A (very) short essay.

As part of my application to the Diocese for Sponsorship in a Program of Priestly Formation (seminary), I had to write a short essay on what the priesthood means to me. Here it is for your reading:

What does the priesthood mean to me?

      I once had to teach a few small children about the Sacrament of Reconciliation. In the analogy I used, priests were represented by mechanics. Mechanics who were hand-picked by the Ultimate Mechanic to be His workers. A Mechanic can’t do anything without the proper tools, parts, and above all knowledge. In the analogy, the mechanics received all the tools, parts, and knowhow from the Ultimate Mechanic, God Himself!

      I want to focus on the meaning of the word Priest. In our society, the supernatural aspect of the word “Priest” has been dimmed by centuries of common use. A Priest, by definition, is someone who stands between the people and their God. Who intercedes and offers sacrifice on their behalf. He is a bridge between Heaven and Earth. The fact that a priest’s primary responsibility and privilege is to offer sacrifice to the Lord cannot be overemphasized!

      In the Old Testament, Yahweh’s priests (priests of the Old Covenant) offered Him burnt offerings of animals: bulls, rams, goats, sheep, and lambs. Their priesthood could be considered a one-way road; they offered things to God, but (though God did bless His people abundantly) there was no flow through them from God to His people.

      In the Priesthood of Jesus Christ (or, the Priesthood of the New and Everlasting Covenant), it is very truly a two-way highway. The priest still offers Sacrifice to the Father (now the word is capitalized because of the supreme dignity of the sacrifice our priests offer), but now God also uses them directly and definitively to pour out His gifts to his people. Through the Sacraments, we are blessed so abundantly. The power of the Holy Spirit is made available everyday to strengthen and support God’s Church.

      Because of his extraordinary calling, a priest must be an example of total commitment to God and His Kingdom. As Pope Benedict has said, “The priesthood is a transfer of ownership, a being taken out of the world and given to God.” By virtue of his gift of direct interaction (through the Sacraments) with Heaven, he must be (far beyond detachment from the temptations of this world) an Alter Christus. Imitating Christ in His example of true love, he must give his entire self (emphasis on entire) to God for his neighbor, first, for the sake of God, His Kingdom, and the priest’s salvation, and secondarily, as an example of Christian Life for the laity to follow.

      There are many other aspects of priesthood which are (obviously) important, but we must remember their first and most important task is to offer sacrifice to God. We must remember this before we even consider the others because all the others depend on this sacrifice. We are an ecclesia de Eucharistia! The Sacrifice that is offered again and again to the Father in a stream of unending love is the “source and summit of Christian Life,“ (CCC 1324). Without priests, there is no Eucharist, and without the Eucharist, there is no Church.

      The world needs God—not just any god but the God of Jesus Christ, the God who made Himself flesh and blood, who loved us to the point of dying for us, who rose and created within Himself room for man. This God must live in us and we in Him. This is our priestly call: only in this way can our action as priests bear fruit.
Pope Benedict XVI

Moped GET

That's right. Recently I turned 15. In the state of Michigan, you can get a moped license, without having to pass your drivers training when you're fifteen. That got me pumped. So I went online and looked for a few hours for the cheapest moped I could find.

I looked at $2,000 scooters, and $600 scooters.
The $600 one was the one I could afford, with the awesome-ness and power I wanted. (Sadly it lacks in quality a little.)

I ended up buying the $600, off-brand, made-in-China, beast of a machine TaoTao.
It was delivered yesterday, on a big truck with a lift gate. It was dropped off, and I had to act legit, old, sign a paper, and off he went. (Yes, it was okay for me to sign the paper. It was just there so they know the delivery guy didn't take it.)

I ripped off the cardboard, and found the steering wheel off, front wheel, panels, etc. Yeap, it was going to take some time to put together.

I started to pull everything apart, set it aside, open the compartments, Figure the thing out.

I found a users manual, a bag of screws, and a bag of tools.
Great, a puzzle. No building manual. Just your brains. The Users manual is this 15 page book on how to start and run the thing.

We started out taking it off the shipping frame, and began to try and put the front tire on... Which wasn't easy. With dad not home, it was just my little siblings and me. I had them lift up the front of the bike (the bike total is 200 pounds) while I put the front tire on, which was super stressful, because I had no idea what I was doing, and nothing was fitting, and I don't know what the heck this thing is and why wont this fit and the kids are all moaning because they are tired of holding it up and BLAH!

That was probably the worst part of the construction process.

After about 15 minuets, I got it in. Whoo!

After that I had to put on the steering wheel, which was confusing also, because I didn't know what bolt to use to keep it on. Soo I kinda guessed. (Later I found out that I was right. :D)

I kept working on the bike for about 3 hours. In that time I was forced to call the place I bought the moped from. They said the support guys where out eating lunch. :| ITS 3 O'CLOCK. I guess they must be based some place far.

I continued to tighten bolts and put on screws until Dad got home. We then continued to work on it. Plenty of "What the heck is this random wire sticking out the side for?" (Not quite, but close)

After a while we called support back, and they where back from lunch. We asked our questions and learned that we needed to change the oil. BLECK. We decided that we would pick up the oil on our way to the secretary of state building to pick up my moped license. :D

We left the bike mostly completed. When we got to the secretary of state building, we learned that their computers where down... Of course. One thing we learned from them, was that we needed something special from the manufacturers, something that said that I bought it from them, and it's legit. On the way back to the Ponderosa, we picked up the oil, and called the place we bought it from, and they said that we needed to make a request for one of those thingys, and they will send it to us through the mail.

Great. Now we can't register it for "7 - 10 business days."

Well, we got back to our house, changed the oil, and put in some fuel.
After that, we had to figure out how to start it up which is more complex then you think.
After we figured it out, we had to wait for a while until it got the fuel through all the lines and everything. After that, it started up with a low, surprisingly quiet hummm. You don't even have to raise your voice to talk!

After letting it warm up, I took it for a test drive.

Which. was. awesome. I rode it around for a while, then parked it in the garage.

BEAST-O-RAMMA.

1k view celebration!

That's right, we have hit 1 thousand views on our blog!
I know its not much to brag about, but it means something to us.
Its our first milestone on the hopefully long lasting, prosperous trail to victory, to the land of awesomeness....

Oh yeah,
LUCKILY, I was there when the clock of awesome added a fourth digit.

Pretty sweet.

Thank you all for helping us hit this milestone by reading our blog! Remember to stay tuned and subscribe, we have a whole lot of posts coming up. The ideas are endless!
Thanks again everyone.