Finally Back Home in Rome

Over two months later, I am finally staggering back home to Rome. It is hard to believe how much I shoved into such a short period of time. After my month of French studies in Paris, I went to London for a few days. I lived with a beautiful parish community in Soho, and I was shocked to find out that this parish was where Archbishop Fulton Sheen always lived when he was in London. Many of his famous stories happened in this little church. I helped out at the parish a little, and spent most of my time visiting churches and museums. I went one night to see a production of Oliver which was very well done. My last day, I took a train out to Oxford. I loved seeing the place where so many famous writers studied, live, and wrote. It was almost a guilty pleasure to have a pint in The Eagle and Child where Tolkien, Lewis, and the other Inklings met for years.

I then went to Scotland where I met up with an American priest who is also studying at Rome. He was taking care of a cluster of parishes so that the local priest could take a vacation during the summer. The first day we explored Edinburgh, and had an amusing experience when we arrived at his rectory to discover that he had the wrong key and we were locked out. It was midnight at this point, and we seriously considered breaking into his rectory which I found to be utterly hilarious. Imagine an exhausted priest and seminarian trying to decide if they should break into their own house. Thank God, we were able to find someone who had a spare key. The next day we toured the southern part of Scotland where we saw the burial of place of Sir Walter Scot and the place where Robert the Bruces heart was buried. The next day, I went on a day tour through the Highlands. I was amazed by the beauty, and even more amazed when our bus broke down in the middle of nowhere. Just when I thought the day could not get any stranger, someone on our tour got left at the place where we met the new bus. In the end, we made it to our boat tour of Loch Ness. Although I never saw Nessie, I was able to enjoy a dram of Scotch while I watched tourists search the Loch with their binoculars.

The next day I flew out for a week and a half in Ireland with the cousins of my uncle. I cannot say enough for the amount of time and effort they put into my visit. They took time off from work, and spent that entire time period driving me all over Ireland. My memory is still flooded with images of beautiful monasteries and rugged countryside. It had been my dream to see Ireland for years, and it was well worth the wait. I will have to write more about this trip when I have time.

Eventually it was time to say goodbye to Ireland as I began the last part of my summer. For the next two weeks, I worked at a small parish in Sardinia. Sardinia is a beautiful island off of the southwestern side if Italy which is covered with mountains and beaches. I found that the people of Sardinia were just as beautiful as their island. It is a very interesting culture. Their island was settled several thousand years before by a prehistoric culture which has left evocative ruins throughout the island. In the less distant past, it had strong ties to Spain, and you can still hear the influence if Spanish in their native language. More recently, it became tied to Italy so its culture is a blend of all of these different cultural elements. I spent my first week working a retreat for high schoolers, and my second week was in the mountains with several other priests. This experience was such a blessing, and I pray that I am able to return to this parish again in the future.

One blessing and curse of this summer was the sporadic access to internet. Now, I use the internet as my primary means of communication, and I was unable to stay in touch with my family and friends for most of the summer. As hard as this was at times, it was also a blessing in disguise. It allowed me to focus completely on whatever I happened to be doing at that moment in time. I experienced the cultures deeply in every place that I lived because I had nothing to distract me from their day to day lives. I know that God gave me the summer that I needed to prepare me for the next stage in my formation. I was able to study, travel, visit with family, work with a parish, and live with priests from all over the world. It was an extreme privilege to be welcomed into so many lives from so many different cultures during the summer. I will hopefully write more on different aspects of my summer as time permits, but this gives a brief sketch of what I did.

After returning to Rome, we had a week of conferences to prepare us for the coming year. We are at a point in our formation when we are expected to come to a "presumption of our vocation." One year from now, I will be petitioning my diocese for my ordination to the deaconate and priesthood, and around two years from now, I will be lying face down on the floor of St Peters offering my life to Christ in a permanent and public way. With this on all of our hearts, my class was sent to a retreat center on a nearby mountain for a week of silence and prayer. It is amazing how close you can grow to those around you in the midst of a week with no communication. There is much to be said about how relationships can grow even without the use of words. I was grateful for this time to pray and reflect on all that has come before and all that lies ahead. I feel renewed and excited about all that stands before me. I remember thinking at one point that I am 29 years old, and I finally know what I want to do with my life. It was amazing to have that realization that I am exactly where I need to be.

Until next time, may God's blessings be on all of you.