An Open Letter to Seminarians
An Open Letter to Seminarians
All that is in here are just simple reflections. You might have encountered them before. I just made my own version of it. I did not intend to make myself known to you but to help you in your discernment as your co-journeyer to the priesthood. Please pardon my grammar and English composition. I prefer to make it this long to have a greater chance of touching some parts of your being.
I was a college seminarian then, when we visited the Tuloy sa Don Bosco Foundation in Alabang. During the mass, a priest asked us seminarians, Does anyone of you brothers have hundred percent of certainty that he wants and will become a priest? If there’s any, raise your right hand. To my surprise no one did so. And the main celebrant added, Thank you Lord no one did, because if there is, I will ask Fr. Rector to send him out in the seminary as soon as you got home. This particular incident meant more to me as I tried to reflect on my experiences in my five-year college life in Mount St. Aloysius College Seminary.
There are four things that I would like to thrash out in this reflection. First is the meaning of the letter “N” in our Aloysian Alphabet. N, corresponds to “no aloysian stands alone”. The community of seminarians is the most perfect imperfect combination of today’s teenagers and early adults. There are some who are above average in studying but some are pungogs as what Fr. Ricky called them. Go to the chapel and there you can find seminarians who are sincerely meditating and praying but others are deeply sleeping. Some are good in sports, arts, conversation, leadership and the like. But we cannot deny the other side of the coin which belongs to those who are ugly, pasaway, pala-away, makasarili, masungit, mataray or anything that makes us irritated every time we saw them. But remember that the Church that we want to serve is the most perfect imperfect community too. She is the Church of sinners and of saints,
All that is in here are just simple reflections. You might have encountered them before. I just made my own version of it. I did not intend to make myself known to you but to help you in your discernment as your co-journeyer to the priesthood. Please pardon my grammar and English composition. I prefer to make it this long to have a greater chance of touching some parts of your being.
I was a college seminarian then, when we visited the Tuloy sa Don Bosco Foundation in Alabang. During the mass, a priest asked us seminarians, Does anyone of you brothers have hundred percent of certainty that he wants and will become a priest? If there’s any, raise your right hand. To my surprise no one did so. And the main celebrant added, Thank you Lord no one did, because if there is, I will ask Fr. Rector to send him out in the seminary as soon as you got home. This particular incident meant more to me as I tried to reflect on my experiences in my five-year college life in Mount St. Aloysius College Seminary.
There are four things that I would like to thrash out in this reflection. First is the meaning of the letter “N” in our Aloysian Alphabet. N, corresponds to “no aloysian stands alone”. The community of seminarians is the most perfect imperfect combination of today’s teenagers and early adults. There are some who are above average in studying but some are pungogs as what Fr. Ricky called them. Go to the chapel and there you can find seminarians who are sincerely meditating and praying but others are deeply sleeping. Some are good in sports, arts, conversation, leadership and the like. But we cannot deny the other side of the coin which belongs to those who are ugly, pasaway, pala-away, makasarili, masungit, mataray or anything that makes us irritated every time we saw them. But remember that the Church that we want to serve is the most perfect imperfect community too. She is the Church of sinners and of saints,