Dear friends of the seminary,

 

Since the return of the seminarians at the beginning of January from their Christmas break, life at the seminary has continued as normal. We had a Solemn High Mass for the feast of the Epiphany and a little gift exchange and Epiphany party for the seminarians. The following week, we had quite the snow storm hit the Midwest. Some of the snow drifts were almost ten feet high! Most of the country roads out here by the seminary were impassable for a couple days but things continued as normal for us except for the fact that the seminarians were kept busy shoveling snow in between their prayers and classes!

  

Tomorrow, we celebrate the feast of the Purification and we will have the customary blessing of candles and procession as is prescribed in the liturgy for that day. This will be followed by a Solemn High Mass. Afterwards, some of the seminarians will go with a couple of the priests on mission to help conduct the ceremonies by way of serving or singing. It is customary for the seminary to have All Night Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament exposed on the First Friday of every month. It is a wonderful privilege to be able to keep watch with Our Lord once a month in such a special way.

 

The season of Septuagesima has begun and in a little less than two weeks, the season of Lent will be upon us. The Christmas decorations have all been taken down at the seminary this past Saturday in preparation for entering into the new liturgical season. There was also a little farewell to the Alleluia that was conducted by some of the seminarians. It is a pious custom is some places to dig a hole in the ground and to bury a piece of paper with the word Alleluia on it.

 

We pray you all have a grace-filled and holy Lenten season! God bless you!

 

Fr. Borja