Life at the Seminary

Dear friends,

it’s more or less a public secret that I had plans to go to Canada this coming academic year. I say, public secret, because I answered the ones that asked me about it truthfully, but I since things weren’t certain for a long time, I tried not to volunteer too much information to too many people.

In this post I’d like to give everyone a little background on my decision. In 2002-2003, while I was still a student of Communication Science, I spent half a year in Winnipeg, working on a Christian Communication Institute. I had a wonderful time there. Ever since those months there, I have wondered whether or not I should return. Before I began at the seminary in Den Bosch, in 2006, I had had several intense conversations with the vocations director for the Archdiocese of Winnipeg.

As the step of telling my mother of my desire to become a priest was already great enough, without the added burden of me going abroad, and because I was still very much investigating my own vocation, I decided to begin in the Netherlands, in what I judged to be the most sound and promising diocese of the country. I openly discussed this with my bishop, Mgr. Hurkmans, before I began my first year at my current seminary. He encouraged me to investigate my vocation in the first years of my stay there.

This I have tried to do to the best of my limited abilities. Those that have been following this blog for a while, know that I spent two months in Winnipeg and Camperville last summer as an intern. The past year, I have been working with my spiritual director to come to a decision. To be frank, the only thing I know is that if I do not go to Canada now, I might really regret it later on. I think God might have sent me there all those years ago for a reason. Now that I am still relatively young and have finished my philosophy degree, I feel the time is right to make this step.

I feel humbled by the fact that the Archdiocese of Winnipeg has agreed to sponsor my study of theology at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Edmonton, Alberta. There I will have the pleasure of studying at Newman Theological College. All the while, I will continue my discernment over there. I can pray all I like while I’m here in the Netherlands, but I will probably never come to a decision if I have never seriously spent time in Canada.

This is a big step — well, obviously! — for me. I am leaving everything behind, most notably the people that I love. These include my family members, my brother seminarians, the priests in our diocese that I have gotten to know so well, my teachers, my friends, the brothers and sisters of St. John, fellow harpists and my students. I will miss all of you so very much. At the same time, I can only feel joy as I look ahead, because of the great challenge that awaits me: to try and give myself completely to the Lord. I ask you urgently to continue to pray for me  the coming year. Chances are, you will be in my prayers, too!

I have all but cleaned out my rooms at the seminary, and August 18 I am flying to Winnipeg, before beginning the new academic year on August 26. My blog will of course continue: I will continue to speak of my life at the seminary. May God bless you each and everyone!