It's been way too long...

I didn't realize it had been five days since I last blogged. I guess I was just busy with things around here in Syracuse that I didn't have much time to get on and blog.

Well September 30th was our Foundation Day, it has been 189 years since Fr. Andre Coindre, our founder, brought the first ten brothers up to La Fourviere in Lyon, France where the professed private vows. Last summer I was able to stand in the chapel where this was done. Since I do not live close enough to another Brother residence, we went out to eat for ourselves. Due to the fact that I had choir practice, we had to go eat early. My provincial, Br. Ronnie, was here to join in on the celebration. Gosh it was great seeing him. He was my formation director when I first moved to Syracuse and was my formation director for a year, then he became provincial and as he quotes "I will be putting you in your first assignment." With Br. Ronnie here it is starting to seem like the novitiate is going to go by fast. I know there are tons of things I really need to work on. While he was here, we went downtown for a beer and some chicken wings, which was pretty nice, and he got to hear me sing with the choir at St. Daniel's. When he was here him and Br. Dan sat down and mapped out the rest of the novitiate and picked dates. My actual novitiate will end with a retreat at the very end of July and the date we have chosen for vows is August 20, 2011. It makes me very excited, but I know that I must keep focus during my novitiate. It is just nice to know that the novitiate comes to an end at some point.

Also while he was here, we were able to talk with Br. Chris down in Brazil who is learning Portuguese for the new mission in Mozambique. While chatting with him I had the opportunity to meet some of the Brothers from there, even though they can't speak English, but it is just great to know that we are connected by the same common bond. So when I send messages to them or they send message to me, I usually have to translate the messages first to understand and then when I respond back to them I translate my message to there language. It seems to be working.

Today I began the 19th Annotated, which is the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius spread out over a 30 week period. It is going to have its challenges, but I think it will be very good for me. Keep me in your prayers!