My Summer
I seriously began discerning with Maryknoll (the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America) during last Holy Week with the Society’s Vocations Director, Fr. Rodrigo. Eventually we arranged for a trip at the beginning of the summer to their seminary in Chicago. When I arrived, I immediately felt at home, even though I was one of the few people from the USA there. The love and hospitality of the Lord Jesus was incarnate in the seminarians and priests that I encountered.
After a couple weeks of working out and living at St. Mary’s Seminary, I moved into my Diocesan Parish assignment, St. Martha’s. Before leaving for my assignment I even packed my room at St. Mary’s up to see how it felt in my heart as part of my discernment; I wanted to be “indifferent” as I discerned between the two goods of diocesan and missionary priesthood (search Ignatius of Loyola’s Discernment of God’s Will to understand what I mean by this language). While my heart had already left St. Mary’s after packing and visiting Chicago, I had to know if I was just feeling not at home or unsatisfied at St. Mary’s or if I was called to the Society. A lot of wise counsel told me that being at St. Martha’s in Kingwood would be a great way of discerning between Diocesan and Missionary priesthood.
I was immediately invited by the youth minister, Luisa Elena (there is your mention, Luisa, haha), to go with her and youth from St. Martha’s and St. Faustina’s to Covecrest, a youth camp put on by LifeTeen Missionaries. I was blessed to witness so many kids encounter Jesus in his Word, in the Eucharist, in praise and worship, and in each other. Many teen had conversions or felt God’s Real Presence for the first time. I have always loved being part of an event where the first proclamation of the Gospel is proclaimed (what the Church calls the kerygma). It never gets old!
The following week I helped with Vacation Bible School, which was “Stellar” (pun intended per the theme). I have not had much experience serving little kids, so that touched my heart. I also got to get to know the middle school leaders. Then, the following week I went on a local high school mission trip to the North of Houston called Shine to serve the elderly and those in need. The trip was similar to a trip I used to do with Strake Jesuit and other Catholic schools (and Markynoll priests and volunteers) in Eagle Pass. My group mostly helped two elderly gentlemen with yard work and power washing. In addition to a morning session and daily Mass, we had a variety of prayer experiences in the mornings and evenings. We lost electricity at the parish where we were staying for about two days, so that was a challenge for us all, as it was very hot at the time. Nevertheless, God “showed up” time and time again and the trip was a great success.
This is the group of teens and volunteers from the mission trip.
The rest of the time I was able to shadow Fr. TJ (the pastor at St. Martha’s) and learn what it is like to be a priest from day to day. I was blessed to attend interviews, meetings, anointings of the sick, Daily Mass, visit the home’s of parishioners, among many other things. I did a lot of yard work at the parish alongside Fr. Ralph (one of the priests at St. Martha’s), especially pulling weeds and mulching. People thought I was a bit crazy doing that in the heat, but I love being outside. There was also a middle school local mission week where we did yard work. I also managed to finish the DuoLingo course of Swahili because most of the seminarians in Chicago were from Kenya and Tanzania. There was a clear mission and service focus to my summer that goes well with the life of the missionary priesthood. The Diocesan priesthood, in contrast, from my experience tends to involve a lot of work in the office, meetings, and empowering others to go out to the peripheries. Through my time at St. Martha’s this summer, I realize that I have a strong desire to be with people, to get my hands dirty, and encounter the people outside the Church especially.
Towards the end of my time at St. Martha’s a parishioner invited me to go flying with him (he owns a small plane). I saw it as a sign of God’s great love for me, since before my conversion I wanted to be a pilot/enginner and was working on my private pilot’s license. I even flew the type of plane we flew at the airport we flew out of. Guess where we flew to? Lufkin, TX where I was born. The whole time was filled with nerdy conversations and God stories. It was a beautiful way to end my time at the parish. The parishioner told me that when he was a kid he learned about Maryknoll Priests who would fly planes to give the sacraments to people in different towns. Who knows? I may end up doing something like that. The directions my life could go are uncertain, and that excites me.
This is me in front of the plane we flew to Lufkin.
In summary, this summer I was able to return to Kingwood, where I grew up. I am immensely grateful to have grown up there. I had, in fact, received my first communion (illicitly) there as a Baptist kid when a high school friend of mine invited me to Mass. I remember the pastor was Msgr. Borski at the time. I knew the Eucharist was not just a symbol when I received the Lord, though. I was not Catholic at the time, so it was neat to come full circle and be involved with the youth at St. Martha’s and the parish community. I really had time to grow in gratitude and remember things about myself: my love for aviation, for Jesus, for my family, for service, for the outdoors. God is good!
What’s Next?
Well, I am staying with my family the month of August and going to work on fundraising to pay off some of my college debt (see “support me” above if you want to help). I am also going to try to do some Doordash and UberEats. In addition, I am going to try to learn some Chinese because in the month of September I am going to be a “Maryknoll Volunteer” and live with the Vocation’s Director in China Town in Houston. I will be serving at Ascension Chinese Mission. In October I will be in El Paso working alongside immigrants. At the beginning of November, I will travel to New York, to Markynoll’s headquarters, for ordinations to the Diaconate and some interviews. Finally, I will return to El Paso and hopefully enter the Society as a Seminarian in January of 2024. I will give you guys updates on those experiences as I go through them.
Thank you for all your prayers and support.
In Jesus’ Name,
Kyle
