Wow, what a crazy busy week it has been for me here… and it has been just orientation stuff. As I wrote about in my last post this consists mostly of business type stuff such as getting our schedule for classes, a schedule of other things going on, required and optional, and being told what is expected of us.
In addition orientation week of course had a lot of prayer time both for liturgy prayer and private prayer. This brings me to one of the things that I wanted to talk about based on a question I had… the question was in person, but I have mentioned a prayer that goes by many titles; “The Divine Office”, “The Liturgy of the Hours”, or “The Brievery”. These all refer to basically the same thing and are used interchangeably.
This is the book of prayers that is required to be prayed daily by the priests and religious throughout the world. It is heavily loaded with readings from the Book of Psalms, which are ancient prayers that are included in the Bible… a common prayer practice among Jewish people during the time of Jesus was to recite the Psalms, and we are taught that He took part in this prayer. In the Brievery is also: daily scripture readings, quotes from the Saints, hymns, and prayers written by others in the past. It is set up to be prayed at various times of the day I.E. : morning prayer, midday prayer (actually 3 different midday prayer times), evening prayer, and night prayer. This is to keep the focus of our day on prayer and Christ.
The question that I had was from someone who asked me how it can be prayer if it is pre-written down, and doesn’t come in our own words. I stumbled through an answer at that time, but wanted to address it a bit more… my thoughts on it, as I have said before, I am not teaching a Philosophy or Theology course here, although I might explain things that I find interesting.
Of course personal prayer, in one’s own words is a wonderful and very important way to pray. Silence is also important, listening to God, rather than just talking at Him. I love those forms of prayer and take part in them all the time. However, with the prayers written by others come many wonderful aspects. I can safely assume that at the time that I am praying any prewritten prayer that someone else, somewhere is praying with me. This gives me a wonderful comfort to know, maybe they are asking God to take care of all those who are praying with them, I know I do. I can also trust that I am praying the same way that people for a long time (with slight dialect changes) have prayed, many of those people are in Heaven with God now (Saints, both big “S” and little “s”), and may be focusing their prayers now toward helping those on Earth, including me. (As an aside, and I may talk about this later, when I say the big “S” and little “s” saints what I am meaning is that the big “S” are those that the Church has recognized as Saints and canonized them, acknowledging our belief and knowledge that they are in Heaven, a little “s” saint is anyone else who is in Heaven with God, but has not been placed in the canon, or list).
Another reason that I truly love prewritten prayers is that often times I am at a complete loss as to anything to say to God. This especially happens when I am praying in front of His real presence in the Blessed Sacrament. I am so in awe of the wonderful gift of salvation that He has given us, I want to praise him, but can’t find my words. At these times are times that I lean even more heavily on prewritten prayers.
Okay, enough of that for now. As I said orientation week has wrapped up. We spent a lot of time in the business sessions, and getting to know each other. I am amazed at how wonderful the guys in my class are, I don’t think that I could have scripted a better group of guys, wonderful personalities and enough diversity to keep it interesting.
One of the last sessions of orientation week was the Virtus training. Virtus is a national program on protecting God’s Children. Each Diocese has something in place for this, especially since the sex abuse crisis raised awareness of a problem, but this is the one that the Archdiocese of Chicago wants us to have to minister within their diocese. It is a wonderful program. Although of course anyone looking at the numbers knows that the abuse rate among Catholic Priests is actually lower than any other demographic group that someone can pick, any cases of it are too much, and the media attention to it drew an awareness that allows for the Church to protect the vulnerable even more.
Tonight we started a silent retreat. This will run until Friday mid-day. Of course there are recommended ways to implement this retreat it will truly come to whatever we make of it. I am allowing myself to write the blog post(s) that I may think of during this time and I will of course post them to my Facebook as always, but I won’t do much other Facebooking, or much other contact. If you absolutely need to get ahold of me for some reason call and leave a message, I will check those, or send an e-mail and put the word “important” in the subject line so that I will open it when it comes through on my phone… otherwise I will be available sometime early Friday afternoon.
One request that I have is that everyone keep the family of my cousin-in-law in your prayers. Several members of the family were seriously hurt in a recent car crash. And of course, please keep me, my class mates, all seminarians, clergy and religious in your prayers.
Peace,
Adam
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Moving in/Orientation Week 1
Hi there,
So I am now kind of moved into my room at Mundelein Seminary! I say “kind of” because there is still quite a bit of unpacking, organizing, and settling in to get done, but all of that can happen in good time. I have found that I definitely brought WAY too much stuff. My room is pretty good sized, but kind of difficult to organize.
It is especially tough to get organized this year because I am only in this room for one year, so there are limits on what I can do in the room. At one point in the past it used to be set up that a seminarian would move every year to a different room on campus based on where they were in the program of studies. This allowed people to be closer to facilities that would fit them, for example, those who were Deacons would be closest to the rooms to practice saying Mass (of course it wouldn’t be a valid Mass since they aren’t a Priest, but it would make practice easier). Now it happens that all of the guys in first year Pre-Theology (like me) are in one area, then after this year we will move into rooms mixed in with all the people at other points in their studies. We will be in those rooms for the rest of our time here.
When I get into my permanent room I will be able to do things like build a loft for my bed which will of course give me a great deal more floor space to organize stuff. For now though, I have to make do with what I can. It isn’t too bad, I have found in the unpacking that I brought a lot of stuff that I “may” want at some point during my time here. A lot of that is getting packed away again so that when my mom and her husband come down for family weekend I can give it to them to store in the rafters of their garage.
On Monday I went to Mass at St. Elizabeth’s as I always like to go to Mass and it seemed appropriate before heading down to Illinois. I also stopped at the DMV to get back my Wisconsin driver’s license and license plate… this made me very proud. I hope to never switch from WI again. Then came the drive down, routine and uneventful.
I got to the seminary and checked in. I already had my key and knew where my room was, so it was basically just picking up a packet of information with the schedule and details for this orientation week. I was very grateful to run into a couple of guys whom I knew from my Diocese who were here already and were very willing to help me carry my stuff up to my room. They also told me that it is allowed to drive on the sidewalk to the building to unload, making the whole process much easier than it could have been.
Although I didn’t need anything I accompanied these guys to the Target store just to hang out and basically procrastinate on unpacking. I did buy a pair of swimming trunks as there is a wonderful indoor pool on campus. I then got busy with unpacking, well, kind of… it was most difficult to figure out where to begin. I got a little bit put away and met a few of the guys who live in my hall way. These are some very wonderful men with amazing stories of what has brought them to feel that God is calling them to the priesthood.
On Monday evening I guess it is a little bit of a tradition (or so I’m told) to go on a “hotdog pilgrimage” basically running out for Chicago style hotdogs. I thought this sounded good, a way to get to know some more people and another excuse to procrastinate unpacking. I get there and we are loading up cars when I find out that the place we are going to is 45 minutes away… I didn’t expect that, but oh well. We went there and the hotdogs were indeed great. We got back and a few of us in my hallway (called “Cam” in seminary life… I’ll let you know when I figure out where that comes from) sat around chatting. I was growing even more excited for this journey based on the wonderful men that I will be going through it with.
Tuesday was more unpacking in the Morning, then Mass at 11:30. After Mass and lunch I unpacked a little more and then had to get dressed for my picture and a brief “business” meeting, just to go over the ins and outs of the business office here. They discussed the idea that each seminarian needs health insurance, and made sure that we had taken the program required by the Catholic Church to prevent abuse of minors.
Tuesday evening there was a welcome from the Rector and an introduction to quite a good percentage of the faculty, followed of course by a social to get to know each other.
Today, Wednesday, was the first full day of Orientation. We had the general sessions that everyone would expect when starting at a new school type setting. We also had sessions on living together in community, as we will be doing for the next few years. One session that most other schools wouldn’t have that we did was the one that discussed the liturgical practices here… basically what time and how Mass is set up here, and also the times and set up for praying the Liturgy of the Hours. The Liturgy of the hours is a prayer book broken up throughout times of the day that is required for all priests and religious in the Catholic Church to pray… of course they want us to get used to it and develop and appreciation for it. I really like the Liturgy of the Hours, it is a scripture based prayer, heavy on Psalms and Gospel Canticles.
The last session that I feel worth really mentioning from today was the session on our field education. This is a program where seminarians go out to different sites to minister to people. We don’t have class on Wednesday, so we are expected to go to our field education site every Wednesday. At this point in my time we aren’t doing ministry within a parish, that is saved for those later in seminary. The opportunities available to me are various hospital, nursing home, and jail/detention center ministries. I am actually hoping for a jail ministry assignment as I don’t have experience in that field, it will be a good way to grow in my faith by stepping out of my comfort zone to minister to God’s people there. I will see what I get picked for when that comes up.
Well, this is pretty long again. Please keep me in your prayers, along with all seminarians, priests, and religious.
Peace,
Adam
So I am now kind of moved into my room at Mundelein Seminary! I say “kind of” because there is still quite a bit of unpacking, organizing, and settling in to get done, but all of that can happen in good time. I have found that I definitely brought WAY too much stuff. My room is pretty good sized, but kind of difficult to organize.
It is especially tough to get organized this year because I am only in this room for one year, so there are limits on what I can do in the room. At one point in the past it used to be set up that a seminarian would move every year to a different room on campus based on where they were in the program of studies. This allowed people to be closer to facilities that would fit them, for example, those who were Deacons would be closest to the rooms to practice saying Mass (of course it wouldn’t be a valid Mass since they aren’t a Priest, but it would make practice easier). Now it happens that all of the guys in first year Pre-Theology (like me) are in one area, then after this year we will move into rooms mixed in with all the people at other points in their studies. We will be in those rooms for the rest of our time here.
When I get into my permanent room I will be able to do things like build a loft for my bed which will of course give me a great deal more floor space to organize stuff. For now though, I have to make do with what I can. It isn’t too bad, I have found in the unpacking that I brought a lot of stuff that I “may” want at some point during my time here. A lot of that is getting packed away again so that when my mom and her husband come down for family weekend I can give it to them to store in the rafters of their garage.
On Monday I went to Mass at St. Elizabeth’s as I always like to go to Mass and it seemed appropriate before heading down to Illinois. I also stopped at the DMV to get back my Wisconsin driver’s license and license plate… this made me very proud. I hope to never switch from WI again. Then came the drive down, routine and uneventful.
I got to the seminary and checked in. I already had my key and knew where my room was, so it was basically just picking up a packet of information with the schedule and details for this orientation week. I was very grateful to run into a couple of guys whom I knew from my Diocese who were here already and were very willing to help me carry my stuff up to my room. They also told me that it is allowed to drive on the sidewalk to the building to unload, making the whole process much easier than it could have been.
Although I didn’t need anything I accompanied these guys to the Target store just to hang out and basically procrastinate on unpacking. I did buy a pair of swimming trunks as there is a wonderful indoor pool on campus. I then got busy with unpacking, well, kind of… it was most difficult to figure out where to begin. I got a little bit put away and met a few of the guys who live in my hall way. These are some very wonderful men with amazing stories of what has brought them to feel that God is calling them to the priesthood.
On Monday evening I guess it is a little bit of a tradition (or so I’m told) to go on a “hotdog pilgrimage” basically running out for Chicago style hotdogs. I thought this sounded good, a way to get to know some more people and another excuse to procrastinate unpacking. I get there and we are loading up cars when I find out that the place we are going to is 45 minutes away… I didn’t expect that, but oh well. We went there and the hotdogs were indeed great. We got back and a few of us in my hallway (called “Cam” in seminary life… I’ll let you know when I figure out where that comes from) sat around chatting. I was growing even more excited for this journey based on the wonderful men that I will be going through it with.
Tuesday was more unpacking in the Morning, then Mass at 11:30. After Mass and lunch I unpacked a little more and then had to get dressed for my picture and a brief “business” meeting, just to go over the ins and outs of the business office here. They discussed the idea that each seminarian needs health insurance, and made sure that we had taken the program required by the Catholic Church to prevent abuse of minors.
Tuesday evening there was a welcome from the Rector and an introduction to quite a good percentage of the faculty, followed of course by a social to get to know each other.
Today, Wednesday, was the first full day of Orientation. We had the general sessions that everyone would expect when starting at a new school type setting. We also had sessions on living together in community, as we will be doing for the next few years. One session that most other schools wouldn’t have that we did was the one that discussed the liturgical practices here… basically what time and how Mass is set up here, and also the times and set up for praying the Liturgy of the Hours. The Liturgy of the hours is a prayer book broken up throughout times of the day that is required for all priests and religious in the Catholic Church to pray… of course they want us to get used to it and develop and appreciation for it. I really like the Liturgy of the Hours, it is a scripture based prayer, heavy on Psalms and Gospel Canticles.
The last session that I feel worth really mentioning from today was the session on our field education. This is a program where seminarians go out to different sites to minister to people. We don’t have class on Wednesday, so we are expected to go to our field education site every Wednesday. At this point in my time we aren’t doing ministry within a parish, that is saved for those later in seminary. The opportunities available to me are various hospital, nursing home, and jail/detention center ministries. I am actually hoping for a jail ministry assignment as I don’t have experience in that field, it will be a good way to grow in my faith by stepping out of my comfort zone to minister to God’s people there. I will see what I get picked for when that comes up.
Well, this is pretty long again. Please keep me in your prayers, along with all seminarians, priests, and religious.
Peace,
Adam
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Getting Ready 4---Moving tomorrow!!!
Wow, so I’m going to have to get through this one by covering a bit of ground quickly as I move to Mundelein Seminary tomorrow.
After the weekend of my blessing at Newman University Parish and meeting up with a great friend on that Monday I returned to work Tuesday-Tuesday. Work was pretty routine for me, but my boss accompanied me on a few things so that he would know where they were at. I also limited myself to finishing up on things and getting them close to completion if not completed instead of finding new issues to deal with. I had a few things that came up from members of the public that needed to be dealt with that were new, but I didn’t do a whole lot of new inspections to find new problems that couldn’t be resolved before I left.
After that 8 day stretch of work I got up early on Wednesday and flew out to Montana for a week to see my dad and his wife. It was great to get out there since they have lived there for three years and I have yet to visit them. I had a wonderful time seeing their house, the area they live in, and one of the few parts of the country that I haven’t experienced. This was a wonderfully relaxing trip… a few naps were taken, I slept in a bit (as much as I can), and went out to eat a bit. I got to see some of the sites in the area, cut a few trees down in my dad’s yard, and mostly just hang out.
I returned for three days of work after my trip to MT. This was even more occupied with wrap up work as the end was quickly moving in. I did my outprocessing, answered all of my boss’s questions about what issues were on going, and cleaned out my desk. I managed to stay amazingly busy for all but about the last two hours of those three days… I was glad for this, as I didn’t feel like I was slacking, and the last two hours of slow time showed me that I had planned properly and wasn’t scrambling at the end.
During the final 3 weeks or so in Iowa I was donating a bunch of items and selling a bunch on Craigslist. On the Wednesday night of my final week I went to my final session of the Bible Study program that I had been taking part in, I had been so busy of late, and with the vacation I hadn’t prepared for the Bible Study. I went to listen to the other people’s discussion and to say good bye to them. It turned out that we mainly just had a going away conversation. It was great. Thursday evening was my going away dinner with a couple of friends. I wish that more people could have come out, but I planned it kind of late, and got to say good bye to most people at other times.
On Friday evening, after my last day at work I went home and about went crazy packing my final stuff. I somehow found that I had a lot more stuff left than I had thought. After donating a bit more at the night drop at the Salvation Army I managed to fit everything into my truck so that I could drive home… including stuff piled on the passenger seat so that I had to arrange it just right to be able to see out of my side view mirror.
I didn’t end up leaving until about noon on Saturday because of the final packing and cleaning of my apartment. I drove towards my mom’s. I stopped at my brother’s to visit him, my S-i-L, and my nephew. My brother had run to the store so I didn’t get to see him… but I had spoken to him on the phone recently. I then finally made it to my mom’s house and carried in a bit of laundry to do, and a couple of things that will need to be stored at her house.
On Saturday night I went to Kornfest, the festival in the town that I had grown up in. I got to see Fr. Malin, and Sisters Bridget and Jean whom I had known since I was just a little kid. I was glad to see them and be able to talk with them before leaving. I also got to see a couple of great friends. I had a great time getting back to Kornfest for the first time in a few years.
Sunday morning my mom and I went to church with a wonderful lady who has volunteered to help me with the issue of owing money on my truck. She is a lady my mom has known from work for a long time and who has a heart of gold. She very excitedly volunteered to give me the money to cover my truck. I don’t feel quite comfortable just taking the money as a gift at this point… it seems so odd to have something like that, but I am willing to take an interest free/no payment loan for the time that I am in seminary. I may be willing to take the gift as an Ordination gift at that point… we’ll have to see. We went to breakfast after church and it was great to get to know her, I will most definitely add her to my prayer list, not because she loaned me the money, but because she is a wonderful person who has asked for prayers.
Sunday afternoon I went back to my mom’s and did the laundry I had brought in yesterday. I will be leaving in the morning. I hope to go to Monday Mass at St. Elizabeth’s in Holmen, then I have to go to the DMV to try to register my vehicle in WI and get a WI license again for the first time in quite a while, I am excited about this, but not sure how well it will work since I haven’t yet received mail in WI so can’t prove residency… we’ll have to see.
After the DMV I am going to head down to Mundelein. I will get in and hopefully a few of the guys who are already there will be able to help me carry stuff to my room. I will then have to begin the crazy task of unpacking. I am guessing that as I go through the unpacking I will find stuff that I didn’t donate or store that would be good for that. My mom and her husband are coming down in early October for family day at Mundelein so I will be able to give this stuff to them at that time.
Please keep me and all those in seminary in your prayers.
Peace,
Adam
After the weekend of my blessing at Newman University Parish and meeting up with a great friend on that Monday I returned to work Tuesday-Tuesday. Work was pretty routine for me, but my boss accompanied me on a few things so that he would know where they were at. I also limited myself to finishing up on things and getting them close to completion if not completed instead of finding new issues to deal with. I had a few things that came up from members of the public that needed to be dealt with that were new, but I didn’t do a whole lot of new inspections to find new problems that couldn’t be resolved before I left.
After that 8 day stretch of work I got up early on Wednesday and flew out to Montana for a week to see my dad and his wife. It was great to get out there since they have lived there for three years and I have yet to visit them. I had a wonderful time seeing their house, the area they live in, and one of the few parts of the country that I haven’t experienced. This was a wonderfully relaxing trip… a few naps were taken, I slept in a bit (as much as I can), and went out to eat a bit. I got to see some of the sites in the area, cut a few trees down in my dad’s yard, and mostly just hang out.
I returned for three days of work after my trip to MT. This was even more occupied with wrap up work as the end was quickly moving in. I did my outprocessing, answered all of my boss’s questions about what issues were on going, and cleaned out my desk. I managed to stay amazingly busy for all but about the last two hours of those three days… I was glad for this, as I didn’t feel like I was slacking, and the last two hours of slow time showed me that I had planned properly and wasn’t scrambling at the end.
During the final 3 weeks or so in Iowa I was donating a bunch of items and selling a bunch on Craigslist. On the Wednesday night of my final week I went to my final session of the Bible Study program that I had been taking part in, I had been so busy of late, and with the vacation I hadn’t prepared for the Bible Study. I went to listen to the other people’s discussion and to say good bye to them. It turned out that we mainly just had a going away conversation. It was great. Thursday evening was my going away dinner with a couple of friends. I wish that more people could have come out, but I planned it kind of late, and got to say good bye to most people at other times.
On Friday evening, after my last day at work I went home and about went crazy packing my final stuff. I somehow found that I had a lot more stuff left than I had thought. After donating a bit more at the night drop at the Salvation Army I managed to fit everything into my truck so that I could drive home… including stuff piled on the passenger seat so that I had to arrange it just right to be able to see out of my side view mirror.
I didn’t end up leaving until about noon on Saturday because of the final packing and cleaning of my apartment. I drove towards my mom’s. I stopped at my brother’s to visit him, my S-i-L, and my nephew. My brother had run to the store so I didn’t get to see him… but I had spoken to him on the phone recently. I then finally made it to my mom’s house and carried in a bit of laundry to do, and a couple of things that will need to be stored at her house.
On Saturday night I went to Kornfest, the festival in the town that I had grown up in. I got to see Fr. Malin, and Sisters Bridget and Jean whom I had known since I was just a little kid. I was glad to see them and be able to talk with them before leaving. I also got to see a couple of great friends. I had a great time getting back to Kornfest for the first time in a few years.
Sunday morning my mom and I went to church with a wonderful lady who has volunteered to help me with the issue of owing money on my truck. She is a lady my mom has known from work for a long time and who has a heart of gold. She very excitedly volunteered to give me the money to cover my truck. I don’t feel quite comfortable just taking the money as a gift at this point… it seems so odd to have something like that, but I am willing to take an interest free/no payment loan for the time that I am in seminary. I may be willing to take the gift as an Ordination gift at that point… we’ll have to see. We went to breakfast after church and it was great to get to know her, I will most definitely add her to my prayer list, not because she loaned me the money, but because she is a wonderful person who has asked for prayers.
Sunday afternoon I went back to my mom’s and did the laundry I had brought in yesterday. I will be leaving in the morning. I hope to go to Monday Mass at St. Elizabeth’s in Holmen, then I have to go to the DMV to try to register my vehicle in WI and get a WI license again for the first time in quite a while, I am excited about this, but not sure how well it will work since I haven’t yet received mail in WI so can’t prove residency… we’ll have to see.
After the DMV I am going to head down to Mundelein. I will get in and hopefully a few of the guys who are already there will be able to help me carry stuff to my room. I will then have to begin the crazy task of unpacking. I am guessing that as I go through the unpacking I will find stuff that I didn’t donate or store that would be good for that. My mom and her husband are coming down in early October for family day at Mundelein so I will be able to give this stuff to them at that time.
Please keep me and all those in seminary in your prayers.
Peace,
Adam
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Getting Ready 3
After I had let everyone know that I was going to seminary things started to move really fast. Everyone wanted a visit or to spend time with me before I leave. I understand what people are thinking, but it isn't like I will be locked away for a number of years. Although I will of course be restricted by finance and needing to get done all that needs to get done I will be free to visit people and see them even after I leave. I guess the one angle that I understand more on this is the people in the Iowa-Illinois area that I live in... I probably won't be coming back here a lot during my time at seminary.
Although I had started packing before being accepted to seminary it was now becoming even more serious. It was also very difficult... my last two moves were paid for by the government and professional movers had packed and moved all of my stuff... so I hadn't thinned out any of my property during that time. I also had a lot of stuff in my storage unit in Stevens Point, WI that had been just sitting there since I had sold my house two and a half or three years ago. So I had the long process of sorting through stuff. I had to decide what needed to go with me to seminary, there is limited room, so this had to be limited as well. I had to decided what stuff I wanted to keep and could store at my mom's house. Of the remaining stuff I had to figure out what could be sold, what could be donated, and what could be thrown away. This has been a long process.
I pretty much felt like I was preparing for any other move and career change... my faith life was already strong and I kept that up, but aside from that the preparations were pretty normal. At work I kept at all the stuff that I could and started to prepare turn over documents to give to my replacement. I hoped to be able to give these while training whomever it is before I left... However, there was too much interest from those internal to my project office so it has to go through a more formal hiring process with computer screening and interviews and such. This has caused me to rework the turnover documents ton an even more basic way to help the new person along.
Life started to change noticeably for me about mid to late July. The Diocese has a retreat for seminarians. A retreat is just a term for getting away from the day to day stuff to hopefully grow spiritually. I was truly somewhat disappointed by this retreat. It felt more like a seminarian conference than a retreat. A lot of very useful information was distributed, and there was great socialization with the other seminarians, but the talks and prayer time seemed almost just fit in, rather than the point of the retreat. I guess that maybe the other seminarians got more out of it and may have a different take, but this was my take on it. I had felt kind of odd going to this anyways. There were others in the same situation, but I felt odd because I hadn't yet started seminary. As I saw it, my primary focus should have been working to pay off my truck and preparing to go to seminary, probably not taking off of work for this, but I guess that is why I don't make those decisions, the Vocation Director does.
The weekend after the seminarian retreat was even more special. Newman Parish in Stevens Point, my home parish, was going to offer a blessing for me going away. On the way up there, I decided to see if I could take a couple of things to Mundelein Seminary to make it easier to fit my stuff when I finally moved. I got into my room and moved a bit of stuff in. I then drove on the Stevens Point where I finished emptying out my storage unit and took the lock off of the door.
The blessing used at the Masses on Saturday and Sunday was the same blessing that Fr. Tom's parish used when he left for seminary 20 years before... I thought this was pretty cool. My mom and stepfather and brother and sister-in-law came over for the Masses that weekend. After the Saturday evening we went to a wonderful couple from the parish's home for a little reception. Several good friends and some family were there, it was a very nice get together and celebration. On Sunday my aunt and uncle came to the Mass. They tried to surprise me, but I had grown suspicious since my mom had said that she wasn't going to go to their place despite being so close. It was great to see them, it had been a while. After that we went out to lunch and had a great time before all driving on our separate ways.
I had the Monday off, so on Sunday after lunch I headed over to my mom's house to spend the night. Monday I got together with one of my great friends who is also doing something special in her life, so it will be difficult to see her for a while. I then headed down for a stretch of work... my last long stretch.
This is probably too long, I'll write more later.
Peace,
Adam
Adam
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Getting Ready 2
Although by this point my work knew that I was leaving to go to seminary I wasn’t quite ready for it to get around for everyone to know… at least not until I had told a few more people in person. During the application process I had told most of the family that I am close to and I had told most of my friends that I am close to in Wisconsin and that area. The groups of people that I really wanted to tell in person before it got out to everyone was my friends and coworkers from my time in Kentucky and Tennessee.
I had a four or five day weekend due to working weekends on either end of a stretch and normal days off, so I decided that I would head to Kentucky first. I was going to leave after work one day, but I got everything wrapped up that I needed before the time off and asked my boss if he would mind signing a leave slip. He signed it and I hit the road. I drove and got to Kentucky in time to go to the Wednesday night Mass at St. Mildred’s, the parish I had attended while living there. I had always enjoyed going to the Wednesday night Mass there, it was a great way to break up the monotony of the week and bring my life back to being centered on Christ through the Holy sacrifice of the Mass.
At the end of Mass Fr. Mike made some mention to everyone that I was going to seminary… he had heard it from the two people that I had let know there, one is a seminarian for the Lexington Diocese whom I had been friends with while there, the other is the pastoral associate whom I had asked to write a letter of recommendation for my application process. After Mass I had a brief talk about the priesthood with Fr. Mike, it was very nice and as always good to hear another priest’s perspective on the life.
I drove to a nearby town where my friend the seminarian was working at a parish for his summer assignment. Him, and the priest at that parish had offered me a room in the rectory there for the two nights I’d be in the area. It was nice to meet this priest and to catch up with my friend. The next morning, after Mass at that parish I drove back to Somerset to see and talk to my former coworkers. I had let them know that I was coming, so many were able to make time to go out to lunch while I was there. It was great to catch up with them and give them the news that I was going to seminary. As is pretty common when I tell people, they didn’t necessarily understand the “why” of it, but were very supportive and happy because they do see it as a good thing when someone dedicates their life to God.
That evening I went to have supper with another former coworker and his wife. It was great. This couple is Baptist and him and I had talked about faith extensively when we were working together. There were the deep conversations on theology, as well as the friendly joking of each one putting forth that their denomination is better. We fell right back into our joking, and it was great. As I was leaving their place he promised to pray for me, I said “thanks, even though those Baptist prayers only count for about half credit.” We both had a good laugh over that one.
The next morning I headed down to Tennessee to see my friends there. Only a couple of them knew that I was coming. There was a get together scheduled for my good group of friends, so I thought that I’d just stop in and surprise them. It was great to see them and spend time with them. I was also happy to see their support when I told them that I was going to seminary. It was a great night of just hanging out with friends and celebrating my acceptance to seminary.
After that quick trip I was ready for it to be “public” for everyone who cared to know that I was going to seminary to study to be a priest. In this modern time the best way that I knew to get it out there for everyone to know was to post a note about it on my Facebook account. I got an amazing amount of support from all of my friends on that. As with others that I had told in the past, most of them that said something in private made a comment along the lines of, “I’m surprised, but really when I think about it I’m not.”
It was in private messages on the Facebook that I had people asking me to blog about my experience of the seminary, so that is what this is. I decided that if I was going to do that, it should be the whole experience, the discernment process, the application process, and the preparation for seminary before I even get there. I am hoping to post at least once a week while I’m at Mundelein, but my first priority will be the formation and academics there, so I apologize if it is a bit longer on occasion.
Peace,
Adam
I had a four or five day weekend due to working weekends on either end of a stretch and normal days off, so I decided that I would head to Kentucky first. I was going to leave after work one day, but I got everything wrapped up that I needed before the time off and asked my boss if he would mind signing a leave slip. He signed it and I hit the road. I drove and got to Kentucky in time to go to the Wednesday night Mass at St. Mildred’s, the parish I had attended while living there. I had always enjoyed going to the Wednesday night Mass there, it was a great way to break up the monotony of the week and bring my life back to being centered on Christ through the Holy sacrifice of the Mass.
At the end of Mass Fr. Mike made some mention to everyone that I was going to seminary… he had heard it from the two people that I had let know there, one is a seminarian for the Lexington Diocese whom I had been friends with while there, the other is the pastoral associate whom I had asked to write a letter of recommendation for my application process. After Mass I had a brief talk about the priesthood with Fr. Mike, it was very nice and as always good to hear another priest’s perspective on the life.
I drove to a nearby town where my friend the seminarian was working at a parish for his summer assignment. Him, and the priest at that parish had offered me a room in the rectory there for the two nights I’d be in the area. It was nice to meet this priest and to catch up with my friend. The next morning, after Mass at that parish I drove back to Somerset to see and talk to my former coworkers. I had let them know that I was coming, so many were able to make time to go out to lunch while I was there. It was great to catch up with them and give them the news that I was going to seminary. As is pretty common when I tell people, they didn’t necessarily understand the “why” of it, but were very supportive and happy because they do see it as a good thing when someone dedicates their life to God.
That evening I went to have supper with another former coworker and his wife. It was great. This couple is Baptist and him and I had talked about faith extensively when we were working together. There were the deep conversations on theology, as well as the friendly joking of each one putting forth that their denomination is better. We fell right back into our joking, and it was great. As I was leaving their place he promised to pray for me, I said “thanks, even though those Baptist prayers only count for about half credit.” We both had a good laugh over that one.
The next morning I headed down to Tennessee to see my friends there. Only a couple of them knew that I was coming. There was a get together scheduled for my good group of friends, so I thought that I’d just stop in and surprise them. It was great to see them and spend time with them. I was also happy to see their support when I told them that I was going to seminary. It was a great night of just hanging out with friends and celebrating my acceptance to seminary.
After that quick trip I was ready for it to be “public” for everyone who cared to know that I was going to seminary to study to be a priest. In this modern time the best way that I knew to get it out there for everyone to know was to post a note about it on my Facebook account. I got an amazing amount of support from all of my friends on that. As with others that I had told in the past, most of them that said something in private made a comment along the lines of, “I’m surprised, but really when I think about it I’m not.”
It was in private messages on the Facebook that I had people asking me to blog about my experience of the seminary, so that is what this is. I decided that if I was going to do that, it should be the whole experience, the discernment process, the application process, and the preparation for seminary before I even get there. I am hoping to post at least once a week while I’m at Mundelein, but my first priority will be the formation and academics there, so I apologize if it is a bit longer on occasion.
Peace,
Adam
Friday, August 13, 2010
Getting Ready 1
So my review boards at Mundelein Seminary had been on Friday June 4th, 2010. Starting on Monday the 7th I waited anxiously for a phone call from the rector at Mundelein Seminary to let me know if I had been accepted or not. Although I was told by numerous people that these boards indeed are mostly formality, I wasn’t counting my chickens before they hatched. As I think I said in my last post the seminary normally lets a guy know through mail if he has been accepted. I had asked to have them call me so that I could give my work as much notice as possible if I was indeed going to leave.
I wanted to give my work as much notice as possible, in the hope that I could help train in my replacement. My job isn’t particularly difficult, but there are a lot of items to juggle and keep straight of what is going on. There are also a lot of issues that seem similar, but need to be handled differently. The last reason that I felt it would be beneficial for me to help train my replacement is the idea that on the Mississippi River there are only two people doing this job specifically north of St. Louis, and the two shops aren’t even run the same… so it would be nice to get a little time turning stuff over to my replacement.
On Monday the 7th I was in and out of my work truck alone all day and waiting on a call from Mundelein… it never came. On Tuesday the 8th I was still in and out of my truck, but my boss was going to join me mid-day. I hoped that the call could come in before he got in the vehicle so that I could answer it and actually talk to Fr. Lyle. It didn’t come, and then I met up with my boss and we started driving to the next site we were going to look at. About 15 minutes after he got in my phone started ringing. I looked at it, and it was the area code that I knew to be the seminary. I couldn’t answer that call since my boss was sitting right next to me, that wouldn’t be a very professional way for him to find out I was leaving, so I had to just let the phone ring.
At our next stop I got out of the truck for a bit, and we got started on our inspection. I made some excuse to go back to the truck and I listened to the message and got the wonderful news that I had been accepted. I was almost walking on air the rest of the day, but I had to keep it under control so that I could tell my boss in a more professional manner.
We headed back to the office on Wednesday the 9th. I had decided that I shouldn’t tell my boss in the vehicle while driving, that didn’t seem very professional to me. We were set to get back to the office in time that I could ask him to take some time to meet with me yet on Wednesday afternoon… but as we drove on my boss received a call that some personal issues had come up at home, so he had to leave right away when we got back… another stumbling block in the process of telling him that I was leaving.
A week or two before this, I had typed up a letter of resignation, and saved it on my computer at work. I took a little bit of the free time to make sure that the letter said what I wanted and that I had updated the dates in it.
On Thursday morning, I requested that my boss take a few minutes to meet with me in the library at our office. When he finally got in I said to him, “I want to thank you for the opportunity to work here, and to say that I do truly enjoy coming to work, the people I work with, and the work that I do. However, I wanted to let you know that I will be quitting in August to begin seminary studies at the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary for eventual Ordination to the Priesthood.” He was obviously surprised as I started the statement, and surprised the whole way through it. I then handed him the letter and asked him to read it, and if he had any questions or issues with it.
In the letter I had written that I did have a vacation approved from August 11-17 to go to Montana to see my dad and his wife. Although I was only planning on quitting with three working days after that on the 20th I stated that I hoped I could keep my vacation and he assured me that I could. I also stated that I hoped he knew that I would intend to keep working at the high level he had come to expect and he made a statement along the lines of, “I wouldn’t have ever doubted that.”
The conversation pretty much wrapped up with him asking how I wanted to let the others know. I guess we decided that we’d leave it to him to tell the other supervisors, but that I could tell everyone else.
Most of my really close friends had known that I was applying for seminary, as had most of my family. But there was a few people that I wanted to tell in person still…
I’ll write more about this later
Peace,
Adam
I wanted to give my work as much notice as possible, in the hope that I could help train in my replacement. My job isn’t particularly difficult, but there are a lot of items to juggle and keep straight of what is going on. There are also a lot of issues that seem similar, but need to be handled differently. The last reason that I felt it would be beneficial for me to help train my replacement is the idea that on the Mississippi River there are only two people doing this job specifically north of St. Louis, and the two shops aren’t even run the same… so it would be nice to get a little time turning stuff over to my replacement.
On Monday the 7th I was in and out of my work truck alone all day and waiting on a call from Mundelein… it never came. On Tuesday the 8th I was still in and out of my truck, but my boss was going to join me mid-day. I hoped that the call could come in before he got in the vehicle so that I could answer it and actually talk to Fr. Lyle. It didn’t come, and then I met up with my boss and we started driving to the next site we were going to look at. About 15 minutes after he got in my phone started ringing. I looked at it, and it was the area code that I knew to be the seminary. I couldn’t answer that call since my boss was sitting right next to me, that wouldn’t be a very professional way for him to find out I was leaving, so I had to just let the phone ring.
At our next stop I got out of the truck for a bit, and we got started on our inspection. I made some excuse to go back to the truck and I listened to the message and got the wonderful news that I had been accepted. I was almost walking on air the rest of the day, but I had to keep it under control so that I could tell my boss in a more professional manner.
We headed back to the office on Wednesday the 9th. I had decided that I shouldn’t tell my boss in the vehicle while driving, that didn’t seem very professional to me. We were set to get back to the office in time that I could ask him to take some time to meet with me yet on Wednesday afternoon… but as we drove on my boss received a call that some personal issues had come up at home, so he had to leave right away when we got back… another stumbling block in the process of telling him that I was leaving.
A week or two before this, I had typed up a letter of resignation, and saved it on my computer at work. I took a little bit of the free time to make sure that the letter said what I wanted and that I had updated the dates in it.
On Thursday morning, I requested that my boss take a few minutes to meet with me in the library at our office. When he finally got in I said to him, “I want to thank you for the opportunity to work here, and to say that I do truly enjoy coming to work, the people I work with, and the work that I do. However, I wanted to let you know that I will be quitting in August to begin seminary studies at the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary for eventual Ordination to the Priesthood.” He was obviously surprised as I started the statement, and surprised the whole way through it. I then handed him the letter and asked him to read it, and if he had any questions or issues with it.
In the letter I had written that I did have a vacation approved from August 11-17 to go to Montana to see my dad and his wife. Although I was only planning on quitting with three working days after that on the 20th I stated that I hoped I could keep my vacation and he assured me that I could. I also stated that I hoped he knew that I would intend to keep working at the high level he had come to expect and he made a statement along the lines of, “I wouldn’t have ever doubted that.”
The conversation pretty much wrapped up with him asking how I wanted to let the others know. I guess we decided that we’d leave it to him to tell the other supervisors, but that I could tell everyone else.
Most of my really close friends had known that I was applying for seminary, as had most of my family. But there was a few people that I wanted to tell in person still…
I’ll write more about this later
Peace,
Adam
Monday, August 9, 2010
Application process 6
After my meetings with the diocesan review board and the Diocesan Administrator I was on to the actual seminaries application process.
The process of applying for the seminary was similar to applying for the Diocese. I had several standard paperwork forms, some of which I was able to just take the same answers I had given to the Diocese. Other questions required a slight reworking of what I had written since the questions were only slightly different. I don't remember many if any questions that were totally different.
The biggest difference was in the set up of the review boards. At the seminary there were three separate boards with two people each on them.
The first of these boards that I had was with the Rector of the seminary and the Dean of Formation. This one asked most of the standard questions that one would expect. Questions about why I felt I should come to the seminary and basic get-to-know-ya questions. They did say that they were the only ones there who had or would review the psychological evaluation, and asked a bit about my impression of what I remembered from that. The Rector of a seminary is basically like a president or chancellor of a normal college, of course with a little difference. So this board was mostly to see if they felt that my coming there would in any way be detrimental to the seminary (I guess they didn't).
The next board that I had was the academic board. This included the Dean of Academics and a member of the academic faculty... I forget what he teaches. In this one they were looking to see if they felt I could handle the academics involved in the seminary. They asked about my past coursework and how I had been challenged in it. I was asked about my study habits (and for some reason they are still letting me in). This was pretty straight forward, but also odd in the fact that I had never been asked some of their questions, so hadn't known much of what was coming.
The last review board that I had at the seminary was the formation board. This included the Vice Dean of Formation and another member of the formation faculty. While seminary obviously forms a man academically in the knowledge he will need for priesthood, this is so much more. Formation includes a man's prayer life, his life of service, and just how he lives as a good Christian. So in this board I was asked about my prayer life, what I had and where I felt I could improve. I was asked about my experiences in service to Christ, His Church, and His people. I was also asked about other aspects in my life so they could get a feel for where I was at in life.
I left feeling pretty good about my review boards. While their normal way of letting a man know if he has been accepted or not is by a letter a week or two later I asked for a phone call, since if I was accepted I wanted to give my work as much notice as possible.
That is enough for tonight. I will write more soon.
Peace,
Adam
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Application Process 5
After the review board at the Diocese is normally a meeting with the Bishop, so he can get to know you and you can get to know him. The problem in my application process with this is that the Diocese of La Crosse currently doesn't have a Bishop. Our most recent Bishop was transferred to become the Archbishop of Milwaukee.
So, in place of the Bishop I had a meeting with Msgr. Gilles (I'm not sure if I spelt his name right), the Diocesan Administrator. His job at this point is to run the Diocese until the appointment of a Bishop, he can't administer the sacraments reserved for a Bishop, but he does the typical administration duties.
Msgr. Gilles had also read all the documents which I had submitted and the letters of recommendation. As in the board review he asked a little about me and then asked questions that had stuck out to him from what I had written.
The one thing that he asked about that really sticks out in my mind was my answer to a question on one form about what I hope to see in the Church. I didn't even remember responding to that question but my response had been something about hoping to see a better understanding among the faithful and the clergy of what makes a valid Mass. To be valid in this case means within the understanding of the Church to allow for the sacramentality of the Eucharist. Msgr. Gilles asked me to explain what I meant.
What I meant by that answer is a hope to stop the petty bickering among Catholics as to who is celebrating better and to remove false perceptions that someone else is somehow worshiping "wrong". There are certain parts and ways of doing things in the Church that are required but there is also a lot of leeway in getting to that.
Some people are very traditional in their practices, while others are more progressive (many people use the words conservative and liberal respectively but those are too political for me in this). I have been in parishes who are very traditional and I overhear people (even the priest) mentioning something that a more progressive parish is doing and saying that it is a terrible thing and even saying that it is wrong when it isn't at all wrong, just different. I have heard people in progressive parishes saying the same things about the more traditional parishes. This pains me because it causes divisions in the Church that God gave us.
I am not saying that Catholics can do whatever they want in Mass, but a better understanding and acceptance should be brought about for those areas where there are legitimate differences.
The meeting with Msgr Gilles was great and I wish I had more time to spend talking to him. But he had another applicant scheduled so it had to end.
A couple of days later I heard from Fr. Hirsch that I was accepted by the Diocese, so it was on to the actual seminary's application process.
Peace,
Adam
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Application Process 4
Okay then, I found out that despite hitting the triggers for trying to make a good impression (I wasn’t really doing that, I was being honest) that I was still going to be able to go on through the application process. I had a couple of friends who knew that I was applying for this and had been at the psychological testing. When they asked how it went my response was “I guess I’m crazy enough to be a priest, they say I passed.”
The next step was a little ways away, so I simply kept up on my prayer life, kept working at figuring out how to pay down/pay off my truck, and was enjoying my job and still going through life.
With my personality I normally get excited about any of the major life decisions that I have had (i.e. going to college, joining the air force, buying a house, which job I take, etc…) but a week or two after I make the decision I start to doubt myself, and doubt what I am doing. That doesn’t mean that those decisions were wrong, just that I have a personality that often second guesses myself in major decisions. I was, and still am amazed, that this wasn’t going on. I was truly feeling an incredible amount of peace with the decision to leave my job and enter seminary.
One thing that I was feeling bad about was the fact that I hadn’t yet told my boss that this was going on. I felt deceitful every time that the topic of doing something different next year came up. But I didn’t want to tell him until I knew for sure that I was accepted. I wasn’t going to be one of those people who waits until only two weeks out, but I wanted to know for sure rather than to shoot myself in the foot.
The next step in the process of application was what is called a review board at the Diocese. For most people I would compare it to a panel interview for a job, but it isn’t like there is a limited number of slots. It will be a thumbs up/thumbs down thing on whether or not the Diocese feels that it would be worth it to support me through the seminary process and if I would be a good priest for them later on.
Being me, I of course arrived way too early for the review board. So I sat around chatting with a couple of the people in the office there, while someone else was in on their board.
Finally going into the review board I wasn’t nervous at all. Whatever was going to happen is what was going to happen. On the board was Fr. Hirsch, the assistant vocation director, a religious sister, a lay doctor, a lay woman, and I think there was one other lay man, but I don’t remember for sure.
All the members of the review board had read the materials I submitted and my recommendation letters. I believe that they had read the psychological report, but I don’t know that for sure, the only thing that was asked was if I agreed with what the psychologist had told me the day of my testing. I told them that aside from the idea that I might have been misleading it for making a good impression I agreed with what he had said.
The doctor on the board of course asked about my cancer, what treatments I had been through, and where it was at. I don’t know if this sort of stuff would be normal in a regular interview for most positions, as I’ve never been asked it, but I fully understand and agree that it is necessary for something like this. The priesthood is a life, not a job, so they have to know that it won’t be detrimental to your health to live that life. Also, the diocese incurs an amazing amount of cost to support a man through seminary studies to Ordination, costs paid for from the donations of hard working people, they want to know that it will be worth it to do this. The doctor agreed with what my doctor had said, the type of cancer I had rarely has long term effects on a person.
Probably the only other significant question that was outside of routine was based on a comment in one of the letters of recommendation. One of my friends had written about concerns that I might be “too giving” of myself and not necessarily take care of myself because I was giving so much to others. Although the members of the board didn’t mention his name, I knew who this was because my friend had expressed that concern to me previously. I understand his point, but I think it is tough for a priest to be too giving, if people need help you are supposed to help them. It is true that if the priest is falling apart they aren’t much good to anybody. I think that I have always managed that aspect of myself very well. I can sense when I need to get away for “Adam time”.
In addition to my personal sense of taking care of myself the Church has a lot of that built in. A priest is required by Canon Law to take at least a week of retreat a year. Most Diocese have rules that a priest is entitles to 3 additional weeks of vacation a year if they choose to take it. In addition to time “off” an even bigger way to take care of yourself is of course through prayer. All the priests of the Church are required to pray daily the Divine Office, also known as the Liturgy of the Hours, or the Holy Breviary. This is a series of prayers that are set up to occur at certain times of the day to keep your life focused on Christ. It is based heavily on the Psalms and various other scripture readings. It is set up for six different times of the day. Often priest have to condense down the frequency by praying more than one “hour” at a time (each takes normally 10-15 minutes but would be held at the various hour). There is so many other prayer opportunities that a priest can and should take, especially daily Mass that it builds in time to strengthen yourself.
Wow, this got long. In my next post I will write about my interview with the Diocesan Administrator for the Diocese of La Crosse.
Peace,
Adam
The next step was a little ways away, so I simply kept up on my prayer life, kept working at figuring out how to pay down/pay off my truck, and was enjoying my job and still going through life.
With my personality I normally get excited about any of the major life decisions that I have had (i.e. going to college, joining the air force, buying a house, which job I take, etc…) but a week or two after I make the decision I start to doubt myself, and doubt what I am doing. That doesn’t mean that those decisions were wrong, just that I have a personality that often second guesses myself in major decisions. I was, and still am amazed, that this wasn’t going on. I was truly feeling an incredible amount of peace with the decision to leave my job and enter seminary.
One thing that I was feeling bad about was the fact that I hadn’t yet told my boss that this was going on. I felt deceitful every time that the topic of doing something different next year came up. But I didn’t want to tell him until I knew for sure that I was accepted. I wasn’t going to be one of those people who waits until only two weeks out, but I wanted to know for sure rather than to shoot myself in the foot.
The next step in the process of application was what is called a review board at the Diocese. For most people I would compare it to a panel interview for a job, but it isn’t like there is a limited number of slots. It will be a thumbs up/thumbs down thing on whether or not the Diocese feels that it would be worth it to support me through the seminary process and if I would be a good priest for them later on.
Being me, I of course arrived way too early for the review board. So I sat around chatting with a couple of the people in the office there, while someone else was in on their board.
Finally going into the review board I wasn’t nervous at all. Whatever was going to happen is what was going to happen. On the board was Fr. Hirsch, the assistant vocation director, a religious sister, a lay doctor, a lay woman, and I think there was one other lay man, but I don’t remember for sure.
All the members of the review board had read the materials I submitted and my recommendation letters. I believe that they had read the psychological report, but I don’t know that for sure, the only thing that was asked was if I agreed with what the psychologist had told me the day of my testing. I told them that aside from the idea that I might have been misleading it for making a good impression I agreed with what he had said.
The doctor on the board of course asked about my cancer, what treatments I had been through, and where it was at. I don’t know if this sort of stuff would be normal in a regular interview for most positions, as I’ve never been asked it, but I fully understand and agree that it is necessary for something like this. The priesthood is a life, not a job, so they have to know that it won’t be detrimental to your health to live that life. Also, the diocese incurs an amazing amount of cost to support a man through seminary studies to Ordination, costs paid for from the donations of hard working people, they want to know that it will be worth it to do this. The doctor agreed with what my doctor had said, the type of cancer I had rarely has long term effects on a person.
Probably the only other significant question that was outside of routine was based on a comment in one of the letters of recommendation. One of my friends had written about concerns that I might be “too giving” of myself and not necessarily take care of myself because I was giving so much to others. Although the members of the board didn’t mention his name, I knew who this was because my friend had expressed that concern to me previously. I understand his point, but I think it is tough for a priest to be too giving, if people need help you are supposed to help them. It is true that if the priest is falling apart they aren’t much good to anybody. I think that I have always managed that aspect of myself very well. I can sense when I need to get away for “Adam time”.
In addition to my personal sense of taking care of myself the Church has a lot of that built in. A priest is required by Canon Law to take at least a week of retreat a year. Most Diocese have rules that a priest is entitles to 3 additional weeks of vacation a year if they choose to take it. In addition to time “off” an even bigger way to take care of yourself is of course through prayer. All the priests of the Church are required to pray daily the Divine Office, also known as the Liturgy of the Hours, or the Holy Breviary. This is a series of prayers that are set up to occur at certain times of the day to keep your life focused on Christ. It is based heavily on the Psalms and various other scripture readings. It is set up for six different times of the day. Often priest have to condense down the frequency by praying more than one “hour” at a time (each takes normally 10-15 minutes but would be held at the various hour). There is so many other prayer opportunities that a priest can and should take, especially daily Mass that it builds in time to strengthen yourself.
Wow, this got long. In my next post I will write about my interview with the Diocesan Administrator for the Diocese of La Crosse.
Peace,
Adam
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