A detour in formation

 Priestly formation is tough. There, I said it. It’s certainly no walk in the park. There are many academic demands placed on us and pastoral responsibilities given in our assignments during the school year. On top of that, each man is striving to be more virtuous and deepen his prayer life to grow in holiness. Occasionally, he may find time for recreation. Given this, it’s no surprise that seminary is challenging and stressful. It has a purpose though, for us to be formed to be another Christ in the world as priests. 

One aspect of formation that helped me greatly was taking a pastoral year. A pastoral year is when a man takes a “year off” from the seminary. During this year, instead of spending time at school, he is assigned to a parish in his diocese and is given pastoral responsibilities there. In this way, he gains a great deal of practical experience in his preparation for the priesthood. This is unique though because not every seminarian will go on a pastoral year. Some dioceses have a policy that all their seminarians will have a pastoral year. In the Diocese of Fargo, this is optional.  

One thing that I found helpful about my pastoral year was that it gave me a greater picture of what I am pursuing. Seminary gives you time to experience some of the pastoral work that you will do as a priest, but it is more isolated. You might go to a Catholic school and teach for a couple of hours a week or bring communion to the sick. At seminary you might only serve Mass once every few weeks.  

While on pastoral year however, some of these things were practically daily duties. I had a few responsibilities that challenged me in new ways that I never expected. We had a couple really busy points in which the priests pushed some of their ministry to me, one of which was to bury a person who never had a funeral Mass offered for them. We also had a week with quite a few funeral Masses which meant the priests couldn’t celebrate daily Mass at one of the satellite parishes. I was sent to lead a Communion service for the parishioners who would normally have had Mass. These activities, among others, really helped give me a fuller perspective on the life of the priest in the parish that you simply don’t get while at seminary. 

What I found even more helpful and enjoyable was just being able to spend time with the parishioners and getting to know them. Sometimes your contact with parishioners during the school year in seminary is very limited. But during my pastoral year, I gave different talks and studies which allowed me to have conversations with adults that connected us on a deeper level about spiritual things. But what I really enjoyed was the school kids. Sometimes I would teach some religion to them or teach them how to serve Mass. But I also got to play with them. Sometimes the director of religious education and I would play soccer against them. Even though we often won, they got the last laugh when they squished pies in our faces during Catholic Schools Week. Having the opportunity to develop relationships with those children was very important for me and something I cherish.  

Now I have to admit, my pastoral year was not something that I initially wanted to do. I didn’t want to add an extra year to my formation and delay my ordination. I didn’t want to leave my class at the seminary and adjust to a new one. As it turns out though, it has been one of the most fruitful years in my formation and one that I greatly enjoyed. I can now see why the Lord led me in that direction. I am glad that I took a pastoral year because it has been incredibly helpful for me in my formation as I move closer to ordination.