Since we've been back at Moreau, our Candidate class has been making visits to different Holy Cross parishes around the South Bend area where we will assigned to work in various forms of pastoral ministry this year. The work is quite varied and seems to depend on the unique identity of the parish in question - helping prepare second graders for their first sacraments, teaching adult Bible studies, sitting on RCIA leadership teams, working with seventh graders preparing for confirmation, visiting the sick and homebound, assisting with musical ministry, etc. By now, we've visited all of our potential assignments and are thinking about where we want to go. This is one of the things that I like about Holy Cross very much. I haven't been assigned to something out of left field. I've been given the opportunity to weigh the different options available to me and to take a hand in directing my own formation by cooperating with the formation staff in making a final decision. I'll let you know what I wind up with when that times comes!
Last night, too, was freshmen move-in. From the sounds of it, dorm life here takes the place of Greek life as you would find it on other campuses. There are no fraternities and sororities at Notre Dame. Instead, the dorm you're assigned as a freshmen becomes the dorm you live in all four years, and each dorm winds up taking on its own identity. Move-in night is the dorms' chance to initiate their new members, welcoming them into a more intimate subsection of campus life. Holy Cross does something of the same for its new undergraduate men. All the seminarians gathered at the log chapel on campus for a special ceremony honoring the new freshmen and transfers to Old College. I won't reveal the details (!), but I will say that we all got soaked in our suits because it started to downpour at one point. It really wasn't all that bad, though. A part of me was tempted to grumble about the situation, but when I thought about it, I appreciated the sacrifice that went into the act of welcoming these men into their new way of life. We've been learning a lot about brotherhood, lately, and brotherhood takes sacrifice. You know you belong to something great when you're being applauded in a storm by two dozen men who've dressed themselves to the nines for you.
It's Saturday, and it's the calm before the storm. Classes start on Tuesday. Two of our temporarily professed seminarians are taking their final vows into the community on Friday and being ordained to the diaconate on Saturday. More to come.
~SCP
P.S. Want to meet the seminarians? Take a look at our newly added profile page!
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