Today’s Seminarians: Following the Right Path to the Priesthood
With the consistent increase
of men entering the seminary, we find that today’s seminarians are following
the right path of the priesthood.
These
are now men in many cases that have advanced degrees and established sound careers
who give all that up in a calling to their vocation to the priesthood.
They are the constant success story of young
men who faithfully follow the right path of studies, prayer and formation, to
become good and holy priests.
These men
have a long journey on this path as the process can take six to eight years
before they are ordained.
Yet, they know this is the right path.
During their studies and
their formation, is also consent discernment. In this process, these men seek to listen to God.
Seminarian Bret Meltzler stated, “It takes
some discipline to sit down and listen to God, event if it starts 5 minutes a
day. God can work with that.”
Thus,
today’s seminarians believe that God is working with them on their path. They seek God in much of what they do.
These men of God will be formed in the
intellectual and doctrinal tradition of the Catholic Church, and they will be
men of great prayer who embrace the service to the Church and their community
as new priests.
It was in The Tidings that
Archbishop Jose H. Gomez reflected on the priesthood as follows, “The
priesthood is a gift and a mystery in God’s plan for the salvation of the
world.
Every priest receives a special
calling from God. This calling is an invitation
to a great adventure of self-surrender and service to God’s plan.”
On reflecting on his words, today’s
seminarians hear this holy call and bravely enter their journey on the holy
path to the priesthood and all that is expected of them.
In an age of self-promotion through the
Social Networks, Blogs, Tweets, etc., they find for themselves a better and
more self-fulling path of self-surrender to God’s plan.
Today’s seminarians will find
that it is not always an easy path towards the priesthood, but it is a
sacramental path that will bring so much to their lives and the lives of others.
Newly ordained Fr. John Adrian Palmer states
on becoming a priest, “As a priest, I hope to share in Jesus’s mission by
helping people to know and experience God’s merciful love so that they, in
turn, can help others to know and experience His love, and ‘so that they may
all be one’ (John 17:21) with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
In the years to come, may
many other good men find this holy path to the priesthood and shine the bright
light of Christ so needed in today’s world!
For further reference see www.lavocations.org or www.Facebook.com/la.vocations.
