I was ready for spring to get here, and I’m ready for Easter to get here too. The older I get the less I like the cold, and the older I get the more I am moved and drawn to the joy and light of Easter as we walk through Lent, preparing our hearts and minds to solemnly and joyfully celebrate the mysteries of our redemption. So, if you are like me and you are waiting in anticipation of the glory to be revealed, then this article is for you. This spring is going to be amazing.

At 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, May 14 at the Cathedral of St. Peter in Jackson, you can witness the ordination of a brand new priest – Father Andrew Bowden. Then a few weeks later, Carlisle Beggerly will be ordained a deacon in preparation for priesthood on Saturday, June 4 at his home parish of Immaculate Conception in West Point. The public is invited to each of these masses, and I hope that some of you will make it a point to come and celebrate with us.

This will also be a great spring (and summer) for our other seminarians. Ryan Stoer and Tristan Stovall will both be working at St. Dominic Hospital as a part of their priestly formation. I am so grateful to the pastoral care and volunteer services teams at “St. D,” who have collaborated with the diocese since 2016 to provide this experience for our second-year theologians. It is a great gift for our men to be able to get field experience ministering to the sick in their home diocese. I was a part of the first summer experience at “St. D” when I was in seminary, and it was a really rewarding experience.

While Ryan and Tristan care for the sick, Will Foggo will be learning at the feet of the Divine Physician this spring and summer. Will is going to be in Omaha, Nebraska at the Institute for Priestly Formation. I have written about this two-month program before, but basically it is a summer experience where 175 seminarians from across the country gather to learn how to live out the spirituality of a diocesan priest. They learn skills that will help them remain faithful to prayer and to the call to spiritual fatherhood that they are discerning while in seminary.

Grayson Foley will be placed in a diocesan parish this summer, and I’m still working out those details. Grayson spent his first summer as a seminarian with Father Aaron Williams at St. Joseph in Greenville, and he had a wonderful time and learned so much from Father Aaron and from the people of this parish and the community. I take the placement of our seminarians very seriously because their summer assignments give them a taste of what ministry in their diocese will be like. The support and the guidance that you, the people of our diocese, give our seminarians while they are on assignment (or just home for the weekend) is so vital to their priestly formation. Please pray for me as I work to build up our formation program, and please let me know if you have suggestions or feedback!

Also please pray for several men who are considering applying or are in the application process right now. St. John Vianney, pray for us!

                                                    – Father Nick Adam

If you are interested in learning more about religious orders or vocations to the priesthood and religious life, please email nick.adam@jacksondiocese.org.