Sorry for the radio silence over the last few weeks, been focused on a few projects we have coming due, and they've been taking all of my (admittedly) limited brain power.
First, we had 12 men enter formation this fall for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, assigned to the following locations: 4 to Mount St. Mary's Seminary, Cincinnati (three into Pre-Theo I, one into I Theology, with 2 men who transferred from College Seminary programs); 4 to Bishop Simon Brute College Seminary in Indianapolis; 3 to the Pontifical College Josephinum; 1 to North American College, Rome (but he is studying for the Oratory in Formation that is part of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati). All told, we now sit at 42 seminarians, which is getting closer to our goal of 100.
Speaking of Mount St. Mary's Seminary, there have been some updates to the Chapel:
This weekend, I'm heading back to my home parish to celebrate the 10:30 Mass on Sunday with my grandmother on the occassion of her 90th Birthday! I think all of my cousins and the next generation will be there, hmm.... rough tally, I know my math is wrong: Grandma and a few of her sisters who are still kicking; my mom and her five siblings and spouses; 23 grandchildren (and quite a few spouses); 25 (really, I have no idea, I think it is higher than that now, 17 are just my nieces and nephews, and there has to be maybe 15 from my cousins?) great-grandchildren. It promises to be an excellent time. If you could, say a prayer for Grandma as she continues to recover from hip replacement, because she didn't want to be confined to a wheel chair, at 90. YOU GO GRANDMA!
Tonight, I have second of three weddings in a row; after the one next weekend, only one more this year. I think that makes 8, total, this year. All my brother priests in parishes are throwing stuff at me right now! (My fee: first born son to the seminary!)
I was very happy to recieve a review copy of Brain Gail's latest, Childless, which is to be published and released on October 7th. All I'll say now is that it is a good read, I'll publish my full review closer to publication date.
Our Vocation Awareness Week materials are taking the lion's share of my brain power. We're focusing them around the Mass as a Well Spring of Vocations. If you could spare another prayer for inspiration that I might finish my section! (They were only due in rough draft form July 1st, and I have five sections yet to write.....)
Finally, point #7: the National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors are meeting later this month in Detroit. I am doing a workshop of use of new media in vocation promotion, teaming up with Sam Alzheimer of Vianney Vocations, he's hitting facebook and email marketing, I'm hitting blogging and twitter. Should be fun! Archbishop O'Brien of Baltimore was supposed to do our keynote address, but something about the pope calling pre-empted him. There BXVI goes again, pulling rank! ;)
I think that's all the randomness floating around in my head right now, make sure to follow me on Twitter, like us at Facebook, and visit our main page, where the Vocation Prayer is now translated into Spanish!
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