9 months!

This morning I was hanging out with some friends in my room when one of them brought up that today marks 9 months since we left the United States for Rome. In 3 short months we will hit the one year mark, also the half way point until the summer we're allowed to return to the States...

Looking back over the past 9 months, there have been times it feels as if I've been here 9 years...and then at other times as if I've only been gone a few weeks. There are so many blessings that the Lord has given me over these past 9 months, and many more that I know He will shower upon me in the coming years. Briefly, I'd like to share a few of the things I've realized I am blessed with here at NAC:

• My apostolate assignment. I am a tour guide of St. Peter's Basilica, leading tours in English for pilgrims to the Vatican. It has been such a blessing to meet people from all over the US, UK and Australia and show them the Basilica. Each time I am giving a tour, I realize how blessed I am. The thing that I've decided I need to incorporate more for myself in this apostolate is private prayer either before or after my tour. The tomb of (Soon to be SAINT!!!) JP II is in the basilica, and I point it out every tour and say a quick "JPII, pray for me", but I'd like to spend more time there. He was monumental in my vocational discernment, even though I didn't officially begin discerning until 2 years after his death. Listening to him speak to the youth at WYD2002 in Toronto was such a pivotal moment in my discernment journey, and I am so grateful I had the opportunity to attend that pilgrimage.

• Community Life. Living at St. John's for two years in a house of 80+ guys was at times challenging and difficult, but it was also fun and joy filled. I felt a sense of community and of belonging, which I was afraid I would lose at NAC with 250+ seminarians and then another 25+ graduate student priests. However, the NAC takes careful steps to create a community environment, and (at least in my opinion) it seems to work well. From Tuesday night hall prayer, to theme tables, to organized sporting events, movie nights in the student lounge etc, there is always bound to be something that piques someones interest and draws them into the communal life.

• Brotherhood. I made really good friends at SJS. Even if I don't speak with them daily, or even weekly, I know that I am in their daily prayers as they are in mine. Coming over to Rome, a worry of mine was would I be able to make quality friendships...At first I had the outlook of "why make good friends here if we'll spend the rest of our lives in different dioceses?" Clearly, that was a mistake on my part and I've since opened myself up to whatever friendships God wants to bless me with. I can honestly see myself visiting some of these friends in their respective parts of the country. Since everyone that lives at the NAC is at one time a "new man", most people know have similar feelings regarding homesickness, experience anxiety (to a degree) of the cultural shock of Rome, get frustrated with acquiring Italian etc. We're all in this together...and it's a blessing to know you're not alone in your struggles or feelings. The friendships I've formed here, logically so, are different than friendships back home. There are experiences that I will have with these brothers that I will most likely never get to have with my brothers back home. (Obviously this doesn't lessen the brotherhood of those guys!)

• Being in 'The Desert'. During my two years of formation at SJS, I would often help out at parish Confirmation retreats, speak to RelEd classes, volunteer to be on the Eucharistic Congress committee and so forth and so on. I looked at coming to Rome as a complete cutoff from life in the Archdiocese. I thought I would feel disconnected with what was going on back home. I thought I would be in a spiritual desert. However, something that has been striking me in prayer recently is that I am blessed with this time away from the diocese, in order to grow deeper in love with it. This time away from the diocese is giving me such an opportunity to pray for the people I will one day serve. This time of formation in Rome is for me. It is for me to grow personally as well as spiritually to be the holiest, healthiest and happiest version of myself I can be, so that when I present myself to the Bishop for Holy Orders I will be well prepared, in every sense of the word, to undertake the ordained ministry.

My time in Rome is blessed, and it has been from the beginning, it just took me a little while to see it.  Do I still miss home? Of course! Are there still days I'd rather be learning in English and not Italian? ALL THE TIME. Do I have days I wish I could just get in my car and go for a ride to visit a friend on a random weeknight? Certo! And on and on...

Yet, when I find myself thinking about things that I miss, I repeat my Julianne's wise words "Kevin, God doesn't have you in Rome just so you're not in Boston." Amen, sister...Amen.

And after 9 months, I can pray with complete honesty "Lord, it is good that we are here." (Mt 17:4)

Have a blessed Holy Week,

Praised be Jesus Christ...

--kpl