Home in Charm City... the Land of Pleasant Living

I love Baltimore.  From all of the places that I have been in the past two years, there is no place that can compare to Charm City.  For lack of a better phrase—my roots are here—and I am thrilled to be home.  Directly after landing at BWI my parents and I met up with a lot of old friends at the infamous Ryan’s Daughter on Belvedere Square.  It was awesome to say the least. 

As can be expected, some things have certainly changed, both around town and within myself, over the past two years.

For one, it seems like zombies are really popular these days.  I don’t get it.  I thought the movie Zombie Land was pretty funny, but other than that I really don’t get the fascination with zombies.  It seems like some people are taking the whole thing pretty seriously… who knows.

Another big change has been adjusting to the lay of the land, especially with new landmarks.  I would have never said that I am all that good with directions and knowing my way around town—especially considering that ever since I started driving I have mapped out places in relation to either Charles St. or York Rd.  So some of my memories of where things are and different possible short-cuts have gotten a bit rusty, but that has definitely not been helped by the growth of different areas.  Who would have thought that Fallston would have a Walmart, McDonalds, Burger King, the Acme, and still be building… 

It has been absolutely incredible to be able to spend some quality time with family and friends.  My supervisor for the summer at Immaculate Heart of Mary parish, Fr. Michael Carrion, has been really awesome in encouraging me to spend time with family and friends, and so I have been able to spend most of the afternoons on Sundays with my family… a highlight from a couple of weeks ago was going to collect the eggs from the chickens at my parents’ house with my grandfather.  He has slowed down a bit in his old age, but I can’t remember hearing him laugh as much as when he was telling me how he started warning the chickens, “Either start putting out more eggs… or else!”

It has been awesome to spend time with my nieces and nephew!  My classmate from Baltimore, Chris deLeon, has taught me a valuable lesson.  He calls it expectation management.  So as I was coming home after having been gone for two years I followed my good friend’s advice and did a little bit of expectation management.  Well, I was totally blown away at how excited they were to see me and hear about where all I had been and then talk about what all they had been up to over the past two years and what all we are going to do this summer.  They, really my whole family, have been an incredible inspiration to me and have kept me going in times of doubt and struggles with discernment and trust.

I finally got to congratulate my sister Theresa and her husband Sammy and two of my best friends in the world, Ben and Jen Livingston, on getting married.  To be honest missing those weddings and the birth of my niece Samantha were some very difficult sacrifices, but it was awesome to be able to hug them and celebrate their weddings over some good food and the official beverage of Ireland.  It has been difficult too to be here, probably less than a 15 minute drive from them and not be able to spend all that much time together because of responsibilities around the parish.  We will have some good times, though, before September.

It is awesome to be in a parish, especially Immaculate Heart of Mary.  Fr. Mike is a great pastor who really pours himself out for the parish community, and the parishioners are a true family—there for and with each other.  I have really enjoyed working with and getting to know the parish staff, a great group that is really good at what they do, always looking for ways to improve and renew their ministry, and a lot of fun.  One of the daily highlights is our game of jeopardy at lunch.  I have been pretty busy around the parish, helping with daily Mass, Communion Services, wake services, funerals, giving reflections, spending time with parishioners, visiting the neighboring nursing homes and hospitals, and brainstorming possibilities for young adult ministry.  This has really been a great assignment and I am looking forward to experiencing and learning more during my time here.

This past week I was with my brother Baltimore seminarians.  Every year all of the men in formation get together for a week to pray together and spend time growing in fraternity.  We really have an excellent group of men who are in love with the Lord and his people.  We had a special privilege this year of having our newly ordained priests come and celebrate Mass with us and give reflections on their first month as a priest.  It was inspiring and a lot of fun to hear their stories, even the ones that were more liberally based on fact (Isaac).  It was great to spend the week with these men, goofing off and getting to know each other better.  It was also refreshing to meet the six new seminarians for Baltimore—four of whom are from Loyola Blakefield.  Roll Dons Roll.  The six of them are a bright group and a good addition to Baltimore.  You can really see the fruit of the combined efforts of Cardinal O’Brien and Fr. Austin as well as the rest of the diocese.  All in all it was an awesome and refreshing week that, based off of the seminarians who are very eager to serve in any way they can, gave a great preview of the future here in the Land of Pleasant Living.

One major thing that I have acutely noticed about the reality here in America, after having been gone for two years, that has been a bit troubling is the drastic divide between liberal and conservative.  It seems that the political realm and even in a lot of the cultural and religious identity of our national family is broken to the extent of distrust and a lack of willingness to dialogue.  Being in ignorance myself, I am sure that both sides have good arguments on any number of different issues—but as a proud American I am very uncomfortable with the situation and feel called to help bridge the gaps… not really sure how to go about doing that, but maybe we can all chip in and work on this together.

Lastly, I was able to go to an O’s game last night… they changed Camden Yards quite a bit… (I totally like the changes).  And it seems like National Bohemian is making a strong comeback… maybe we can negotiate a contract with them as the Official Beverage of the Premier See.  Something to think about.

As you can probably tell it has been a real joy to be back home.  My love for our Lord and his people has definitely been strengthened both by being away for two years and by being here in Charm City.  We are a people of Communion.  And it’s great to be a part of it.