New Beginnings and Old Joys

When I moved to the Rochester, NY area this past May, it was the start of a beautiful, exciting Summer for me and my lovely fiancee, then six months engaged. Now in mid-Autumn, with the first snow of the year clinging on for nightfall which will guarantee its survival til morning, I'm drawn to reflect on what a joyful time these six months since have been.

Only two months removed from finally finishing a Master of Arts degree I began seven years ago, I found what I could easily describe as my dream job. On the seventh of July in the year of Our Lord two thousand thirteen, I began my tenure as the director of two outstanding ministries at one of the most engaging and dynamic parishes in the entirety of this Western New York diocese.

Faith for Life is the name the parish has chosen for its the catechetical life of the parish, the ministries and support which communicate the Faith, ever ancient and ever new, from generation to generation. In all aspects of faith formation at this parish, St Joseph's Church in Penfield, families are involved as a part of the ministry. This may not sound extraordinary, but more so than I have seen at most Catholic communities, parents are challenged here to actively communicate and share their faith with their children. Over the course of several years, the parish has continued to move toward an intergenerational, communal exchange of faith experiences alongside faith lessons.

Youth Ministry is the branch of Faith for Life charged with communicating Christ to and with adolescents and their families. My time with these teens and their parents has been an entirely new situation but it's also been very nostalgic. St Joseph's is very similar to the parish in which I found my faith as a teen, and the youth community here has the same caring hearts in its leaders that I remember in my high school home.

I'm looking forward to sharing stories of my life in Rochester and our labors at St Joseph with you all in this space as well as reflections on Scripture, Theology, and Ministry. You may also find some notes here about the journey of my fiancee and I toward marriage. It's not easy to make any marriage work, but starting to make a family with an agnostic and a youth minister is a fun kind of adventure. Here's to our next six months in what I consider to be New York's second city and my new home town!