One year a priest...

J.M.J.

June 5th, 2010

Memorial of St. Boniface

In just an hour or so, I will have been a priest for one full year!  Deo gratias!

It's hard to believe a year has gone by, it's hard to imagine not being a priest, not celebrating the Eucharist, not hearing confessions, not being for all the people I serve.  My life has been full and blessed in many ways leading to this past year, but I have a sense of it all flowing into and for this purpose, to be a priest of Jesus Christ and to serve His Bride, the Church.

I spent the last three days with 27 eighth-graders and their teachers and some of their parents on the Class Trip!  Great America, Chicago: Shedd Aquarium, Museum of Science and Industry, Boat Tour, Pizza, musical, tour of Mundelein Seminary with Mass there, then shopping at Fox Valley Mall (the last being my least favorite!  Not a single bookstore in that whole mall anymore!  At least there's a sporting-goods store!).  It was a wonderful exhausting trip and a deep draught of spiritual fatherhood...

It has been a year truly full of blessings, not least among them being here at St. Michael Parish and Catholic Campus Ministry and having Fr. Larry as my pastor and mentor and friend.  Truly, it is good that we are here!  It is a further blessing to be back in the UP, to be close to my parents and friends.

So, at this moment, my heart is full of gratitude and joy!  There are MANY challenges ahead, I am VERY conscious of just beginning to learn what it means to be a priest, but I am also filled with confidence in the Lord Jesus who calls us into union with the Trinity, who empowers us with His Holy Spirit, who draws deeper into the fire of love.  In God, ALL things are possible!

St. Boniface, bishop and martyr, pray for us!

Blessed Mother, draw us into your Immaculate Heart and closer to the Sacred Heart of your Son, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.