What a life! And it is mine, as a Priest of Jesus Christ!

Poland Our adventure to Poland began around 4:45 Saturday morning. Pd Manol, the rector of the seminary, offered to drive us to the airport. The SVDs are really going to miss us, and I must admit the feeling is likewise-- we've been a part of their community for the past month. Kevin qua Kevin packed my shampoo, body wash, saline, and shaving cream in my backpack and not my bag, so they were confiscated at the airport and thrown away... Oh well nbd. We had a nice 4 hour layover in Brussels. Found the Catholic chapel and did a holy hour. (add that to the list of things I've never done/ didn't expect to do while in Europe!) Then it was the final leg to Warsaw! During baggage claim we notice Mike's bag wasn't coming out...and when there were no bags left, we decided to make our way to make a claim on lost luggage. We were greeted by Arthur, a neo cat seminarian from Boston, who is home in Poland for the summer. He took us to the place he arranged us to stay a...

Let's take a little break from "Minha Vida em Portugal" and return to the US. Travel with me to Toccoa, GA, where today, July 27, 2012 at 5:19 am (EST) two of my very best friends in the world --Anna and Paul Albert-- welcomed their first born son into the world! Nathaniel Joseph weighed in at 8lbs 3oz and 21.5 inches long... CONGRATULATIONS Momma and Poppa Albert! He's adorable, and I can't wait to meet him!!! ----- Break's over. Back to "me"....sort of. Bear with me until the end, it's not 100% selfish! Ever since I found out Portugal was a definite in early April, I've been dwelling on the fact that it meant I wouldn't be able to be in Georgia for Anna and Paul when their son (at the time we were saying child) was born. And that most likely I wouldn't be able to be there for said child's baptism either. That thought didn't sit well with me. Here's why: Anna and I have been friends for as long as I can remembe...

Don't want to blog too long...tomorrow is o meu teste final! Hard to believe that tomorrow morning at roughly 11 am the course is all but over (we still have class 6ª to get the test back and listen to the 3 final oral presentations...hopefully we'll be out by 10:30) María had her baby!!!!! Lourenço Maria was born today!!! He is adorableeeeee! Speaking of births...It's so funny how God's will works. Lourenço was "supposed" to be born the 29th, and arrived on the 25th. Anna and Paul's baby was "supposed" to be born sometime last week, and yet we're still waiting. Just goes to show how God's plan is for our birthdays to be HIS decision. Moving on... On Monday I wrote about a song I heard at WYD2002 in Toronto, Canada about holiness. I then shared my prayer experience from my walk home from the gym on Monday night. Last night I was blown away not once, but twice at how the Lord spoke to me. I've spoken before about how 3ª Feira (Tu...

Doesn't really work in Português, eh? Be forewarned...today is a long one! Anyways...Before today's God moment, quick recap of the weekend: Sábado we went to Óbidos, which is about an hour bus ride from Lisbon. They have a Medieval Fair for a couple weeks in the summer time (similar to KRF in Massachusetts). It was a very hot day, and the village, of course, was very hilly. I knew going into the day that I would have to be careful with how I walked since my foot is getting better (daily) and I don't want to re-injure it. We were only at the Fair for about 3 hours. We walked around to Medieval vendors selling their contraptions...saw the remains of a Castle (I think?)...Before you knew it, we were back on the bus heading back to Lisboa. Yesterday was a lot more active. Mike and I went down to Campo Grande to the Parish down there for the 9 am Mass. (The Seminary doesn't have Sunday Mass as the priests go out to parishes to celebrate Mass) After that we made our way ...

Take Lord and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding and my whole will. All that I am, and all that I possess, You have given me . I surrender it all to You to be disposed of according to Your will. Give me only Your love and Your grace , with these I will be rich enough and will desire nothing more . (St. Ignatius of Loyola, SJ) During the academic week at St John's, we pause at noontime from classes and gather in the chapel to make a brief Examen. The 'Suscipe' prayer of St Ignatius is how we start before our silent reflection time. Since I am in class at the noon hour this month, I have tried to make my walk home my examen time, and sad to say most days I have been unsuccessful. Yesterday however, I was successful. Each time I pray the above prayer, I realize how powerful the words are. I bolded the words that I wanted to stress the most... Even as I sit here writing this blog, the amount of times that I have refered to myself is already at 1...

Journey with me to a Sunday night in August 2001. I am a 16 year old about to enter my junior year of high school. I was very active within the Peer Group at Immaculate Conception's Life Teen program and had recently gotten back from a week of service (SHINE!) in Phoenix, AZ... I had gone to the first ever "Proud to be Catholic" concert on Salem Common the day before and was very pumped to tell everyone at Life Teen about the day. We had a new CORE Member...(blanking on her name) who didn't grow up in or around Stoughton. She knew what Life Teen was because she had lived "out west" (Steubenville I believe), and had recently accepted a job in MA, and knew that there were only a few Life Teen parishes in the greater Boston area. Well....whatever her name was (I want to say Cheryl), she had a wonderful voice, and I always tried to position myself near where she was sitting, probably so my voice didn't sound as bad...this one par...

There came a mighty wind, so strong it tore the mountains and shattered the rocks before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind came an earthquake. But the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire. But the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there came the sound of a gentle breeze. And when Elijah heard this, he covered his face with his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. (1 Kings 19:11-13)   Day after day I keep realizing how blessed I am to be spending this time in Portugal. Yes, I am primarily here to learn Portuguese with the goal of one day being able to minister to the Portuguese speaking population in the Boston area (Se Deus quiser!), but I am also being given this time away from pretty much everyone and everything that is comfortable and familiar to me. It is doubtful I will ever be given 7 weeks  "away from it all". As I've written before, I want this time in Europe to not b...

Yesterday Maria picked Mike and I up to go to the 11 am Mass with her and her family at Sta. Isabella's. It was the family Mass, and it was jam packed with little ones. I very much liked music at the Mass, and the homily Father gave (from what I picked up on) was very good. At the end of the Mass, the priest brings up the little kids and explains to them the main message of the Gospel. Once that is over they receive a piece of paper with a picture from the Gospel reading that they can color when they get home. After lunch at Maria and João's house, 4 of their kids, João, Mike, 2 friends of theirs and I went to Cascais to their boat for an afternoon out on the water. We went to another dock and picked up a friend of João's (Pedro), who seemed to add a lot of laughter to the boat. Martin, (their oldest) wanted to try water skiing. It was pretty ool watching, and Mike and I decided to take our chances as well. After a couple times trying to get him up out of the water, Mik...

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him. In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of his will, for the praise of the glory of his grace that he granted us in the beloved. (Ep. 1:1-6) Since I don't go to Mass in English these days, I have decided to take to looking at the readings the night before...which is a big help (to me at least), as it helps me to focus less on translating what the reader is saying and more on what the Father is saying to me. The above passage from Ehpesians is the 2nd reading for the 15th Sunday in Ordinay Time (tomorrow). If anything, the past 2 weeks in Portugal have given me lots of personal reflection time that I wouldn't have been able to find had I been in the states. Two very good friends of mine...

Today was the half way point of the course. As I was thinking about that today in class, two quotes came to mind. The first is from Sacred Scripture. In the 6th chapter of Matthew, Jesus is telling His disciples not to worry about how they are to clothe themselves, or how they will be able to secure food and drink...the end of the chapter is about dependence on the Father (similar to my post the other day). Jesus' concluding statement is; Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil. (Mt 6:34) On my walk home from class I was reflecting on why that verse crossed my mind. See, I'm a bit crazy when it comes to countdowns to the 'end of something' or until the 'start of something' so since the first day of class I have said to myself afterwards "Another 5% over..." It dawned on me that even though I am physically present in the class and I participate in the conversations...a lot of tim...

O seja: "Milho cozido...estilo Português!" This evening Mike and I were able to meet up with Cardinal Seán and his friends. They picked us up at the seminary and we drove to their house. It is gorgeous! They even have a chapel on the first floor, where Cardinal Seán celebrated Mass before jantar. The altar in the chapel said "Magister Adest et Vocat Te" from John 11:28. (Our translation "The Master is here and is calling for you"), which reminded me of the Pastoral Center in Braintree. We were hosted by João and Maria and their children. They have 7 and an 8th due next week! It is very heart warming to see a strong Catholic family these days. You're all probably wondering when the title of the blog comes into play....now. Their eldest son, Martin, grilled husks of corn on the cobb. For those not aware, European cultures typically aren't corn eaters. After we had partaken of the corn, the 3 Americans (Americans FTR do usually eat corn on the ...

Proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching (2 Tim 4:2) Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence   (1 Peter 3:15-16) These verses have been so true for me the past 2 weeks in Portugal, specifically yesterday afternoon after class. The DLCP (Departmento de Língua e Cultura Portuguesa) arranged for the summer course students to go on the Cruzeiro do Rio Tejo tour. It is a great opportunity to get to talk to your classmates outside of class, and (hopefully) in the target language. While waiting, I introduced Mike to Michael, a German man from my class. He asked if Mike was a seminarista também, and then conversation went from there. We spoke of the need for the Church to do something to reach out to lapsed Catholics. Next the conversation switched slightly to how the world is watchin...

...nada me falta. (Ps 22...23 in USA). Though I've already blogged today about the weekend, this update is more so my "God thoughts" of the past couple days. One thing I need to continually remind myself about God is that: 1) I don't and can't  tell God to do anything . and 2) When I ask God for something in prayer...thats 50% of it...the other thing I usually have difficulty doing is listening for His response. I do believe that if I spent enough time in quiet, I would hear the voice of God daily...but a problem most people have, including myself, is that we are "too busy" to just stop and listen. One of my main goals for this time in Europe is for me to learn to do just that... Yesterday in the Sé Cathedral while admiring the grandeur of that place, I was praying about what I want...I was lost in thought about all the things I have petitioned God for that I am patiently awaiting a response for. Mike suddenly brought me back to reality and sai...

As I had anticipated, our hostel did have WiFi, but it didn't reach our room, and there weren't any computers there. So...we catch up, 6ªFeira 6-julho: I bought new shoes before coming here, and silly me for not breaking them in. I woke up with an intense pain in my right foot (the same foot I "broke" almost 4 years ago on a Life Teen retreat...) It actually felt similar in degree of pain, and I was limping most of the day. After class and lunch, Mike and I made our way to Rede Expressos bus station for our 3 pm autocarro to Porto. We arrived at 6:30 and began walking. (I bought ibuprofen for my foot as it was throbbing) When we finally got to the hostel, our senhora de casa said (all in Português) that she had already heard we speak Portuguese... We had told Sofia (Portuguese professor from BC) where we were staying, as she was in Porto for her masters defense and as it turns out, she beat us to the hostel and left us a note saying where she and Sven would be w...

I've been good about not describing every detail of what we do/say in my class, but I have to mention these 2 things; The other night for TPC we had to read an article about a 71 y/o mulherango (womanizer). He has had 4 marriages, and has 3 kids/3 grandkids. He is a singer and talks about how he respects his "public". We had a class discussion in which I said I find it ironic he values respect, because to me there's no way he can have respect for women when he can't even say "I love you" to her...and that he can't commit to one woman. I was joyfully shocked with the other 5 males agreed, and one went as far to say that this guy is a weak man because of his inability to stay with one woman. That GMH (Juli!!!) The other thing happened today. We watched an episode of "30 Minutos" in which they had 2 different stories about life changes. The first was a coupel who met via Twitter and ended up married...not much to it. The other was about th...

Today is only the 2nd time in my life I haven't been "home" to celebrate the 4th of July. (The other time was with Anna in 2008 when we were in Madrid) I'm not sure what exactly I would have done today had I been in the US, but obviously it would have involved a BBQ, parade and finding somewhere to watch fireworks if Canton didn't have them. Therefore not having that seemed a little weird. My 4th of July celebration today was lame. The other American in my class brough star shaped cookies decorated with red, white and blue by his wife and 3 kids to share with the class. This sparked a 20 min discussion about our respective countries national holidays/feasts. It was pretty interesting. I'm feeling that my body hasn't yet realized I am not in the US yet, because at midnight and 1 am here, sometimes even 2 am (7/8 and 9 pm respectively back home) I am wide  awake. When it is like 7-9 am here...(2-4 am back home) is when I start to get really tired. Hopef...

Happy Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle!! Like I said yesterday, once a routine is established the entries should slim down a lot...maybe even starting today. As it turns out, I didn't need worry about the prognóstico yesterday. I stayed in my Intermédio 4 class. The things I did the worst on were things that we haven't yet learned, as well as a few things we probably didn't get to in Português Elementar 1 e 2. I'll spare details of what we did in class, and write that down for myself in my Portuguese journal...class is class to most people. (I´ll share is something very noteworthy happens!) At the suggestion of the other American in my class, Mike and I went to a bookstore at the shopping center and picked up "Gramática Ativa" versions 1 and 2. It should help me review what I am rusty on as well as brush up on what others seem to already know that I didn't learn yet. I remarked to Mike that it's great that after only 5 days in Lisboa, he and I a...

During the 4 years that I was a high school teacher I used to tell my students on the first day of school that no matter how many 1st days of school you have...the night before always holds a feeling of excitement, and nervousness; You can't wait to meet new people, see "old" people, talk about what you did over the summer and find out what you´ll be learning your new classes. Yet at the same time, you wonder if you´ll make new friends, if you´re wearing the "right" 1st day outfit, if you´ll be able to handle the workload, etc. Well, "let me tell you something my friend", the feelings were almost the same in a foreign country! However, this first day of school, I only knew ONE person going in, so there would be no familiar faces to catch up with, just a whole bunch of strangers waiting for class to start. Miguel and I discovered very quickly that we aren't in the same class (as of now). There are 7 Intermédio's, and everyone was ...

For those who don´t know, I am spending the next 7 weeks in Europe. The first 4 weeks will be spent at "Faculdade de Letras, Universidade de Lisboa", so I may continue learning the Portuguese language and culture. After that I will travel to Poland for 10 days before returning back to Portugal to spend 2 weeks volunteering at the Shrine to Our Lady of Fátima. I decided to blog (something I typically don´t do, and probably won´t do much after returning to the states), so that I won´t have to try to recount these next 7 weeks multiple times...I hope to at some point post some pictures to here, and many many more to facebook, but that might have to wait until I return to the US as my USB Cord is at home... As we know, I am a verbose person, but I will try my best to keep the blogs limited to "exciting" entries, and not just a play by play of the day. (The former Spanish teacher in me needs to let the reader know----I am keeping a personal journal written EM POR...