Four GW Catholic men are applying to seminary!

 

 

From left: Nick, Michael, Matt, and Ferdinand

 

 

Last night was the best night at the Newman Center in my four years here.  We had a nice crowd for daily Mass, huge and exuberant throng for dinner (Chick Fil A), and a fun scene with tons of students making a promo video for GW Catholics.  And then, we went into our discussion.  Most weeks, we get 20-30 students to listen to a speaker.  Some speakers or topics might get 40 students.  Last night, we had about 50 students!  And, they were hanging on every word of our four panelists.

The discussion was titled, "Look who's going to seminary".  The panelists were the four men from GW Newman Center who are applying to seminary this year: Matt Norwood (freshman), Michael Russo (senior), Ferdinand Mukhar (former grad student), and Nick Lee (FOCUS missionary).  Matt, Michael, and Ferdinand are applying to the Archdiocese of Washington; Nick is applying for the Archdiocese of St. Louis.  These are really solid men who tell inspiring stories of faith and trust in God.  The Lord has blessed us abundantly!

Our students have been rejoicing the past few days after hearing that we have four men applying for seminary.  One of our juniors who is abroad this semester asked me via text message who the four were and then she wrote, "Oh my goodness!!"  To look around the room last night during the talk was an incredible sight: people were everywhere and hanging on every word of their friends and brothers in Christ.  They were so moved, many of them to tears. And, filled with great joy. It was really like a scene out of the Gospel! There was huge applause, sighs, and laughs throughout, and just an overall spirit that was on-another-level good.   One student asked me later in the night, "what was that tonight?"  I replied, "all I can say is that it was the Holy Spirit".

 

 

People said afterwards, too, that the students are so excited and moved by this because each man is one of them. They know each one and love him dearly. Multiply that by four and you get the fruitful results of last night: best never ever at Newman! The Spirit is taking us to another level.