a visit to friends

Since last Sunday, I’ve been traveling from one place to another. I started in the middle of the state of Iowa and went to see some friends in the middle of the state of Illinois and then back to Iowa and, finally, back to Dubuque today. I’m sorting through mail and coughing from the second head cold I’ve had so far this winter. But, it was a good opportunity to see friends and family. I have a really good group of friends that I made in college. Obviously, they’ve known me since before I was a priest and they know me really well. It is strange, however, to realize how much we’ve changed in the last number of years. My friends, Jed and Jen, for instance, have a ten-month-old baby boy named Ryan. He’s, unquestionably, the best baby in the world. I think that, in the midst of these conversations, I’m reminded that there is a necessary connection between celibacy and marriage. Both involve commitment, but there’s more to it than just that. There is, unquestionably, more that binds the two vocations together than that divides them.