How did I get here?

A few days ago Mike (my friend who left yesterday) and I were reflecting on our attitudes, ideas, worldviews, etc. from when we started out college to where we are now.  It was really incredible to hear his story of how he kind of randomly came to St. Mike's without any real idea of what he wanted to do in life, and yet his time there gave him a strong sense of direction (full-time ministry).  Now he'll be shipping off to do a year of service with the Jesuit Volunteer Corp.  When I first started at St. Mike's I was not particularly religious.  In many ways I had fallen away from the faith I had grown up with.  I initially visited by mere happenstance, when I was looking to transfer to University of Vermont and decided to visit a friend who was at St. Mike's.  Life changer right there.

Six years ago this July I drove up to Vermont with parents to sign up for classes.  On a whim I signed up for Prof. Peter Tumulty's Introduction to Philosophy course, thinking it would be a waste of time and hoping to get it out of the way.  Little did I know how this class would begin to lead me down a path I never in my wildest dreams would have expected.

I really fell in love with the all the question asking, the intellectual tradition of Catholicism, and this ultimately led to me examining a lot of questions that had been mulling within my heart for a long time, not the least of which being many concerning God.  Long story short I entered the Catholic Church, and it has been a wild ride since.  Then some years later, with a desire to keep asking (or living) these sorts of questions, I applied to the Society of St. Edmund.  And now, after a year of seminary and a spur-of-the-moment decision that for some odd reason (which I still don't fully understand) I was going to come to Alabama for the summer, I am here.

It's sometimes mind boggling to think about the little narrative of my life during the last six years:
how arbitrarily choosing to visit UVM ended up with stopping by St. Mike's to see a friend, and because of that decision on a -19 degree night in January (and of course a wealth of other ones in between) I ended up here in Selma for what has been perhaps the most important Summer for my life and discernment so far.

Sometimes I get worried about the future, say 20 years down the road: what the Society of St. Edmund will look like, what St. Michael's College will look like, what the Southern Missions will look like.  Then I remember how much has changed and grown in my life in these brief six years.  I am reminded of the tremendous amount of opportunities that have been opened up to me, and often when I least expected them.  I think of all the crazy, terrifying (in the best way, of course), and beautiful things that God may or may not have dance ever so subtly into my life in the next few years.  And then I don't worry so much about where we Edmundites will be in 20 years.  Learning to trust God and to trust the process is a lifelong venture.  On I go.

Mike and me by an African carving of the Blessed Mother & Child
in the Missions House chapel.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.  I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”  (Jeremiah 29:11-14)