Borromeo Weekend

This year's Borromeo Weekend was incredible! The weekend is structured as a traditional 40 hours of devotion in honor of St. Charles Borromeo, the patron saint of seminarians. The purpose of the weekend is, first of all, to give praise to God through a whole weekend of perpetual adoration of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, and also to foster unity between our seminary and the college seminary, St. John Vianney Seminary. The weekend also provides us with an opportunity to open the doors of our seminary to and pray with our brothers and sisters of the greater university community and even some beyond this community.

The weekend was powerful. It kicked off with Mass at 7:30pm in the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas of the University of St. Thomas Friday evening. At the end of Mass, the Blessed Sacrament was exposed and placed in the monstrance, and then a Eucharistic procession commenced from this chapel, across the St. Thomas campus, with a crossing at the busy intersection of Cretin and Summit Aves., to the St. Mary's Chapel of the St. Paul Seminary. After the Blessed Sacrament had been placed on the altar in our chapel and all of the processors were settled, we prayed Compline (Night Prayer) together and had a fabulous reception, with terrific hors d'oeuvres prepared by one of the SJV seminarians (who apparently spent some time studying culinary arts before entering seminary).

Adoration continued perpetually from Friday evening with various devotions and recitation of the various Hours of the Liturgy of the Hours interspersed throughout the weekend. It was such a moving experience for me to go into the chapel and find not only brother seminarians from both seminaries spending time before the Lord, but also undergraduate students, seminary faculty and staff, priests from some of the local parishes, and many other faithful from around the area. One friend of mine from the college was nearly in tears when I thanked him for coming. He was so grateful for the opportunity.

My personal favorite reaction to the weekend was during the procession across the campus. I was running ahead of the procession to make sure we had a clear path and to get a good view of the whole thing, when suddenly an undergrad student came up a staircase, noticed the procession, and exclaimed, "Whoa!" Whoa, indeed! 300 people following the Blessed Sacrament across campus is quite a sight! It is beautiful to behold! (To view a slide show of Friday evening's Mass and procession, click here, or if that doesn't work, try here.)

Saturday evening was a beautiful marathon of prayer. The evening began with Vespers (Evening Prayer) at 5:00. Then at 7:00 began the Sacred Music Hour, followed by the "Festival of Praise" at 8:30, which provided a powerful opportunity to praise the Lord in song along with the priests and seminarians of the seminary who are members of the Companions of Christ, as well as with those involved in the evangelization organization, St. Paul's Outreach. Then at 10:00 was the Vigil for the Office of Readings (of the Liturgy of the Hours), followed by Compline at 11:00. It seems like a lot, but as a participant in each of these times of prayer, it is amazing how quickly the hours passed by!

Sunday morning began with Lauds (Morning Prayer) at 9:15 and then before Mass began at 10:00, we had Benediction. With the end of Mass came the end of our 40-hour celebration! Until next year...


Blessed be Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar!!