Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Chemo, Ordination, and St. Patrick's Day!

Another March 17th has rolled around and I almost went throughout my entire day in Jerusalem wearing my green flannel shirt visiting the various churches on the Mount of Olives (Church of All Nations, Dominus Flevit, Pater Noster) before I remembered that 9 years ago I began my first of 12 chemo sessions to battle against Hodgkin's Lymphoma.  It's amazing how fast 9 years can go by!  And yet I reflect on those 9 years to see the Lord's hand drawing me to priesthood.  

I can be pretty stubborn (don't believe me ask my family), and no matter how many people told me that I would be a great priest, I was not going to have any of it!  It wasn't until I was diagnosed with cancer that I was willing to give the Lord a chance to work on my heart toward the priesthood by entering the seminary!  Even in the seminary, however, the decision was still in my court and anytime people asked me about my future ordination I would say, "God willing." Knowing that "God Willing" meant that God had to do something really, really big; he had to change my will!

And yet the Lord is patient.  Over the 9 years the Lord has moved my heart and will in ways that I can only grasp as miracles to myself!  In small surrenders in ministry and mission work, to now a surrender that is onlay 10 days away: my Diaconate Ordination!  

Please continue to pray for me as we finish our trip in Jerusalem and make our way back to the states!

Joliet Seminarians to be Ordained on March 27th to the Diaconate at the Sanctuary of Palms Church in Bethphage (the place where Christ sat on a colt to ride into Jerusalem)



Thursday, March 12, 2015

My Favorite Spot in the Holy Land???

I was just recently asked, "So what has been your favorite place to visit so far?"  I sat there lost for words!  I've had so many special graces throughout our pilgrimage.  Each grace was given through an encounter with the Lord in prayer, how could I describe the intimacy?  I then came across the following in my spiritual reading: 

 

"The events of the worldly life of Jesus are not only holy in themselves, they are sanctifying. On the souls who meditate on them and wish to be associated with them they confer graces, which increase their union with the life of the Saviour... Bethlehem, Nazareth, Golgotha, the Resurrection, the Ascension, the sending of the Holy Spirit, constitute the principal phases in the drama of our redemption and of our supernatural adoption" ~ Bl. Columba Marmion.

 

Bl. Columba Marmion reveals the difficulty to the question I was asked!  How does one explain the mystery of God's love in our own redemption and adoption!  How can I describe how this trip has brought a great encounter with the Lord and his love for me! In the experiences itself, it is a mystery even to myself.  It's no wonder I was left struggling to list all the places we have visited from the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, to the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth, to the Church of the Transfiguration at Mount Tabor, the Church of Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, and to the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem; the list goes on and on. Each of these places has a unique place in my heart in which the Lord has revealed his love to me!  As our pilgrimage starts to come to a close, I coming to realize that it will take my entire life (and priestly vocation) to explain the beauty and impact this pilgrimage has had on my life!