A brief update.

I'm writing from my family home in Rochester, Massachusetts, where I've been spending a restful week in between the end of the academic year at Fordham and the start of my retreat on Monday. All Jesuits are expected to make an eight-day retreat each year; the only exceptions to this rule are for first-year novices and tertians, who make the thirty-day Spiritual Exercises instead. I'll be making my retreat this year in Montreal under the direction of a Jesuit of the newly-renamed English Canada Province (it used to be called "Upper Canada," a name that was abandoned because its rich historical associations are lost on most moderns). Your prayers for me during my retreat would be appreciated, and please know that I will also be praying for the readers of this blog.

After my retreat, I'll be in Chicago for province days and ordinations. From there, I head to San Jose to start work at Catholic Charities. I probably won't have much opportunity to update this blog between now and then, so the odds are good my next post will be online sometime in June. In the meantime, I'll be celebrating my 27th birthday, which isn't much of a milestone except that it signals a slow shift from the mid- to the late-twenties. A more authentic milestone which I should acknowledge here is the recent marriage of Rebecca Goldenberg and Steve Silver, who are currently in Paris for their honeymoon. I hope the readers of this blog will join me in wishing Becca and Steve the very best. Mazel tov, AMDG.