A View: Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary

By Wilson Kubwayo
Cardinal Staff

As seminarians, it is always our pleasure to invite the campus and those around us to come and share their time with us. While a good number of faculty and students attended the Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary open house on Sept. 19, students had lots of opportunities to learn more about the Seminary and its seminarians.

One of the great things about inviting students to the seminary is that they get the opportunity to learn about what it means to be a Catholic seminarian. Many students ask questions such as “How does Seminary life differ from the college life?” As Seminarians, we represent the church. A life of a Seminarian is different from a college life by having different expectations from the community around us and the church. Time management plays a big role when it comes to a seminarian life.

“You definitely have less free time, you definitely have a schedule to go with, because of having functions, apostolic work, and house jobs,” says Matthew Wagner, a junior transfer student from the campus. 

A college student is mostly concerned at how he/she is doing academically. As Seminarians we are also concerned about how we are doing in several other areas such as human formation, spiritual formation, and pastoral formation. 

Other questions that most people ask seminarians is “what made you decide to go to the Seminary?” 

Every Seminarian has a different story of his discernment. Wagner said, “When I came to this campus, I started looking into my faith and I got involved into campus ministry. I attended the T.E.C. retreat (Together Encountering Christ), and T.E.C. retreat helped me a lot in developing my faith, and from there I realize that I need to take my faith seriously. As I got deeper, I realized that God is calling me to the priesthood.”