Each of my assignments as a priest has come with apprehension, though somewhat different in how that nervousness bubbled up. When I was first assigned as a vicar at St. Ignatius, I had already moved my stuff out of the
seminary to my home parish weeks earlier, and was chomping at the bit to get started. I had six weeks off to enjoy being a brand new priest and travel around to parishes where I had lived and say Masses all over creation. I hit the ground running, and life was the fun sort of chaotic. Becoming a pastor so quickly didn’t deter me too much, and even though my moving in process was stalled by preparing the rectory (and having my banjo stolen…) I was determined to do everything in my power to be absolutely everywhere in my three new parishes. I wanted people to get sick of seeing me, and then see me some more. I quickly
started to run into the hard differences between being a vicar at one parish and being a pastor of three. It really took it out of me, and I wondered if I had what it takes.

Almost five years in to being a pastor and getting a chance to hit the reset button, I’ve been praying about what I would like my mentality to be as we begin the process of learning to live together as a family. I don’t know that I have the most coherent schema put together yet, so I thought I would just throw down a bunch of things that I want for myself and for all of you, my spiritual children:
 
· Prayer should be the most important thing for me, because without it, I will be trying to do everything myself, and I know for a fact that this is impossible. I will do my best to prioritize it, and I ask that you gently encourage me to stick to my holy hour and daily devotional life. It’s for all of us, I promise.

· I’m not the most social person by nature, but I do enjoy getting to know my people, and I rarely turn down an informal chat on a back patio with a parishioner (or several.)
 
· I try to mine for good conflict so I can have honest conversations with the people I love about things that matter. I’m fairly conflict averse by nature, but I also believe that life is too short and we’re all too busy to spend our time talking about just sports and the weather. I believe and hold everything the Church teaches to be true, and that   generally makes for at least a little bit of awkward conversation nowadays, and that’s okay because it’s important.
 
· Finally, and most importantly, I don’t see this endeavor of us coming together as a family as this group joining that group or that group joining this group. In the most honest assessment, this is various parts of the Body of Christ discerning how to  minister most effectively together. The   next few years will be an adventure, and I’m willing to bet they’ll be chaotic sometimes, but if we step back from our fears and  treating our parish reality as a zero-sum game where someone has to win and another has to lose, I believe that God will do great things.
 
It's not always easy hitting the reset button, but I’m excited to do so with all of you. God bless you all, and I’ll see you at Church.