Update on Aquinas

Well, many of you heard it first here, that Father Tom has been given a new job in the diocese and will finish up as Princeton chaplain on July 1.  Last weekend we attended his last “regular” 4:30 Mass in the chapel.  There will be daily mass and Baccalaureate, but generally speaking, his term is coming to a close.

Does anyone still have the rosary beads he gave you at Baccalaureate?  I was thinking of those beads when I watched the film There be Dragons.  In the film, St. Josemaria, a young priest, gives a rosary to his friend, who is siding with the anti-clerical element in the Spanish civil war.  The man makes many poor choices, but at the end of his life he still has that rosary.  We never know the power of these sacramentals, even if they are in the back of a drawer they are reminders of a Father who loves us, and may eventually draw us near.

Back to Aquinas, though, the new chaplain is a young priest, in his 30’s, and Father Tom is very enthusiastic about him.  I can’t wait to welcome him.  For support and comradeship he will have our friend Father Mike, who will be helping at Aquinas while he serves as Parochial Vicar at St. Paul’s Church in Princeton.  These two young men will have Father Tom staying on as a mentor and also Father Marty over at Mercer House and Deacon Doug Lovejoy to help them.

Stepping back, I think that the community is going to be tremendously blessed by these men!  Good things will continue to happen here.  I am hopeful that the priests will particularly address the subject of vocation regularly, and that Princeton will become a place of prayerful discernment for her students.