My Heart Goes Out...

My heart goes out to a friend of mine who applied to a Diocese to begin studies for the priesthood and was denied. He was denied because he does not receive much family support. It just makes me sad because he is such a good person, with a big heart. It just hurts me knowing that he is upset, but I will always be there to support him no matter which road he takes.

I have not been to the gym I go to work out at in so long because I have now started going to Le Moyne to play basketball. It has been killer on my body, but it is great exercise. I would rather be doing this then working out by myself. My skills are coming back and I felt like I did some pretty awesome moves yesterday, it felt good.

I am excited that I will be going home tomorrow for the week. Even though it is only a week, to me it feels like a long time. I am looking forward to it.

What a day...

We couldn't have asked for a better day. It was so beautiful outside today and that makes a couple of days without snow. The day was spent with the Brothers in Skaneateles for an Advent Day of Recollection. We gathered for prayer at the beginning and the end, and the middle was made for our own private reflections.

One thing I reflected on is how super thankful for the huge support system that I have and those people know who they are.

Did somebody say snow...

Well the weekend was great because it got a bit warmer and I was able to see grass, but now it is just ridiculous outside again. I had to go outside twice today to take care of the snow. Lucky that we have a nice snow blower, however, the neighbors don't like me. Let me just say his fence is in the way of where the snow is blowing. I hate to tell him, but the wind has the tendency to carry the snow if he likes it or not.

However, the weekend ended up being pretty good. Sunday I was able to go watch some of the kids in Religious Education at St. Daniel's sing at Mass. I was so happy that 3 of my 6 kids were there in attendance, it makes me proud. I am hoping to get them all there at one point, it would be nice to see my entire class at Mass. Then in the afternoon I went to Shopping Town Mall here in Syracuse and sang at there Festival of Trees, not to many people were present, but it was still fun to do. I saw Amanda, the choir director, today and she says one day she wants me to cantor with her, so this should be interesting. After singing at the Mall, I headed over to the Jesuit Novitiate for their Lessons and Carols, which was really nice. I also enjoyed just talking with the novices. They were all really nice and I am kind of sad that this is the only time I had to visit with them. However, I did go play basketball yesterday with two of the guys and I am feeling it today. I am so sore, but I might go and do it again tomorrow, since I won't have much time to actually visit and play with them. We shall see.

The Provincial of New York is here right now for his visitation and Br. Joe Holthaus is with them, so it is always fun when they are around!

Gosh...

I didn't realize that it has been almost an entire week since my last blog. Probably because I have been completely wiped out from the huge amounts of snow we have amassed up here in Syracuse, 48 inches in a week to be exact. That is about waist deep on me. Guess what we are expecting more snow this coming week as well. I am just ready for winter to be over and it hasn't even begun. Other than that I had some good moments of the week and bad moments. Good moments, finally get a plow guy, a new snow blower, Feast of the Immaculate Conception, really awesome Healing Mass here in Syracuse. I just hope this week will be better than this last one. I just hope I can perk myself back up!

In other news, choir is singing tomorrow at one of the Mall's I am super excited about that!

Music...

What can I say I just love music! Especially since Glee has come out with old and modern songs, my taste in music has increased tremendously. I am not only talking about listening to music, but also singing. I just love being in a choir especially during a season like this where we are singing a lot more together. The choir at St. Daniel's has become like a little Syracuse family to me and that really came out today when we were singing at the Lessons and Carols of one of the other parishes here in Syracuse. One the ladies in the choir has been asking us to praying that her mortgage goes through on a new house for her and her son, well today we got word that it went through. The entire choir was ecstatic, we were just all so happy for her and of course the future house warming party she is going to have, well that we are just going to show up and party at. High fives were going around like crazy and to top it off we did another beautiful round of singing. I really like our choir director especially after we finish singing and the faces she makes that really let us know how we did. We sang at Mass yesterday and she said that she was almost brought to tears. Gosh music is so powerful and what a ministry it has really been to be apart of the choir and the music ministry. I am so excited about next weekend because the choir will be singing at one of the malls here in Syracuse. It should be a great time and I am so excited! Last time I sang in a mall was in the Philippines.

Other than that everything else has been going well. My brother called me out of no where the other day and we talked for like an hour, that just doesn't happen. I was happy that he called me, my family really doesn't call me very much.

Today has also been a winter day in hell. It has snowed all day and whats worse is that it is suppose to be snowing again the next couple of days. What I hate about it is constantly having to go shovel and this is where the hell part comes in. Snow shoveling is like pushing a rock up a hill and then it falling back down. I am going to be getting up really early tomorrow morning to get some of it done since we don't have a plow man yet to come do it for us. Hopefully we get someone fast to do it for us because I hate shoveling especially some of the Brothers expect me to stop what I am doing to do it. I actually told one Brother no this evening to shoveling because I didn't want to do it since it was already dark outside. God bless me this winter and I pray that it goes by fast since this is my last one here in Syracuse.

O Come, O Come Emmanuel...

So this past weekend started a new year in the Roman Catholic Church calendar. What a great time to be a Catholic! I guess I take the season of Advent for granted. It is a time of anticipation, of expectation, and a chance to study the scriptures that speak of what takes place at the end of Advent. Today I also began to teach my students about Advent. Most people know that this is Advent, but they don't really know what it is all about. I am trying to give my students a better understanding of it. I also told them that there are certain hymns we sing during this great season and I even demonstrated some of them by singing the hymn that is sung most often "O Come, O Come Emmanuel." After I stopped, one of the students in the class had this look on this face then he was like that is the most beautiful thing in the world and I started laughing, he started laughing and the entire class started laughing. The student was laughing so hard, he was in tears. I guess in some way I am starting to feel more comfortable around my students to be both serious and joking around with them. I just hope that in the end it gets them to focus more on what I am trying to teach them.

Other than that my weekend was slow. I didn't do too much. I tried to go to the lake on Sunday but it was just way to cold and it was windy and those two combinations don't go hand in hand. My sister in law was taken back to ICU, but she has now been released back into a regular room. I just hope she gets better soon.

I do want to take this opportunity to thank all those who support me with there thoughts and prayers. It makes me feel like I have people out there that genuinely care about me and what I am doing. To those people, thank you so much and I love you all!

I am learning that a huge pet peeve of mine is texting someone and not getting a message back in return. It drives me up a wall.

Thanksgiving

So yesterday was sort of a busy day that I didn't have time to get on here and blog. However, it was a really great day. It started off like any day should by going to Mass. It was a nice Mass and for not being a Sunday Mass or a Holy Day of Obligation, there was a lot of people there in my opinion. After that we started getting things ready for our visitors coming. I got all of my things cooked and prepared the day before, so I really didn't have to worry about much, but I did feel lazy while the others were preparing. Unfortunately only 2 of the people Br. Patrick invited were able to make it, so in total there was only 5 of us there eating and 3 of the 5 were vegetarian. After they left I went to a new friend of mines house named Christin Sommers. How do I know her? Well I only met her at the beginning of this month at the St. Daniel Harvest Festival. Her dad is the deacon at the parish, so I knew who she was, but she didn't know me. However, she graciously extended an invite to me for Thanksgiving. I was really nervous going over there because her family was there. Not to mention the fact that her dad is a deacon and her younger brother is a priest for the Diocese, so I felt like I had to make a good impression. Well to my amazement, I felt like I was at home. They would joke like I would joke, so I ended up laughing more. No words can express how truly thankful I am to them and there family for making such an awesome Thanksgiving Day for me. Hopefully I will be able to hang out with them again in the future.
Today was a fun day as well. I slept in this morning because I was really tired. I got together with some of the FrancisCorp Volunteers from last year for a trip to Skaneateles, New York for the Charles Dickens Christmas. They run this program every year right after Thanksgiving up to Christmas, but only on the weekends. Over 50 people dress up like characters from Charles Dickens Christmas Carol. They will actually come up to you and introduce themselves to you as there character. We all gathered around a gazebo to sing Christmas carols, which was really nice. Plus what made it nice was the fact that it was beginning to snow.




This evening the Franciscan Friars were sponsoring a fund raiser for their food pantry, which was a sing a long to the Sound of Music. It was a lot of fun and I got to meet some more of the new friars who are taking up residence at Assumption. One of who happens to be a Filipino and who is in fact trying to organize a Filipino Mass for January 2nd. I am definitely going to be at that Mass. He is also trying to build a Filipino community here in Syracuse and I am so glad because the Philippines was a great experience for me. I like making new friends!