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

Surprisingly, I don't have much to say in this entry...so it should be rather brief! In medieval England, the month after someone died, there was typically a requiem Mass celebrated for that person. The  "Minnying Days" were the days that the souls of the deceased were held in special remembrance. Well, today  marks one month since my grandmother passed away, and thus she is being held in special remembrance today. Her passing still seems so surreal to me...partly because I am in Italy and don't see anyone back home routinely anyway, so the feeling of being in her house and her not being there is still foreign to me, and partly because for most of my life I had this image of gram being 100 someday. Two things that have "happened" today struck me as interesting (for lack of a better word). Now,  I'm not a fan of "coincidences". I tend to believe that when something happens it is usually for a reason...even if it remains a mystery. The fir...

It's almost crunch time!! There are FIVE remaining class days until First Semester is over and then the 3 week exam period begins...And I'm not sure how I feel about that. Being a Spanish major in college, I've had oral exams before, and anyone who knows me knows how I love the sound of my own voice so the 10 minutes won't be a problem...but this is the first time that my ENTIRE grade is based on ONE 10 minute exam...it's somewhat nerve-wracking! St. Thomas Aquinas and I are going to be doing a LOT of dialogue in the next few weeks. The first year men are in the process of drafting our Self-Evaluations for our annual reviews. The reflection process in the self-evaluation is always something I've found very enriching to my formation, but in a different way this year. During my two years at St. John's, we were encouraged to set goals in the 4 areas of seminary formation (human, spiritual, intellectual, pastoral) and discuss those goals with our Spiritual...

Ministry of Lector This Sunday, the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, 59 of my classmates and I will be Instituted to the Ministry of Lector by Archbishop Hebda, Co-Adjutor Bishop of Newark, NJ. This is another step on our journey towards Holy Orders. Paraphrasing what we were told tonight during our formation session on receiving this ministry, an instituted lector is a man who has been recognized by the Church as having conformed his life to the teachings of Sacred Scripture, and has a desire to bring this teaching to others. It is not  just "something you have to do in order to become a priest", rather it is something we desire to do. We now get  to proclaim the Word of God in communal worship. Since Scripture is living, it is different each time we hear it. This is why our Church offers the same reading(s) in a continuous cycle. The Eternal Author of the Scriptures knows that His words will speak to each person in the assembly differently each time s/he hears a c...

Well...I've been back in Rome since mid-day Sunday. Classes resumed tomorrow, and we're back into the swing of things. There are 2.5 weeks left in the semester before my first set of Italian University exams. A classmate put it well in his fb status " 3 months/13 weeks/270 hours-worth of unlearned material from 5 different grad-level classes taught in Italian to be learned in less than 3 weeks for final exams that constitute the entire grade for each respective course...challenge accepted. It's crunch time." St. Thomas Aquinas...pray for us! Christmas break wasn't the one that was on the books, but it was still a blessed experience. As most of you know, I returned to the United States on 12/23 to be with my family after the passing of my paternal grandmother on December 21. Though I would have rather been home under happier circumstances, it was a grace to be able to spend Christmas with my family, and then gather for the celebration of my grandmother's ...