Here is a brief video from the Cast Your Nets evening:
Fr. Jeff, our Provincial Minister, comments:
Fr. Don, Thanks for all the work you do in helping these men discern the Lord's call in their lives! Let's continue to "cast our nets" !!!
Yesterday evening, January 31, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati held a Cast Your Netsvocational evening at Good Shepherd Catholic Church on the far north side of town. They hold these evenings periodically around the archdiocese and invite local clergy and Religious to set up booths to disseminate information to the teens. I went with two of our Postulants and set up a table (seen on the right). The Poor Clares from here in Cincinnati also participated.
Pictures on the upper left are Andrew Farwick and Adam Calder, two of our three Postulants along with Poor Clare Sisters Ann Marie, Pia (facing away) and Kelly, a Postulant for the Clares.
These kinds of events don't produce immediate responses, but they do give young people a chance to see and meet Religious and to pick up some information about our way of life.
With any luck I should have a little video of the event up on YouTube in the next day or so.
Saturday, January 30, the Admissions Board met with three men seeking admission to the Postulancy Program. A fourth prospective had to miss this particular meeting due to his father's illness. The Board will meet with him in March.
Eric Seguin of Ottawa, ON Canada received permission to enter our formation process this coming July 1 as a Postulant. Eric is 39 years old and is the youngest of ten children. His parents and siblings live in Canada and the United States. Presently Eric works at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Ottawa in a variety of roles. His professional training is in the hospitality industry, a field in which he work for a number of years before moving to the cathedral as he began to discern his vocation. We have and have had a number of Canadians in our province. We welcome Eric as well.
Two other prospectives met with the Admissions Board Saturday and both will be taking another year in preparation for entrance.
Stan writes:
Wow, Fr. Don, ELEVEN MEN!! The Spirit is clearly working among your brothers!
The Male Spirituality and Sexuality workshop in Joliet, IL ended Friday about noon. After lunch I drove to Champaign, IL where I visited with a prospective. Saturday I returned to Cincinnati. At the left is a shot of one of our Postulants, Adam Calder, at the workshop.
This coming weekend we will hold our first Admissions Board of the year. Four men will present themselves to the Board seeking admission to the Postulancy Program starting this July. Four more will meet with the Board in March and then three in April. I'll keep the blog posted with the outcomes.
Please remember these men in your prayers.
The Friars of Sacred Heart Province at St. John the Baptist Friary in Joliet, IL are hosting a workshop this week for our Postulants and those of Sacred Heart Province. I offer this workshop on Male Spirituality and Sexuality every January to the Postulants of the three midwestern provinces. This year there are a total of six Postulants and two directors so I have it fairly easy.
As you can see from the picture, it is cold and snowy up here--as opposed to Cincinnati where it had rather nicely warmed up in the past week.
The workshop is going very well. The six Postulants seem to be enjoying it and I am finding it very satisfying. The annual event gives me a chance to get back into a teaching role which I love.
At the left, Guillermo Morales of Sacred Heart Province and Andrew Farwick of our St. John the Baptist Province are pictured.
Tomorrow afternoon and evening the group has some time off to go into Chicago to see our Temporary professed Friars and to view some of the sights of the Windy City.
Today Fr. Al (the Friar with whom I live) and I went to the Poor Clare Monastery here in Cincinnati for a Day of Prayer. I had Mass for the Poor Clares this morning so the two of us went out there for Mass and then stayed for most of the day. The weather was milder today so it was nice to get out and walk around. The Sisters served us a nice lunch and we had access to their chapel for private prayer all day. At noon we joined the Sisters for Mid-day Prayer.
It was wonderful to get away and spend some time for prayer. We spent part of the day together discussing an article from The Cordconcerning Jesus' choice of poverty by becoming human. We also spent a good deal of time alone in personal prayer.
Next week I will be in Joliet, IL with our Postulants and those of Sacred Heart Province for our annual workshop on Male Spirituality and Sexuality.
This weekend, January 8-10, five young men joined us at St. Anthony Friary in Cincinnati, OH for the third Come and See weekend of this academic year, the first in 2010. They are (l to r) Nicolas Yslas from Prescott, AZ; Daniel Stringer from Mobile, AL; Jose Olmedo, Jr from Houston, TX; Jacob Friedline from Galveston, TX; and Matthew Sprauer from Centerville, OH. This group raises the number of men who have made a Come and See this school year to 15.
Let us thank God for the blessing he is showering upon our province.
Fr. Jeff,our Provincial Minister, sent the following note:
