Welcome back!

Greetings Ladies and Gents!

It really is not fair to update a blog created for Roman Adventures when one is living in the States...now is it?

IT IS GOOD TO BE BACK IN ROME!

I just wrapped up a phenomenal summer at home in the Diocese of Rockford, Illinois wherein I was engaged in a some parish work and had meetings regarding the administrative side of the business...needless to say I was more appreciative of my duties with the former versus the latter assignment. After my assignment I had approximately 2 weeks to see all the family and friend whom I have not seen in about 11 months time. I dubbed my adventures "My Whirl-wind Family and Friends Tour of the Midwest 2007" wherein I covered 4 states and 8 stops in a week and a half while only putting a few thousand miles on my little red car. These last trips put my mileage up to 170,000...rawk on!

As I was saying, it is good to be back! Time acts a little funnier as I have more trips under my belt. I say this because it seemed odd how extremely familiar I was with everything in Rome when I walked to dinner the other night...it was almost so bad that it had seemed like I had only left Rome for a few days rather than the reality of being away for 2 1/2 months! Now I know that I will get a smart remark or 2 about turning 25...getting older...and all that jazz, but ya know what? I'm okay with that!

I ran down to my University the other day to register for classes and amid my 27 minute jaunt I realized how much I took my week-daily commute for granted but I did not think of this until I saw a few young tourist couples meandering the quaint cobblestoned streets of Rome hand-in-hand and thinking to myself how much they gave to be here for what may only be a week for them in their entire lives. I was glad that the Lord blessed me with this moment of gratitude. And with that I'd like to say THANK YOU to the good tithing Catholics of the Rockford Diocese who make all this happen for a punk kid following the Lord from Capron, Illinois...population 1000!

It is good to be back with my brothers here at NAC (The Pontifical North American College)! We were just discussing this evening at dinner (some say supper, this comment is for you) about how we as seminarians at NAC are fortunate with an academic situation which is SO conducive to stronger friendships than most other seminary communities. Once we began discussing this it made tons of sense. We not only study with these 200 guys but we have 5 years worth of Christmases, Thanksgivings, Easters and most of us have our Birthday celebrations with eachother. Where most of our brothers back home (most, not all) have the gift of family during this time we have the gift of brothers...and how greatly will that aid us in our future as priests of the Unites States together, spanning the coasts and covering the midlands!

My adventures for my 2nd of 5 years are beginning so stay tuned and I'll keep you posted...quite literally!

God's Blessing on you and yours,

Jeremy!