In the Chapel of St. Raphael at St. John Vianney College Seminary, there is mural on the wall directly behind the sanctuary that illustrates the missionary activity of the Catholic Church. The mural quotes Sacred Scripture by stating: “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.” In the midst of the contemporary piece of art completed by Gabriel Loire, those who enter the chapel are reminded of their baptismal call of bringing the salvific message of Jesus Christ to the entire world.

Over the last several months of seminary formation, the mural in the seminary’s chapel has been speaking to me more and more each day. As many of you have read in my blog posts over the last couple of years, the discernment of the priesthood of Jesus Christ is not easy.

The Church asks a lot of someone who is in the discernment process of becoming a priest. We are asked to take a look at the deepest recesses of our hearts and examine who we are at our inner most cores. That journey can be very painful at times because all of us begin to open wounds and hurts that we have experienced throughout our lives. When we recall those events, we are asked to bring them to spiritual direction to find healing. Over the past couple of years, as I have taken this inward journey, I have begun to discover who I am and what the Lord is asking me to do with my life.

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!!

Well folks, we are finally arriving at Passiontide. May we be willing to take a deeper look at ourselves over the next two weeks as prepare for the Passover Feast.

PHOTO SOURCE: St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church

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.