Hello, my name is Deacon Sean Yates and I am very excited to be joining the parish community and St. Mary and St. Richard Catholic Churches.  I am a transitional Deacon in my fourth year of theological studies at     Sacred Heart Major Seminary and this means that I am in my last year of formal education before my ordination to the priesthood.  I am looking forward to my priestly ordination on June 24th, 2023.  I am studying for the Archdiocese of Hartford, which is in Connecticut and where I was born and raised.  I completed my undergraduate at The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. I did spend a few years (about seventeen) working in businesses, mostly in Connecticut, before entering seminary.  I completed my pre-theology studies at Mount Saint Mary’s in Emmitsburg, Maryland.  I would consider myself retired from sports currently, however, I liked playing all sports growing up and continued to play football in college before switching to rugby.  I also continued to play rugby for about fifteen years after college.  But now I like to watch sports when I have some free time. 
   I grew up Catholic and attended weekly mass with my family, however, when I went off to college I fell away from mass attendance. Throughout college and about eight years after college, it was more important for me to go out on the town and have fun in the bars and clubs.  On March 17, 2007, I hit my rock bottom when I was arrested for a DUI.  This was the worst day of my life, however, in retrospect, it was also the best day of my life.  Because of this event, I realized that I was using alcohol to hide the fact that I was not happy in my life.  This led me to really think about my happiness and I realized that the last time I was happy was when I was active in the Church.  So, I returned to Church and was actually active.  I became a Knight of Columbus, a greeter and usher, joined bible study and it was at one of these bible studies that I was asked to be a leader of the youth group.  It was on a youth group trip to the Steubenville conference that really brought me to where I am today. 
   Before that trip, I viewed my soul like a greenhouse that I was throwing rocks at for twenty years.  There was not one unbroken sheet of glass, it was all shattered and laying in the weeds.  However, on Saturday night of that trip during Adoration, when the monstrance came into my section, I had an encounter with Jesus.  What I took twenty years to destroy, Jesus was able to put back together in a split second, my soul was no longer a shattered piece of glass but a
renewed sheet of glass.  That is when I made my definite yes to God.  Because of that encounter with God, now I have a burning desire to bring Jesus to the people who need Him the most and to bring
people to Jesus. 
   I look forward to spending the year with you getting to know you better and for us all to get to know Jesus better over our time together.  I should be at the parish most weekends until the end of the school year, if you would like to talk with me, I will make myself available to you.  May God bless each of you.