A typical day at SPS

(Ordination class of May 2006)

According to the description of this blog, through our entries we seminarians are supposed to provide you with "A little insight into the life of twelve seminarians preparing for ministry as Catholic priests, including daily activities..." Let me give you a sort of general overview of our life here. The following is a description of our daily activities here at the St. Paul Seminary.

The day begins early at SPS. Our first activity of the day is an optional hour of Eucharistic Adoration from 6-7am. A number of our men use this time of quiet as their longest period of personal prayer time throughout the day. This is their "holy hour" of the day. It provides us with an opportunity to begin each day in prayer and adoration before our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Men use this time to pray the Office of Readings (or Vigils) from the Liturgy of the Hours, to do other spiritual reading, to pray the rosary and other devotions, or simply to sit quietly in the presence of our Eucharistic Lord. This time of prayer is optional because the morning is not the ideal time for everyone to pray. Making a visit to our Blessed Sacrament chapel one will find seminarians making their holy hours or shorter times of prayer throughout the day.

The first required event of the day is 7am when the community comes together in the St. Mary's Chapel to pray Morning Prayer (or Lauds, another prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours). After morning prayer most of us will head over to the Binz Refectory for some breakfast and coffee before the first classes begin at 8am.

At midday the community gathers for Mass. This begins at 11:35am. After Mass we head back to the Binz for lunch, with afternoon classes commencing between 1:00 and 1:30pm. After classes end in the afternoon, we all gather again at 5pm for Evening Prayer (or Vespers). And then it is off to the Binz one last time for dinner.

We are not all in class all day from 8am until 5pm. Our schedules vary. The times that we are not in class during the day we spend studying, exercising, playing sports, visiting, relaxing, typing blog entries, etc. All of these activities are going on in the seminary throughout the day.

At 9:15pm many will gather to pray the rosary in the chapel and then at 9:45pm we gather in the lounges on our floors for the final hour of the Liturgy of the Hours, Night Prayer (or Compline). At 10pm we begin quiet hours. This does not mean that we are not allowed to visit anymore after this time, it simply means that this should be done in appropriate places, such as the floor lounges, so that those who wish to can study, pray, or go to bed early in order to be well-rested for the next day's activities.

While this is the basic structure of our days here at St. Paul Seminary, this is certainly not an exhaustive list of what goes on here. We have many events that provide welcome variations to our schedule. In the fall we have the annual Rectors' Bowl football game between the seminarians of St. Paul Seminary and the seminarians of St. John Vianney Seminary (the college seminary on the other side of campus). We also have 40 Hours of Eucharistic Adoration to celebrate the feastday of St. Charles Borromeo, the patron saint of seminarians. There is also Acolyte Installation, Declaration of Candidacy for the men planning on being ordained as deacons in May, floor parties, and other seminary and Archdiocesan events to keep life interesting and fun at the seminary!

I would like to close this blog with a reflection from the rector of St. Paul Seminary, Msgr. Aloysius Callaghan. I will share this wonderful and profound insight which he shares with us seminarians on a regular basis. The insight is this: "The best of all, come from St. Paul!" Please ponder this message in your hearts.

May God bless you!