It's only a few minutes before 3 a.m. and I still can't fall asleep. I don't know if it's excitement or nervousness or a combination of both. After three months of summer holidays, school starts again today. It's Monday, August 26, significantly for me the birthday of a woman who has been a great blessing to me, Patricia Dooley. May God forever bless her. May all her wishes come true today. Amen. I'm not sure if I'll get to fall asleep again this morning. By the looks of things, when I finish writing and editing this blog post it may well be after 4 a.m. And two hours after that, my day is pretty much set to start. I'll get up, say a brief personal prayer, and get to the showers. I'll wash, brush and clean myself up. This may take about thirty minutes. By six thirty, I'll get to the sacristy and set up for daily mass. I'm sacristan this week. I'm also altar server, which means I get to wear my cassock and surplice and serve at the altar with the priest. I think it's Father Brian saying mass this morning. The mass starts at seven, and so all the setting up should take no more than thirty minutes. Other seminarians help out at mass by being cantor, reader, acolyte and congregation. The mass itself is combined with liturgy for morning hours, and so lasts a little less than an hour. By 8 a.m. seminarians are expected to get to breakfast.
Weekday breakfast consists of the usual: bread, cereal, beverages and fruit. There's butter, jam and cream of course; but it's Saturday's breakfast that's the big deal: in addition to the cereal, bread, fruit and beverages characteristic of weekday breakfast, there's also scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages and pancakes with syrup - yum! It's actually something to look forward to, Saturday morning hot breakfast. But we're still talking about the weekday schedule. So, after breakfast, seminarians retire to their chambers to prepare for classes. Typically we go to Catholic University or Dominican House of Studies for classes. Today for example, as a student at Catholic U, I'm scheduled to be in class by 11:10 for Metaphysics; 12:40 for Spanish, and 2:10 for Synoptic Gospels. These are all going to be new subjects for me, and expectedly I'm nervous. I sincerely hope I do well. My last class ends at 3:25 p.m. At that time, I'll begin to return home. I might reach the seminary at say, 4 p.m. especially if I walk - it takes about 30 or so minutes to walk from Catholic U to the seminary where I live. Other means of transport are bus and any of the cars available to us students here at the house.
On reaching the seminary at about 4, I'll have an hour to rest and prepare for evening prayer, which takes place in the seminary chapel at 5 p.m. prompt. It's in the same chapel that the morning mass I described earlier takes place. It's a beautiful chapel, with good light and sound systems. There are window and ceiling artworks, and etchings in Latin and Greek on the galleries. The sacristy is adjacent to the chapel itself. In the sacristy there are many objects used in liturgical worship. The evening prayer that starts at 5 is said from the liturgy of the hours, also called the breviary. It is a seasonal book with tons of psalms and other prayers said by the entire church. It is through these chants that the church officially prays. The system for praying the liturgy of the hours developed over the years consists of dramatic participation by individuals praying the offices collecting themselves into two groups; one group reads a stanza of a given psalm and the other reads the next, and then back to the previous group and so forth. The participatory aspect of praying the psalters makes it interesting and collective.
In addition to the official prayers contained in the liturgy of the hours as given by the church - notice I called these prayers by different names: liturgy of the hours, breviary, psalter, divine office, and so on. It sure is a popular collection of prayers among Catholic clergy and seminarians - we here say our particular community prayers. In them we pray for our benefactors, parishioners, deceased members and friends. We rededicate ourselves through these additional prayers to our mission and our goal of bringing Christ to the people we serve; the congregations and people that God has entrusted to us. We face perilous times, and the faith of many Catholics is being tested. We are the ministers charged with the mandate of bringing these suffering souls to Christ. We need prayers for the strength and the courage to discharge our duty and responsibility to the Christian population. These prayers also reflect the mind of our society's leaders, our able superiors general, priests that have led us for the many years we've been around.
Evening prayers end at 5:30. Supper begins immediately then. We leave the chapel and make our way to the refectory, the same large room in which we had breakfast. Supper varies from evening to evening: on some evenings, we might have pork chops, or pork loin; on some other evenings we might have salmon or tilapia; we could also have beef stew, or chicken or ribs or stake; in addition, we could have our choices of sides, such as rice, cole slaw; different types of salads, and a whole bunch of vegetable and other dishes. There's usually also iced tea, lemonade and other drinks provided; ice creams, cakes, custards, cookies, fruit salads and many other lovely desserts are to be had as well. We have about five religious sisters that cook for and take care of us here in the seminary. These amazing women are a rich blessing and a splendid addition to our local religious community. Supper is also a time to sit at table with the other members of our seminary community and talk about most things of concern to us: we talk about religion, the church, the weather, and our personal issues. It is a period of bonding and sharing.
At about 6:30, supper wraps up. We help carry the used dishes to the sink in the adjacent kitchen - the architectural design of this awesome seminary is right on point - and put them away for washing. We also package leftovers for future use; wipe the tables clean, and help set them up for future meals. Setting up for future meals means that we place napkins, tumblers, saucers, and cutlery neatly on the tables for breakfast and lunch the next day. This done, we repair to our rooms to do some study. Homework, assignments, reading - anything we need to do for school, we do it during this period. We may also recreate by watching television or videos - there is a recreation room downstairs we might use - or playing games such as ping-pong, billiards and many other indoor games. Night prayers are said in private, and are contained like other liturgical prayers in the breviary, or divine office. And after night prayers, we retire to bed. The day is then done. It usually is a busy one.
Being in the seminary is a dream come true for me. I am happy and grateful to be here. I do want to be a priest. In a previous blog post I've explained why I want to be a priest. It's something as serious as life itself. I believe I was put in this world to be a priest and if I fail to become one then I would have missed out on the one thing I was created for. This is tantamount to hell for me. You can see then why it's such a serious thing for me. St Paul urges us to "work out our salvation in fear and trembling" (Phil 2:12). Believe me when I say there is fear and trembling in my heart each day I spend in the seminary. I fear and tremble that something might happen to rob me of my being here. Oh God, please let this not happen. I want to be here. I want to keep my position. I want to do my time successfully in the seminary and, when I'm done, I want to be ordained a Catholic priest. Please, pray for me.
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