Life here in the seminary has become one weekly routine after another. Of course there are many things different about each week but I seem to have gotten use to the sudden changes of my first experience of seminary life. It always amazes me how quickly one can adapt to a totally new and different situation in life only after being thrown into the change some weeks before. I am still very busy and have been stressed out over class assignments, but now it is not overshadowed by an anxiety of trying to adapt to a new place.
My week in general consist of communal Morning Prayer, classes, Mass, lunch, spiritual direction (biweekly) piano lessons (weekly), holy hour, dinner and communal Evening Prayer. For any communal activities, including meals, we are required to wear slacks and collared shirts which took me a while to get accustomed to because I was stubborn but mainly lazy and did not want to spend the time dressing up every day.
Morning Prayer consists of Liturgy of the Hours which is typical anytime we pray in community. Something that is done here that I have not experienced before is they sing the psalms during the prayer. This is very cool, especially when you have 100+ men the psalms in unison. Unfortunately, since I typically get up at 7:53am for 8am prayer I have no time to stretch out my vocal cords which leaves me trying to sing properly but in reality I squawk the Morning Prayer to the best of my ability.
Classes then start at 8:30am every weekday except for Wednesday which is a day set apart for ministry. I am taking 12 hours of classes and the schedule looks like this:
Monday & Thursday – 8:30-9:45 Logical Analysis
10:00-11:15 Ancient Philosophy
Tuesday & Friday— 8:30-9:45 Introduction to the Creed
10:00-11:15 Ecclesiastical Latin
The classes do not require too much homework, but there is a ton of reading to do and the material is difficult to comprehend. As for Latin, studying Spanish has helped me out with the terminology of the language, but it is difficult to say the least. The reason it is unusually difficult is because I tend to want to bring my knowledge of Spanish to Latin which does not work and not only do you have to conjugate verbs (change their ending depending on the subject(s)) but I have to learn to decline nouns and adjectives as well which needless to say requires much studying.
After classes, we have Mass at 11:30 which is always a highlight of my day. Most days I am distracted and do not fully participate at Mass, but there is always some point during Mass that gives me a sense that I am in the right place. Mass is followed by lunch and, for me since I have no elective classes, an afternoon free to do homework, play sports, and hang out. I begin my holy hour at 4:30 followed by communal Evening Prayer (which by this time of the day consist of less squawking and more singing), dinner and a free evening.
As I mentioned, I am going to spiritual direction biweekly with Fr. Bede and this has helped me out greatly. Usually during the week, I go into prayer and feel unchanged by the end of my prayer time to help with this Fr. Bede has challenged me to journal. Day to day I do not see much progress in my relationship with God however in my meetings with Fr. Bede I see how significantly God is working in my life and I begin to see a direction God is calling me to follow in order to become a better person. All this is realized mainly because I vocally describe my prayer life to Fr. Bede while he listens and aspects are highlighted that pinpoint important theme in my life of the previous weeks. During the meetings, Fr. Bede usually only says something when he feels it is necessary or if I as a question.
Lastly, I decided to take music lessons from a Franciscan Nun who is in charge of the liturgical music for the seminary. I have always wanted to learn and now is a better time than ever. I am going to post a reflection about the similarities of learning to play the piano with the faith life. I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying life.
Praying for you daily!
Much love,
William
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