The Transfiguration: Who is Changed?

Hey all--

How about another post from a reflection I wrote last summer? The book I was reading was The Wellspring of Worship by Father Jean Corbon, who was a major influence on the Catechism of the Catholic Church's 4th section on prayer. This one is on the Transfiguration, and shows a bit of my prayer life, my fears, desires, etc....

        One thing that really caught my attention from this week’s reading was when Corbon speaks of the Transfiguration as not being a change in Jesus, but a change in the disciples. I had never thought of it like that before. Specifically, what I reflected on was that Jesus “reveals himself by giving himself, and he gives himself in order to transform us into himself” (92). By revealing His true self, Jesus unveils our eyes, so that we may be like Him, i.e., divinized.

            It occurred to me that this radical love is a rather mysterious paradox: that God wants His creation to become like Him so much that He reveals Himself as a man in a unique way at the Transfiguration. This event in history, this singular moment in time, has become an eternal ‘metamorphosis’ for all Christians: like Peter, James, and John, Christians are called into intimate communion with the Lord by way of the Lord Himself. I feel almost too close to Jesus in this way: I know that this much love is something I have experienced at different moments in my life, and all of those moments were overwhelmingly emotional. I’m scared to be so close to this kind of love, for I know that it will demand more of me: More generosity, more selflessness, more love, more others, less me. But I see how selfish I am. Perhaps wrongfully so, I am afraid of failing at loving. I’m afraid of missing out on Heaven.

            But the Lord reassured me that I needn’t be afraid. Rather, I can be free to love Him as best as I’m currently able. This is soothing and I find that I want to love Him well now. The present moment is the most important moment. I still feel a bit intimidated by this grand, gutsy call. And so like my girl, St. Thérèse, I must always remember to respond to His kenosis (i.e., Jesus' self-emptying love) with my very self, generously giving Him whatever I’m able...full of humble confidence in His unfathomable mercy for the times when I do not love Him well.


PS--like my catfish? Caught it around the same time I wrote this reflection.

On Compassion

            Last summer, I spent 2 months at the Institute for Priestly Formation, where I was able to focus on the spiritual life. I am very grateful for this time, and thought I might share with you a couple of my papers that I wrote while there (even though it has been a WHILE since I last posted, I thought you may enjoy this more than you would an update on my life, which is very rich and full of the Lord's infinite love!). I wrote this short reflection on July 10, 2015. May God bless you all abundantly in the risen Christ Jesus our Lord,

Ryan

            While I was reading Father Jean Corbon's work, The Wellspring of Worship, I was struck by Corbon’s discussion of the Incarnation, particularly where he says, “The fountain is there, and it is the heart of the Savior: place of the Passion of God and the passion of man, place of the com-passion” (43). I have in recent months been drawn to the idea of compassion, most precisely because of its Latin roots, meaning “to suffer with.” Once I heard this root of the word, my idea of compassion changed: from having sympathetic, yet somewhat distant, feelings towards another in trial, to the idea of empathy—really entering the suffering of the other.

            So in my reflection on Corbon, I acknowledged that “suffering with” as a definition of compassion still moves me. As I was relating this to the Lord in prayer, I realized that as God enters into humanity, He ‘suffers with’ us simply by entering into the fallen world as a human being—simply by the Incarnation, He suffers with us (to speak nothing of the Cross). But He enters humanity so that we may then suffer with Him by carrying our crosses and being nailed to the cross with Him. I continued relating to the Lord as I got to the notion of ‘thirst.’ [Jesus's thirst for humanity is a common theme in this book.] That God wants to quench His thirst for communion with His creation is incredible. And not just man collectively, but individually: with each man, woman, and child.

At this point in my prayer period, I was finished speaking to the Lord and just received what He had to give me: made in God’s image and likeness, we too have a thirst for communion. Unlike God’s thirst, though, we want communion with Him who is communion, with the Trinity. Going back to compassion, I felt Jesus saying to me that I could understand His Sacred Heart better by calling it His Compassionate Heart: for His heart ‘suffers with’ our hearts whenever they are in pain. As my heart gets pierced (by the lances of Original Sin, the Evil One, others’ sins, and my own sins), my heart suffers. When my heart is pierced, Jesus feels the soldier’s lance piercing His Heart. It bleeds, as my heart bleeds: it ‘suffers with’ my own pierced heart. And we are in a greater communion with each other than we have ever been before.

On Balance...

Well my friends,

Soooo it's been nearly 3 months since my last blog post, and I feel very badly about not being in better touch. Life in the seminary, as I have found to be with life, gets busier and busier. I'm not saying that I haven't had any free time; I definitely have. But what I've found to be the case is that even in my free time, I need to be exceptionally productive because the reality is that the 'free time' could really just be translated as being study time, prayer time, laundry time, exercise time, etc. Given the essential parameters of life, I've found that I need to have a balance in my own life: if I'm not eating well, sleeping well, praying well (by 'praying well,' I simply mean that I am making time for the Lord every day outside of the required prayer times that the seminary imposes on all the seminarians--this outside prayer is not a requirement; rather, it is an opportunity to spend time with my Beloved.), exercising well, studying well, playing well...in other words, LIVING well.

My Uncle Xie (yep, just like it looks: EX-EE, short for his name, Francis Xavier, is a Franciscan priest in Chicago) has given me a good deal of advice over his years of living a holy life and his wisdom is appropriate here. I've tried to incorporate it into living well, that is, living a balanced life. He says it's essential, in order to live a good and balanced (note the 2 go together) life, one must be disciplined in living balance: eating, sleeping, praying, working, exercising, and playing (Playing could be socializing, or whatever you want it to be, as long as it's a holy type of leisure). Of course, generosity plays a role, too, and a role that we mustn't ignore or forget: sometimes I must choose to love my neighbor or my God out of generosity rather than go to bed on time. This is a heroic suffering! Who cares about getting an extra half hour or hour of sleep when you can be there for your brother seminarian who needs to talk (or your children who need a parent…or your friend-since-forever calls you up unexpectedly and you talk the night away) and you're the only person who will do…who can do? Heroic generosity!!

The Bible is very clear that the entire reason Jesus came to Earth, i.e., became man, was to bridge the gap between God and man created by original sin, and to spread the message of the Kingdom of God. I could be alone in this, but I happen to think that Jesus, the God-made-flesh, the Creator of the universe, had a plan when He selected His 12 apostles and that it was not by happenchance that He picked those 12 rather simple, fisherman-y, country bumpkins. His message, and His mission, was carried out by the 12 apostles and other disciples, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church is clear that Jesus' Church exists in order to evangelize. This is page one! No, it's LINE ONE! It's the very first sentence. And I quote: "Guarding the deposit of faith is the mission which the Lord entrusted to His Church, and which She fulfills in every age."

Why do I bring this up? What does it have to do with balance/"living well?" Funny you should ask! Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI says that to evangelize is "to teach the art of living." You can't teach something if you have not first learned it yourself!

In other words, I implore you, my friends, to love as Jesus loves: to know the Father intimately, to be led by the Holy Spirit, to be a person who prays and lives your prayer. Dr. Scott Hahn has quoted his own father (but I'll paraphrase here), who once told him when Scott was just a teenager: "Scott, your faith doesn't mean a thing if it doesn't affect how you treat people." Learn the love of the Father by spending time with His Son, asking for the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Love God by loving His mother, our Mother!



Ryan--I solemnly swear to post more frequently and with better material than this (I just had to let y'all know that I hadn't COMPLETELY forgotten about my blog…)-Welch

Mater Mea. Fiducia Mea.
(My Mother. My Confidence.)

During World War I, more than 100 seminarians were forced into the Italian military. The seminarians placed themselves under the special care of Our Lady of Confidence, and every single one returned home safely! Among the seminarians was the young Angelo Roncalli, the future St. Pope John XXIII.

Here's a picture of the statue of Our Lady of Confidence from our chapel:

My 26th Birthday

For those of you who don't know (shame on you! ;-) ), my birthday was on Wednesday and it was a great affair. We seminarians don't have classes on Wednesdays so we can do Apostolic Works like prison ministry, tutoring younger students, pro-life ministry, etc. But my own Apostolic Work is to work with the youth group of a nearby parish on Saturday nights. A pretty good number of the guys are in similar boats, so with the day off classes and AWs, we decided to play broomball in the morning after breakfast. If you haven't heard of broomball before, I like to describe it as "Poor Man's Hockey." You don't need pads or helmets or any such thing, just a small soccer ball, some "brooms" (like hockey sticks but with a rubber triangular head similar to the shape of a regular broom), 2 goals, and about 12 guys to play! You run around in regular shoes; it's also very slippery (cuz it's ice, you see…); ergo, it's a pretty even playing field for everyone. Great fun! The Lord continues to humble me through sports! [Side note: This was made evident to me once again last night, when I went cross country skiing with one of my brothers, Tim. There are some trails on the outside of the city that they light up so you can ski at night! Very fun…also, my first time doing it, sooo, yeahhh…I think you know where I'm going with this: humility. Ha! Such fun though! We skied around 5 miles and it's a good workout! It was a cool 9 degrees with wind chills well below 0, but man, if you're layered right and cross country skiing, you'll get a good sweat going!]

That evening (back to Wednesday), about 10 or 12 of my seminarian brothers went out for dinner and a beer to celebrate, and I was able to partake in one of my favorite beers on draft, Belhaven. This was most choice. All in all, it was a great day! Thank you for those who helped make it special! I heard from many friends and family (some of you, no doubt) and, praise the Lord (PTL), there has been no shortage of homemade chocolate chip cookies in the room of yours truly. Once again, I thank you for this most excellent blessing!!

Speaking of thankfulness….(see that segue?! OK, that was bad. I'll keep working on those…): I was reflecting this week on my life, and all that I have been given from the Lord, and this got me thinking about my list that I've been making since I came up to the seminary. The list is on a 2-foot by 3-foot whiteboard and I wrote, "Ryan, what are you thankful for?" at the top. I've been adding things since Day 1, and I thought maybe y'all would enjoy what's on the list, as well as a little inspiration for your own list. Yes, I encourage each of you to do this! I find that if we are not grateful for what we have (and we have so, so very much!), then we really can't love well. And I know that each of you reads every post I've written (and follow it meticulously…), so you know that love is what it's all about. Of course, this list doesn't even begin to do the giant "thankfulness" list justice, but it's a start.

If I'm unable to be grateful for what a person has done for me, how can I possibly love that person? How can I possibly serve that person? How can I possibly know what it means to have been loved in the first place if I fail to acknowledge, appreciate, and thank the person for the goodness of love?

Cheers y'all. Love ya.

On Adventure...

 Only in Minnesota…

On our retreat, Rick and I took a walk and I found this unique photo opportunity!

First time standing on a frozen lake! Snow is about 2 feet deep there. (Hey, it's interesting to me…and perhaps only me, but there ya go anyway…)

Took a trip to La Crosse, Wisconsin (first time to the great cheesy state of WI) to visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe…simply beautiful.

Visited the Mall of America…just cuz.

Went out with some other seminarians, and found a table and chairs entirely made of ice…pretty dang cool, if you ask me! ;-)

I love adventure. The pictures above are but a small sample of my desire for excitement. Trying new things, meeting new people, riding roller coasters, camping, flying kites (yeah, that's right…I said it…flying kites), traveling, and experiencing new people, culture, food, and the like. When I was a kid, I wanted to be Zorro one day, play in the NBA the next, and after that, be the next Davy Crockett, going to Congress and then dying a hero's death. Everyone loves adventure (I like the definition my Apple products give me--"an unusual and exciting, typically hazardous, experience or activity"--sounds fun, doesn't it? Even the 'typically hazardous' part gives us a thrill, right?! Ha). Of course, each of our own definitions looks different to each person, which is awesome, but regardless of what that definition is, we all have within us a deep, inherent, instinctive desire to live an adventurous life. Sadly, this great desire is often taken away from us in the excuse of "busyness" or the (heaven forbid) "mundane" of our lives (or do I even dare to say, the lack of priorities!).

At the end of the movie, "Hook," Robin Williams, playing the adult Peter Pan, comments on adventure, thinking of the adventure he had just had while back in Neverland, dueling Captain Hook to save his children from a dreaded fate--living with the old pirate forever. Pan says, "To live would be an awfully big adventure." We are talking about the character of Peter Pan, which is of course an adventure story for children of all ages, but I think this comment on adventure is limited, unless you define "to live" as necessarily incorporating the theological virtue of love. Let's explore this idea further…

Without love, there is no life. Seriously, without God loving you and without Him loving me, you and I would not exist. If God stopped thinking about me for a fraction of a millisecond, I would cease, not just living, but to exist at all--every aspect of me would be gone! The Lord speaks to us through the prophet Isaiah, chapter 49, verse 15: "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should have no compassion on the child of her womb? Even she may forget, yet I will never forget you." For God's love is constant; it is unimaginably perfect; it is life-giving; it is creative.

Without love, there is no way to live.

To live without loving God and other people is the loneliest way to live, and no way to live at all. It's not so much living as merely existing. We were made to love and for love! This model of living, to do so with great love, does however, require something else, something more. It requires faith--faith in God, faith in His love, faith in His children (this includes EVERYONE…and it means that we are capable of not only loving, but it also means we are imperfect and will NOT always love; thus, we will actually hurt others). Love must be a free choice, and my love is based off my free choice to be selfless or selfish. My brokenness makes my love imperfect, and so it's dangerous. It's dangerous for me to love without absolutely knowing for sure that I'll be loved in return. It's scary to be generous with my heart and to be vulnerable, not knowing if that love will be returned.

I'm encouraged by Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, a great young saint of the 20th century, who says something similar: "To live without faith, without a patrimony to defend, without a steady struggle for truth, that is not living but existing." Check out these last 2 links to Bible verses to find that we are not the only ones who search for the meaning of truth!

My dear friend and one my teammates with FOCUS last year (2012-13) was a young woman named Karlie, who, before our New Year's Eve party, encouraged everyone to pick out a word and make it our "Word of the Year." After some significant thought and prayer, and with a good deal of deliberation, I chose my word. I say 'deliberation' because I knew I could choose a word like 'faith' or 'listen' or friendship' or something like that that wouldn't challenge me as much, but I didn't want an "easy" word (not that those are necessarily easy; I just wasn't interested in them at the time). I felt God calling me to choose a word that would remind me of Him and would take our relationship to a new level. So I chose a scary word…a very scary word: 'trust.' Ha, I can now see that God had fun with that one! I go to Africa for a month on a mission trip (I never would have done that 3 years ago--I had no interest in the 3rd world) and then I go and end up in the seminary! All this after repeatedly returning to the word 'trust' all year long. What an "awfully big adventure!"

My word for this year is 'love,' which, as you may have guessed, is why so many of my posts have been about love. It's why I named the blog what I did, and why I named the link to the site what I did. The word, simply put, has been on my heart for months: how much God loves me; how much I need to grow in the practice of loving others with my thoughts, words, and actions; and how much I desire to love God, especially through prayer, and His children in everything I think, say, and do. It was an obvious choice for my word of 2014.

So, back to living being "an awfully big adventure"…I think I may confidently say that to live fully is the ultimate adventure. In the Gospel of John, chapter 10, verse 10, Jesus says, "I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly" (my emphasis). What does this mean? It is to love…It is to love people who make it hard to love, or even like, them. It is to love without shame; to love without restrictions; to love without questioning The Lord's intent; to love at all times and in all circumstances; to love while making disciples of The Lord Jesus; to 'will the good of the other,' as St. Thomas Aquinas said; to love without counting the cost, because it will cost us everything! And it will be worth it all!

This kind of love is real love, and it shall take great strength, perseverance, and courage to live in such a way…so pray with St. Gemma Galgani and me: "O Jesus, Food of strong souls, strengthen me, purify me, make me godlike."

And so, my friends, I will tell you what I hear from our Blessed Lord each day. I encourage you. I request you. I demand you:

Go. And live. And love.


THAT is an awfully big adventure.

Perfect Love

Hey all, hope you're enjoying your January as much as I am! Some more first-time experiences that I've had include the following (and yes, I'm starting with the weather, because it affects me every day and people always ask me about it):

1) It has snowed 12 times in the 20 days that I've lived here. Yes, 12. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! CRAZY! I kinda love it, though cuz it's been fun for the most part, and as a friend of mine recently told me why he's loves Minnesota: "The weather builds character." Ha, yeah...
2) The average temperature has been 10 degrees…don't believe me on those first 2? Check here, Doubting Thomas's:

http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KSTP/2014/1/26/MonthlyHistory.html#calendar

3) I wrote a paper BEFORE the night before it was due…I was a terrible procrastinator in college…and in high school :-(
4) I saw the Mississippi River a lot thinner than I'm used to seeing in Missouri, and I took some pictures of it frozen over…scroll to the bottom to see them, then click on the photo that you want to enlarge.

On a more spiritual note…I'd like to share a journal entry of mine that I think fits this blog well. I named it "I Will Love Fearlessly" so I would have a constant reminder that no matter what, God is calling me to love…to love Him, to love myself, and to love each and every one of His children. IN EVERY MOMENT! I do this poorly, so please pray for me that I may grow in holiness and in love with our God more and more each day.

Based off mediating on 1 John 4:11-18:
This reading is incredible. It really is the basis for my word of the year, "Love." Verse 18--"There is NO FEAR in love, but PERFECT LOVE drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love" (emphasis added). WOW!! Reminds me that I MUST SURRENDER my entire heart to Jesus. Most of my struggles lately have been because of anger, impatience, negative thoughts of other people, judging others and their intentions, etc…I have failed to have charity in my heart; rather, my "hardness of heart" (Mark 3) obstructs me from allowing God to work in my life and the lives of others because they can't see God in me when my heart is so hardened.

In the Acts of the Apostles, the Gentiles (or non-Jews) knew who the Christians were by their love: how they genuinely loved each other, served and cared for each other, even fraternally corrected each other. They were allowing God to infiltrate their hearts and clean out every dirty room in that house. Getting the bedrooms, the spare rooms, under the beds, the bathrooms, the closets, everything! And their response was to love the Lord through deep, personal prayer (communal prayer, too), the holy Mass, and their love & service for the people God placed before them…

[Pray with me here, if you wish:]

O my Jesus, help me to love as you love. Help me to serve as you serve. Help me to die on the cross with you this day, and every day, that when my time on Earth is finished, I may live with you forever in Heaven. Help me to truly live as St. Catherine of Siena put it: "All the way to heaven is heaven, because Jesus said, 'I am the Way.'" Help me to be the man you MADE ME to be. Help me to love you fearlessly, radically different and better and purer than I ever have before. And help me to love others by putting their good as more important than my own. I ask this in your most precious name, through the intercession of Mary most holy, who I ask to make my prayer pure and perfect. Amen.


Cheers, and thank you all so very much for your prayers.
Heart, Ryan

My First Week in Seminary

A quick note to begin--I'm doing very well. I really like being here, and the first week+ has been a great adventure, the Lord is oh-so-good, and I'm settling in nicely!

This first week has gone by quickly and been a really interesting one. As with any move, or change in life, a person must adapt. Adapting is challenging, no doubt, but I find it rather entertaining and fun. There have been a lot of things very familiar to me--going to class and Mass, praying, eating, sleeping, etc. But there have also been many things that have been new to me: some expected, some not. I've been calling this week 'Ryan's Week of Firsts,' and I'd like to share some of those first-time experiences with you now:

1. Starting on Monday the 6th, I could be called an official resident of St. Paul, Minnesota. I've never lived this far north.
2. It goes without saying, but I must say it anyway, in order to be exceedingly redundant: I've never lived in a seminary before. Sure, I've visited a few places for a few days, but this is rather different, wouldn't ya say?
3. First time reading a book for a philosophy class. Or 2, as we did last week. Now we are on to St. Augustine's "Confessions" in my Christian Theological Tradition class. We finish with it next week, as my class (Pre-Theology I) finishes up this January-Term class. It is an excellent read so far, and I highly recommend it.
4. Hitting my head on a ceiling that is 9 feet high (dang lofted beds…)
5. Being 30 minutes late for Mass and still being there on time…Mass got delayed about 40 minutes because interestingly, a pipe burst in the seminary about 10 minutes before Mass started last Wednesday, and the fire department came. It was a bit of a mess, but no one was hurt and very little was damaged because most of the water went down the staircase--probably the best place, because the stairs are made of concrete, too. Whew ;-)
6. I've gone to bed before 11 pm…3 times. This is world-record pace.
7. When I moved up here last Monday, it was literally the coldest day of my life. It hit -20 degrees at one point, and I think the wind chill was somewhere around -50. OUCH! So clearly, that was a first.
8. This past weekend, I remember thinking for the first time ever, "Wow 20 degrees is a heat wave!" And on Sunday when it hit 40, YES, FORTY, "Dang, it's hot."
9. I went to a local Catholic bookstore last week to pick up a book for class, and two things happened that made me chuckle: a) getting asked as I was checking out if I was a seminarian, a question I never been asked before, so after looking around to make sure the lady was talking to me, I said, "Why yes…yes, I am." b) She gave me a discount. AWESOME haha.

That's all the first things that I can think of/are remotely worth noting at this point, but I'm sure there will be more soon. Maybe they'll be blog-worthy, maybe not. Please feel free to comment, email me, call or text me, or send me snail mail (those require something called stamps…I'm not sure what they are either, but I'll google it and get back to you). My mailing address is as follows:

2260 Summit Ave.

St. Paul, MN 55105-1094

I like care packages with chocolate chip cookies.

KIDDING! haha. Much peace, love, and prayers,

Ryan/Ryno/Ry-Bread/Ry-kitty/Ry-baby/Welchy/Bud/Little Bro/Skinny Little Twit/I have too many nicknames

PS--I'm attaching a couple of photos. Click on the photo to enlarge it.

The first two are panoramas of my room. Not a lot of space (it's about 8 feet wide at its widest, 5 at its narrowest and 15 feet long), but it's great. Except for that dang bed being too close to the ceiling….also, you might be thinking, "Gee Ryan, that looks an awful lot like Capri Sun in your window." And you'd be right, you astute observer, you! Who needs a mini fridge?!

Also--they really know how to clear snow here in MN. Check out this Bobcat on campus:

Short bio

        Here is the bio I wrote up for the Diocese of Des Moines' website. I'll be on there soon! ;-)

My name is Ryan Welch and I’ve lived in Des Moines since 2011. I first came to Des Moines as a missionary with FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) and was on Drake University’s campus, so St. Catherine of Siena was my parish, and now I call St. Augustin my home parish. I’ve been discerning the priesthood in some way, shape, or form since my last year in college, 2011. I grew up Catholic, but never had much of a prayer life, and didn’t live a Catholic Christian lifestyle for a few years in late high school/early college. However, as the last year of my collegiate career drew to a close and my prayer life was just starting to open, I realized that God might be calling me to do something rather radical.

Now FOCUS had been a huge part of my life for the last two years of college, and I grew immensely in my love for the Lord during that time. I wanted to have the impact on young men and women like the missionaries had done for me while I was in college. But the idea of the priesthood came up my senior year, too. I was definitely unprepared for this, as it had been the first time I had ever given it a thought. I spent more time thinking and praying about what I would do after graduation, finally praying the prayer that had haunted me for days. The prayer that, if I said it, I knew meant I could no longer live a double life. I could no longer give some of my heart to the Lord and most of it to me in my own selfishness. The prayer was simple, but I feared it: “Lord, I want your will to be my will, and my will to be your will.” So, after much deliberation, I decided I wanted God to be king of my life, I prayed the prayer, and continued to try to trust Jesus; to try and love Him. I felt great peace and joy over the coming weeks about joining FOCUS. And this was radical enough, right? Being on a college campus as a missionary to try and share the Gospel of Christ with students? And then teach them to become teachers themselves? I thought  so.

As a part of FOCUS, my two years in Des Moines as a missionary were very difficult, life-giving, sacrificial, and most enjoyable. These words are seemingly contradictory, but it seems to me that very few things in life are worth doing unless they are difficult in some way. In these 2 years as a missionary, I never gave up on the idea of the priesthood, and I continued to develop my prayer life. I desired to do the Lord’s will for my life, and thought that my vocation would probably be marriage. I had dated in high school and college, and again after FOCUS I dated, but nothing ever came to fruition. But I kept praying and going to Mass, always wanting the Lord’s will done for my life. Finally, in the fall of 2013, I made the connection that I could be a father to many, many people. Of course, I’ve known since childhood that a priest is indeed a father, but often the longest distance in the world is between my head and my heart. This was the tipping point for me, and I realized that for me to be happy (I mean, I was happy with my life, my job, friends, etc.), for me to be fulfilled, I would need to quit my current job and go to the seminary. Thankfully, I was accepted by Bishop Pates to enter the seminary in the spring of 2014.

       Life is an adventure, and in this adventure we all have a mission to carry out our universal call to know, love, and serve God. Please pray for me as I discern in what way God is calling me to do this privileged and fulfilling task.

1st post; excited

Hello all,

I'm not used to blogging, so it may take awhile for me to get used to this means of communication. So please be patient with me! ;-)

A very short post today; just a couple things on my mind:

A great number of people have asked me how we are going to keep in touch, and that they want updates on my life, discernment, etc, so I decided that a blog may just be the best way to keep up with everyone (at least you'll have the chance to see what I'm up to, and then you can contact me via phone or email and we can get caught up on YOUR life :-) ).

I'd like to thank all of you for your prayers; know that I pray for you each and every day.

It's very exciting for me at this time--I love Des Moines, but I know that God is calling me to make a move up north! North to Minnesota to attend seminary. And I've always wanted to live in Hawaii, especially this time of year…oh well, the Lord knows better than I do, so I guess I'll just trust Him in that. ;-)

I will be studying for the priesthood for the Diocese of Des Moines. Des Moines has been where I've lived for the last 2 and a half years, and it quickly became home over that time (wonderful people, a real home, a diocese headed in a great direction that I want to be a part of, etc.), so that's why I chose this diocese, and I really feel God calling me to serve in this diocese.

Thank you all once again; I will be keeping you updated with my very "exciting" life. :-)