After 344 days of blog-less activity, deep in prayer and preparation in order to profess vows, I’m back! It’s been a long but fruitful year, and I have a lot to share. I’ve cherished my time here in novitiate, and believe that it has brought me much closer to God than I was before, much closer to myself than I ever thought possible, and much closer to my brothers than I ever wanted to be!

But like all things, novitiate must come to an end, and new challenges must begin. This Friday, I will take the next (and arguably biggest) step in my life as a friar by professing simple vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Doing so will make me a Temporary Professed member of the Order of Friars Minor, and will require that I live the life of a friar, in full, for a period of one year (more to come explaining this process).

Friday also means the beginning of my first vacation in about 14 months, and let me tell you, I’m ready! I can’t wait to see my family and friends, get back to the “real world” (by which I mean the East Coast), and just relax!

Come August 19th, I report to my new assignment in Silver Spring, Maryland, where I will attend Catholic University for 4 years obtaining my M.Div. degree. There’s a lot I don’t know about the next few years, but at this point I know that I will be very busy with school and ministry, and that the daily life will be very different than it has been for the past two years. Other than that, you’ll just have to check back throughout this year to see how it turns out.

Here’s a sneak-peak of some of the upcoming posts: Simple Vows, Kenosis, Seeking Insecurity, “This Is Not What I Signed Up For!”, The Whole Bible In Under A Year, Meat Minimalism, and My Advice For New Members. Check back here for these posts soon but in the meantime head over to the Shutterfly website for pictures from the year.