My Christmas Break: Part 1

Well, I'm back from Christmas break and anxious to update my blog, it's been a while.

I got back Saturday night after a ten hour drive and hit the ground runnin! Classes started back up today!

I have so much to say that I worry about how long this post may be!

During my break I spent one week in El Salvador, one week with the family, and one week working in a parish. It was a break filled with many excellent opportunities and experiences, probably the best Christmas break I've ever had. I have a ton of pictures so I'll share a few here and then maybe setup an online slideshow later.

The trip to El Salvador was awesome. One of our seminarians, Pablo Hernandez, is from San Vicente and wanted his Diaconate Ordination to be in his home town. So my vocation director, a priest-friend of his, his associate, my brother seminarian Michael, and I flew down for it! I got to serve his ordination as the crosier bearer, which was an immense blessing.


Oh...and what's that? A priest in a cassock folks, that's P.O.D.
Here's me:

Now THAT'S a crucifix! I was speechless when I saw it...
My pics of Pablo's nieces and nephews are my favorite of the hundreds I took. Here's two I particularly like:

Here the new Deacon Pablo and Fr. Bill blessing Pablo's family's new house:

Ahhh... the beach, I got to swim in the warm Pacific ocean for the first time:

Living the Corona commercial:

Here is the Cathedral in San Salvador, where Archbishop Oscar Romero's tomb is located:

Finally, dinner at a restaurant at the top of one of the many Salvadoran mountains. Notice the lights of San Salvador below... and one of Pablo's nephews conks out on Fr. Bill's lap during the bus ride back to San Vicente after a long, eventful day...


Next entry I'll talk about Christmas with the family (and Nick and Amy!) and working in a parish (plus witnessing my first death).

In Jesu, per Mariam,
Matt1618