Annuntio Vobis Gadium Magnum...

Habemus Blogam!

This is my first entry into the blogging world.  For years I have done my fair share of blog browsing but never gave much thought to writing one, even during my year at the novitiate.  It has always struck me as a bit presumptuous that enough people would have the interest or desire to know of my thoughts and reflections to support a blog.  Alas as I prepare to spend the summer learning Spanish in Guadalajara and then the subsequent year at St. John John Vianney Parish in Goodyear, AZ I have come to the realization that I will be fairly far from many of the people that I cherish and hold dear and unlike the novitiate there is a fair possibility for lots of exciting things to be happening that some of my family and friends might want to know about.  Thus I humbly open this blog, Duc In Altum.  I hope that is helps many of my family and friends to keep in touch and to update themselves on my goings on in the coming year, but also it gives me a chance to share some of my reflections on the many new and challenging opportunities that await me both in Mexico and in Phoenix.  I have never been very good at journaling, but I hope that this blog will help keep me honest and allows me to share a little bit of me with you.

Lastly a note on the blog title Duc in Altum, for the non Latin scholars out there the phrase roughly translates as: "put out into the deep" and comes from the fifth chapter of St. Luke's gospel (which is quoted just under the title heading).  As I approach the beginning of my summer in Mexico as well as my Pastoral Year this saying of Our Lord has been ever in my mind so I figured it would be a good title for the blog.  On one hand it represents, for me, leaving the safe and known waters of life at Notre Dame and life at Moreau to the deeper and unknown waters of full time ministry.  The road ahead is certainly a bit mysterious and will be challenging, and like St. Peter I am often hesitant to go, yet the Lord calls me to these deep waters because it is there that we will find our eternal reward, our great catch of fish.  On the other hand this phrase also represents my desire for the upcoming year, to put out into the great vineyard of the Lord and to make Him known, loved, and served.  To answer Jesus' call to his apostles "Come and follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."

Let's hope that there will be actual subsequent blog entries, but until then oremus pro invicem!