Priest as Fashion Designer

I keep hearing stories about all kinds of priests who do all sorts of things. There was the former professional soccer player now in the seminary. There is a priest who was exceptionally good at poker and participated in a tournament with the approval of his bishop and donated all his winnings to his parish. And now there is a priest on the East Coast who designs clothing with material made in Guatemala and sewn in New York City. He is able to provide good wages for all involved. Talk about the ways in which God can call you to serve. Check it out.

A Day in the Life of a Seminarian.

One of the Monk's at Mount Angel recently wrote an article for the Catholic Sentinel, the Archdiocese of Portland's Official Newspaper. As Abbot Peter explains, a short article cannot take the place of visiting our hilltop, but nonetheless it should a provide a small taste for those interested in knowing what a seminarian actually does.

Oh and look at who earned themselves spots on the front page of the newspaper - three Solano Deanery guys, two that are studying for our Diocese [FYI, I am just to the left of JR there... if anyone cares].

Manolito Jaldon, Jr., Jeremy Santos, Carmelite Br. Raymond Bueno and Patrick Arguelles.

Day in the life of a seminarian: a look at Mount Angel life

Occasionally in the course of the school year, Mount Angel Seminary hosts young men who are interested in the seminary. They are invited to join the seminarians in their daily life because it’s the best way to see what seminary life is all about.

Reading a short article describing a day in the life of the seminarian runs a poor second to such an experience, but it might give the reader some idea of what seminary life is like.

The first challenge of the day is getting up.

Unlike seminaries of 40 or 50 years ago, there are no wake-up bells to rouse everyone out of bed. Each man is on his own. Some get up quite early, in time to pray and exercise and eat breakfast at 6:45 a.m. Others cut it significantly closer to the 7:30 a.m. time for morning prayer that is followed by Mass in the seminary chapel.

The school day begins at 9 a.m. The morning is taken up with three 50-minute class periods, punctuated with 10-minute breaks between classes.

At present, most courses are taught in Annunciation, the new class and administrative building on the southwest side of the hill. In fact, now that we have the building, we wonder how the seminary ever managed without it for almost 120 years.

Finally it’s time for lunch, and by 11:45 a.m. the cafeteria becomes the hub of the seminary’s activity.

Lunch can be anything from a simple salad, to soup and sandwich, to quite a hearty meal selected from the several entrees offered each day.

Not many linger over lunch because classes resume again at 1 p.m. As in the morning, so in the afternoon there are generally three class periods of 50-minutes each.

Of course, the day is taken up with other things beside classes and study. Each seminarian must find time to meet bi-weekly with his spiritual director, as well as his formation director.

He is also strongly encouraged to find time to exercise regularly and to devote time each day for private prayer and visits to the Blessed Sacrament.

The afternoon is soon gone and before he knows it, it is 5:30 p.m. and time for evening prayer in the seminary chapel.

Supper follows immediately afterwards though some remain in the chapel to pray the rosary. Not only do they have the satisfaction of receiving merit for their good deed, but also when they do get to the cafeteria, the long line of people waiting to be served has disappeared.

Evenings are generally free for studying except for Mondays when activities are scheduled, such as: a President Rector’s conference, a Jesus Caritas meeting, or an Evening of Silence. In addition, many seminarians have pastoral ministry one night a week, usually on Thursday. If he is free, the seminarian uses his evenings for study or exercise, or usually both. But by 10:30 p.m. lights in the rooms begin going off one by one, as everyone settles down for a night’s sleep and the arrival of another day.

The writer, Abbot Peter Eberle, is director of human formation at Mount Angel Seminary.

--- Catholic Sentinel, 10/22/09

Difficult Time

Our former Director of Spiritual Formation at the NAC, Fr. Richard Tomasek, recently received news he had cancer on his heart that does not allow for surgery, radiation, chemo, or any other kind of treatment. The news was shocking. He just updated us on his status and I have posted part of that letter below. It was really striking for me. A wakeup call really. This priest is a holy man and a faithful servant of God. He is a great model of a priest, pastor, friend. He has so much left to do. Why would God take him now? I do not have an answer to that question.

I often get the idea that I will be a priest till I am 75 and then God will take me right after I celebrate Mass one day. But we never know when God may perhaps be calling us home. We do not know the work He wants us to do. 50 years of priesthood or just 5. It is all His.

I have been praying for his healing through the intercession of Servant of God John Paul II. Feel free to join me.

"You are probably interested in how I've been handling this whole thing spiritually. Well, as many of you know, I'm a follower of deCaussade's Abandonment to Divine Providence. I know that "not a single sparrow falls from the sky without our Father permitting it" and that "every hair on our head is numbered." Of course, there is nothing to drive home such faith convictions like actually facing death. One has fears, feels isolation, questions faith (like, Is God and the resurrection all true or just a palliative or poetry?) I found myself at the edge of the busy world looking in at all the people going about their daily lives, planning for a future, etc. I felt alone there, detaching now from it all, and I saw more poignantly how beautiful and precious human life is as well as how little we appreciate it and use it well. I was full of gratitude for life, both mine and humanity's, and at the same time I was in greater grieving over the sin and violence and thoughtlessness and waste that was going on. Lord, please wake them up! So I was exercising my faith muscles a lot, even as my bodily muscles were not getting much workout. The Lord has given me the grace of accepting an early death (usually sarcoma patients have 1-3 years to live) and going Home earlier than expected. He has assured me that from Heaven I will be able to serve the brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ as much or more than when I was on earth. On the other hand, since there is so much more I'd like to do for the Lord and His Body in this life, I am asking for more years of health to do it--providing it is within His holy, perfect and loving will. There are so many graces of trust and intimacy with God and of gratitude and zeal that He has poured out into my heart. I am more alive than ever. Whether in the body out of it, I will continue to love and serve you as you engage in your own journeys of priestly service. May we joyfully meet again either in this life or in the Next."

AMDG.

Ordinations!

Michael Baricuatro, Michael Estaris, and Mauricio Hurtado are being ordained deacons this Saturday with other seminarians from St. Patrick's Seminary. I've known these men for about 3 years now and know they will be good and faithful transitional deacons. Congratulations brothers!

Please keep them in your prayers!

AMDG.

Married

I have not posted anything a bit personal recently so here goes. This past week we've started our classes again and for once, I have actually started prioritizing my life. Prayer is actually coming first. Sleep second. Studying third. And random laziness is a far back fourth. Life is actually making sense.

I have also had a lot of time to reflect about celibacy. A lot of what I am going to say flows from my retreat a few weeks ago and continuing reflection in these past couple weeks. I realized recently I was still working on an essential part of my priestly identity, that is, not being single but celibate. I found I was still thinking at times as though I were a single man and not someone preparing for lifelong celibacy. But that is exactly what I am doing! So it was a bit of a shock to realize this and decide what steps to take to begin this transformation towards seeing myself as taken or as a friend told me a while back, "You're married!"


photo by thecaucas

But what did my friend mean by marriage? Obviously I do not marry in the traditional sense of the word or what modern society terms marriage. But I do have a spouse. And this is my key to growing in my celibate identity.

Now I know what you might be thinking. You don't have a spouse! Well that's what a patient at the hospital recently told me when he asked for my defense of celibacy and I told him I have a spouse. Of course I do! I have the Church. And she is a great spouse. He replied that this was just an idea in my head. This could not be my spouse.

The funny thing is how wrong he is. If the Church is not my spouse in my heart, and just an idea in my head, there is no way this crazy adventure is going to last. No way. I could not make it without a spouse. We all desire to make a gift of ourselves. What would I be doing with my life? I could not last in the priesthood.

But how is the Church my spouse? She is the one to whom I give my time, energy, and very life. I will sacrifice everything for her good. I will love her forever. And I will care for her children, the people of God. Sounds very spousal to me - well if I hold up my end of the bargain.

I have learned that to really take on this idea of the Church as my spouse comes as I begin to realize what my spouse looks like. Part of this is imagining the sacraments I will celebrate with the people of God and part of it is praying for my future spouse the Church each and every day.

It was almost odd talking to this patient because I ended by telling him I am living my relationship with my spouse even now, by being at his side. I do not know if he quite understood but for me it is something incredibly amazing and true.

I have and continue to pray for the grace to grow in my priestly identity as a celibate and for the grace to love my spouse the Church more and more. Thankfully, God in charge with this one so I am not too worried.

AMDG.

Questions from the Audience - How can I Know-know that I am called?

I had an interesting email exchange that I thought I would post on here. I do not know how helpful it is but I like the questions that are raised.

Here is part of the email I received:

I think another question I had was exactly how did you KNOW-KNOW God wanted you to become a priest? I just cant picture ever really KNOWING for sure there's something that God wants to tell me.

And I can't help feeling like it's all maybe in vain. And you might say "You can't expect Him to just be a booming voice in the clouds telling me what to do." But then I guess my main question is "What then CAN I expect?"

And it's just really hard for me to grasp that like if I don't know what God's calling me to do then how am I EVER going to know I'm "doing it right?" How am I EVER going to know I'm living my life and doing the job I'm supposed to be doing?

And if I don't know what He wants me to do, and I end up doing something I'm not called to do, would I...know? And would I realize that I'm not happy? Or would I think that I'm happy but actually not really be happy?

Or would I end up doing it even if I feel like I don't know what He wants me to do? I'm so confused.


photo by marcobellucci

This is part of my response:

These are tough questions. There is no "know-know". But there is definitely a strong sense that we are called. After I broke up with my girlfriend, I struggled for about two weeks after I told her, praying and crying, going back and forth, wanting to call her and tell her it was all a joke. But every night I kept praying. I trusted even though I didn't know why. Then one day this peace came over me. And I realized I had made the right decision. It was a lasting peace – a peace that still rests in my heart.

Where there is peace is where God is calling you. If you go out and do med school and have peace. Well there you go. But if you go out and go to law school and find yourself restless and anxious, well that's not where you are supposed to be.

That is why you should go out and find different internships, volunteer opportunities, work, and take different classes to figure out what draws you. I did all kinds of random stuff, working with disadvantaged kids, foster kids, homeless, migrants, driving a bus, working in food service, doing leadership and so on.

Just keep stretching out and keep your heart open to the interior movements of the spirit. Not on a superficial level of money, prestige, or power, but what draws you within, as something that could be fulfilling and what God asks of you. And you will know. If you continue in prayer and you are in touch with He who is, you'll know when you're happy with what your doing or dissatisfied.

This may not sound consoling but trust. He who calls us doesn't want to make it so blatant. Otherwise where is the adventure, where is the struggle, where is the joy in discovering that God has been calling you to this all your life? It is through this whole journey, of discovering yourself and your relationship with God and how you are called to impact the world that prepares you for the greatest joy of all, heaven.

AMDG.

A Priest Needs Friends

A seminarian I know was introduced to a fellow classmate at his Italian language school and after hearing that he was a seminarian, asked, "Molested any children recently?" Obviously the man had a distaste, maybe even hatred towards Catholicism and the sex abuse scandal made it all that much easier to hate. Yet it is interesting to hear people blame things like the sex abuse scandal or alcoholic priests on celibacy. Celibacy is supposedly so unnatural, so happiness destroying, it drives priests to sexually abuse children and abuse alcohol.

One thing you quickly learn in the seminary is how much focus and attention is paid to living a healthy celibate life. It isn't easy . Neither is the married life. But through the grace of God and good formation it is not only possible, but it is life giving and soul-saving powerful.

But back to the subject at hand, are priests, because they are celibate oppressing their own sexuality and living a mediocre existence? If you trust studies, you will have to agree that the Catholic priesthood has one of the highest rates of satisfaction among occupations. Priests love their lives. But don't they get lonely or depressed from being celibate? Yes and no - not if they follow the wisdom of most priests who have a family of relatives as well as many families and friends they have met along the way. Further, every priest should be in a support group of priest that meet once a month as well as develop fraternal connections with the entire presbyterate of the diocese. But a certain loneliness is a part of everyone's life, even a priest. A man with a huge family can still find himself alone. And some of that aloneness is good because we share it with Christ. Priests who fall into the bad habits are like people in any occupations, they often isolate themselves. This is always a first step towards bad news since man is made for relationship, not isolation.

As well, a result of celibacy is the ability to give oneself 100% to ministry, not working 9-5 but 24/7. The priest enters into the lives of his people at any moment and acts as the Christ in the flesh. No wonder job satisfaction is so high! You are truly doing things that matter.

Don't think celibacy is too much because you will find yourself alone. Just the opposite. You will find yourself at the center of the greatest family you have ever known.