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

Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to people of good will!  Merry Christmas to all! I pray that you and your loved ones will experience the peace that the Newborn King comes to bring, and that His love reign supreme in your hearts every day of the coming year. Since I didn't send Christmas cards this year, I decided to do a "Christmas letter" and post it as a blog. It's not because I don't love you, it's because I'm cheap...its 2,30€ to mail from Vatican City to USA or $2.50 per envelope! I can hardly believe we're approaching 2016 , the year I get ordained a deacon, God willing! Much has happened in 2015, and I want to take a moment to review it with you all. December 31, 2014-January 1, 2015: I started off 2015 in a unique way: Locked in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem! I, along with 6 other men from the NAC on pilgrimage rang in the new year at Calvary! Greek Orthodox Altar above the spot Jes...

We received this email from our Director of Liturgy yesterday, and I decided to post it in a blog because of its richness. Maranatha, Come Lord, Jesus! "On December 17 th , the Church’s Advent liturgy begins to focus in a particular way on the Nativity of the Lord.  The prayers, readings, and preface at Mass as well as the readings, antiphons for the Gospel canticles, intercessions, and prayers at the Liturgy of the Hours concentrate more resolutely than during the preceding days of Advent on the coming feast of the Nativity of the Lord. The great “O Antiphons” have a particular role in these days as they have been used for centuries as the antiphons for the Magnificat.  Each antiphon, always sung in a very similar melody, begins with a title of Christ, usually taken from the Old Testament, and followed by the petition that he come to us ( veni ) and act on our behalf: December 17:  O Sapientia  (O Wisdom) December 18:  O Adonai  (O Lord)...

Have you ever had one of those moments when you just know  that the Lord is speaking to you? When those moments happen, my heart is filled with pure joy and an indescribable peace that can come only from my heavenly Father. Monday nights at NAC there is a Praise and Worship group that meets and...does exactly what the name of the group implies: praises and worships. They sing contemporary Christian songs, praising the Lord. There are also breakout prayer teams if someone would like to be prayed over. I am slightly embarrassed to admit that, after going in the beginning of my New Man year, I stopped going in order to hang out with a different group of guys and watch Home Improvement on Monday nights...and I would get my "praise and worship" music fix on my iPod when I went to the gym, or just chillin in my room. This morning at school, however, a good friend told me that his apostolate was invited to come to Praise tonight, meaning that the Blessed Sacrament would be expo...

Before the academic year starts here in the Eternal City,  one of our highlight events of the year happens: the Diaconate Ordination of our Fourth Theology class.  Tomorrow, thirty-nine men f rom different dioceses around the United States, Canada and Australia will process into St. Peter’s Basilica to lay down their lives in service to Jesus Christ and His Church at the Altar of the Chair. One of those men is a diocesan brother ("db") of mine; Kevin Staley-Joyce. Please keep him and his classmates in your prayers tomorrow (Feast of St. Thérèse of Lisieux!) as they take on a new identity, being conformed to Christ the Servant. Tomorrow will be a day of many emotions (happiness, pride, and excitement being just a few!) not only for the ordinandi, but for almost 2500 people who have come to Rome to witness this event! It will also be very exciting for my class, because we will then be "on-deck" for our diaconate ordination in the fall of 2016. ...

Since today was the last daily Mass at my summer assignment, (I will leave the parish on Sunday after I serve Mass), I gave a reflection on my favorite saint---Maximilian Kolbe, priest and martyr. I will expand upon what I said at Mass below, since I (maybe not so) obviously didn't use the YouTube clip during Mass: The following clip from The Lion King  possesses a strong  Christian message... See, when one is baptized into the body of Christ, s/he becomes a beloved daughter/son of our Heavenly Father. THAT is our identity. IF we forget who we are, that is, beloved daughters/sons, we can easily fall off the path toward living a holy and virtuous life. When our identity is first and foremost rooted in being a beloved child of God, we are more open to discerning what He has created us for, what our vocation is, and we will seek to live a Godly life. Today the Church celebrates the feast day of St. Maximilian Kolbe a Polish Franciscan who was killed in the Nazi concentratio...

On Monday I turned 30 ...and, to my surprise, it doesn't feel all that weird! Over this past week I've reflected on the decade that I just completed...because honestly, how much reflection could I do on the ages of 10-19. (I could, but I wasn't that much  of a reflective person when I turned 20!) I can remember beginning my 20's by spending the day working at McD's then having some friends over for pizza, cake and ice cream later that night...At the time I had recently became a CORE Member with Stoughton Life Teen, and although I thought I had a deep faith in high school, I was realizing that I still had MUCH more room to grow in my relationship with Christ.  I won't recount the whole decade, only some highlights! Soon after I turned 21 I left Stoughton Life Teen to help begin Bridgewater Life Teen, and within a few months I was the Youth Minister. I would remain there for almost 5 years until I entered seminary! I started as youth minister during my senio...

Well...Second Theology is officially in the books!!!  Let us pray: Gratias agimus tibi, Domine, pro universis beneficiis tuis, qui vivis et regnas in sæcula sæculórum. Amen. *** We give thee thanks, almighty God, for all your benefits, who livest and reignest forever and ever. Amen. Tomorrow I will go home for the first { extended } time in two years!!! Although my mind is all over the place now with everything I have to get done before I leave tomorrow, I did want to give a brief update to my many followers :-P Since classes ended the last week of May and we switched to our "house final schedule", I have been reflecting a lot upon my two years in the Eternal City. I've taken a look at where I've grown, where I still would like to grow, and pretty much just thought about everything that's happened over the past two years. There is a short sentence that expresses the past two years very well from my perspective: God is SO good! ...

By this point, we're all aware that my blogging has become few and far between...and I'm sorry! But...the GREAT news is...Here's a new one!! AND the REALLY GREAT NEWS since my last post  is... Christos Anesti  ("Χριστός ἀνέστη!" - "Christ is Risen!)   Alithós Anésti! ( Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη!"--"(He is) Truly Risen!") Our Lenten observance drew to a close with the Paschal Triduum, the three most sacred days in the Church calendar (Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday: beginning with the Mass of the Lord's Supper, moving through the Lord's Passion, and culminating with the Celebration of the Resurrection of the Lord at the Easter Vigil). As I stated in my post at the beginning of Lent, I planned to be more active in the Station Church pilgrimage this year. It was a beautiful opportunity to walk to historical churches throughout Rome to celebrate the Sacred Liturgy. Being able to offer my Rosary on the walk for people b...

This morning at the community Mass at the Pontifical North American College, I, along with 53 of my classmates in Second Theology, were instituted to the Ministry of Acolyte by Bishop Loverde of the Diocese of Arlington. Seminarians mark our time in formation by different milestones, some of which are small (putting another semester of academic studies in the books, counting down to various seminary events, etc) but other milestones are larger (such as compiling your yearly self-evaluation and then having your evaluation meeting to determine if the faculty will approve you to advance to the next year for instance...) These "milestones" help the seminarian look forward to the day when, God willing, he is ordained. Milestones such as what my class and I experienced today make ordination day seem that much closer, because (in a broad sense) the Ministry of Acolyte is the "last step" before a man petitions to be ordained to the Transitional Diaconate (clearly he mus...