...525,600 minutes...how do you measure, measure a year?

Given the fact that it has been SO long since my last post, I figured this entry HAS to be a good, reflective one to "make up" for my lack of posts!

It's not that I didn't want to post--or that I was too busy--it was that I promised I wouldn't blog about daily life/classes unless something was SO striking to me that I felt I needed to share it. I've also resolved to journal my personal thoughts and insights instead of blogging about them...

However, the reason I chose to blog today is because I wanted to reflect on what happened to me one year ago today...

On June 24, 2013 (the Solemnity of the Nativity of John the Baptist), Cardinal Seán admitted Mike Zimmerman and me as a Candidates for Holy Orders before we left for NAC in mid-July.

During Evening Prayer in the St. Charles Oratory at SJS, Cardinal Seán gave a brief homily on the milestone step Mike and I made in our priestly formation. Then we moved to the formal ceremony itself, which was quite simple. We were asked two questions by His Eminence and then he accepted us. 

Cardinal O’Malley: 
Beloved sons, the pastors and teachers in charge of your formation, and others who know you, have given a favorable account of you, and we have full confidence in their testimony. In response to the Lord’s call, do you resolve to complete your preparation so that in due time through Holy Orders you will be prepared to assume ministry within the Church?
Aspirants: I do. 

Cardinal O’Malley:
Do you resolve to prepare yourselves in mind and spirit to give faithful service to Christ the Lord and his Body, the Church? 
Aspirants: I do.

Cardinal O’Malley:
The Church accepts your resolve with joy. May God who has begun the good work in you bring it to fulfillment. 
All: Amen.

Msgr. Moroney, Michael Zimmerman, Cardinal Seán, Kevin Leaver after our Admission to Candidacy Ceremony

Looking back over the past year, it has most definitely been blessed. Of my 3 years thus far in priestly formation, this was the most challenging--personally, spiritually, psychologically, physically (lot of walking in Rome!)...

In the first verse of song "Seasons of Love" from RENT, the lyrics ask how one determine's the length of a year...minutes? moments? daylights? sunsets? midnights? cups of coffee? inches? miles?  laughter and strife?... 

It got me thinking about how I've been measuring the length of the past year in the wrong way. I left the USA for Rome on Sunday July 14, 2013...and (with the exception of the 2 weeks home at Christmas for my grandmother's funeral) I've been measuring the past year like this:

From and including: Sunday, 14 July 2013 To and including: Tuesday, 24 June 2014 Result:  It is 346 days from the start date to the end date, end date included

Or 11 months, 11 days including the end date

346 days can be converted to one of these units:

• 29,894,400 seconds
• 498,240 minutes
• 8304 hours
• 346 days
• 49 weeks (rounded down)

However, since today mark's one year that I've been a candidate for Holy Orders, I thought I'd reevaluate the way I measure the past year. So I want to reflect on a few other ways the past year has been measured:

• Growth:

Over the past year, I've grown a lot: personally and spiritually. Being uprooted from the only home I've ever know (MA) and not moving to a different city or state, but to an entirely different country was very challenging for me. Having to learn a new language, get familiar with a new culture (which can be frustrating to say the least),  and making new friends forces one to grow and mature. I was "wicked" homesick. I was so homesick for Boston that I even started to miss people I hardly saw my 1st two years of seminary! I found out more about myself as I went through this transition period, and feel that I am a stronger, more faithful man than I was at this time last year.

Prayer was a HUGE part of sustenance,  both my personal prayer life, as well as knowing how often others were lifting me up in prayer at Mass, in their Rosary intentions, during their Holy Hours before the Blessed Sacrament, praying that the Lord bless and guide me. Walking in the footsteps of so many Saints of the Church has helped me develop greater devotion to them as intercessors for me to our Lord, as well as given me a sense of the universal and timeless nature of the Church--for example I can pray with St. Monica (from North Africa) who died in the early 5th century and is buried in Rome and her intercession on my behalf as a part of the Church triumphant is realized! It's SUCH a blessing!!

I was told by a priest at the college that during the discussion of my class at the faculty meeting when my name came up the only comment was on how much I had grown over the year regarding the transition as well assimilating myself as a member of the community, and making solid/healthy friendships.  

Speaking of...

• Friendships:

At this point last year, I had heard ad nauseam from NAC alumni how I was going to "meet the best friends" of my life. Some of the friends I meet at NAC would be my travel companions after ordination etc. I felt as if my friendships from my two years at SJS and before were being discounted.

However, now after my first year at NAC--I realize that is not what the priests were telling me. My friends from SJS and other parts of my life still mean, and will always mean so much to me. We've gone through a lot together in the course of our friendships, and I know that no matter how long we go without seeing/speaking that they will always be a part of my life.

BUT what the priests were saying does have a hint of truth. I have been blessed with some AMAZING friends in Rome, that I know will be in my life forever. Being away from home for holidays, family events, etc is hard--but going through it with other people helps you form a bond with them because it's something you hold in common. It doesn't mean the friendships are better...just necessarily different. Basta...

• The Catholic experience AND beyond:

Living in Rome and studying at the Gregorian University has given me a deeper appreciation for the beauty of the Catholic faith. καθολικός (Katholikos) in Greek means universal. The Catholic Church is the universal Church, and studying in Rome has allowed me to meet faithful men and women from all over the world who love the Lord and His Church and want to figure out how He wants them to serve His Church (as priests, sisters/brothers, lay faithful etc). Along with studying at the Greg, my apostolate as a tour guide of St. Peter's Basilica has been such a blessing---meeting pilgrims (mainly from the US) and guiding them through the Basilica gives me an insight into the life of the Church at different places around the world.

Also, the travel weekends/breaks have also allowed me to meet people from around the world that I wouldn't have meet in Rome. Living in Europe--whenever I hear English being spoken I automatically feel a bond! So, being an extravert, I usually end up chatting with people on a plane/bus/train, in a restaurant etc. It typically comes up of why I'm traveling where I am, or why do I live in Rome etc. Most people have seemed fascinated when they learn I am a seminarian studying to be a Catholic priest. That can either quickly end the conversation, OR it can be a moment of God's grace working in their lives. I've often pulled a 1 Pt 3:15-16, and people attentively listen to my testimony and why I feel called to be a priest, etc.

The blessings of these encounters confirm for me paragraph 27 of the First Chapter of the Catechism of the Catholic Church that says:

The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for:

The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God. This invitation to converse with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into being. For if man exists it is because God has created him through love, and through love continues to hold him in existence. He cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and entrusts himself to his creator.

St. Francis of Assisi is quoted as saying “The deeds you do may be the only sermon some persons will hear today”  So, who am I to stand in the way if God has placed me somewhere to be an instrument to lead someone to Him? Back in 9th grade, a friend was an example of this to me. The way she lived her life, and the zealous way in which she shared her faith stirred up that desire in me to have what she had. I eventually took her up on her invitation to go to the Life Teen Mass at her (our) Church, which led me closer to Christ and discovering my vocation. I thank God all the time for using her friendship to draw me to Himself by her inviting me to Life Teen, and how that changed the path of my life, leading me to that truth and happiness that allows me to live fully.

----

OK...back to the beginning. 

Today I mark one year of being a candidate for Holy Orders.  How did I measure the past year? Well...similar to "Seasons of Love" it started out as how long I was going to be/had been away from something; days, weeks, minutes, number of family cookouts/parties I wasn't there for. It was all about what I was missing. However, now it is about what I'm receiving. Measuring the past 365 days by the abundant blessings God has poured into my life is a heck of a lot better than focusing on what I don't have.

What about you...How do you measure, measure a year?

Until next time...Praised be Jesus Christ...

--kpl

(PS. I hope it was worth the wait!)