New Seminary
As many of you know, I am now at a ‘new’ seminary. That is to say, I am in Edmonton in Canada and this is all quite new to me. What some of you might not know is that we are in transition. The seminary here was too small. In total, we’re 30 seminarians living here in Edmonton with another 10 on internship this year. Due to the construction of a ringway around Edmonton, the diocese was forced to sell the seminary and college (which now have been demolished) and build a new one. This year, we are only at a ‘temporary’ location. While everyone really got settled in their new digs, and we couldn’t ask for a better place, most guys that have been here longer to me are really looking forward to the new seminary that is being built as we speak.
I can’t help but say that I am getting more excited. For one, we had a lovely Gala Dinner, now over a week ago. With all respect for the Church in my native country (The Netherlands), I don’t think we would have been able to pull off what this diocese here pulled off pretty much on its own: a fundraiser for our new seminary. As seminarians, we were granted the opportunity to spend a wonderful evening with 900 supporters of the seminary, who raised over 7 million dollars in one evening for this new seminary. I would like to invite all of you to pray for this new project, as we will need over 8 million more dollars over the next five years.
The good news is, they are already building our new seminary. Yesterday, news reached us of how they are working on our new chapel already. This will be one of the greenest buildings in all of Edmonton, and with state of the art technology they have been continuously pouring the concrete walls of our new seminary. The amount of work, money and PRAYER that goes into this project is amazing. And as a seminarian (and future inhabitant of this new building) it is an exhilirating time!
For those that are interested in the end result, there is a picture on the St. Joseph Seminary page that changes into sketches of several parts of our new building. Check it out!
This is a video you should watch and seriously consider.
Hey everyone. I received this reply to my post from Marc Country. Thanks Marc, for tipping me off about this video on YouTube. I encourage all of you to take a good look at it (if you can stand the person talking for 9 minutes straight). You can read the text below or watch a lil response I made on YouTube (sorry for the bad sound, guys!)
All I can really say is that it hurts my heart to hear him speak like that. There is obviously so much hurt in his soul. He speaks about the clergy as people who seek to control and dominate human life, only promising things in the future and turning people away from their lives here on earth.
Every one of us here at the seminary has a deep desire to follow God. The life of a priest is not an easy one. It’s not fun. It is nothing I would ever enter into because I wanted to or would enjoy it. That’s not to say that it is not a very rewarding life, but only because we have, through a lengthy discernment process of many, many years accepted a call we experience as coming from God.
Being a priest means giving your life away. When you are in seminary with no income of your own, you have already given up so much. Privacy, a girlfriend, future children, earthly wealth… you know you will never own your own place. It is in a very real way a giving of yourself in love. This is the motivation that is at the heart of every priestly vocation.
If you listen to the man in the video, you will realize he is wrong just about on every point. If you only dare to believe, you will see that there is a great happiness in our Christian lives. Our Christian lives are very much part of the here and now, and very joyful precisely because of that. The salvation and God’s Kingdom are not only in the future, but it has also already begun, if we accept it. It’s a joyful life that I am so happy with.
A last comment on obedience. Why is obedience so important in the Church? Well, obedience really is the only way that we can ‘train’ ourselves in hope. If we only put our trust in our own abilities and in what we know, we live a very isolated life. But every time we accept someone else’s idea over our own, we give a little of ourself away in what we call obedience. If God really founded the Church – and we believe that He has – then He will grant her the grace that she needs to help all of us become better human beings. Not to get into heaven, or for something vague in the future. No, God has already saved us, right here and now the moment we accept it. As of that moment, however, we seek to become better people as a response to what we have been given – a joy in our heart and a desire to help God save the world. We cannot do it ourselves. He doesn’t even need our help. Yet He rejoices.
As a priest, we give up everything. Does this mean we succeed? No, not everyone and no, not every time. Does this mean we are perfect? Far from it. But the least we can do is recognize that priests have an honest desire in our heart to follow Christ out of love for him and true love for our neighbour. This is how I experience it, and I am sure all my brother seminarians and priests can say Amen, Amen, to that!