500 Days and Many More to Come

Here's a cool milestone: 500 days ago, the Most Reverend John F. Kinney, Bishop of the Diocese of Saint Cloud, accepted me as a seminarian for his diocese.

Now, one academic year and two summers later, I took some time to look back at what I have accomplished - and that which I have yet to accomplish - for the Church, my bishop, and the People of God in the Diocese of Saint Cloud.

During this time, I have been able to meet a host of seminarians from across the country, been able to work with the People of God, and been humbled (multiple times) by learning that there is ever-so-much that I still need to learn.

In the Office of Readings for this past Saturday, we read an excerpt from Saint Augustine's sermon "On Pastors." In this, Saint Augustine wrote about temptation - in a way that applies to this topic as well. He writes that one must "prepare your soul for temptation." However, the consolation is that though "it is not that temptation will be lacking, but that God will not permit anyone to be tempted beyond what he can bear."

It would be comfortable to claim that since God will not allow one to be tested beyond what one can bear, that one may then relax. Quite the opposite. We must flex, stretch, and strengthen our spiritual muscles so that we are ready for the temptations and trials that will surely come.

So, for me here in the seminary, if I am truly called, God has given me the ability to make it through these years of trial and testing in the seminary-environment. My role is to give it my all so that I can be found (God-willing) worthy of ordination.

Ponder this in your own vocation, whatever it may be. You will not be tested beyond what you can bear, but neither must you "slack" in your preparation for the trial.

Take care, -Jeremy