Quo Vadis/A Simple Thought

"Quo Vadis?"

I just returned from a retreat in my diocese called Quo Vadis, which is Latin for "where are you going?" Traditionally, these are the words that Jesus spoke when He appeared to Peter on his way out of Rome, attempting to escape death. Jesus was entering the city, carrying His cross. Upon hearing these words, Peter returned to Rome, embracing his martyr's death for Christ.

Heavy stuff, right?

It seems that priesthood is like that. Taking on a burden and being like Christ, even to the point of sharing in the way He died. It's definitely not for the faint of heart or the weak in spirit. (Maybe the meek of heart and the poor in spirit.)

There is a lot of talk about celibacy, obviously, being a rather large part of the priesthood. In the early years of my discernment, it was the biggest stumbling block. It seems, however, that the people who truly embrace celibacy are the happiest people.

Maybe sex isn't the quintessence* of human existence. Maybe loving in the way Christ did (and does) trumps 'loving' the way the world tells us to love. Huh. Imagine that.

(*That may have been a Secret Life of Walter Mitty reference. (It was.) Good flick. Check it out.)

Anyways. I plan on writing more on celibacy. My seminarian friends had a lot of beautiful things to say about it.

Oh yeah! I'm back, by the way.

My main reason for not posting as much, is it takes a lot of time to research and write full length, life-changing articles. Particularly because I am one person on a tiny little blog. (A "voice crying out in the wilderness," if you will.)

While on this discernment retreat (I brought it up for a reason). I remembered that we're all called to sainthood, and we're supposed to use our gifts accordingly. As I wrote this down in my journal full of awesome adoration/mass/reconciliation/etc experiences, I realized I'm not sharing that part of me, and I'm not using those gifts.

So I'm back.

What I recently realized is a lot of Catholic Anons (on twitter) have blogs, and they just post about their lives as Catholics. Maybe that's what I can do.  I am, after all, a Catholic with a life (or what I think is a life) and I have a blog. So why not use it?

My 'simple thought' is this: Maybe not every word out of my mouth, or blog, has to be profound. After all, saints didn't always speak in eloquent verse or colloquial sayings. They talked like people, and demonstrated their faith in a way that made them relatable to other people.

So, I hope I'm relatable enough for you. Thank you for reading!

God bless,
Patrick

P.S. It seems like I always get back into my blog in August. Please pray for my diligence in this endeavor. Thanks!