The following blog entry was submitted by seminarian Jeff Walker:
As you read this blog entry, I am in the midst of a pilgrimage "In the Footsteps of Our Lady and the Saints in Catholic France." I have been anticipating this wonderful blessing of traveling with 50 of my brother seminarians and priests from St. Joseph College Seminary to visit the holy sites of France. It's tempting to think that people don't really go on pilgrimages in this day and age. Maybe some people think a "pilgrimage" is simply a "more holy" way of talking about a vacation. That's certainly not the case with this pilgrimage to France. In fact, looking at the schedule, this pilgrimage is so busy that it might be anything BUT a vacation. We'll be visiting eleven different cities in just eight days in an attempt to visit the birth and burial places of Saints as well as two sites of Marian apparitions: Lourdes and La Salette. Eleven cities in eight days is quite a work out! So what's the point? Why take all of this time, money, and energy to travel all around France--and not even swim in the Mediterranean or see the Mona Lisa? I think the point of this pilgrimage is to become a saint. Now, I'm not anticipating to come back from France absolutely perfected in holiness and ready for canonization; but as we discern our call to priesthood, it's important to keep in mind that we are all ultimately called to sanctity. We're called to be saints! This sanctity that we're called to is not just a theory or an ideal. It's very real and has been witnessed throughout the history of the Church by Saints: Saints who were real people, who lived real lives, who really intercede for us, and who really serve as models of the Christian life. Visiting the places where these Saints lived and died really helps us to understand that reality. In preparation for the pilgrimage, the seminary community has been especially devoted to studying the lives of some of the Saints whose history we will encounter in France. Many of us read "Maurice and Thérèse: A Story of a Love," which is a collection of letters between St. Thérèse of Lisieux and a young seminarian named Maurice. We've come to know St. Thomas Aquinas, not just as a master theologian and philosopher, but as a man rooted in prayer and spirituality. We've heard the incredible story of the Curé D'Ars, who is the patron Saint of diocesan priesthood. The Saints have truly begun to come alive for me recently. No longer are they just characters from books and holy cards. They are my companions on the road to holiness, having already attained that which we all someday hope to achieve. Fundamentally, our vocation is a call to holiness. Priesthood, religious life, marriage, and the single life are all ways of pursuing that holiness. I'm in the seminary today because I believe that God's plan for my holiness is wrapped up in diocesan priesthood for the Diocese of Toledo. God is calling others to holiness through marriage, lay ministry, or consecrated life. We are all called to be saints! The trick is to open our eyes and ears to how God is calling us to holiness.
The following reflection is offered by seminarian Dennis Erford:
A year and a half ago, I was dating a wonderful woman, was near my family, and had a job I really enjoyed. My life was finally becoming what I wanted it to be. Then, in November 2006, I went to a discernment retreat. I went expecting to have my vocation for marriage affirmed, but instead left with a feeling that God wanted meto be more open to the possibility of the priesthood. Through a lot more prayer and talking with people, I realized God wanted me to attend the seminary. I started the application process and was sent to Mount Saint Mary's. It has now been six months and I have grown a lot as a person.
I have been asked how I could make a decision to go through a painful break-up and leave a life in Bowling Green that was going very well. The answer, though, is simple: God asked me to. That may sound naïve at first, but I have realized that I can put my total trust in God's plan for me,whatever it may be, because He loves me and knows what is best for me and for His Church. How could I not follow God, who knows all things and loves me enough that Jesus died for me? And that trust has been rewarded. In seminary, I have been able to grow in virtue, friendships, and my appreciation for God and His church. I have seen my journey affect others around me, helping them grow closer to God and as people of faith. I look forward to seeing what God has in store for me in my upcoming summer assignment because I know it will also help me grow in holiness.
A last thing I realized is that discernment is not a one-and-done decision. You must be continuously open to what God asks of you and to trust Him.
Thank you to everyone that has supported us in the seminary. Please continue to pray for us and for an increase in vocations. God bless!
In our society that offers us so many options from aisles of cereal choices to 200 cable TV channels to a variety of cell phone colors, it is only natural that we grow secure in the mindset that we can pick and choose. We do comparative price shopping and we have grown accustomed to an environment where even billboards are constantly changing. Rationalizing our choices has become partof the very fabric of our lives.
Today's Gospel from St. Matthew reminds us that once we choose to commit ourselves to following Jesus, we invest ourselves in the totality of His teachings. We can no longer pick and choose which of His teachings we will embrace. When He says "Love one another as I have loved you," it is not for us to choose which "others" we will love. We are to show no partiality or favoritism, no discrimination or prejudice. In fact, Jesus is very emphatic about our call to love and care for everyone, especially the least:
"Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me" (Mt 25: 40).
Not only are we called to love the least one, but Jesus goes so far as to use our love for the least as an indicator of just how much we love Him. Someone once reminded me that in receiving Holy Communion, I say "Amen, I believe" in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist to the same degree that I can say "Amen, I believe" in the presence of Jesus in the person I love the least.
Who is the "least one" Jesus is inviting me to love today?
Jesus, You are the Way, the Truth and the Life. During this Lenten season, may we walk the Way with You, grow in the Truth of Your love and come to know the fullness of Life in You.
May these green beadsremind us of our call to faith and prayer. May our daily encounter with You in prayer lead us to an ever deeper relationship with You through which we are transformed into Your image and likeness.
May these purple beads remind us of our call to justice and fasting. May we root out from our lives anything standing in the way of a right relationship with You, others or ourselves.
May these gold beads remind us of our call to service and almsgiving. May our generous giving of our time, talent and treasure be a response to recognizing and serving the needs of others.
In a spirit of evangeliztion, may we enthusiastically share with others this Lenten journey and witness Your saving love and mercy to all we meet. Amen.
Each year, the first Sunday of February is designated as World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life. It is a day to celebrate the vocation we have received to consecrated life, to pray for the gift of faithful love, and to ask God's grace for those women called to this way of life in the future.
Our celebration yesterday included a wonderful gathering of men and women religious at the Little Sisters of the Poor home. The hospitality of these Sisters was outstanding as they welcomed us for Mass and a dinner. Bishop Leonard Blair presided at Mass and in the homily encouraged us to embrace the
conversion to which we are called both by the Lenten season and our lives as consecrated religious. We were delighted that Father Tom Radloff, SJ and Father Alan Zobler, OSFS joined
us for the celebration and presided at Mass, along with Father Joe Weigman who serves as chaplain for the Little Sisters.
While each of our respective religious communities hold various celebrations throughout the year, this particular day brings us together to renew friendships and celebrate our common call to consecrated life. I, personally, am most grateful for the many (both of my own community and of other communities) who are witnesses to me of faithful love and loving service.
Another special vocation, which occupies a place of honour in the Church, is the call to the consecrated life. Following the example of Mary of Bethany who "sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching" (Lk 10, 39), many men and
women consecrate themselves to a total and exclusive following of Christ. Although they undertake various services in the field of human formation and care of the poor, in teaching or in assisting the sick, they do not consider these activities as the principal purpose of their life, since, as the Code of Canon Law well underlines, "the first and foremost duty of all religious is to be the contemplation of divine things and assiduous union with God in prayer" (can. 663 §1). Moreover, in the Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata Pope John Paul II noted: "In the Church's tradition religious profession is considered to be a special and fruitful deepening of the consecration received in Baptism, inasmuch as it is the means by which the close union with Christ already begun in Baptism develops in the gift of a fuller, more explicit and authentic configuration to him through the profession of the evangelical counsels" (no. 30).
Eric Mueller, seminarian at St. Meinrad School of Theology, reflects here on his recent experience in Honduras.
I was very blessed to have spent 3 & 1/2 weeks in Honduras (December 27 - January 20) on a mission trip. Two other seminarians from St. Meinrad also went (Deacon Jeremy Wind, Diocese of Sioux City, Iowa; and Br. Aaron Brunner, OSB, monk of Our Lady of Einsiedeln, Switzerland - http://www.kloster-einsiedeln.ch/neu/fs_startseite.htm, http://www.sacred-destinations.com/switzerland/einsiedeln.htm , the founding monastery of St. Meinrad Archabbey). Our trip took the place of a class here at St. Meinrad for the 3 week January interterm. I had to write a reflection paper on my experience in light of John Paul II's apostolic exhortation, Ecclesia in America.
We went to work with the Missioners of Christ, a lay Catholic missionary group based out of Virginia, which has a mission in Comayagua, Honduras - http://www.missioners.org/Honduras.html. They serve the local community as well as participate in evangelization-focused missions in remote villages of Honduras in which a priest may only visit once per year (these communities are normally led by one of more delegates of the word, who are appointed by the pastors and lead Sunday celebrations of the Work; pastors are responsible for many villages, and many of these villages are difficult to reach due to poor roads through the mountains). The missioners (primarily young adults, recent college graduates) include both native Hondurans and others from the United Sates & other countries (including Ireland and England) who make a commitment to serve for a year. They strive to live a life of community and prayer, including praying the rosary, morning, evening, and night prayer together (from the Liturgy of the Hours), daily Mass, a personal hour of prayer, and Holy Hour - lots of prayer! They realize that they cannot serve without deepening their relationship with Christ. Their complex is right next door to the convent of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. Jeremy, Br. Aaron, & I stayed with them when we were not in the mountains. The Friars at times work in conjunction with the Missioners.
The first week & 1/2 there, I participated in a short-term mountain mission. Other young adults also came down to join the missioners as well for this trip. We were broken up into 4 teams of about 12, made up of the long-term missioners, those of us who came for the short-term mission, and Honduran youth. The Missioners have an evangelization team of youth that help occasionally with short term missions. These youth join the Missioners at various times throughout the year for retreats and formation - they are a really impressive group of faithful youth. There were 2 friar priests that joined us, and I was assigned to be with one - Fr. Gregorio (a very holy priest, originally from Poland, so he spoke Spanish with a Polish accent:), and we split our time between 2 villages. These missions normally consist of door-to-door home visits in the mornings (visiting and praying with people, answering questions about the faith, and inviting them to afternoon programs) and then programs/activities/talks in the afternoon for children, youth, and adults. Since I was with Fr. Gregorio, I was able to see the great appreciation of people having access to the sacraments who rarely have such an opportunity. The Masses he celebrated were very beautiful, and he also heard many confessions. We also had Eucharistic exposition several times. In addition to the 2 main villages we visited, we also traveled to other relatively nearby villages to visit people and invited them to Mass in those places. One day 3 of us drove with Fr. on a steep and difficult road to visit another village for Mass. We then climbed down the side of the mountain for about an hour to reach the village and have Mass. Fr. then traveled to another village, about 2 hours away by foot with a guide through the mountains. We remained in the village, had lunch, and did an impromptu mission at someone's house (music, testimony, & a talk). We had an hour & 1/2 climb back up the mountain to the truck, and then waited until dark for Fr. Gregorio & the guide to return - we were worried as it was not an easy climb. They came back safe and sound, though.
I was able to give my testimony in Spanish as well as a talk in Spanish during this first mission. I also helped with home visits and set up for Masses and Eucharistic exposition.
We stayed in these villages, either in dorms near the churches, or in the churches themselves. Generous people from the villages also fed us. Coffee is a popular crop and drink, so I drank quite a bit of coffee (I actually had my 1st full cup of coffee ever (I don't like it and just don't drink it), as we needed to eat and drink whatever they offered us (we had lots of tortilla, beans, and rice). Yet the coffee was pretty smooth and sweet (I think they add quite a bit of sugar).
The people in the mountain villages were very appreciative and welcoming. They seem to understand that the Church is a big family. They're very poor, but very generous and dignified. It was a blessing and privilege to be with them.
The first mission lasted from Sunday afternoon to Saturday morning. Afterwards we returned to Comayagua to rest (our days started early, with an hour of prayer at 5:30, & then morning prayer at 6:30). The next week I visited a boys orphanage near Comayagua for a couple days with several other guys. We helped do some painting there, ate with the boys, and one day gave talks & had activities for the teens. The next day we painted again, and then took the teens on a bus to a nearby town to climb a mountain near the town. The teens helped us find a path and we climbed a small yet steep mountain, & when we reached the top we gave a few talks about being Christian men. I was impressed with these youth, as some of these orphans are part of the evangelization team and go on missions with the Missioners.
The orphans were very happy to see us, especially the younger boys, as I'm sure they long for male attention and role models.
I also helped out with a retreat given to the English speaking missioners at their complex. About my last week, I also went on a shorter mountain mission. We went to a village that the pastor had only visited once in 2 & 1/2 years. 5 of us crammed into the back of the pastor's jeep for a 3 hour drive through the mountains. Yet we also had a very beautiful experience there.
I was blessed to meet a lot of amazing people. Also while I was in Comayagua, a young doctor who's just about to finish her residency and her mother who teaches Natural Family Planning came down for some pro-life/NFP missions. They visited various villages to speak and teach about the dignity of women, theology of the body, & NFP.
I hope this gives you a small picture of what I was up to. I'm very thankful for my time in Honduras - it was much more formative than any class I could've taken at school. Please keep me in your prayers.
I had the great grace this morning of stumbling across a document published last fall by the Congregation for Education entitled Educating Together in Catholic Schools. The document embraces the phenomenal task of portraying the purpose of Catholic education.
This article speaks so profoundly to the truth of who we are as educators, particularly educators in the faith. One of the quotes I found particularly inspiring is:
"Consecrated persons who profess the evangelical counsels show that they live for God and of God and become concrete witnesses to the Trinitarian love, so that people can experience the charm of divine beauty."
What a great job description for those of us in a religious congregation with a long history of education!
A year ago, Sisters of our community from all over the world gathered in Brazil to explore our continued call in the realm of education. We have a follow-up discussion this weekend and will consider what our corporate mission of education means for both those in formal classrooms and those who minister in other realms. I can hardly wait to share this document and to hear the insights of the other Sisters! Stay tuned...
The following is a reflection offered by Scott Carroll, a pre-theologian at St. Meinrad School of Theology.
First of all, I would like to thank any and all of you who have supported our vocations to the diocese with prayers and donations. Also, I would like to thank any of you who might be checking this site because you feel that you may have a call as well.
My call first came when I was in junior high. . .and it was another twenty-four years before I got to this place. In the meantime, I went to St. John's (not called Jesuit back then!) and the University of Toledo, where I graduated with a BE in Secondary Education in 1989. For the next seventeen years I was a teacher, and almost all of that time was in Swanton for eighth grade history. I loved it there, and I felt as if that was my true calling. . . and for that time I am sure it was. The idea of the priesthood never went away, however, and by 2002 it started to get stronger again.
Like I said, I was happy with my job, but the idea of being a priest kept growing and growing until the point came when I had to do something about it, so I contacted the vocations office downtown. Maybe I thought that if I got some basic information and took some seminary visits I could put the matter to rest and go back to being completely happy as a teacher . . . but, that was not the plan, apparently. My imagination became more and more focused on this, and in time I realized that maybe my true happiness and fulfillment was now someplace other than my classroom. I was kind of caught in a tough spot, because on one hand I was where everything seemed perfect, and yet something felt like it was missing. That something seemed to be on the road I am now on, but back then I could not see very far down it. I was afraid of a dead end, and worse yet, not finding my way back to the place I really belonged.
Father Dave Nuss gave me some advice that I hadn't thought of before, and that was to pray to God about it a little harder than I was . . . and I did. Now, I can't say that I heard audible words from Him or saw some sign like a meteor, but the more I prayed the more certain I felt about giving the seminary a try . . . and that is an answer. Discernment, as I also learned from Father Nuss, is the act of realizing what God's true calling really is for you, and it was nice to know that what I was going through had a name!
Going to seminary is discernment, plain and simple. It is a step you take towards the truth, and not something that is irreversible. After I realized this, I took the step. . . and now I am a step or so beyond that. Currently, I am in my second year of philosophy, and next up is theology!
Whatever advice I have, for whatever it's worth, boils down to two things. First, if you think you have a calling, then don't hide from it because it won't go away, and nothing bad can come from pursuing it. Secondly, prayer always helps . . . even if there are no tell tale signs or immediate payoff. God bless.
The following is a reflection written by Jerry Schetter, seminarian for the Diocese of Toledo who is studying at Holy Apostles Seminary in Cromwell, CT.
I just got back from the 2008 Rally and March For Life in Washington DC. I decided to write you a little reflection of my experience. Well, it starts like a good pilgrimage should...in discomfort -- the fact we had to make a seven hour trip on a crowded bus with 50 others through the late hours of Monday night. As any good pilgrims should, we prayed for a while and tried to get a little rest.
Our group from Holy Apostles Seminary has taken part in the March for Life for 35 consecutive years. We arrived in Washington DC around 6:00 a.m. Since 1973, more than 50 million babies have been killed in our nation alone by "legal" abortion during all three trimesters of pregnancy. What a crime!
But the bright spot was seeing the gathering of 200,000 together to celebrate life and the Pro Life movement. I attended the Youth Rally and Mass at the Verizon Center where it was full to capacity (20,000) with youth and hundreds of seminarians from across the USA. The rally started with pumped-up music to excite and bring all into a gathering and a moment of praise and worship of our Lord. Archbishop Donald Wuerhl was the main celebrant along with a couple dozen bishops (including our own Bishop Leonard Blair). Even Pope Benedict sent a representative with his message to the youth and hundreds of priests. Steve Angrisano, Matt Maher and ValLimar Jansen provided excitement and music.
In the message and reading we were reminded of our "calling." Our calling in this matter is to stand up and take responsibility. We need to do more to persuade all people that human life is precious and human dignity must be defended. This requires more effective dialogue and engagement with all. It is our Catholic calling to take a stand and act seriously and responsibly on any important moral issue. Our faith has an integral unity that calls us as Catholics to defend human life and human dignity whenever threatened. A priority for the poor, the protection of family life, the pursuit of justice and the promotion of peace are fundamental priorities of the Catholic moral tradition, which cannot be ignored or neglected.
We also need to reaffirm the Catholic Church's constant teaching that abortion is a grave violation of the most fundamental human right -- the "right to life" that is inherent in all human beings, and that grounds every other right that we possess.
I also had the opportunity to run into a few of my brother seminarians from the Toledo Diocese. It was good to see a large number make the trip from Northwest Ohio, representing many parishes and schools.
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