Catholic Kermit

I haven’t been blogging very much for the first 3 weeks of the new seminary year (and barely any over the summer). I have a stack of outlines and notes of things I meant to blog and journal about, but I just keep putting it off (I guess until I get some “free” time … in seminary? … I must be dumber than I look). It’s not that I haven’t wanted to, but I let myself get distracted by “busy” stuff.

There are so many options to do here at seminary. I could go to the community rooms and watch a movie, follow yet another TV series, play games, lounge around with my brother seminarians, play sports, work out in the gym, take a walk (I’m not a jogger), eat the great food and desserts, do some class readings, homework, start writing one of several papers this semester, plan a lesson for Monday Religious Education apostalic work, listen to music, study Scripture, spend time with our Lord in an Adoration Chapel, take a nap, go for a drive, and more and more and more.

Somewhere along the way, I started on the wrong foot and now find myself slowly rising from the floor assessing what happened. Maybe this is a growing pain of seminary “formation” … or maybe my priorities got renumbered and I procrastinated my universe’s perfection. This is a long way of saying I’m lazy!

When I started blogging last May 2007, I wanted to (1) track my discernment journey by forcing myself to acknowledge my life’s details in words that I could look back on to see its growth. I also (2) wanted to keep my closest family and friends to better understand this “mysterious” journey to the priesthood as I’m doing myself. As a extra, (3) I wanted my home parish family of St Bernadette Catholic Church in Hollywood, FL to better understand the journey they’re so supportive of. And finally, in the process of blogging, (4) maybe it could inspire others (strangers) to better understand vocations, discernment, the Catholic Church, etc. That was my perfect plan.

Where am I at now? … My 4 month blogging hiatus has made friends and family ask if I’m still a seminarian. I assured them I still was, but needed a break from something I forgot the “WHY?” for. Even without regular daily posts for past few month, my blog gets an average of 300 visitors a day. Most of that traffic comes from search engines for pictures I include in posts (especially cultural food night pictures) as well as a variety of keywords I identify for each post. Most of that traffic, from what I can tell, is not intended with vocational discernment curiousity. The minority that are have been very encouraging and well responsive on the blog and in personal emails. I appreciate you ALL more than I can express in words.

So what now? … I miss the blogging. It helped me, (forced me), to reflect on my day to see what God has for me. Last year, during a Holy Hour with Miami Auxiliary Bishop Estevez, he related some spiritual direction he received while he was a seminarian. He was told to reflect back on your day and identify points where you saw God’s grace in your life and connect them to “see” the Lord. That advice inspired me to include DOTS in some posts and I don’t usually explain publicly, but have significance to “paint” the day when I go back and read a past post. This weekend’s Day of Reflection Retreat echoed that idea in the first talk. That triggered my re-commitment [to myself FIRST] to quiet the busyness and put my spiritual contact lenses back in every day. Blogging help that and so I’ll get back Catholic Kermit. I’ll start my back-dating some significant posts I’ve been meaning to write as soon as possible to now deny the Lord’s work in my life (despite my own selfish plans). And it starts with this very post! God bless and be holy!