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September 22, 2026I am now halfway through my Dominican formation. Four years in and four years to go!
I have been asked at this point to pause my academic studies in St. Louis and to focus on my pastoral formation in a Dominican house in the South for an entire academic year. We brothers like to call this year “the pastoral year.”
The big goal for the pastoral year aims to guide my ongoing discernment by helping me gain practical insight and experience within community life and in active ministry. I am thrilled to be assigned to Holy Rosary, our priory and parish in Houston, to pursue this goal!
Beyond the big goal and the parish setting, however, I like to think of my pastoral year as my very own “choose-your-own-adventure” novel. I am free to create my own pastoral year journey. With the pastor as my supervisor and mentor, I set and pursue goals unique to my personal formation as a Dominican friar.
I may not know everything the year ahead has in store for me. But I am excited to discover the path in my own way! As I begin, I find myself reciting the walking-song written by Bilbo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings:
The Road goes ever on and on,
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.