Taking Inventory of Twenty-Four Years

+JMJ+

Well, today marks the start of the packing for what will be my first year of seminary. Taking stock of all my stuff, though, isn't turning out to be as difficult as I thought it would be. Quite frankly, I don't know of anything that I NEED to bring with me apart from clothes and a few books. In that regard, seminary is already shaping into a pretty convenient gig. Room, board, tuition, meals - all taken care of! As such, my one real concern for the past couple of weeks has been making sure that I am fully prepared to weather those infamous South Bend winters. You'd think that six years in the New Jersey/Philadelphia area would have prepared me for this. I highly doubt it...

As it stands, I've packed a couple of "essential" books and a small box of memorabilia with which to decorate my new rooms. What counts as essential? I'll give you a quick rundown, because they're not many - Rene Girard's "Things Hidden from the Foundation of the World", James Alison's "The Joy of Being Wrong", Fr. Thomas Dubay's "The Evidential Power of Beauty", Julian of Norwich's "Revelations of Divine Love", and C.S. Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia". Oh, and a copy of the Bible. You'd think I'd have listed that one first.

This whole week is filled with preparations of different kinds for my move on Monday. On Tuesday, I escaped down to Hanceville for a couple hours to attend Mass at Mother Angelica's Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament. I swear, if you haven't ever visited, you're missing something HUGE. There are only a few occasions in my life where I can say that I have encountered true beauty, and that place is one of them. I'll talk more about that another time.

Today itself, though, in addition to the packing, was a day of ... interviews? That's right. My high school's publicist set up a meeting with the Faith and Values editor of The Huntsville Times to talk about my decision to start formation with a Catholic religious order. I think it's supposed to be part of a "young priests" theme that's running in about a week. Granted, I'm no priest (yet), but the idea's the same. The afternoon started with a (get this) photo shoot of sorts in the school chapel and then moved onto an hour's conversation pretty much about the experiences in my life that led up to this decision. You know - what did you want to be when you were growing up? How did you decide to go to Seton Hall? What sorts of ministry were you involved in there? There was what COULD have been an awkward line of questioning when my interviewer started asking if being Catholic at college was difficult at times in light of New Jersey's close proximity to Boston when the whole priest abuse scandal was breaking out. Luckily, we didn't press that point too far. What I learned from the experience was pretty much the less limelight, the better. It will be a joy if my own experiences are able to inspire hope in someone else. Other than that, I think I prefer the obscurity of being just another Holy Cross Candidate.

A little more work to do tonight, and then bed. Keep me in your prayers. We'll talk soon.

~SCP