Dear friends,
At the end of another academic year, I can say with great joy that it is time to come home! I will be back in Minnesota for about two and a half months, months which will be some of my last before ordination to the diaconate in September! I will be living and working again at Epiphany parish in Coon Rapids, where I was blessed to meet so many wonderful people during my first trip home last summer. My hope for this summer is that I can dive in even more to the daily life of the parish priest, in everything from morning meditation, to spending time with folks after Mass, to hanging out with the youth, to making sick calls in the hospital. I know that these will be such precious weeks, because, at this time next year, I'll be doing all of it for real!
By way of summarizing my 7th year of seminary formation, I can say that it was a time of such profound - and often challenging! - growth. Every year has certainly challenged me in a variety of ways, and, as I have come along further on this journey toward the priesthood, I have come to understand more and more that God has had a particular plan in mind for each of those years. This year, in particular, I believe that the Lord has given me the opportunity to love him more deeply for his own sake! He's been stretching me and forming me into a deeper realization that this journey is not about what I will get out of it, nor even about my own plans and expectations, but rather, it is entirely about the Lord and his Kingdom. This year, as I have come ever closer to diaconate ordination, I have come to realize that I'll never quite have it all figured out, even when I feel like I ought to. And that's just completely okay, because the Lord is so full of surprises, and living for him is always more amazing than I can ever ask or imagine.
In a beautiful which always seems to mark the Lord's work, it has been amazing to look back on this year and see his hand guiding me through everything. The year certainly was not the "final-year-before-diaconate" victory lap that I may have expected, and, indeed, I have come to see how much formation I still needed to undergo! For that, I am incredibly grateful to him, to the priests in charge of my formation, and, of course, to my brothers, who have stuck with me through it all.
Saying goodbye to my brothers in the last few days had a particular heaviness to it - not a heaviness caused by sadness, but caused rather by the fact that, next time I will see most of these men, we will be going to practices on diaconate ministry, signing formal Oaths of Fidelity to the Church, and going on retreat to prepare for the grace of ordination! I know this summer will go quickly, as it always seems to do, and when it's all said and done, ordination will be right around the corner. So, needless to say, I'm hoping to enjoy every moment of this summer.
And, as a bonus, maybe I'll get to see these guys too! (I certainly didn't expect them to still be in first place by the time I got back!!)
God bless!
-Colin
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