Home

There is a saying that home is where the heart is. For the past 5 days, I have been in Philadelphia visiting family and friends while attending the diocese of pennsylvania's annual convention. I had not been back to pennsylvania since I left for seminary in August. I was looking forward to seeing everyone, especially all my nieces and nephews. And It was a wonderful trip. Last Thursday night, my mother made an incredible feast for dinner to celebrate all the birthdays my family has in November. It a great evening of sharing and love. The kind of love only a family can share.

But as I spent time in Pennsylvania, I came to realize that since I left, my heart, and if the saying holds true, my home, is no longer there. Don't get me wrong, I love it there, but my friends and life have moved 2500 miles away to a small community of seminarians in Berkeley, CA. While at my parents home, I yearned for the structure of community prayer in morning prayer, the noonday Eucharist, and evening prayer. I missed the time of quietly sitting in the chapel. I missed the theological debates that we have at breakfast or the late night discussions. Of course it wasn't always that way.

The first month of seminary was a tough time for me. It was difficult to leave the life I had lived in Pennsylvania behind and start a new life in California. It was a time of struggling to find my place in a new community. I struggled for a few weeks really questioning whether I was following the correct path? At my age, am I really doing the right thing? Am I really able to handle the workload of seminary? After all, I had just sold most of my furniture, boxed all my belongings, quit my job, and moved to the other side of the country into a room that is smaller than most people's living room. I had left behind my family and friends and was now a stranger in a strange place.

While I don't have all the answers yet. I do know that I have made the correct decision. Since I graduated from Muhlenberg College back in 1993, I have struggled to put a voice to the feeling I had deep inside me. It was a still small voice that was just waiting for the right time to emerge. The years of waiting have been filled with incredible experiences that have molded me into the person I am today. I firmly believe that the still small voice is the Holy Spirit and that she was willing to wait quietly until I was ready to accept the challenges of seminary. And so now I sit on an airplane heading to Berkeley to go home.

I thank God for the ability to follow the path that I am on. I am truly blessed to be attending seminary and have the prayers and support of so many people walking with me on this journey.