Jason Damon Accepted into Holy Name Province’s Postulancy Program

I think it’s fair to say — and those who know me would probably concur — that sitting still, being quiet and listening with patience are certainly not strong suits for me. I was able to get a lot out of my college experience in part because jumping in, staying active, meeting new people and giving time and effort to clubs and causes was so easy and encouraged. There were rarely times when I didn’t have a lot on my plate.

Yet those aforementioned suits — patience, stillness and silence — are so very critical in discerning one’s path in life. They’re also things that are incredibly difficult to practice in a college setting if you don’t make time for them. I’m grateful to Mt. Irenaeus for a lot of things, and near the top of that list is providing a space where I can simply listen to the stillness. Listen to the silence. Listen to my own heart, so often drowned out by the noisy, if well-intentioned, activities of campus life. Listen and contemplate God’s will for me in a world that seems so often to be wracked with brokenness and violence.

It’s perhaps appropriate, then, that I received word I would be accepted into the formation program in Holy Name Province while I was staying here at the Mountain this past February. I’ve always been able to take a breath here, to meditate on my place within the Body of Christ. And not only here: I was able to take a piece of that silence, that stillness, back to campus with me as I gradually came to realize my vocational call to not only break bread, pray and joke with the friars but to join them. 

The brotherhood exemplified by the community here as well as at St. Bonaventure was something that drew me in more and more. Surprised and overwhelmed at first by my attraction to the Franciscan life, I’m at a point now where I can’t wait to get started in late August. And while two of my favorite sayings of St. Francis — “Who are You, O God, and who am I?” and “I have done what is mine to do. May Christ teach you what is yours to do.”— haven't and probably will never be fully answered in a way I can understand, I’m grateful for all of the support from you, the Mt. Irenaeus family. God bless all of you, and please continue to keep me in prayer!