A Day

People wonder what seminarians do with our time, and I tell them it's rather like being a college student with more discipline and responsibilities. I read a more specific way of answering that question on the blog of a fellow seminarian, Phillip. He gives a rundown of the daily (and weekly) routine that encapsulates life at Mount Angel fairly well. The two of us differ on a few activities (including wakeup and bed times), but this will give you an idea of seminary life from a perspective different than my own. And if you're interested, Phillip keeps a blog called Grace and Caffeine that is worth visiting regularly. Here is the link to his post.

Piano

I began taking piano lessons in November. For many years, it's something I secretly wanted to do but did not know how to pursue. Seminary presented the perfect opportunity: weekly lessons for $15 from an instructor with a PhD in the craft. While still a rookie, for the first time this week I am playing music that sounds like more than beginner pieces. If you promise not to be harsh with your critique, I'll let you in on my practice time:

Gongs

On a Windy Night

Joie de Vivre

Waterfall

I went hiking at nearby Silver Falls State Park last Sunday, and ever since then, I've been pondering how the waterfalls are an analogy for the life of faith. For the purposes of this blog, I had great visions of some deep and creative metaphor having to do with a flood of mercy or something similar. But despite my intentions, nothing came to me. So let's leave it at this: God does beautiful work. Even on an overcast Northwest day in February, the magnificence of natural features astounds and humbles. Thanks to Katie and Erin for good conversation throughout the three-mile-turned-eight-mile hike for the afternoon. I'm glad we could share the trail.

Anyone venturing near Portland or Salem should visit Silver Falls. Here's what you will see:

Ashes

Portraits

I am taking Journalism Practicum this semester, and as part of the course, we are assigned to write three stories on one of the four pillars of priestly formation, which are academic, spiritual, human, and my topic: pastoral. Below is my first story, Portraits in Pastoral Ministry, which is posted on the Mount Angel Seminary Journalism Blog.

His fingers hover over the piano keys, the drumsticks stand poised, the guitar strings held firmly.  Three vocalists inhale deeply, and the music begins.  Fifty, no seventy teenagers sing.  The Eucharist is processed to the monstrance flanked by the rising smoke of the incense, the deacon and his humeral veil.  Knees bend, heads are bowed, and prayers are lifted.

This is the picture of ministry for seminarians, a singular instance of pastoral experience in priestly formation that took place at St. Mary Catholic Church in Mount Angel.  As one of the four pillars in Blessed Pope John Paul II's Pastores Dabo Vobis, pastoral formation invites seminarians to numerous off-campus service sites where lessons are cultivated in responsibility, interpersonal relationships, and "progress of the ministerial self," according to the seminary's Pastoral Formation Blue Book.

Pastoral ministry field education assignments vary and include religious education programs in parishes, meeting with residents of assisted living centers, volunteering at food banks and homeless shelters, and tutoring and mentoring youth.  To understand pastoral ministry is to see seminarians in action.

Seven seminarians played out the scene described above on November 28, leading the middle and high school youth of the parish in a night of contemporary praise and worship music and Eucharistic adoration.  Emilio Gonzalez, seminarian for the Diocese of Fresno, arranged the event in coordination with St. Mary's staff, and he played the drums.

"The ultimate goal of the night was to help the youth - to be an instrument, pun intended - to fall in love with Jesus in the Eucharist," Gonzalez said.

Emilio Gonzalez

Pastoral ministry brought about many similar encouraging moments this autumn.  Joseph Paddock, a seminarian for the Diocese of Helena, spent Friday evenings at St. Andre Bessette Catholic Church of Portland with their program called Evening Fellowship.  There he aided in preparing a meal, serving dinner, conversing with the homeless, and creating a safe environment for many Portlanders living on the streets.

"You know they live this really hard life, and they come up there and in a way it transforms them for an hour and a half," Paddock said.  "It's really neat to develop relationships with some of the people.  We trade stories."

Joseph Paddock

In the autumn leading up to the elections, Paddock found himself trading just such stories with a typically quiet patron.  The man turned immediately to politics, asking Paddock which presidential candidate he favored.  When Paddock responded by saying he was weighing the issues, the man animatedly and staunchly advocated for a particular nominee.  Paddock decided the opportunity was golden to work on attentive listening.

"I told myself, 'I'm going to try to understand what's driving what he's saying,'" Paddock said.  "I want to kind of see the presidential election through his eyes.  And as an extension to that, through the eyes of the people who are living on the streets of Portland."

Pastoral ministry often provides fresh eyes to seminarians.  Martin Moreno, a seminarian for the Diocese of Tucson, hesitantly began leading Scripture study at MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility in Woodburn this year with incarcerated 15 to 25-year-olds.

Martin Moreno

"Going into this ministry, I was absolutely terrified and nervous mostly because I had never worked with incarcerated youth," Moreno said.  "But they're just regular people who have made poor decisions.  They have a thirst for God.  They like to be there.  They all have dreams and goals they want to achieve."

Moreno and his ministry partners, Robert Sullivan of the Diocese of Monterey and Stephen Saroki of the Diocese of San Diego, discussed the upcoming Sunday's Mass readings and met one-on-one with youth.  Most youth come to see their time at MacLaren as an opportunity to change the direction of their life, Moreno said, and for the 10 or 12 in his group each week, faith drives and inspires their ambition.

"When we think of prison, we often think it's God-forsaken, but it really is full of hope," Moreno said.

So are the seminarians in pastoral ministry there.

Thirst

Day after day, day after day

We stuck, nor breath, nor motion

As idle as a painted ship

Upon a painted ocean

Water, water every where

And all the boards did shrink

Water, water every where

Nor any drop to drink

THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER

A professor mentioned this old poem in class, and I looked it up out of curiosity. Typically, the last two lines are misquoted: "Water water everywhere, and not a drop to drink." Actually, I prefer this slight mistake to the original version. It typifies the experience of faith for most of the world nowadays.

The search for meaning infiltrates media. Show me a TV show that isn't looking for some kind of meaning, and it will be the first I've seen. Even sex-fueled comedies like American Pie make a statement about human interactions, adolescent life, our sex drive, societal pressure, and the encouragement of casual approaches to sex. Films and books tell stories that shape our understanding of the world. Advertising even makes some sort of statement about reality and meaning. What do you think these commercials say?







Meaning, meaning everywhere, and not a drop to drink. Our world is thirsty for meaning yet deprived of meaningful sources from which to seek authenticity and fulfillment.

One of my favorite shows is LOST. After introducing my parents to it over Thanksgiving and Christmas break, I started watching it a second time from the beginning. The main characters, John Locke and Jack Shepherd, represent faith and science. They predictably clash often. Everything in the show revolves around the decisions they make, and the other characters, important as they may be, revolve around the question of primacy between the poles of science and faith.

Isn't that indicative of our world today? It seems no matter how much science can teach us, there is always a need for more meaning, for more explanation and depth. All the questions cannot be answered. And faith does not satisfy our curiosity to explore, to learn, and to know. Tension exists between the two, and meaning can be found in both. What I have discovered in my philosophical studies is that faith and reason needn't contradict each other or be in competition. In fact, one brings light to the other. St. Thomas Aquinas said faith and reason cannot contradict because they are both based on natural law. There are many examples of this.

Mischaracterizations of Catholic teaching and of greater Christianity abound. Do we believe in a literal creation story as portrayed in the Book of Genesis? This is a piece of religious writing best understood as a metaphor. The question is not how God created but why God created. We tell stories and make analogies or metaphors to understand things, and God seems to do the same thing with this and many other parts of Scripture. Consequently, our belief in creation does not deter from the facts of evolution. Do questions remain? Absolutely. But neither faith nor science sufficiently answers the quandaries of origin. Together they fuse a rounded understanding.

One fascinating thing I learned in studying Theology of the Body is is the way our excretion of the "love hormone" oxytocin matches a call to lifelong monogamy and fidelity. Oxytocin causes feelings of bonding and attachment, and it is released during intercourse, childbirth, and breast feeding, three times when bonding is of particular importance. The more sexual partners one has, the less effect oxytocin makes, and less bonding occurs. No wonder our world has a problem with commitment in marriage. Additionally, the chemicals that cause "butterflies" when romance begins (dopamine, oxytocin, adrenaline, and vasopressin), not coincidentally, last 3-6 months for romantic relationships in still-developing adolescent brains and 12-18 months in fully-developed adults brains. Generally, the duration of romance is about that long for those age groups, is it not? After the butterflies are gone, something more must remain to sustain the relationship. That's where commitment comes into play. Our bodies are made not for rabid romance and butterflies to last forever but for fidelity that supersedes physical attraction. Science and faith interacting, informing, agreeing. There is meaning when we seek it.

The thirst for meaning is never fully quenched. We search endlessly. Let us begin earnestly seeking wisdom and purpose in their proper dwelling. Let us turn off the television, limit our time on the computer, silence our cell phones, retire the radio, cut the commercials, and feast on the Scripture, silence, prayer, and insight gleaned from a God ever present to all people. Jesus pleads for us to come to the water. May we drink deeply.