Actually, I've been here for a little more than a week, but what with the complexity of figuring out how to log into the Notre Dame wireless service and access my new e-mail account, this is really the first time I've been able to get online. As such, there is actually a LOT to relate about what's been happening since I got here, but I must refrain from posting every nitty-gritty detail about daily life thus far. I'll try to capture some of the highlights, instead.
Dad and I started driving up to South Bend from Alabama on August 10, and we arrived at Moreau Seminary on August 11 at noon on the dot. One of the newly professed members of the congregation helped us unload our truck and drop everything off in my new rooms. I wish I had pictures to post at this point - they are really nice! It's a two-room suite overlooking the backyard gardens. One room I keep as a little sitting-living area because it came with two upholstered easy chairs, a couple of bookcases, and a poster describing the architecture of Rome's churches. I knew from the start that this room was meant for me! It's also right down the hall from balcony access to the seminary chapel, so it makes stopping in for prayer over the course of the day very convenient. Waiting for me on my bed was a nice little care package with the new ND football t-shirt, which everyone evidently wears on game day. Speaking of football, guess who gets tickets to all home games! One of the most immediate perks of religious life...
Those first two days were given over to orientation meetings and cookouts and the like, giving all of the new Candidates a chance to meet the college seminarians in addition to the professed members of the community who live at Moreau. I suppose I should explain the difference - Holy Cross runs a college discernment program across the lake from Moreau Seminary called Old College. There are about 22 guys in that program right now (including two preparing to live in Belgium for the semester), and they live together in the oldest building on campus (since renovated into a habitable home). The Candidates like me live in the actual seminary building, which sits across St. Joe's Lake from Old College and opens up upon a gorgeous view of both the dome and basilica. With us live the temporarily professed seminarians (men who have completed their first-year candidacy and their second-year novitiate and have taken temporary vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience) who are studying for their Masters in Theology, and several finally professed priests and brothers (men who have taken the vows for life) who are either studying themselves or are part of the seminary formation team. Some of the finally professed here are from Uganda and Bangladesh, where Holy Cross has houses of formation and parishes. There are a lot of names, a lot of faces, and a lot of ins-and-outs to learn about daily life. It will take some time to get adjusted to it all.
This past week, though, all the seminarians have been off-site at what is called "Deer Porte" - an annual excursion to a piece of property that Holy Cross owns in La Porte, IN, where we spend a week going through more orientation, getting to know each other more fully, and learning how to pray in community. The piece of property itself is phenomenal. It hosts several residential buildings with capacity for 24 people to have single bedrooms. It's like hotel-style accommodations. It also has a full chapel, a pool, a basketball court, a three-story recreational house, two lakes where you can go fishing for bass and catfish, and a dining hall. Most of the week, our mornings were spent in program meetings and liturgical orientation sessions. The afternoons were largely given over to recreation by the pool or on the courts, and then in the evenings, we would have keynote speakers and socials of some kind (like a Casino night or a movie night). Monday, we were given the option to go into Chicago for a free day or to visit the Dunes of Lake Michigan. I opted for Chicago, as I have never been there. Tuesday itself was a pretty large day too because a lot of priests and brothers from the area came out for a huge catered meal, and that night, some of them planned a fireworks display for us accompanied by bagpipe music performed by one of the college seminarians. Then we went out onto the property for a ten-foot bonfire, which lasted until about 1:30 in the morning. Today, we're back to the seminary, and gunning up for the start of classes next week.
The heart of every day here revolves around Morning Prayer, Mass, and Evening Prayer. The singing among the men of the community is beautiful! I feel no shame in learning how to sing better among them, and I'm thinking about joining the Candidate Men's choir that the director of music and liturgy here (who also serves as the Rector of the Basilica and author of the Ordo) conducts. I also find time to sneak away into the basement where there are full-scale exercise facilities and a music room with a piano that I can continue practicing on. It is amazing to sit back and look at what I have entered into. I hope to share more later about my impressions and thoughts as I get more and more settled into a routine of life here with Holy Cross. We'll talk soon.
~SCP
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