What is this all about?

Hello world!

My name is Ashley. I am 18 years old, until next year, February the 16th, in which case, if God Will's, I earn another year, and get to say I am 19. I am male, my name is commonly a girl's name, but there are male Ashley's out there. Think of "Gone With The Wind", for example.

I am South African by birth. I was born in a place called Durban, which is a city on the East coast of the Republic of South Africa. My mother, was born in Nice, France, but she grew up on the island of Mauritius. My father was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. For whatever reasons, I know them, but you don't need to, (Not that they are anything scandelous, it is just that I don't feel like typing it all out.) my parents arrived in South Africa, and Providence saw fit to place them together. Although I was born in Durban, I spent the majority of my life up on the "Highveld", that is in Gauteng Province, in a suburb of Johannesburg.

When my mother and father divorced, I was 5 years old at the time, my father moved to the neighbouring North-West Province, and lives on a farm out in the rural area. As my mother and father still have a cordial, nay, even friendly relationship, to this day; my childhood was spent equally between mother in the city, and father on the farm.


I am the eldest of two children. My younger brother is two years younger than I. To the less mathematically inclined, that makes him 16 years of age, at this very point in time. We are like chalk and cheese, but we are brothers and we love each other, he is also a wonderful litmus test, if I can use that analogy, for determining patience in a person!

I finished my High School education last year December, having completed my 12 (long) years of education, I was finally "free" and entered into the "big world."

I suppose at this stage, my little autobiography must have you near the state of sleep, and you must be feeling sorry for having left the delights of Youtube and Facebook. But dear reader, if there are any, this blog is not so much for your joy and entertainment, as it is for myself.

Which introduces the point of this blog.

At the age of 15 I believe I recieved a vocation to the Roman Catholic Priesthood and/or Religious life. I will not go into the whys, hows or doubts at this point in time, nor even in this post, as a matter of fact, but let it just suffice for the time being, that I have a vocation.

Since that time, to now, that has been my only thought, desire and goal: to recieve ordination in to the Roman Catholic Priesthood.

As explained earlier on, I completed my schooling last year. From December 2008, until June 2009, I then worked for my father, at his company, an electrical engineering firm. Who says nepotism is a bad thing? From the spoils I earned there, I had the financial security to "leave the nest" and spend a year in Europe, to pursue my vocation and discern it more earnestly. The reasons I came to Europe, and specifically to France, although I don't speak French, is because:

1) I have a cousin(s)* in the Priesthood, who lives in France. Being a firm supporter of nepotism, see above, I decided to seek help from him.

2) The Catholic Church and Catholic Culture is much better in France, and in Europe, than in South Africa, where Catholicism is a small minority, and Traditional Catholicism is almost non-exsistant.

3) Europe has many opportunities for me to pursue my vocation within Traditional Catholicism.

Now, dear reader, if there are any, you may be thinking to yourself, "What does all this have to do with the point of this blog?"

Well, there are, again, a number of reasons. I told you all of this, just so that you could get a little introduction into my life.

My father told me that I have a gift for writing. Now, despite whatever you may think of the quality of my written work; and I will be the first to admit that the grammar and punctuation etc, will not always be of the best standard, I will try, however, to keep some sort of a standard.

However, dear reader, if there are any, my father's words showed me that I have a hidden talent. Perhaps that is a bit presumptious on my part, but I like to write, and seeing as I won't be hurting anyone, save the odd Grammar Nazi, if any happens to pass by that is, I will continue to express myself through the means of this blog.

My father suggested to me that I keep a journal, he even bought me a delightful diary to write my thoughts and experiences in. There is, however, a problem, the book has a limited amount of pages and I am not fond of the quality of my handwriting. I was in a bit of a dilemma, until I came accross the blog of a friend of mine. His work, well not so much what he said, but the fact that he was saying it, inspired me to create my own blog, to post my personal thoughts, experiences, and the like.

So, dear reader, your quest for the reason of the exisitence of this blog finally comes to an end. The aim, the vision I see of this blog, is that it will be a means of "penning" down my musings and thoughts on life, especially with regards to my spirituality and pursuit of my vocation.

As the title of the blog suggests, this blog will be a place for me to mull and "ruminate" over my journey towards God, and towards doing His Will. Dear readers, if there are any, this will be the place where I will record my attempt to make the journey to heaven, and to see the face of God.

Lord, Thy Will be done!

*I am currently at a house of the Institute of Christ the King, Sovereign Priest, in the South of France. It turns out that one of the Priests here is a distant cousin of mine. His mother is related to my grandmother, on my Mother's side of the family...It is a Mauritian thing, we have cousins everywhere!