Monday, June 4, 2007
'15 Steps' to Becoming a Seminarian
You may like to read: SFX Academic Prospectus 2007-2008.
The information presented below reflects the admission process for St. Fancis Xavier Major Seminary, Diocese of Singapore.
DISCERNMENT
Months 1 to 6
- Step 1: Attend vocation retreats and recollections
- Step 2: Journeying with appointed Vocation Discernment Director
- Step 3: Introduction to Seminary Fathers
Months 7 to 9
- Step 4: First personal interview with Fathers of Admission Board
- Step 5: Invitation to stay in the Seminary (weekend or one week)
April
- Step 6: Aspirant indicates his desire to be admitted
- Step 7: Psychological test
May
- Step 8: Second personal interview with Fathers of Admission Board & Preliminary deliberation of the Admission Board
June
- Step 9: 8-day discernment retreat
APPLICATION
July
- Step 10: Formal application to join the Seminary
August
- Step 11: Request confidential reports from referees
September
- Step 12: Medical examination and report
October
- Step 13: Final Deliberation of the Admission Board
November
- Step 14: Official interview with Bishop
December
- Step 15: Tender resignation to employer (if the candidate is working)
Janaury
- CANDIDATE IS ADMITTED
Prayer for Seminarians
O Jesus, Eternal High Priest,I offer You through Your Immaculate Mother Mary, Your Own Precious Blood, in all the Masses throughout the world, as petition for graces for all seminarians, Your future priests.
Give them humility, meekness, prudence, and a burning zeal for souls.
Fill their hearts with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Teach them to know and love the Church, that they may always and everywhere speak, act, and think with her, the glorious spouse of Christ.
Teach them generosity and detachment from worldly goods; but above all, teach them to know You and to love the One and Only Eternal Priest.
Good Shepherd of Souls, hear this my prayer for saintly priests.v Amen.
(Taken from "Prayers for Today," published by Leaflet Missal Co.)
Labels: Prayer, Priesthood, Seminarian, Seminarians, Seminary, Vocation, Vocations
Thursday, May 31, 2007
SFX Seminary Academic Prospectus (2007-2008)
Here are some pieces of information I've extracted from the local seminary's- St. Francis Xavier Major Seminary- academic prospectus for the year 2007-2008.
Year 1: Initiation Year
A paranomic overview of the Church's teachings complemented with other courses such as language, human and growth development and communication skills.
Year 2-3: Philosophy Year
Understanding Man and the principles of living from a philosophical standpoint. Elementary biblical exegesis of Sacred Scriptures is initiated at this level, including books from the Old and New Testament
Year 3-7: Theology Cycle
Consists of Sacred Scripture and other essential theological subjects such as Dogmatic Theology, Moral Thoelogy, Sacraments, Spirituality and Pastoral Theology.
Admission Criteria
- Clergy Recommendation: Letter of recommendation and sponsorship from parish priest or priest in charge of Diocesan organization.
- Church Involvements: Applicant must be actively involved in diocesan or parish ministry
- Academic Requirements: At least General Cambridge Examination 'A' level or it's equivalent.
Examinations & Assessments
- Oral
- Written
- Assignment
- Class Presentation
Courses for 2008
Initiation Year
- Mystery of Salvation
- Divine Office
- Psalms
- Personal Growth & Relationship
- Introduction to Spirituality
- Speech and Communication I
- Methodology of Studies
- Latin
Philosophy Cycle
- Scripture: Introduction to New Testament, Gospel of Mark, Matthew, Luke, Acts
- Biblical Greek
- History of Philosophy: Ancient, Medieval, Modern, Contempory
- Cosmology
- Philosophical Anthropology
- Moral Philosophy
- Logic
- Speech and Communication II
- Psychology and Spirituality
- Non-Christian Religion: Islam, Buddhism
Theology Cycle
- Scripture: Pauline Literature, Catholic Epistles
- Christology
- Marialogy
- Protology
- Eschatology
- Ecclesiology
- Sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Matrimony
- Fundamental Morals
- Bioethics
- Sexual Ethics
- Religious Ethics
- History and Theology of the Mass
- Church History: Reformation
- Patristics Fathers
- Mystical Theology
- Theology of Religion
- Theological Research
- Catechetics
- Pastoral Theology
- Speech and Communication III
Let us keep all our Seminarians in our prayers as they continue to discern the Lord's will in their lives. May they be holy and humble priests after the heart of Jesus Christ!
O Lord Jesus Christ, great High Priest, I pray that You call many worthy souls to Your holy priesthood. Enlighten the Bishop in the choice of candidates, the Spiritual Director in molding them, and the professors in instructing them. Lead the seminarians daily in Your unerring footsteps; so that they may become priests who are models of purity, possessors of wisdom and heroes of sacrifice; steeped in humility and aflame with love for God and man; apostles of Your glory and sanctifiers of souls. Amen.
Open to God's call for you? Pray for your own vocation:
God our Father, life is your gift to me. Through baptism, you invite me to share in the gift of my life in service to others. Be with me as I choose each day to show your presence in our world. Give me the courage and generosity to respond to your love, to your call. I pray especially for those who serve you as priests, brothers, sisters, deacons and lay ministers. Keep them close to you. Open the minds and hearts of many other men and women that they may accept your challenge to build the Kingdom. Amen.
Coming up next: What it takes to admitted to the Seminary.
UPDATE: '15 STEPS' to Becoming a Seminarian
Labels: Prayer, Priesthood, Seminarian, Seminary, Vocation, Vocations
Monday, April 23, 2007
Pius XII on Minor Seminaries
[Note: This address was given to three thousand minor seminarians gathered in Rome on September 5, 1957]"Life is too short, the years of adolescence and of youth are too delicate not to be in pressing need of guidance and protection. The young man who has at heart to become a priest, must ripen in the climate most favorable to a lucid choice. The education of his still fragile will requires prudence and respect.
"He will therefore find in the minor seminaries greatly experienced and solicitous counselors and teachers who will guide his step, stimulate his intelligence, develop his generosity and the feeling of his responsibility in the proper functioning of the seminary.
"If minor seminaries are so useful and beneficial, it is because their institution is based on a precise knowledge of the needs of the adolescent and Christian youth. Families can therefore rely on the wisdom of the Church to judge one's aptitude for the priesthood and the means best suited to prepare for it.
"The Catholic priesthood is truly one of the purest glories of the Church and one of the most striking marks of her holiness. She has therefore always given it her most solicitous care throughout the centuries.
"Despite the weaknesses of human nature, she has maintained at a very high level its ideal of life, without sparing any effort to make her priests men of God and men of the Church, truly capable of taking charge of a part of the flock of Christ and of giving an account of it to God on the day of judgment. She has arranged their intellectual, moral and pastoral formation in an always precise and demanding manner.
"After ordering the erection of major seminaries in dioceses, she has then created special institutions meant for candidates to the ecclesiastical life. Far from having to repent such an institution, she congratulates herself for it when she witnesses the happy fruits borne by minor seminaries in the field of studies as well as in the formation of character."
Labels: Holy Father, Priesthood, Seminarian, Seminary, Vocation
Monday, January 29, 2007
FSSP's Pro-Life Activities at OLGS
While participation in this very public event helps to send an important message about the evil of abortion to the community at large, it only represents a fraction of the pro-life commitment of the seminarians at OLGS. Every Friday, for instance, a volunteer group of seminarians joins other concerned Catholics outside the local Planned Parenthood abortion mill. There they pray fifteen decades of the Holy Rosary from 1:00 to 2:00 and, if time permits, a litany is also sung. Anecdotal evidence suggests that abortion workers find it harder to perform their everyday tasks when people are praying outside of their buildings. Let us hope that these Friday trips will one day become unnecessary.
Labels: Catholic Belief, Fraternity of St. Peter, News, Seminarian
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Please pray for...
Br. F. is on a very tight academic syllabus. All his academic subjects are Latin, Hebrew, Philosophy, Anthropology, etc... all very heavy subjects.
Please keep him, as well as all other Seminarians in your prayers.
Prayer for Seminarians:
O Lord Jesus Christ, great High Priest, I pray that You call many worthy souls to Your holy priesthood. Enlighten the Bishop in the choice of candidates, the Spiritual Director in molding them, and the professors in instructing them. Lead the seminarians daily in Your unerring footsteps; so that they may become priests who are models of purity, possessors of wisdom and heroes of sacrifice; steeped in humility and aflame with love for God and man; apostles of Your glory and sanctifiers of souls. Amen. Mary, Queen of the Clergy, pray for us.
Labels: Intentions/Petitions, Prayer, Seminarian
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Fifty five men ordained for the Legionaries of Christ
Labels: Links, Ordinations, Priesthood, Seminarian, Vocation
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
Priestly Societies and Religious Orders using Traditional Missals
- Male Priestly Societies & Religious Orders:
Apostolic Administration of St. John Mary Vianney
Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter
Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest
Fraternity of St. Vincent Ferrer
Institute of St. Philip Neri
Institute of the Good Shepherd
Benedictines - Monastery of Our Lady of the Annunciation of Clear Creek
Benedictines - Abbaye Notre-Dame de Fontgombault
Benedictines - Monastère Notre-Dame de Gaussan
Benedictines - Abbaye Saint-Madeleine (Le Barroux)
Benedictines - Abbaye Notre-Dame de Randol
Benedictines - Monastère Sainte-Marie de la Garde (St. Pierre de Clairac)
Benedictines - Abbaye Notre-Dame de Triors
Religious Institute of the Holy Cross of Riaumont
Canons Regular of the Mother of God
Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem
Monks of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel
- Female Religious Orders:
Benedictines - Abbaye Notre-Dame-de-Fidelite (Jouques)
Benedictines - Abbaye Notre-Dame de L'Annonciation (Le Barroux)
Benedictines - Monastère Notre Dame de Misericorde (Rosans)
Canonesses of the Mother of God
Sisters of the Precious Blood (Schellenberg)
Sisters of the Precious Blood (St. Pelagiberg)
Oblates of Mary, Queen of Apostles
Adoratrices du Coeur Royal de Jesus-Christ Souveraine Pretre
Discalced Carmelitesses - Carmel of Jesus, Mary and Joseph (Valparaiso)
Dominicans of the Holy Ghost - Institution Saint Dominique (Baffe)
Dominicans of the Holy Ghost - Institution Saint Joseph (Draguignan)
Dominicans of the Holy Ghost - Ecole Sainte Catherine de Siena (Nantes)
Dominicans of the Holy Ghost - Couvent Notre-Dame-de-Joie (Pontcalec)
Dominicans of the Holy Ghost - Institution Saint-Pie X (Saint Cloud)
Religious Victims of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Marseille)
Institute of Servants of the Queen of Apostles
Labels: Links, Priesthood, Religious, Seminarian, Traditionalism, Vocation
Silence
To the Students of the Pontifical Universities of Rome for the opening of the Academic Year
I would like to stress also on this occasion, as I have had the opportunity to do at various meetings with priests and seminarians, the primary importance of the spiritual life and the necessity to foster, along with cultural growth, a balanced human maturity and a profound ascetic and religious formation.
Whoever wants to be a friend of Jesus and become his authentic disciple - be it seminarian, priest, Religious or lay person - must cultivate an intimate friendship with him in meditation and prayer. The deepening of Christian truths and the study of theology and other religious disciplines presupposes an education to silence and contemplation, because one must become capable of listening to God speaking in the heart.
Thought must always be purified to be able to enter the dimension where God pronounces his creative and redemptive Word; his Word "comes out of silence", to use the beautiful expression of St Ignatius of Antioch (Letter To the Magnesians, VIII, 2). Only if it is born from the silence of contemplation can our words have some value and usefulness, and not resemble the inflated discourses of the world that seek the consensus of public opinion.
The student who studies in an ecclesiastical institute must therefore be disposed to obedience to the truth and so cultivate a special ascesis of thought and word. This ascesis is based on loving familiarity with the Word of God and, I would say even more so, on that "silence" from which the Word originates in the dialogue of love between the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit. Also, we have access to such a dialogue through the holy humanity of Christ.
Therefore, dear friends, as the disciples of the Lord did, ask him: Master, "teach us to pray" (Lk 11: 1), and also: teach us to think, to write and to speak, because they are strictly connected.
Labels: Holy Father, Homily, Priesthood, Seminarian
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Advent Vespers
Saturday, December 2, 2006
Reflections on the Diocesan Retreat
Praise God!
The retreat was wonderful, I could feel the presence of the Lord in all my activities and the urge to be with Him was stronger than ever during my stay there. Never before, had I such a great desire to be alone with Him in the Adoration Chapel in the middle of the night and to take advantage of every moment of free time during the day to be on my knees in awe of His majesty. (There's was small 'private' Adoration Room- below my room- that I gladly made use off; it was cool to be alone with the Lord.)
The first thing that was mentioned to us was the need to be honest with the Seminary Fathers/Seminarians during our sharings with them and more importantly with ourselves. This may have been a grey area in my life; there are so many things that I feel are insignificant and aren't worth revealing but at the end of the day our decisions are not based on our superficial wants, fancies and desires, but rather our whole being and state of spiritual life.
Now, let me share what happened cronologicaly. The first day began in the evening with Praise & Worship, the opening address by the Seminary's Rector, Rev. Fr. William Goh. Followed by Fr. Aloysious Ong's vocation story and the importance of need to be able to find (and be in) the presence of the Lord during our stay (1 Kgs 19:4-13). Our rooms were allocated to us and we ended the first day by chanting the Compline.
The second day began at 0630hrs with Lauds, Meditation and Holy Mass. After the all important breakfast, we headed for the first talk of the day. The first talk was by the Vice-Rector, Fr. Ambrose Vaz (who is also the Pastoral Coordinator and teaches Scripture and Greek). He made us ask ourselves, "What am I doing here?" and "Where do I do from here?" Personally, the first question was naturally easy to answer. But the second was a challenge, both a spiritual and emotional one if I may say so correctly. This brings to mind my inclination to the Tridentine Mass. Fr. Vaz, explained that we should not be running from our fears... just because there are some problems in the Church do not justify our fleeing or seeking of an alternatively. Take the case a young man aspiring to be a doctor. No matter what scandals occur in the medical field will not change the fact that he wants to be a doctor (to the best of his ability) so that he can help others. These scandals have nothing to do with him offering his service to the people. This strikes me because all this while I've forgotten the very first thing that Jesus put into my heart when I first experienced His calling: it was (and still is) to serve the people in the Diocese of Singapore, nothing more, notheing less and this was why I initially hesitated to get in touch with the FSSP as they are not based here and the chances of them coming here are slim. (Shall not continue on this for now)
In between this and the next talk was a moment of self-reflection. I took this opportunity to visit the members of the Serra Club and pray with them. These selfless individuals have pledged to pray 40 whole hours (in Adoration) for us and with us. It was touching to see that ordinary people would devote so much of their time to pray individually (by name) for us. I asked myself what made me so special/cut out from the rest, that Christ would call me to spend my weekend with Him and have people pray for me for as long I was there.
The next talk was by Fr. JJ Fenelon. Fr. JJ explained the life of the Diocesan and it's unique charisms. He explained that the Diocesan charism is found fundamentally in the life of Christ. And since obedience (Lk 2:48) was the hallmark of Christ, thus, the Diocesans take their vow of obedience (to the local ordinary) very seriously... The Diocesan also is there to proclaim the Good News (Lk 4:38-44) to the people as Jesus Himself did. He is also a priest who is there for everyone; a pastor, just as Jesus was. Since I've always looked toward the Diocesan style of priesthood, I didn't have much problem(s) with the points Fr. Fenelon raised and talked about.
After lunch was a talk by Ignatian priest, Fr. Philip Heng. He talked to us on the 'Tools of Discernment'. He used one of the Ignatian contemplative prayers to help us uderstand the 'call' and see if the fire was ignited by the Holy Spirit or our own religious zeal. The 1 hour wasn't enough and I didn't really get much of it; to be honest, I was falling asleep... But now looking back, I kinna regreted not trying to stay awake and focused. The question of 'True Calling vs Religious Zeal' is one that I've always sought to to find out more about.
After a short break and tea, we went on a hike through the forest to Punggol Beach. It was a good time to 'de-stress' and take in some fresh air.
Returning to the Seminary, we refreshed ourselves and headed to the Chapel for Vespers.
Dinner was served soon after (the beef was good!). It was over dinner that I realized that there was another guy who had just graduated from college who shared the same interest in the Tridentine Mass & the Traditions of the Church as myself; there were a number of guys who wanted to see many of the traditions revived. There were 2 guys who expressed a great interest in attending a Tridentine Mass. Praise God! But as usual, I got flak from some others... It's amazing that these very people who attack the Tridentine (or Tradition for that matter) have never attended a Tridentine Mass or seen a 1962 Roman Missal! Anyway, we didn't get into any argument. On this note, I would like to reiterate that the Novus Ordo Mass is a valid Mass. Is neither herectical nor evil, and 'manufacturers' the same 'product' as the Tridentine Mass.
The last event for the day was Holy Hour and Reconciliation. This was probably the best part of the day. It was somehow touching to spend an hour before the Blessed Sacrament and then being able to go for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. This was the first time I did my confession outside the confessional box; there was a little anxiety and fear but it was overall a good experience.
And so, I leave the retreat with these questions/personal reflections:
- If God has predestined us before all eternity (Eph 1:3-10), how can I reciprocate and to go into a deeper level of relationship with Him?
- Baptism is our first call to sonship. How do I live it?
- I have to be open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. I may be happy with all the other vocations in life, but which gives me the greatest joy and satisfaction?
- All aspirants need to ask God for clarity in order to see His will for us. For the graces, so that we'll have the strength to do His will and for the help- through the guidance of the Holy Spirit- to make our decisions out of love for Him.
I will post the photos soon!
Labels: Priesthood, Seminarian, Thoughts, Vocation
Monday, November 6, 2006
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
He has written a short, straight forward post about the Holy Sacrifice of thr Mass on his blog.
Please remember to keep Deacon Rossman in your prayers as he prepares for his upcoming ordination. This is usually one of the toughest periods of a Seminarian's journey to priesthood.
Labels: Liturgy, Seminarian
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