Jovenes, Jovenes!

Walls of Avila

During my wanderings over break from class for Christmas, I found myself in Avila, Spain.  Avila, of course, is the home of St. Theresa of Avila, a great reformer in the Church and a mystic.  Her beautiful words about how to grow in intimacy with God in prayer has led her to be called a doctor of the Church, a rare honor for saints. 

In Sevilla

In Madrid

I was blessed to be able to travel with some seminarians that I have just met here at the NAC.  I have friends here that I knew before coming, but this was a great opportunity to build new relationships.  Our time there was a simple pause for prayer in the soil that has born so much fruit, but we also had a couple mass intentions to give at the monastery.  This led us to an older man running the desk who was, unfortunately hard of hearing.  Normally that wouldn’t be a problem, but after living in Italy, none of our Spanish was particularly good (though I maintain that I was saying it right- we’ll just blame it on my accent), and we could just not get across what we wanted. 

Church in Avila

With the help of woman nearby who knew Italian, we got everything in order.   Then he waved for us to follow him.  He proceeded to give us a fast pace tour of a sitting room, a hallway, and the sacristy.  We were all very excited because we thought he was going to show us around the monastery or something of St. Theresa, but instead he excitedly showed us the sacristy, beckoning us to follow him from place to place with “Jovenes, jovenes!” (that is “young guys, young guys!” [ragazzi in Italian]).  It was quite an event; we have all seen probably more sacristies than we can remember, but the joy and excited that this man had to show us around made it an amazing experience. 

Palace in Sevilla

Palaza de Madrid, in Sevilla

Leaving Avila that night we reflected on how bizarre that was, but still a beautiful gift from God.  In a lot of ways this is how God acts.  He is just so excited to show us that goodness of his creation, to show us the goodness of His love for us in everything around us.  He leads us along, beckoning us to follow, with joy that what we see everyday could lead us into deeper intimacy with him, as St. Theresa found.  As the saying goes, everything is gift and God is overcome with joy to give it to us. 

Fernand, me, Kurt, and Chris on their last night in Rome

One of the most precious gifts I found during that break was the fraternity of two wayward Phoenix seminarians that ended up at our door here in Rome.  Kurt and Chris, both in third theology studying at the Josephium, came with their class to Rome for a couple weeks.  It was a wonderful blessing to spend time with them.  These opportunities for friendship and brotherly love cannot be underestimated.  We didn’t do much, just walk around a little together and had a couple meals.  But we laughed until we cried and shared the joy that God so freely gives us with one another.   A call to the priesthood is support in a big way by true fraternity.  I simply simile when I look forward to the time when I get to work side by side with these brothers in Phoenix for Christ and His Church.