"You have been selected..." (so excited)

Got a call from Chaplain Joel DeGraeve today. He informed me that the Navy selected me to be a Navy Chaplain! I had a great feeling of excitement for the future at his words.

I will stay at the parish until July 1st (the next regular rotation of priests.) Then I will head out for training in August. 5 weeks Officer Development School (ODS) in Newport followed by 7 weeks of Chaplain School at Fort Jackson in South Carolina.

In the next months, I will get all my ducks in a row and double my efforts to be in shape -- the best shape of my life. In the words of Chaplain Joe Coffey, "you can get a little fat over Christmas, but in January, hit the gym!"

Stay tuned, my friends....now the Journey starts to get interesting!

Waiting for the Call...

Last Thursday I was down in Arlington, VA at the Pentagon for the final interview with the Chaplain CARE board. There were 6 candidates and I was the #5 interview. As we waiting, Captain Jack Lea, Chaplain and in charge of Manpower for Chaplains, sat down with us and described what he does currently and relayed some great stories of his time as a Navy Chaplain. Clearly after many years, this Chaplain still has passion for the Chaplaincy. It was good for us candidates to see that.

I went into the interview, where 7 officers greeting me. They were 6 chaplains and a line officer from the Marines. I was surprised to see that 5 were women. I believe they were Lieutenant Commander or Commanders and the guy in charge is the Executive Assistant to (two star) Admiral Mark Tidd, Chief of Chaplains.

Each officer asked me a question. I was expecting a bunch of questions about my experience and about my vocation story. I was surprised to be asked a bunch of tough questions. The blank faces, not indicating how I was doing, added to the intimidation. I realized that it has been a long time since my last job interview (1997)!!

I tried to answer the questions honestly and to end on a positive note. At the end, the officers asked if I had questions. I asked, "assuming I am selected, what can I be doing to prepare given that I won't be available to enter until July?"  Each officer gave me some great advice on things to work on: take a CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) course, read some Navy professional development reading, develop a network of chaplains I could reach out to for support in the future. Very helpful stuff.

So now I wait for the call...

Chaplain Joel DeGraeve, my recruiter, will call me sometime in the next two weeks to let me know the results. In the words of Tom Petty, "the waiting is the hardest part..." Pray for me.

On an up note: I ran 2 miles in 16:43, so an 8:22 mile! That is great for me!

Tomorrow Final Interview

Today I am driving down to Arlington, Virgina. I will meet up with two Navy Chaplain Recruiters and they will help prepare me for my interview with the Chaplain CARE board tomorrow at the Pentagon. The Chaplains will show me what to emphasize from my experience during the interview and generally get me ready. Pray for me tomorrow and stay tuned...

Interview Time!

I just received word from Chaplain Joel DeGraeves that I am invited to the December 6 CARE board (Chaplain Accession Retention Evaluation) for an interview!!!

This great news, because this is the board that will decide whether or not I enter the Navy! Chaplain DeGraeves will sent me the details soon, but this is the deal so far:

Drive down to D.C. on Wednesday, December 5 for dinner and to meet my Chaplain sponsor who will guide me through the interview process. After dinner - some prep work and then the interview on Thursday.

This is very exciting news, since I have been waiting for this opportunity since June!

Pray for me!

Great 5k Run and Need to Redo Part of Application

A Great Run

Yesterday, I participated in the 2nd Annual Spartan Classic 5k Run/Walk which supported St. Joseph Grade School in my parish. It was my first official 5k. I was a bit nervous running, because I hadn't run too much in September with all the craziness of school starting. I ran about a mile on Friday just to get the cobwebs out. (really I had run 3 miles last week and back on Labor day I ran 4 miles, but I had planned to be running more.)

It was a beautiful day (compared to the Monsoon last year for the 1st Annual Spartan Classic): blue skies, a slight breeze and cool. It got warmer after the 1 mile fun run, but still very nice. I went up to the starting line, of course behind all the fast people, and I started chatting with a couple that were wearing Navy shirts. I remembered talking to Tracie and her husband last year. They have a son in the grade school. Before we knew it, we heard "Ready, Set Go!" and we were on our way.

Since my watch had broken last week, I did not have a pace or time, so I hung out with this crew for most of the race. Tracie's husband soon went ahead and I moved ahead of her and we scattered a bit. But it was quite nice that I basically stayed with the same folks. At all the turns there were teachers and helpers, many of who said, "Oh that's Fr. Pat. Keep Going, Fr. Pat, Good Job!" This was a great help. There were scouts and grade school kids handing out water also yelling support. I felt pretty good as I completed the first loop and the crowd cheered.

The second loop was harder. The hills in this Toms River neighborhood seemed to grow and I began dreading the last hill up Marian St and left up Terrace Ave. But I stayed behind a couple of ladies who had set a good pace and I was spurred on by all the cheers.

As I turned the corner to head up that last hill, I heard, "Come on, Fr. Pat, you're in the Home Stretch!" I gained my second (or third) wind and strided up the hill, passing Fr. Scott, the pastor and a nice group doing the walk. I made it up the hill and turned onto school property to a bunch of kids with water cheering and then the rest of the crowd. We turned onto the track for the final sprint to the finish. I kicked and sped up, stretching out my stride. As I rounded the last turn I saw the time in the range of 26 minutes and I said to myself ,"Holy crap!" I couldn't believe it because I usually run about a 10 minute mile. I crossed the line at 26:45 --well under a 9 minute mile! This was my best time ever. Thanks to the pacesetters around me and all the cheers!

Grade School runners, Drake and Ray, high five me as I cross the finish

I went inside the cafeteria for some water and snacks and chatted with families. It turns out I came in second place in men 30-39! Not too shabby!

Redo the Bishop's Endorsement

I got word last week that I did not fill out the endorsement (permission from my bishop) correctly. I'll have to do that part over. Basically, the process is to fill out an application through the Archdiocese of Military Services web site, and I have a few more things to get together to be sent to Archbishop Broglio. Since I already met with the Archbishop, that part is taken care of. 

Not a problem, I have plenty of time since I wont be released by my diocese until July. Please continue your prayers for this ministry!

Bikefest 2012 and an Update on the Navy

School has started so things have been quite busy. A few masses, including the opening high school mass and Eucharistic procession, bible blessings, sports…lots going on.

Bikefest 2012

This past weekend, I went with some of the Knight of Columbus Motorcycle Ministry down to Bikefest at Ocean City, Maryland. We stayed in Chincoteague, Virginia.  I left Friday after the high school mass and flew down the parkway just in time to take the ferry out of Cape May. There had to be 50 bikes aboard. It was beautiful: sunny, yet cool, weather. We had a great time. We had some great dinner at Don’s seafood restaurant, which we walked to from the hotel.

We had mass at the hotel Saturday morning and a bunch went to a buffet breakfast. Then we rode through Chincoteague wildlife preserve and almost got eaten alive by Mosquitoes when we stopped.

A group rode up to Bikefest (see below) and had fun checking out the tons of bikes and some vendors.

Bikes and Vendor at Bikefest in Ocean City, MD

Sunday morning the group headed to mass at St. Andrew’s Catholic Church. The place was packed. We showed up on the bikes and sat in the back pew (like good Catholics) with our KofC MM vests on. Boz went over to the choir and asked to sing with them. They were delighted. As mass went on, each of us offered our seat to other massgoers. The kindness was mentioned in the homily, which was about putting faith into action.

We left after mass and rode inland until we reached Dover, Delaware, where we stopped at a diner. Then we got on route 1 and headed over the Delaware memorial bridge. I got off 295 onto route 70. We said our goodbyes and three of us headed on 70 East. I finally got home about 630pm on Sunday.

In all, I did about 450 miles (and a ferry ride). Great roads, great people, great weather. Thank you, God!

Navy Update

I received an email update from my recruiter letting me know that my application to the Navy is complete and is being reviewed.  The next step is to be invited to the Chaplain Review Board in Washington. So, I am still waiting for that. At least, I know that my application is being looked at. I hope to hear something soon.

Some insight gained while out in the woods...

http://www.intothewildweekend.com/

I went with two parishoners, Mark and Mike, on an outdoor men's retreat called "Into The Wild" (http://www.intothewildweekend.com/) run by The King's Men (http://www.thekingsmen.org/) out of Philadelphia. What a great experience! Picture 100 men, out in the woods, in cabins, celebrating mass, praying, fishing, digging holes and tramping through the woods together in the spirit of faith.
 
The whole weekend is structured to teach three elements of Masculinity: leader, provider, and protector. For example, we had a presentation to teach us basic Orienteering. We were broken into groups - guys we didn't know. We learned to use a map and a compass to determine the direction to head. I had done this before, but this way was better. Then we walked 100 meters and counted paces to determine our pace "factor" or the distance we walk in each pace. After learning this, of course we could determine from a map direction and distance to go and then count out the paces.

Okay, so then we are sent into the woods to find markers that matched points which we copied onto our map. The first thing we found out was that often you can't just go in a straight line and count the paces because there is an obstacle in the way. So we had to learn to read other symbols on the map, such as a foot path or contour lines to tell us to go uphill or downhill or symbols that showed there is heavy vegetation.

My team of 4 (myself, Ted, Harry and his son Mark) split into two sub teams. Ted and I calculated the distance and direction from the map, compared it and then sent Harry off into the woods. Then the rest of us would catch up and spread out to look for the orange pole with a red, yellow or green band (for number of points) with the name of a saint and a code we had to write down to get the points.

After two hours of scrambling through the forest we had found 6 markers worth 26 points. We were pretty proud of ourselves. (until we heard that others had 40 something points and higher. ;)  This whole exercise was to get us thinking about leadership. And to learn that to be a leader, you have to know the direction you want to lead and be able to work with people to get there. As Christians, we men lead based on Gospel values.

Harry and I talked a lot that night and he helped me talk out some things I was struggling with. Thanks, Harry! Later that evening and every night we sat around a huge bonfire and guys would get up and share how the weekend and their faith journey was going. Very inspiring stories.

On Saturday, we broken up into three teams: fishing, outdoor chapel building, and outdoor cooking. The fishing guys got up very early and headed out to a beautiful lake. The chapel building guys worked all day to build a chapel in the woods: benches made from logs, a stone and wood altar and lectern and some other decor such as a main cross (with two stone crosses on a hill to represent the two thieves) and a little grotto for Mary. We had mass in this outdoor Cathedral on Sunday morning. Awesome.

I was on the outdoor cooking team. The team dug a 2 foot by 6 foot by about 2 foot deep hole out of incredibly rocky ground. In it we placed volcanic rock that had been heated in the fire and  a burlap wrapped pig. We covered it with the rock and dirt and let it cook in the earth oven for 10 hours. We dug two more holes for logs in which we cut notches for the spits with 12 chickens (stuffed with garlic and rosemary.) We also cut up little potatoesand some veggies: red bell pepper, zucchini, yellow squash and fennel (which John, our chef, grilled later.) John also baked some brisket. At night we had a big Ol' feast for a bunch of hungry, tired guys. It was delicioso!

That night we had the hugest bonfire I had ever seen. More guys got up and shared their story. I was inspired to share even though I wasn't planning on it. I shared a bit of my struggle to discover what a real man is (versus a macho Rambo type or the Sex addict or the dopey husband portrayed on TV.) I realized how much, as a man and a priest, that I needed the witness of these faith filled Catholic men. I need them to bring their wives and children to mass. I need them to support me in preaching the Truth to a culture that does not welcome it. I need them to have the courage to stand up against evil and promote Christian values in our community. And sometimes, I need someone like Harry, to tell me when I am being prideful and need to learn humility.

Overall, it was a great retreat, despite the sleeping on plywood and the bug bites (even with spray) and the lack of sleep. I definitely feel fired up and had some good insight into the direction my parish's men's group should go.

I highly recommend checking out the Kings Men and possibly attending one of these retreat weekend (maybe with your son!)