Over the last couple of days, I have continued reflecting on this year in seminary formation and have been given the opportunity to recall many graces that I have received. The Lord has been extremely generous to me! In reflection of the first part of the formational year, I got up to the celebration of the 50th Anniversary weekend that the seminary community experienced back in November. I would like to continue from there.

The weekend after the alumni reunion, the seminary again opened its doors to a large group of people for our fall Vocations Awareness Weekend. The VAW that took place from November 13-15th was rather difficult. There were a lot of young men attending that were seriously considering what God was calling them to do with their lives. However, there were others who were here simply because their parents wanted them to come and who had no intention of looking at the priesthood as something God was calling them to do with their lives. However, the Lord worked through all of it. He used each and every one of the seminarians and priests who were here to show the attendees that God loves them and that He is seeking them to serve the Church and the people of God in some capacity. It was rather humbling to see, in the midst of the sometimes chaotic weekend, that the Lord was using me to reach someone I had never met. It goes to show you that the Lord works with what you have to offer, however limited that offering may be. All we can do is surrender it all to Him because we cannot necessarily see how the Lord is working in others.

Hello everyone!! It has been a few weeks since I last posted anything, so I wanted to keep you all up to speed on how life is going at the seminary. For the most part, things have been relatively quiet around here; not too many things happening out of the ordinary. Nonetheless,  here is a brief recap of the last few weeks:

On January 15th, the seminary community went on a Day of Recollection to assist us in switching gears from the Christmas Break and to prepare us for the upcoming academic semester. Our retreat master was Monsignor Thomas Caserta from the Diocese of Brooklyn (Pastor of the Shrine  Church of St. Bernadette). Msgr. Caserta spoke to us about the evangelical councils of obedience, chastity, and poverty. (Interesting side note: Diocesan priests do not take a vow of poverty; instead, diocesan priests take a promise to live in simplicity.) The Day of Recollection, which only lasted about 20 hours or so, was eye opening for me. It allowed me to really reflect on priestly service and the baptismal call of all. The mini-retreat gave me the opportunity to reflect on how the Lord is working in my life and how he continues to call me to serve His church, His people.