My Summer... So Far

Well, it takes me getting sick to allow me enough time to write on my blog.  Wow, what a month it has been!

For the past month, I have been taking intensive pastoral Spanish at the Mexican American Catholic College (MACC) in San Antonio, Texas.  The first of two sessions began on May 29th and finished June 27th.  I arrived here two weeks after the end of the academic semester at St. Meinrad and dived into the Spanish language and Hispanic culture.  Initially, there were only two seminarians here from Oklahoma City, along with two priests from the diocese.  In total, there were between 30-35 participants for the first session.  I was placed in the "beginners +" class, as I had taken Spanish for two semesters previously.  Other than academics, this time period was relatively quiet for me.

It was a rough month academically.  Although I have taken Spanish before, the vocabulary does not easily "stick" for me, and so I have had to be diligent in my studies and in my homework.  I have found, at least for me, that the key to learning the language is to perevere in spite of it all.  It is a slow and arduous process, but it is coming along, and I feel that, by the end of the summer, I'll be in a better position to continue my spanish studies.

In between sessions, the students here were given a week and a half off.  This time for me was spent at home.  I visited our diocesan youth camp and stayed there for a few days.  I always love getting to spend time there, and this break was no different.  I was able to help out liturgically and musically, and renewed some good friendships that I had not had time to pursue since two years ago, when I was assigned to the camp for my summer assignment.

I also got to spend time with my family.  My brother and his wife and children came to Oklahoma to visit family here during this week.  He is in the process of moving from Ohio to Louisiana, and so my monthly visits to see him will be coming to an end.  I will miss that, but I know his new job is a better one, and so I wish him luck.  I also spent some quality time with the parents, although I didn't really know how to help out much around the house.  Isn't it an odd thing -- when you are young and still living at home, you know exactly what needs to be done around the house, and yet you strive your hardest to avoid your responsibilities.  But when you are older, and you actually WANT to help out and feel useful, you have not idea what to do.  That tends to be a repeated theme for me.  In the end, though, I always realize that there's really no place like home.

I am currently about half-way through the last session.  This session has been a bit different from the past session demographically, and therefore socially.  The Archdiocese of Oklahoma City seems to have taken over down here, as there are now seven seminarians, a priest, and the archbishop present.  That's right, Archbishop Coakley has come to the MACC for a refresher course in Spanish.  He presided for Mass yesterday and, aside from an excursion to Denver for the installation of Archbishop-designate Aquila, will be here until July 27th.

It has been a real blessing to have so many of my diocesan brothers present.  I have been able to re-kindle good relationships with them.  We have studied together, played together and prayed together.  It's been something I've needed, and I'm very grateful.

One of the not-so-great parts of the summer has been the amount of time and money I've had to spend on my car.  Since the beginning of the summer, George the Green T-Bird has left me stranded in the middle of a busy intersection twice, been in the auto shop twice, and has had her ball-joints, battery, and alternator replaced.  On the bright side, at least I know I won't need to replace those parts for a while.  My thanks to Matthew/Tommy/James Thomason, a DB who's going to St. John Vianney Seminary in Denver, for being a great help and a great friend.

So, my friends, there you have it.  This is the condensed version of my journey through the summer.  I hope to be a little more active here as the summer comes to a close, so that my post won't be this long.  I pray that you may have a blessed summer time as well.  ¡Adiós, mis amigos!