August 15, 2007
Well, this is it... my first attempt at blogging. Could be interesting. Bear with me, it’s a learning experience!
I suppose that I should begin by introducing myself. My name is Joseph Gill and I am a seminarian for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, as I have been since 2001. I hail from St. Peter's in Libertytown (shout out to all my homies back there!) and have been studying at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Mount Saint Mary's Seminary, and the North American College in Rome. Right now I'm not studying anywhere, because I'm on pastoral year!
In the Archdiocese of Baltimore, all seminarians between their second and third year of theology must take a "pastoral year" - that is, a year of nothing but parish ministry to get on-the-job training of what life will be like as a parish priest someday. Though I've only been in my parish for a month (St. John's in Severna Park), it's already been a great experience.
Anyway, a little more background before we begin. I'm 23 years old, a musician, and I enjoy sports, hanging out with friends, long walks on the beach, all that jazz. Most of all, I love the Lord and pursuing Him and serving Him, pouring out my life before Him as a surrender to His loving Mercy. I have always felt called to be a priest and to give my life in service to the Lord, and ever since I experienced a deep "spiritual awakening" at age sixteen, I have been trying to pursue the Lord with my whole being, and to "seek His face continually". (A quote from one of the psalms, I forget where).
I arrived at St. Johns in late June and it was a whirlwind! Only a mere two days after I arrived I left again, to accompany 45 teenagers to a workcamp in Port Jervis, New York. Now, I have always known what a workcamp was, so for me to know that I was going to a workcamp was no big deal. But upon mentioning it to some of my friends, I got some strange reactions. "A workcamp? Is that sort of like a concentration camp" was the usual question. Another one was, "Why would you want to do that for fun?" I guess not everyone has heard of a workcamp! No, work-camps have nothing to do with the Nazis, and it is plenty of fun to be working hard restoring houses and improving lives for the people of Port Jervis.
We joined hundreds of other teens at this ecumenical workcamp run by the Group Foundation (yes, they were the "Group Group"... they really ought to have selected a better name). We were then split up into teams of six with whom we worked for the entire week. My team's job was to paint one of the tallest houses I've ever seen! It was about sixty feet tall. All in all, though it was a dangerous job, we finished it through some 10-hour days in the heat.
One of the biggest blessings of workcamp was watching how God worked in the lives of the teens. Every night we would have "devotions" - times of prayer with the other teens - and through this, I was blessed to behold the power of God in moving many kids' hearts. Some of them even experienced, for the first time, a personal relationship with the Lord. It was good to see God moving in such an amazing way.
Since returning from work camp, it has been a whirlwind, in many ways. I've been on a float in the Severna Park 4th of July Parade (now THAT was an experience - me in my clerics with thirty grade school kids waving to the people, cheering and having a good time while we drove through downtown Severna Park!), helped with altar server training, done Communion calls and nursing home visits, and basically started planning for next year. Lots more will be going on when the school year starts, so tune in next time for more adventures from St. Johns, Severna Park!
