Praised be Jesus Christ now and forever!
It was a great blessing to spend my summer at Saint Christopher Parish and especially to serve and to pray with and for you daily and throughout the weekend Masses. I want to thank you for your commitment to meet Christ, follow Christ, and bear Christ. I encourage you to keep striving to the goal of falling in love with Jesus and carrying Him out to the world. It was edifying and rejuvenating to be welcomed into so many of your lives and to see how you cherish and live your faith. I only wish that I would have been able to know you better in my short time.
Nevertheless, it was a busy summer, in which I strove to understand how the parish operates and how best to support and strengthen the faith as a priest one day. My daily routine included serving Mass and working in the office – getting to know the staff members and their roles, and helping out here and there. I also met many volunteers and attended plenty of meetings!
My favorite part of the summer was participating in some of the faith sharing groups, whether it was the high school adoration hour … the Wednesday morning men’s group … a brief visit to RCIA … a Catholic discussion group at EPIC … or something as simple as dinner at one of your homes. It was great to see the vibrancy of the parish even during the summer.
Now I am back at Seminary, entering my third year of theological studies in Rome. I have two more years here (including this one) to round out my total of eight years of study for the priesthood. It has been a long and beautiful journey and all the more exciting now that I near its end.
I thank you again for this summer which has helped me to put into focus those areas of formation that I hope to grow in this year so as to be more conformed to the Heart of Christ the Good Shepherd and to serve his flock as a capable priest. God willing, I will be ordained a priest in summer of 2021. I look forward to sharing a bit of my year with you from time to time. Please pray for me as I will be praying for you.
In Christ,
Michael Wanta