Seminary in India


We arrived at Morning Star College Seminary this morning and we were met with a magnificent sight. All of the seminarians had come out to greet us. Coming off the bus we went down the line of men, shaking their hands as if we were the president. It was such a warm welcome. After being greeted by the seminarians we were all presented with leis, made out of lilies and roses. You could tell that they truly enjoyed us being there. Afterward we went to their assembly hall. We were officially greeted and some of their seminarians that put on a show for us and sang a couple of songs.

I really enjoyed seeing the dynamics of the seminary. At Morning Star College Seminary they have roughly 200 seminarians that are from 30 different diocese. They have men from all over. There are some from north India and others from the south. There are also others that are from China and Nepal. For this reason there are a number of different languages that are spoken throughout the seminary. Between all of the men there were at least ten. Now to communicate with each other they all speak English, but when they are around other men from their own diocese they speak in their native languages.

There are a number of differences between these men and ourselves. However, there are also many similarities. As their rector put it, we might all be from different backgrounds but it is Jesus Christ that brings us all together. Along with our Faith, many of the men enjoy playing sports, such as basketball. They also have soccer tournaments and play quite a bit a bad mitten. They all work hard at their studies and I talked to one seminarian that particularly enjoys studying logic. The biggest similarity that I saw was their joy and their camaraderie. The best part was to see how willing these men were to invite us into their life and their joy. It was great to hear about their families and why they were in studying for the priesthood. And even though we may have differed in some ways, ultimately our call to the priesthood and the joy that comes from that united us even though up until now we had lived worlds apart from one another.






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