The Journey Begins... or, you know, began.

So I had every intention of coming to seminary and starting a blog to help the faithful masses of readers keeps up with my life.

And by faithful masses I mean it's easy to type here and post I typed on Facebook than it is to write and send 500 letters every month. I love you all, but I don't have that much time.

Anyways, I've been here at St. Meinrad for about the past month. I have to say, that overall, it's been pretty great. The first week we arrived was what is know as a spirituality week. Basically, we were busy all day with different topics involved to developing a strong spiritual life. Then at nights, we just kicked it and socialized. I would have to say that week was phenomenal just on allowing all us new guys, especially my classmates in Philosophy I to get to know each other a little better.

Speaking of, I'm considered a Philosophy I student. It's all actually really interesting and a lot fun. Though a lot of reading. Still, it's definitely causing me to think about my faith in a new way. Right now my classes are: Human Development and Christian Maturity, Ancient Philosophy, Logical Analysis and Ecclesiastical Latin. Latin is actually really fun to learn, thought quite difficult because it's a lot of memorization. Also, it's what's considered an inflective language, which means the ending of words change to reflect their grammatical usage. So all that crap we learned in grade school about past participles and objects of the preposition are now all of a sudden very important. Because of this, word order in a sentence is basically meaningless in Latin. Fun, right?

I've also been getting to know a lot of other guys here. One of the great things about St. Meinrad, or as it's sometimes called, the Holy Hill, is that we have about 50 out of our 160 students born in another country. We have men studying from Dioceses in Korea, some guys born in Africa, quite a few from Mexico, some from Brazil and one of my classmates is from Barbados. It's actually really awesome because we get a chance to experience different cultures right here on the Hill. For a real culture shock, take in to consideration this place is run by Benedictine monks. And they're awesome. For instance the rector is a HUGE Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings fan. He talks about Tolkien often. At the beginning of the year he had welcome party in his suite and you got to see a lot of replica Lord of the Rings weapons (Aragorn's sword, Sting, Gandalf's staff and Legolas' blades) and his replica Harry Potter wands. He also owns the Harry Potter books in Latin. Another one of the monks, my house dean, is a phenomenal homilist. He somehow brings in pop-culture references and makes them meaningful.

Another really awesome thing about being here is just the engagement. For those who don't know, formation to the priesthood is based around four pillars: intellectual, spiritual, human and pastoral. All seminaries strive to build on all four, obviously. The intellectual is easy with the classes and other lectures and such. Spiritual builds itself in as well, as we have daily communal times of prayer. Mass, Liturgy of the Hours, Confessions thrice a week, Eucharistic Exposition four times and some other things as well. Pastoral, we have ministerial assignments where we go and serve in communities nearby. And by nearby I mean up to about an hour and half away in Louisville, KY for some. Human, we're split into five houses (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Paul) and build time of prayer and camaraderie there.

However, also in the human aspect, is sports. We play a lot of sports. In any given week I will play volleyball, basketball and soccer. Tonight, I played street hockey. It's a blast. And everyone here is great. I don't necessarily mean at the sport, although some guys are really athletic, but we pray before and after every game. Most importantly, in my opinion, is that everyone is excited when someone does a good achievement in any given sport, whether they're on your team or not. The community is very uplifting here, and I feel blessed to be a part of it.

The uplifting goes for everything. Don't get me wrong, when someone notices a formation issue, as they are called, you will have people courageously approach about it. Although this typically comes from your House Dean, and you are called to improve on who you are. But everyone also builds you up when you do something well. Good grades or question in class, good job during a sport, doing well lecturing or cantering at Mass, whatever. It's amazing.

I can't say I don't miss home, but I know God has called me to be here and I'm working to place myself fully. One thing I can definitely say is that I have fallen more in love with the priesthood and am much more open to potential of God calling me to it, but ordination is still a long ways away and I'm just trying to listen to His voice for now.

Please know I am praying for each and everyone of you! I appreciate your love and support and send mine back. I will try and keep this more update!

God bless,

Michael