So, to begin, I would like to simply apologize for finishing this “Year in Review” a bit later than even I anticipated. Over the last several days, I have been resting, relaxing and even doing yard work outside. It seems that when I left home for the seminary in Miami my parents had no one to work on the yard. So, they let it go by the wayside. That is going to change over the next couple of weeks. Okay, so…where were we? Oh yes, Spring VAW.

The spring semester’s Vocations Awareness Weekend was so much more profound than the fall semester’s VAW. This time around, the seminary capped the number of young men who could attend to at about 70. Each of the seven dioceses of the Province of Miami brought priests and young men discerning God’s will for the their lives. The quality of guys that attended the weekend was a lot better than I had previously experienced. The men who came down know that there is something tugging at their hearts; they know that the Lord is calling them to do something special with their lives. In an increasingly materialistic world, the courage these young men exhibited in simply coming on the weekend was incredible. The Lord was working in so many ways!!

Sorry for the absence over the past couple of weeks. I took the opportunity over the Christmas Recess to really rest, relax and gear up for the new academic semester that began bright and early Monday morning. We woke up to a very chilly 41 degrees , which is down right freezing cold by Florida standards. Before I get into the experiences of the upcoming semester, I wanted to wish all of you a very happy and blessed New Year. But, this is not just a new year, it is also the start of a new decade. So Happy New Decade as well!!

This semester is going to be a little different from the Fall semester, mainly because we do not have any major events planned, except our bi-annual Vocations Awareness Weekend in March–I am already expecting to have another well attended weekend. I always look forward to hosting the countless young men who come to the seminary to discern God’s will for their lives for that brief period of two days. I never took the opportunity to come on one of the weekends even though I had been invited numerous times by people in my parish. So, if there is a young man out there from the Diocese of Orlando who is thinking about serving the church as a priest, please seriously consider contacting Fr. Miguel at the Vocations Office about coming down March 12-14, 2010.