On Growth & New Opportunities - June 12, 2022

Dear Friends,

Despite the heat here in Texas, summer is my favorite season of the year. Though I’ve had many relaxing vacations, summer has been filled with even more experiences of intense growth. The rhythms of schoolwork came naturally to me, but my summer jobs introduced me to a host of new challenges beyond writing essays and taking tests. As a summer camp counselor, I had to give constant attention to the kindergarteners in my group for hours on end. As an intern at a law firm, I had to go beyond memorizing readily available information in textbooks to collect data by contacting experts and consulting a variety of sources. In all these summer jobs, I realized success in the “real-world” depended much more on navigating teams of people with diverse personalities than school had ever required of me.
 

My formation for the priesthood was also filled with rich summer experiences that pushed me beyond the skills required for my graduate coursework. My favorite internship to this day remains my summer interning as a hospital chaplain at the UCSF Medical Center in 2018. The challenge of visiting patients in all sorts of medical situations, even at 3 a.m. when I was on-call, showed me new ways of depending on and praying to the Holy Spirit.  

My first two summers here in Austin have had their unique challenges. I arrived at St. Austin on June 22, 2020, during so much uncertainty with the pandemic, and I soon had my first experiences hearing confessions and celebrating the Mass as a priest after my ordination on July 25, 2020. Last summer, we as a parish were immersed in our big move as we vacated 65,000 square feet of offices, classrooms, and living quarters with over 100 years of accumulated furniture and mementos. That move was also my fifth time moving houses in the past six years. 

I am thrilled to have the stability of not moving rooms this summer, but I am still faced with new challenges as I am home alone for almost two weeks. Fr. Chuck and Fr. Bruce were elected as delegates to the quadrennial Paulist General Assembly in Washington, DC, so I’ll be the only priest on staff here in the Austin house during weekdays until June 18. I am happy to report that all is well thus far, and I am grateful for the volunteers who stepped up to help prepare the church for daily Masses while it’s just me. 

I invite you to consider how summer has been a season of growth for you in your life. As many of our usual activities are put on pause, we can use this time as an opportunity to explore new opportunities. This is especially true for parents as they watch their children face new experiences without the predictable routines of school and seize these moments to learn new skills. As we return to Ordinary Time, the liturgical color of green reminds us of our ongoing growth in our life of faith. We do this by embracing the talents that God has given us in new ways as we continue building God’s Kingdom in our midst. 
 

God Bless,