Seminarian Perks

There are some very nice advantages to being a seminarian. One of which I received today in the form of a large care package full of all sorts of interesting goodies! When you have a roughly 100 parishes in eleven counties who are all doing their best to show their support for 13 seminarians...your bound to get some nice stuff out of it. Seminary life is not all rosy...but this is definitely the gilded edging. So far I have received two such care packages which included (among other things):

• Hot Chocolate mix
• Frito Lay Chips, Planters Peanuts and a large bag of Trail Mix
• Some "fun size" candy bars (to fatten us up)
• Dial soap (am I dirty?)
• A large brown paisley (ugly) colored box of Kleenex
• Many pens
• A pad of Paper and envelopes (along with the stamps for easy correspondence)
• Some dress socks (argyle too...lol...now I can look old!)
• Toothpaste (I didn't think that my teeth in my seminarian picture were that yellow)

The thing I like receiving most from back home, however, is the warm support offered in the form of brightly colored construction paper and the fun messages that little children think to put on paper. Here is a little 'illustration' of what I mean:

• "Dear Brendan Heffron, I hope that you get the chance to be a priest" (giving it my best shot Gabriel!)
• "We nou that becoming a priest isn't easy" (I made it easier for you to read by putting in spaces)
• "I hope when you become a preist you will have fun doing it!!!!! (I do too...and yes, all the exclamation points are originals)
• "I love God too. We pray to you every day." (Dear Lord I hope not!!!)
• "~~~~~~~~~~~~" (I think it was supposed to be cursive...seven lines of different colored squiggles!)
• "How is the life of a priest? Should I be a priest?" (Aha! Potential vocation alert!!!)
• "Do you know what Church you will go to?" (A Catholic one!)
• The above also had a nice self portrait of the author, who goes by Zach...potential church artist???
• "I hope you are a good priest and you come to our church." (workin' on that...)
• "I will be praying for you. One reason is that people like you are getting rare." (I think Nick may be getting the vocations poster mixed up with the Endangered Species list)
• "Is it hard to turn into a priest?" (Well I will have to see Harry Potter about that one...)

In all seriousness...I love these notes by the youngest members of what will become my future flock and I wanted to share that with you, my few dear readers. God Bless us all!GRAND RAPIDS ROCKS!!!