I know it’s been a while since my last update, but just as it probably was for most of you, it was quite a holiday season.  I flew home to visit with my family in the Midwest, make a nice trip to Chicago and Indianapolis, visit the old alma mater (Purdue) and do some relaxing and visiting with old friends.  It was great to take a few days and see a lot of you here in Oregon as well.  In all, a GREAT holiday.

I’m back at the seminary, but had a very bumpy start.  We had a week long silent retreat before classes started, and it was a wonderful way to come back to the seminary life.  We had an excellent speaker come in who would do 2 talks each day to give us thoughts for that day’s reflection and meditation.  At the end of the week, however, I had picked up a cold.  Several friends and I went up to Mt Hood to go snowboarding on that weekend, but by the middle of the day I felt terrible.  I left after about half the day of boarding which was a real bummer because the snow was awesome.  It was a funny trip back because I gave a ride to one of the Samoan guys who fell asleep in the car and started speaking in Samoan – what a riot.  When I went to bed, little did I know that I’d barely get out for the next 2 weeks.  I had caught the nastiest flu I’ve had in years.  I ended up having to make a trip to the hospital because I had a fluid buildup in my sinuses that cause me to lose hearing in one ear (temporarily of course).  Turned out I’d gotten some sort of pneumonia/influenza and had fluid in my lungs too. I’m actually still recuperating; but am back on my feet and catching back up in all my classes.  Needless to say, that was a heck of a way to start off the semester – and why you haven’t gotten any email from me.

We’re in the middle of reviews up here.  Our bishops will soon be visiting and discussing with us how things are going.  The process they use is very interesting and very similar to the one that they use at Intel.  You write your own review of how things are going on the various parts of your life (spiritual life, academic, personal growth, vocation discernment, etc), your formation director writes one up, and finally, the rest of the staff give feedback on whatever things they worked with you on – various teachers, outside ministry director, other priests, etc.  So, they gather up this big collection of feedback and sift though it all – coming up with a list of your strengths and weaknesses (sound familiar?) and then write up this huge report.  Then, from what I’ve been told, I’ll get to sit down with a panel of my director, the president rector (think dean of the school), the vocations director from your diocese and perhaps my bishop to answer their questions.  Nothing on your report should be a surprise since you’re working with your directors and they’re constantly giving you feedback – in fact, I’ve already read mine even though it’s not finished yet.  But, as in all things, it can be a stressful time – just like good old ranking n rating.  Actually, it seems more stressful for the directors who are trying to work through all this stuff.  One difference, however, is this is all done with a lot of prayer and reflection by not only you; but your director as well.  In writing my review, it took the better part of a week to pray and reflect on each area and write down what came up during that reflection.  The formation director’s goal is to do the same; but in the sense of helping you determine if you have a genuine calling to the priesthood or perhaps some other calling.  The goal is to help you find where the right place for you is.  If it is not to be a priest, they want to help you find where it is.

            We had a couple guys decide not to return after the break.  There is a lot of sadness to see someone leave and we really miss them when their gone.  In spending all this time together, we developed into a real tight-knit group.  In fact, when I got to see a bunch of the guys again, it was pretty emotional and a lot of hugs were exchanged.  For those guys that do leave, they usually have talked with their formation directors a lot about it and are usually at peace with the decision to leave.  The goal is to make sure this is the right place for you, and that you really have a calling to be here.  It’s become clear to me that the life of a priest isn’t for everyone.  You have to have a calling to live it – it’s a gift.  It is clear that it takes a lot more than just willpower to live a celibate life in the service of God.  This being said, I find a great joy in seeing guys come to the seminary, even if they don’t enter or decide to leave.  It’s really amazing that they decide to try something that isn’t a really popular choice in today’s climate.  Most people here have made a choice to give this time and see if God is calling them to a life of service.  Even the guys that leave are really ahead in their lives because they have given this a shot and through prayer, reflection and the help of directors found out it’s not for them.  One reason I decided to come was because I knew I’d always wonder if I should have come; I needed to find out for sure or forever wonder.  For the guys that don’t discern this calling they have learned a lot about themselves, put to rest the idea they might have a calling to the priesthood, and hopefully learn where they should be going instead.

            Classes are going well.  We got our grades back from the first semester and I did just fine.  It’s funny in a place this small.  The president rector of the school stopped me over the break and asked if I’d gotten my grades.  I said yes, and he proceeded to rattle them off, asking if I thought they were ‘an accurate reflection of my effort’.  The guy KNEW all our grades.  No hiding in the masses of students like you could at Purdue.   But, the semester went well and we’re on to new classes.  Again, I’m taking tons of philosophy classes – ancient philosophy, comparative phil & religion, philosophy since the 1800’s, and morality.  We’re starting to get not only the classics - Aristotle, Plato, etc - but Augustine and the early church fathers.  I’m also taking two lit classes, one on ethics in fiction and another on just the classics.  The classics class is turning out to be a GREAT fun.  We sit down and read all the classic works of fiction throughout the ages and discuss them.  It’s nice to be able to read the great works of literature after having just heard about them most of my life taking science/math.

            We’ve been getting a lot of elevation snow up here on the hill that’s been sticking this whole week.  Snow is pretty rare here, and rarer still when it sticks for more than a day.  We had a great big snowball fight after mass on Sunday.  What was really fun was the Samoans were the biggest participants.  This is funny because Samoa is a tropical island that never gets snow (think Hawaii) and these linebacker sized guys were running around like fools giggling like kids throwing snowballs at each other – what a riot.  Everyone was getting into it.  People we getting hit in buildings, out of building and everyone was a target - Samoan’s, deacons, priests and monks – everyone was a target.  I only wished I’d had my camera with me.  Anyway, it was a real blast and one had to be careful when they went outside to avoid ambushes.  We still have about a foot of snow up here and there’s a chance for more in the forecast. 

For those of you in area, I’ll be down in downtown Portland on Sunday, Feb 3rd at the Cathedral at 3:00pm dressed in my clericals.  It’s a rare, rare occasion we get to wear our clerics off the hill, but we’ll be there for a short vespers prayer service to support the local religious orders.  So, stop by if you’d like to see me dressed up, or if you’re interesting in seeing or participating in a vespers service.  Some of you have gotten to see one up here on the hill when you visited. 

Hope you are all doing well.  Please send me updates with how you all are doing or if you’ve got any questions.  It’s really wonderful to read them.

Matt