So Much Going On.....

I am still having financial problems but I know that God will work everything out. Now for the real post.

I love TV. I do not believe that this is the first time that I have mentioned this. Well I just finished the entire series of Babylon 5. It was one of the better shows that I have ever seen. What makes it so good was that it was an ultimate Good vs. Evil and over four seasons the Good wins and peace is restored. There was also I great love story that also works out at the end which also made me very happy. I have decided that it took too much of my time so I am going to hold off on anything else right now (as far as TV is concerned). Finished that series was becoming more important to me that other things that I need to be concentrating on.

I have no new information about seminary except that they did send me the application and I have finished it and emailed Sally today to see what she wanted me to do now. I assume that sometime this week I will be called to Atlanta to give it to her and go over some more stuff.

I have only 10 more days of work and 12 until I leave the country for Australia. I decided today that it is a little sad that I cannot decide what I am more excited about quitting my job or going to Australia.

I had a friend today give me the missal she was given when she was confirmed when she was 16. She is now over 75 years old so of course it is pre-Vatican II but the thought was incredibly sweet. What makes it even cooler she is the first Catholic that I ever knew even though I did not know she was catholic. She is Italian and she keeps telling me she is going to make me a send off meal. I love her lasagna and hope that she does have me a send off.

Please keep me and my family in your prayers. There are no longer voicing their dissent but I still wonder how much of their "support" is just an act. I am thankful and appreciative I just hope that I am not stressing them too much. I will keep all of you also in my prayers. Many thanks and Peace!!

Worry...

I try not to burden anyone with my problems and am even embarrassed to admit them but I am not going to have the money at the rate I am going to have everything paid off when I go to seminary. I asked someone for help and know she is getting others involved to help me but know I am so worried that I even asked for help. I know that if she did not want to help me she would not even be worried about it but I do not want to think people I am asking for things that are not needed. I am sure that everything will be fine. God places us where he needs us and he will make the way for us. Even if we are humbled on the way and right now I feel very humbled. One of the first rules in WW is to learn to Ask for Help. Maybe I am getting some of these things down. 

Some Matt Maher Lyrics

"I wanna be holy, just like You

I wanna go where You lead me to

With reckless abandon to Your truth

I wanna fall deeper in love with You"

Please continue to pray for me and I will remember you all in my prayers. 

Latrobe Here I Come...

About an hour and a half ago I found out that I would be attending St. Vincent's Seminary in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. It was not my first choice but it was my second. Just from my superficial knowledge (before my search started 2 hours ago) I like it for the fact that it was run by the Benedictines and on campus has a school, parish, and monastery. So I assume it will be a rich learning environment.  Needless to say I am becoming very excited. Here is what I have learned in my more in depth research (please wait until the end to laugh). : )

The small town of Latrobe only has a population of less than 9,000. When you look at racial breakdown less that 100 are non-white. It seems to be more of a small steel town. The population is very dense. The Seminary is also very small but very quaint. I will post pictures found on the internet later. There are no banks that I recognize near me so I assume I will have to change banks. I did find  a Walmart less that 2 miles from the school. I am hopeing that I will be able to get a bicycle and then will be able to ride to and from where every I need to go. Other than that I am found many other things but none worth writing about (Such as Macs are acceptable computers). So until I post pictures- Peace be with all of you. 

My Weekend

This weekend I was able to attend the Eucharist Congress. It was really nice. I was able to meet a lot of people and I kept being introduced as the new seminarian. I kinda like the ring that it had to it. I also got to meet a bunch of the guys. They were all super nice and I feel that I am going to fit in just fine.

Father Luke also made a really nice comment. I had not seen him since late January and he asked me if I had left part of me at home. He said that he could really tell that I had lost a bunch of weight. He also told me he knew where I was going to seminary but he was going to wait and tell me later. I wanted him to go ahead and tell me but he said that we would wait. Well today I got a call from Sally about where I was going to go but of course I was at work and did not get the call, and when I tried to call her back I just got her voice mail. She did tell me to call her back tomorrow but she told me that it would have to be after lunch because she had an appointment in the morning so I have to wait a little longer. I think God is still testing me with my patience because he knows how long I have been waiting.

While I was there I also got to meet and really talk to Tessie. I have already decided that I love her. She pretty much told me that she was the finance lady and if I ever needed money or had any problems with money I got in touch with her. She made it clear that Sally was the one I had to get in touch with about anything else. She did tell me she was going to need to see me about ordering a cassock and a surplice. She also mentioned the price tag of 563.00. She did tell me that it should last at least six years. I then expressed my worry because I am still losing weight and I am worried that if I bought one so soon I would need another one. She told me that we would figure something out but if I could not fit into one they just had there I would need to buy a new one regardless.

Sunday I went to Mass and told my friend who I sit with that I had been accepted. She was so happy but because she is deaf she literally started shouting about it and so then I had to tell many other people. I did also tell the priest and he mentioned it during the mass. I got a standing ovation and then after mass I had so many people come up to me and congratulate me. The priest even wants to take me out to dinner to talk about my journey. I am very excited.

That morning was exciting but later it was not so happy. I told my grandmother who I though would not take it well and I was right. She cried for over an hour and then every time she would look at me she would tear up again. I talked to her and told her that they were so many other things that I could be doing that would be worse but she did not seem to want to hear it. So what can I do. I can only pray that she accepts it.

Please continue to pray for me. I hope that tomorrow I will know where I will be going. I have already decided that I will not be upset and will go where God leads. He knows where I need to be.

Peace- Ernie

Thanks Be To God!!!

I have been accepted. As of last night I was informed that I was now a seminarian for the Archdiocese of Atlanta. I have never been happier. I do not know who to describe what I am feeling. I am so thankful, excited, scared, ready, nervous, worried, and so many other emotions I have no idea how to describe it. 

I still do not know which seminary I will attend and will probably find out more about that this week. I have no idea the next steps that come next but I am sure that I will find out soon. Tomorrow is the Eucharist congress for Atlanta and I think that it will be a big meet and greet for me. I have been told to come wearing a tie. Again the number of emotions are overwhelming. 

First of all I am thankful to God for just giving me an answer. Also I feel that this is an affirmation to all the discernment that I did. Even though I do not know if I will complete seminary (even though I hope that is my path) I know that this is the direction that God wants me now and I am so thankful. 

I am so grateful for all the prayers and continue to ask for you support. Prayer has really been a blessing. As soon as I find out more information I will let everyone know. Also I will let you all know who tomorrow goes. I have a feeling my life just got really busy really quickly. 

Thanks be to God!

Wasted Day...

I was off today... at least from one job and did not have to go in until 3 this afternoon. I did and accomplished nothing. I did run to the bank with my Mom which turned into a 45 minute ordeal, and then I got home watched some TV and laid in bed. I didn't even really watch much of the TV because I ended up falling asleep and then I woke up in time to go to work. I just got home and am going to watch a little TV but then up for Mass and then work again. Does it never end? God be will us all. 

God is in Control

How often do we tell ourselves this? We say God is in control and everything will be alright. Do we really believe it? Sometimes I feel that I really believe myself when I tell myself that. Often times the worry does not stop. Deep down I know that everything will be ok but sometimes we just wonder how God will work or how much help do we need to give God. Because I am a firm believer in the old joke about a man on the housetop after a flood praying to God to rescue him and after several rescue attempts he keeps telling them that God will take care of him. In the end he ends up dying. He gets to heaven and he asks God why did he not deliver him. He had the faith that God would take care of him. God asked why he did not take any of the rescue attempts. That was him working. Hope that makes sense. 

If anyone wonders what I am worrying about it is money. With the raising gas prices among other things I am constantly worried about money. I know it will be ok, just how God will take care of it and making sure I take the opportunities that God gives me and not just keep "waiting" like the man on the boat. 

Not going to get to go to confession today even though I really wanted to. I had the opportunity to work so I am going to work.   I guess confession will have to wait until next weekend when I attend the Eucharist Congress in Atlanta. Hopefully I will be able to attend as a seminarian. I am hoping that they call me next week and will want to get with me. Here is to waiting. I may need to do another Novena to St. Anne. That seemed to help me out last time. 

Daily Mass

I love daily Mass. When I was in college I had my schedule around morning Mass. After leaving the University of Georgia and beginning work full time it became much harder to attend daily mass or almost impossible. Especially with the mass time at my parish here being some mornings and some evenings. Well the past two days I have taken time out to just make sure I go and I loved it. It was so nice just being able to attend mass and have that time with God. It makes me so thankful to be Catholic and to be able to have that opportunity each day to encounter Christ. Daily mass was one of the many things that drew me to the Catholic church. Yesterday I even managed to get there early and have some quiet time with Christ. I miss that. 

Oh how I long to become a seminarian and be able to fully devote all my time to the word of God and spend time with him. Right now it is so hard with work and all the many other worldly distractions and how I just want to have the time to devote to Him. 

I got off from work today which was nice. I was able to go have lunch with my sister and her boyfriend. We ate sushi. I still do not have a working printer. I tried to take it back today but they told me I could not because it has been longer than two weeks. So I have a 150.00 printer that does not work. I had to go to office depot and get some stuff printed. The only bad news is that the ink I just bought I am going to take back and the watch I bought I am going to take back. It was very cheap but still it has quit working and there is no need to pay for something that you do not need. 

Well that is all my friends. Please keep me and my family in your prayers and I will keep you in mine. Until next time. 

Very Tired!!!

For all the people that I work with who work two jobs and I used to be like well if you can't handle it quit one. I am sorry. I am working two jobs and I am feeling so tired all the time. But life goes on. I am working to make money to help pay off my debts so I can hopefully so to seminary in the fall. 

The Archdiocese emailed me today and told me I would hear something "soon." In my experiences with the Archdiocese this could mean anything. Hoping for the best. 

Sorry for such a short update but am going to lay down and take a nap. 

The Phone Call

This morning I was awakened by a phone call. I had actually slept until almost 9:30 but when my cell rang I got up to check it. It was the Archdiocese Vocations office. I was so nervous and when I finally answered it they were not there so I had to call them back. Apparently I soundly like I had just work because that was the first question that they asked me. I told them yes but saw it was them and really wanted to call them back. She told me that there was no reason to get excited because she just wanted to tell me that she had given my number out to a convert who had just contacted the vocations office and was just beginning his discernment. She did not want me to be surprised if he called me out of the blue to talk about converting or the priesthood. I just laughed and told her ok and then asked about my application. The told me they were still waiting on one of the people I interviewed with to write them. So it was not the phone call I was looking for yet at the same time I felt that it was a very good sign that they were giving my number out to people. So that was good news. 

I went to the public library today and pickup up three catholic books. The first (the one I actually went for) was the new Anne Rice (Road to Cana) and the other two were "Growing up Catholic" which just seems really interesting and the other I have been looking for, for a while was "Triumph: The Power and Glory of the Catholic Church." It is a concise history of the church that takes a very conservative view and apparently defends the church and her actions throughout history. Needless to say I am very excited about it. Just the title makes it exciting. 

At mass of Sunday we were challenged to read more Catholic literature, watch Catholic Movies, listen to Catholic radio and watch Catholic TV, so I am trying. I have downloaded some of the great mass classics from Bach and Monteverdi and have really been enjoying them. I really liked what he said on Sunday about how being Catholic is not just a set of beliefs but a real lifestyle. He even used the term Cafeteria Catholic and told us we could not pick and choose out beliefs. So I hope people take that to heart and really look at the church's teachings and really start living out their faith throughout the week and in their lives now just on Sunday. He even commented about being in a State of Grace to receive communion (not that I think anyone really cared everyone still went up (not that I am to judge anyone)). 

So that has been the beginning of my June. I am still working two jobs and hoping to hear from the Archdiocese. We will see. Until then Peace with you all. 

Saturday's Ordination

Let me say first of all I love Archbishop Gregory. He has been a blessing to Atlanta and I know we are eventually going to lose him because of how good he is. Anyway back to the ordinations on Saturday; it was absolutely beautiful. First the excitement that build just being there waiting for it to begin and then when the procession started it did not seem like it was going to end and in marches the 8 men to be ordained. They looked so happy. They were all smiles and looked ready to celebrate this occasion. 

First of all it was awesome to be with that many people to celebrate all the hard work and prayer that these men had already done and this was really just a new beginning for them. Then the bishop kept reminding all of us of the scarifies that each one of these men had made and hoe all priest made then and it was also their families. Then he thanked the families for giving us such fine men. The primary theme of his homily was that they are just ordinary men who have answered a call. They are sinners they still are going to sin, they are not perfect nor will they ever be. Which has always been so important to me because until I really started discerning and praying I always felt that priest were suppose to be a little better than everyone and yes they have do have a different role and are to be set apart in dress and actions but in the end everyone can makes mistakes. 

Other things that I noticed about the mass was that we used a lot of gregorian chant which made me happy. As well as major choir works during the offertory and in the recessional and processional. It was really nice to hear a great choir with the huge pipe organ. 

While there I got to meet two other guys who are currently in application with the archdiocese as well. We actually ended up setting next to one another and did not know. So that was kinda neat. They were both young like me. One thing I can say though that it was something that one day I hope to be able to experience (God willing). 

In my news I still have not heard anything from the Archdiocese. I am keeping my fingers crossed for this week but in reality I would like to hear something by the end of next week. So we will see. If it happens I have so many people that I have to get in touch with. I have honestly thought about making a list because the last thing I was to do is forget to tell someone and have someone else tell them and then get chastised for not telling them. Alright my friends until next time peace.