Tristan's One Cent

Brett learned to use food to lure Fr. Hans back into his cage, but he got trapped in there too! I was called in to write for the bulletin this week since neither of them could get out.
 
People often ask me what seminary life at Mt. Angel is like, and saying that it’s a lot like normal college but with more praying doesn’t seem to be a sufficient
explanation for most people. We do have classes just like normal college, since we’ll be getting a bachelor’s or master’s degree. The “more praying” comes in with daily Mass and communal prayer a few times a day following the schedule of the Liturgy of the Hours, which is one of the official prayers of the church. At Mt. Angel, the seminary community gathers for morning prayer (lauds) at 7:30am each day and evening prayer (vespers) at 5:30pm each day. The Benedictine monks also gather three additional times for other hours and seminarians can join them, but we aren’t required to attend.
 
That prayer does make a big difference in our lives though. It helps to bond the community together and strengthens our support of one another. Everyone is facing the same challenges and striving towards the same goal, which develops a strong core of brotherhood throughout our daily lives. These bonds push us to become better versions of ourselves, especially to get back up and try again when we fall short. . .which is frequent, but that’s why we’ve got confession. Although we’re far from being perfect little angels, the community and environment continually direct us back to Jesus and prayer.
 
One of the other main differences from normal college is that each seminarian is assigned a pastoral ministry for the year. We go out once a week to our pastoral placement to provide service, learn more about that type of ministry, and grow in our understanding of what it means to be a pastor. There are many different types of
placement — homeless hospitality care, elderly living home care, helping teach RCIA or leading a youth group, prison ministry, and more.
 
Last year I was assigned to help teach at a Catholic school. One of my roles was teaching kindergarteners and I was completely blown away by how much energy they have. I’m not sure if the service I provided was all that helpful, but I definitely learned a great deal about channeling that youthful energy into fun and learning rather than chaos. Kindergarten teachers are truly miracle workers.
 
I also frequently get questions about how long I’ll need to spend in school. If you enter seminary straight out of high school, there’s four years of college (which gets you a bachelor’s degree in philosophy) and four years of theology (which gets you a master’s degree in divinity along with ordination). They also typically have seminarians complete a pastoral year — a year of working in a parish — sometime in the middle of the theology years, for nine years in total.
 
I completed college first, getting a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Davis before deciding to enter seminary; because of this, I only need to complete two years of “pre-theology” (which will get me a master’s degree in philosophy) before I get to begin my theology studies. Long story short, I’ve completed one year of seminary and will have six more to go before ordination, God willing.
 
As a final note, if you want to hear more about my vocation story, check out this Tuesday's reflection video, as I’ll talk a bit about my process of discerning priesthood.