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

I'm assuming most people reading my blog know that last Saturday my grandmother Florence Leaver passed away. The outpouring of support over the past several days--through prayers said, Massed offered, food platters brought to the house, cards sent, hugs given, and memories shared mean so much to me and my family. Since coming in from Rome on Monday night, my Aunt Janet and I have been working on the eulogy that my father was to read today at Grams' funeral Mass. After we finished writing it though, it was decided that I should read the reflection instead. I strongly believe that even if I expanded the reflection below for the blog post that it wouldn't paint the full picture of who my grandmother was, so I hope that our reflection helps you to see a small glimpse of the woman I was blessed to have for 28 years as my grandmother. My family and I also thank you for the prayers that have been promised over the coming weeks and months as we begin to adjust to life without...

Florence A. (Hanlon) Leaver Born: 22 July 1927 Entered eternal life: 21 December 2013 Celebrating my grams 85th birthday in 2012 after my return from Portugal. This is definitely one of the hardest entries to write, so it won't be too long. Yesterday I got a message from my mom on Facebook saying "call me when you can". In my heart---I knew what it was about. I just knew. It was confirmed as soon as I heard my mother say, "I'm sorry to have to tell you this..." I love my grandmother Florence so  much. I  miss her already. The last time I saw her was in July a few days before departing for Rome. After giving her a hug and a kiss and leaving her house, my eyes filled with tears as I heard the song " Homesick " by MercyMe for the first time. I had a feeling that I wouldn't see her again. For 15 years of my life, I lived seven houses up the street from my paternal grandparents. I didn't realize how blessed  I was as a child to be ab...

It just feels odd . While there are indeed many, many other words I could use to describe my feelings right now, I'll just stick with odd. It feels odd that tomorrow will be my first  Thanksgiving away from home and that I won't get to see anyone in my family... It feels  odd that I will not be attending a Stoughton/Canton football game... It feels  odd that I won't be chatting on the sidelines with fellow SHS alumni whom I probably haven't seen since the previous Thanksgiving--ONLY to cease our conversations to watch the Black Knight Marching Band and Color Guard half-time show... It feels  odd  that I won't be at my TEN YEAR  high school reunion on Friday... It feels  odd  that I am in a country where tomorrow is just  another Thursday on the calendar... However, we at the North American College will be celebrating Thanksgiving! In fact, the college has many  events lined up this weekend in the hopes of getting our min...

At the praying of Evening Prayer I tonight, the Church begins the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe (which is the last Sunday in the Liturgical Year of the Church. Next Sunday Dec. 1 we begin the Season of Advent).  This year however, the Solemnity of Christ the King also marks the end of the "Year of Faith" (declared by Pope Benedict XVI on October 11, 2011), which began on Thursday October 11, 2012, the same day the Church marked the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council (and the 20th anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church). One of the goals for all Catholics during this Year of Faith was  to study and reflect on the documents of Vatican II and the Catechism of the Catholic Church so as to deepen their knowledge of the faith.  In his Apostolic Letter Porta Fidei , Pope Benedict called the Year of Faith the  “summons to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord, the One Savior of the world” ( ...

I love learning languages. I love learning about other cultures. I love visiting other cultures and experiencing what they have to offer (do I sound like a former foreign language teacher?!) but at the end of the day… I am an American. There’s a certain way in which things are done that are my preferred way of doing things. Road building is one of them. If you’ve ever been to Europe, specifically, parts that were once dominated by the Roman Empire, than you’re no stranger to the cobblestone roads. Even today, there are cobblestone roads that remain in parts of the Eternal City. Because some of them lack levity, sometimes they are bumpy and pot-holey roads, which makes them hard to walk on, easy to trip on, and can make anyone consider going into the field of podiatry! (You’d make bank!) In my opinion, a lot of these roads need to be torn up, evenly leveled, and then paved over… but for understandable reasons, these cobblestone roads are valued as part of Roman history that is t...

I do realize it’s been a while since I last updated…and like I’ve blogged before, once in the routine of classes I won’t describe my daily activities—classes and such, rather I’ll blog about experiences/sharable thoughts I have during the course of the year. We’re now into the 5 th week of the semester and settled into the academic year schedule at the college. This past weekend was travel permitted due to the All Saint’s Holiday on Friday. A few guys and I decided to seize this opportunity to get away from Rome for a few days, and left on Thursday afternoon for a weekend in Firenze (Florence). The city of Firenze is BEAUTIFUL. Dare I say, in some ways I preferred it to Rome! The streets were wider and not as hard on the feet when walking, the city seemed cleaner, and surprisingly, I heard a lot more English than in Rome! After Mass at the Cathedral on Friday, the girls who were sitting in front of us heard us speaking English, and began a conversation with us. As it turns out, t...

Today I had to go to the Vatican Post office to buy some stamps (side note--MAN those things are expensive!! 2 € =$2.70 EACH!!!!)...when it occurred to me that 35 years ago today, in the same square I was standing in, were thousands of people, waiting rather anxiously to hear these words:  "Anuntio Vobis gaudium magnum: Habemus Papam!" That was the night that the Holy Spirit, through the College of Cardinals gave the Church and the world Pope John Paul II. This Polish bishop became one of the most influential people of the second half of the XX Century...I can't tell you how many people I know are named "John Paul" in honor of this man. For most of my life, he was the only Holy Father I had ever known. I was almost 20 years old, when he died, and it became so odd to not hear at every Mass I attended "together with John Paul, our Pope..." My fondest memory of JPII has to be when I was 17. I went with Stoughton Life Teen to World Youth Day in Toro...

One year ago last night (10/10/12) I went up to my sister Julianne's new apartment for visit with her and for dinner and a movie with her and her boyfriend Jeff.  My iPhone indicated to me that I received an email—and when I read it, I saw it was from the rector of the seminary saying; "can we meet after Mass tomorrow? It’s good news!"...Juli asked if I had any idea of what he wanted to talk about, and I responded, “I bet he’s going to ask me to study in Rome. I don’t want to go!" (you can LOL at this point, since we all know I'm blogging this from the Eternal City...) Juli told me she knew I was excited/honored that they would ask you, but also knew that if I did end up in Rome that it would be a huge challenge for me. And she was right. I am such a homebody, that the thought of spending 5 years in a new city, new country, new seminary etc. was daunting and scary! (In fact---after a year of getting used to the idea, and 3 months of being h...