Welcome

I love the winter light in the Pacific Northwest.  My condo has the benefit of large, south-facing windows, and this time of year the low-angling sun (when it appears!) penetrates far into my home.  In the spirit of this long winter light, I have decided to shed a bit more light on my own journey by opening my thoughts up to everyone who is interested.  Many have asked me about my journey toward the priesthood, and my hope is that I can begin to keep everyone updated in a central place.
I'll start with the big and obvious.  I had a meeting with Bishop Rickel on Thursday afternoon.  The only thing I knew about this meeting at the beginning was that I could not take any more steps toward preparing for postulancy until this meeting had taken place.  This of course put the fear of God in me that the only thing that could happen productively at this meeting is that I might screw it up and not be invited to continue!  It wasn't until I sent out a prayer request last week about the meeting that a good friend and retired priest was able to change my perspective.  He told me that far from being a perfunctory "filter out the weirdos" kind of meeting, this time would mark the beginning of a wonderful and important relationship.  Thank you, Bob, you were so right!
Greg began the meeting by assuring me that I was indeed invited to the Commission on Ministry weekend.  He then proceeded to walk me through his list of priorities for ordained leaders in the diocese and invited me to comment on which I thought were most important or relevant to my particular situation.  We talked at length about what it meant to be "Spiritually Grounded and Christ Centered" and my current feelings about Stewardship.  We continued by discussing seminary for a time, and he strongly recommended Seminary of the Southwest, but told me he felt I would get a great education at almost any of them.
As our time drew to a close I asked him how realistic it might be to start seminary in the Fall.  He replied by making it clear that postulancy this year is certainly no guarantee, but that starting with that in mind should be no problem.  In other words, I should approach it as if this is something I would do anyway.  So, I have decided that I will indeed begin the application process at the three schools I have liked the most in my conversations thus far:  Berkeley School of Divinity at Yale, Church Divinity School of the Pacific at Berkeley (CA), and Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, TX.