SEMINARIANS: STUDENT LIFE

Resident Seminarian Community Life

Every seminarian comes from a parish and will return as a priest to a parish. The Seminary thus seeks to foster a sense of what the church is as the community of God’s people.

Community life is one of the great joys of the seminary experience. Seminarians enjoy the blessing of becoming brothers with their future fellow priests in the region. All members of the community are thus encouraged to participate willingly in a wide range of community activities. Community life means praying, working, studying, celebrating, playing, and living together. As a future priest, the seminarian will be expected to be a leader of community and a public person.

A true sense of respect and charity is an underlying premise of community life: “Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, love is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.” (1 Cor 13:4–6)

At St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary, Thursday evenings are dedicated in a special way to community life. The seminary community prays a Eucharistic Holy Hour together (with Evening Prayer included) at 5:00 p.m., followed by a festive dinner. The Seminary also has a weekly formation period on Wednesday mornings, during which seminarians participate in different activities such as conferences by the Rector and Spiritual Director, Town Hall meetings, music practices, and guest-speaker events. Other major community events—such as Interseminary Days, Family Weekend, Days of Recollection, and Diaconate Ordination—are scheduled throughout the year.

Several optional events—sports, trivia nights, group outings—also occur throughout the year. Seminarians are encouraged to take advantage of these opportunities to build fraternal relationships and broaden their horizons.

Additional Requirements

Additional requirements for seminarians in human formation are as follows:

Stewardship Assignments

The community life is dependent upon each seminarian contributing his time and talent for the common good. To this end, each seminarian is given a stewardship assignment, which should take at least two hours of work weekly. Each fall, seminarians submit their preferences for these assignments, which are given by the Student Council and approved by the Rector and the Dean of Human Formation.

Class Responsibility

There are certain times during the semester when a class is expected to assume responsibility for communal oriented events. Some examples are community dinners; workdays for Board of Trustees meetings; participation in the annual fundraisers, such as Friends of the Seminary.