Silent Retreat and Week of Homilies

(pictures of the retreat house)

Grace and Peace to you and your loved ones!

My friends, God is good to us, more so than we deserve. Last week, I was priviledged to spend a week in Silent retreat at a Jesuit retreat house in Dronghen. The Grounds were beautiful and the time was so necessary to come to terms with the new life that I am living. I realize that nothing is familiar to me here except my faith, and the foundational relationship with Jesus Christ is all that remains when the other externals are stripped away. I thank you all for your prayers, because even in the midst of such turmoil and change, the Lord has been a constant presence to me here. I must mention also, the effects of your rosaries and mass intentions: Mary has long been my mother, and she, through the mercy and grace of God, has been comforting me during this time of transition. I know, in the depth of my heart, that the Lord will not abandon me, or any of us for that matter. Thanks be to God for His generosity!

In addition to the retreat, we were graced this week to have a homiletics workshop with Fr. Jim Wallace, C.S.S.r. His talks were excellent and I had the opportunity to write my first homily! I hope to be able to continue learning techniques for crafting better sermons and, through prayer and study, grow in deeper awareness of God's mystery.

(picture: a path at Dronghen, metaphor for spiritual journey)


We begin classes on Tuesday! I can hardly wait to get started. God continues to confound me and bless me more than I deserve. According to my study program, I could potentially be finished with my bachelors in one-and a half years! This is a civil degree, but it pairs up with the cannonical degree of S.T.B, which could also be finished in a little under 2 years! Afterwards, I would do my Masters, which pairs with the S.T.L. lasting about 2 years. In 3 and 1/2 years from now, I could be done with what would normally be 5 years! This is both a shock and humbling, for I know it means that I will be working very hard. Yet, I know that I am here by grace anyway, and the Lord will not give me more than I can handle. Please pray that I have wisdom and discernment regarding what exactly God is asking me to do with studies, so that I don't bite off more than I can chew.

I miss you all and hope that you are doing well. May God's love be with each of your families and fill you abundantly this day. I have Skype with an American phone number now, if you would like to call me. Just drop me an email and I'll give it to you. Until next time...

(Just a picture of a rib-dinner that I had with my brothers not too far from the college...amazing food...yes I know I'm random, but I liked it!)