Hello everyone! 

I have had a most exciting last month or so.  I was in Italy for the better part of a month, returning I went down near Roseburg to help at a vocations camp for high-school guys considering the priesthood, and now am in North Bend, OR (basically Coos Bay) at Holy Redeemer parish.  I’ll try keep this short. 

First off, the Italy trip went very well.  I traveled with a fellow seminarian from Seattle.  Since we’ve been to Italy before, this was a much different focus.  We weren’t really sight-seeing or doing the tourist thing.  Instead, we were really enjoying our stay there and visiting many of the saint’s tombs, doing some spiritual retreat, visiting lots of cathedrals and seeing the pope.  We also visited the North American College – which is where guys from North American countries that study in Rome live.  We had one guy studying there for our diocese, so we spent a nice lunch and afternoon with him.  They had wonderful building overlooking the Vatican and Rome.  I got to see the pope 3 different times, and was within about 5 feet of him as he went through the crowd.  You can’t actually get closer since the secret-service looking guys keep everyone at arms length, but it was still the best part of my trip.  We went down to Napoli and a little town called Potzoli where JD had friends living.  We stayed at their farm and lived the rural lifestyle for a few days.  We met his family and everything.  It was great and they had the most wonderful garden - full of lemon and cherry trees, a vineyard, and all kinds of other fruit.  They had to be some of the best tasting fruit I’ve ever had.  The fruits and vegetables actually taste differently.  We had tomatoes and they definitely taste different.  They look just like tomatoes, but they are less acidic tasting and have a more smooth taste.  We went to Assisi where we stayed with an order of sisters from America.  We then went to Florence and met up with some Benedictine monks.  We cut our trip in Florence short and went out to live and pray with them on their farm for a few days.  I stayed with the monks for 2 days and had a just wonderful time.  We had a great time with their abbot and he may be coming to visit our seminary next semester now. 

Upon returning, I drove down to a little town east of Roseburg where they had a camp out in the woods.  For the next week two of us seminarians and a handful of parents had a retreat run by my formation director to help high-school aged kids discern what God wants them to do with their life – with a particular bend towards a vocation in the priesthood.  There were over 30 young men who each had a deeply spiritual life.  I was really impressed by them all.  There were some very talented guitar players and a number of them were very academically gifted.  Very spiritual and promising kids.  Shows that God is still very much at work in the younger generation.  However, I’m beginning to see my age.  These guys played soccer, capture the flag, ultimate Frisbee all day long and by the end of the day, the adults were totally wiped out; but the teens were still going strong.  The arch-bishop came down to camp one afternoon to go on a hike with the guys. 

Right now I’m down at Holy Redeemer parish in North Bend (Coos Bay).  I’ve only been here a few days, but it has been really, really great.  They have a wonderful teen group and they parish started vacation bible school this week.  So I’ve been helping out there with prayers, guitar playing and just being an extra hand with so many kids.  It’s a really wonderful parish and wonderful community.  Not only that, but it’s right next to the ocean.  I’m going to take a day off this week and head over to the beaches.  I’m also going to give a talk and presentation on my trips to Italy, and a week later go with the teen group out to a bonfire on the beach.  I’ve been trying to do a little more exercising and reading; but there is always something going on that is exciting.  The high school has a really nice track that I’ve been visiting for afternoon running. 

I’ll be down in Holy Redeemer until July 25^th or so.  After that, I’ll be driving a van with a bunch of teens and other adults down to the Baja of Mexico for a program called Los Emberadores (the ambassadors) to live totally immersed in the primitive settings and help build new houses with the people of the area.  I’ll be there for 2 weeks until about mid-August.  After that, school will start about a week or two after that.  My how the summer has flown by! 

The best way to contact me over the next few months will be by email.  I have my mailing address temporarily forwarded, so just mail things to my Mt. Angel address and I’ll get them; or you can call the parish office at: (541) 756-0633.  Or check out my web pages at: http://www.math.purdue.edu/~mpf for all my past emailing and updates.  I won’t have the Italy pictures up until I get back to school and some nice broadband access. J  You might note I mailed this from my mtangel.edu account, but my hotmail is still working. 

Other than that, things are going very well.  This has been a very spiritually fruitful summer and has really opened my heart and mind.  I keep you all in my prayers and please write me.  I love hearing what you all are doing!

God bless,

Matt