Hey, it’s September!

I’ve been excited for this month for a while now, for the following reasons:

1. Family vacation down the shore: I have not yet been to the beach this summer, but I’m about to fix that!

2. Football season: it’s already game week! Go Irish, beat Longhorns!

3. Retreat at Villa Maria Guadalupe: I’m helping with the music, and we’re playing some Audrey Assad songs! It’s gonna be awesome.

4. Visit to Notre Dame! I’m going to the Georgia Tech game, and I’m psyched. I’m taking friends who have never visited ND before, and it’ll be fun to introduce them to the whole Notre Dame experience!

5. Papal visit! While I likely will not get to see Pope Francis in person, he will be right here in my city, and I’m looking forward to following his visit and listening to what he says to American Catholics while he is here. (Also, I think it’s really cool that he’s visiting a few places I know well—like the school next door to the soup kitchen I volunteer at, and the seminary across the street from the hospital where I was born. I mean, I haven’t actually been inside the seminary, but Pope Francis being across the street from my birthplace is pretty cool to me.)