As part of my "pastoral formation" here in the seminary, I spend my Sunday mornings assisting a pastor at a parish in the Saint Louis area. This year, I have been assigned to St. Gianna Parish in Wentzville, MO.

This parish is brand new. Last weekend was the first weekend masses were held at this parish. Wentzville is an area where people are flooding in, building new homes, and constructing new businesses. There is a brand new Wal-Mart or Home Depot within view no matter where you are in Wentzville it seems.

This means the existing parishes are filling up with new families. To fill the need, Fr. Tim Elliott and the Archdiocese worked to start up a brand new parish. They are renting an warehouse-like space in a strip mall, pictured here as it was last Friday. The space has been renovated nicely as a temporary church. The parish council estimates that in three or four years either a school or a church building would be constructed.

Last weekend I served at the eight o'clock and eleven o'clock Masses. I had the privilege of meeting many of the new parishioners. It's exciting to be here at the very beginning of this parish and I look forward to the time I spend there over the next months.

Congratulations to my step brother Vaughn and his wife Shauna! Say hello to their new daughter and my new "step-niece," Kaelyn Hoffman.

Kaelyn Hoffman
Born: Sept. 21, 2006 @ 3:20 p.m.
Weight: 5lbs. 12oz.
Height: 18 3/4 in.

This photo was taken during my Ethics class at Saint Louis University. That's right... during my Ethics class at a Catholic University.

I have been busy in my seminarian routine. The order of the day is full. There is Morning Prayer, Mass, personal prayer, chores, time to relax with my brother seminarians, and of course homework. In all of this routine and busy-ness, a tiny bit of homesickness crept in.

I have been known to call myself "homeless" from time to time, but that's never really true. North Dakota as a whole is my home. I know it well, and though I have difficulty ascribing any one village, town, city, or parish as my life-long "home," I know I have friends and family scattered across that beautiful state.

I am a thousand miles from my home, by way of the Interstates. And being that far away from what I know, it is easy to get wrapped up in my internal affairs; to focus on my vocational discernment, the difficulty of my classes, tomorrow's schedule, and so on. Doing that can be troublesome. It is all to easy to forget why I'm here.

I haven't been a member of Christ the King parish long. But the parishioners have welcomed me with open arms, making me feel at home and appreciated with their letters of support. Three of these encouraging letters arrived just today.

The parish has adopted me in their prayers and concerns. Even though I don't yet know them personally, I feel like I do have a "home" in Mandan. Those parishioners and the parishioners in all of the Bismarck diocese are the reason I am here. They are the ones supporting me and offering me this opportunity to explore my vocation.

For all this, I am extremely grateful to them and to God.

Wow, I have been a busy blogger lately. Having just settled into the routine of course work, It was time for a long weekend. With a little planning, I decided to ride bike out into the city and see if I could get lost. There are a lot of bicyclists in St. Louis. Generally, the city seems very bike friendly. There is an abundance of bike lanes and traffic seems accepting of cyclists on the roadways.

Here are a few snapshots from my bicycle ride.

St. Louis is proud of two things: Baseball and Beer. While riding by this Budweiser plant, I could certainly smell the beer. A ways down the road, I encountered hundreds of Cardinals fans on their way to a game.

St. Louis's Mississippi riverfront is crammed with industrial sites.

This is a photo of a few buildings downtown, near the stadium and the "arch."

Yawn... another "arch" picture. This is where I turned around and rode bike back to the seminary. Altogether, I rode about 30 miles.

As I prepared to leave North Dakota for my semester of study here at the seminary, I decided to take one last motorcycle ride. From the 14th through the 18th of August, I toured half the state on my motorcycle.

First I visited Melanie, Mark, and Shannea in Halliday. Jesse and Cheryl also met us there for the weekend.

While there, we toured Mark's ranch land and checked on his cattle. Number 10 is especially friendly. I'm sure she'll taste especially friendly, too. (Sorry, Melanie)

Then I continued on my way, riding the scenic and curvy road through the Killdeer Mountains.

I crossed the lake on the newly constructed Four Bears Bridge near New Town.

Next I rode northward toward Burlington, where I stopped for a while and visited Grandma, Oreo, and Kitty (Kitty didn't make the picture).

Finally, I rode home to Bottineau and visited my parents (and their cats... silly, but I never took a picture of the parents). After a brief stay at home, I took the bike back to Mandan and began the long drive to St. Louis.