Greetings from the "Mother Church of Beautiful Brentwood"!

Greetings from St. Anne’s Parish in Brentwood – the “Mother Church of Beautiful Brentwood”. As I wrote in the last post, this is part of my summer pastoral assignment – an opportunity to experience a diverse, dynamic and active parish community. There is no doubt this parish community is all of those things! I arrived here on Saturday after three weeks at the Southeast Pastoral Institute and the welcome extended to me has been more than I could ever have expected.

The hope of pastoral assignments for seminarians is that our experiences will “push” us a bit and challenge us to undertake and work through various parts of the priestly life. St. Anne’s, for these reasons and others, is a good fit for me. Here are some (but not all) the reasons why….

Living in a Rectory. This is the first time in my life I am living in a Rectory. It is different living than the seminary. There are three priests who live and work at St. Anne’s – Fr. Frank Nelson, the pastor, Fr. Gonzalo and Fr. Eden. They have each been welcoming and wonderful in their own ways. I have a room and a place to work (where I’m typing from right now). The priests of this rectory gather for dinner together most nights and encounter each other in various ways throughout the day. The kitchen table, I’m learning, is a key spot!

A Diverse Parish. St. Anne’s is different than other communities I have been part of. There is a rich and large diversity present here that is part of the entire community. Masses are celebrated in English, Spanish and French Creole. (Yes – I spoke in Spanish when I introduced myself at the Spanish masses – !O Dios Mio!) Not only are liturgies and ministries in different languages but great efforts are made to make sure these three communities come together for prayer, recreation and service of those in need in the community.

Being the Seminarian. It is different living and working as a seminarian as opposed to having a “specific” job or role. In many ways, the same is probably said for parish priests. It is hard to focus solely on one specific parish ministry when there is so much happening. So I hope to be involved in lots of things and it looks like that will happen, for sure! On my first day I learned a lot about the community and was able to learn about some financial aspects of parish life – very important learning for a seminarian. I can see already where each day will bring new and surprising challenges!

So I am back in New York and hopefully building off of my experiences from the last year and the last three weeks!

Have a great week!