Departures

I have not been blogging for the last few days. Initially, I had been bitten by so many mosquitos that I was feeling a bit off and then the normal activities of the weekend (masses etc) took over... and, I have to confess, yesterday I just forgot to write.

On Saturday I met up with a young man who had been a student for the priesthood with the Augustinians. He has "taken time out" for personal and family reasons which it would not be appropriate to mention here, but it was nice to be able to catch up with him - I haven't seen him since last year.

Since he left he has been lucky to get a job with the Vincentians as a sacristan in one of their parishes here. At the moment he intends to return to the Augustinians once matters have improved at home so I'm hoping that this job will keep him in the mindset by keeping him involved with Church in a structured way. He tells me that he has no interest in joining the Vincentians and, since he is a very fine guy, that is good news for the Panamanian Augustinians.

I have also just heard that a number of students (Panamanians) have left the Order from Spain. I take this opportunity to wish them well for the future - I remember them all as students here before they headed for Spain. In fact, when I was in Madrid recently for a meeting, I called out to visit them in the El Escorial Monastery.

Those of you who read the blog last year (still available by scrolling down the posts) may remember me talking about James. James had been a seminarian here and had left due to health reasons but with the firm intention to return to continue to study for the priesthood. Unfortunately, he has now moved his life in a new direction by getting married during the year. I haven't met the new wife but I have seen some pictures and she seems to be a lovely young woman.

The vocaation/ formation process is never an easy road, and it has many twists an turns, but, one thing is certain, if those involved as formators are swamped with other duties it will always be difficult to find the opportunity to have quality time to dedicate to these young men once they are no longer in the seminary.

Well, for the moment, there is no one in the seminary. The seminarians have all gone home for Carnival and will return on Monday. It seems as if no one is here at all as I haven't seen anyone here (except for the woman in the kitchen) for the last two days - I know that some of the staff are here beause Virginia told me, but I am going to have to take her word for that.