wrote about our recent Vocations Awareness Weekend. I will have it up (with some interesting pictures) when it comes out so that you all can see what the weekend was all about.
• Review of the Semester: Sometime in the next few days, I will post a review of my third semester at St. John Vianney College Seminary so that all of you can share in the experiences of this very hectic, grace-filled semester.
• Evaluations, Finals, Gaudeamus, Christmas Break: All of these are coming up!!

Until next time, PAX!