Hi everybody, I’m doing this as a bulk mail since so many of you have asked about what’s been going on. Please feel free to forward it to anybody that might have missed it and let me know so I can forward future ones. I moved down to the seminary in Mt Angel, Oregon this last week and have been in orientation; so I haven’t started my classes yet. Most of the guys haven’t moved in – the only people here now are this years new guys. We’ve been attending seminars and doing a lot of acclimating to the seminary life as well as paperwork, getting classes scheduled, etc. I have my new address and phone number; please feel free to mail or call anytime! Matt Fife Don’t put Mt Angel anywhere on the mailing address – it’ll get delivered to the town nearby. We have our own zip code – pretty cool no? The environment here is amazing. There is a whole order of Benedictine monks up here running the abbey. Besides the Benedictines, there are lots of other religious orders up here – Carmelites, Missionaries of the Holy Spirit, Franciscans, etc. So, there are lots of guys walking around in robes and priests to boot. Every mass has around 5 celebrants. There are guys here from all over the west coast of the US, as well as internationally from Mexico, Samoa, and the rest of the world. In all, there are around 200 guys up here on the hill and about 100 others in religious communities that live off the hill in their own houses and come up for classes. There are also a bunch of lay people, priest and religious that come up for retreats and visits. It’s a pretty active place; but surprisingly about 1000 times more serine and peaceful than anyplace I’ve ever been. We start by attending mass every morning, saying Morning Prayer (invitatory) together, and then attending tons of seminars closing with evening prayer (vespers) together. On Monday we had a lot of free time to relax, we attended vespers with the monks and learned how to sing chant with them (anyone is welcome to come up and join in). All the new seminarians got together and we shared our stories of how we got here. Even though we had many different paths, there were so many common themes and we found ourselves nodding through many of the stories – a real affirmation. The guys up here are really, really amazing. They are about the most diverse group you’ve ever met, from every walk of life and ages from 18-45. Truly, truly amazing people that have given up houses, doctors who gave up practices, lawyers that gave away homes, etc. It’s a real experience just meeting them and hearing their stories. They divide the formation into 4 distinct focuses: academics (heavy in philosophy, theology and arts), spiritual formation (prayer life, relationship with God), personal formation (growing as a healthy, responsible person), and vocation discernment (i.e. are you called to the priesthood). They’re really focused on making sure this is the right place for you spiritually, emotionally and developmentally. It’s a place great focus on maturing in all aspects of your life – they have lots of amazing, amazing counselors to help you in each of these areas. This whole-istic approach is much tougher than it sounds – because it requires you to really sift through who you are and confront all of those areas that are ‘stuck’ and then bringing God into helping you grow. That growth is something I’m really, really looking forward to. You take a good hard look at all the aspects of your life and all of the influences on it you’ve had: your family, culture, upbringing, relationships, personality, etc. It’s all about diving into who you are and finding out your true self and true calling. I’m learning this is the real power of this place – by scraping through the fluff in your life and really, really getting to the core of whom you are. The idea is that you cannot help others until you yourself are a healthy, well-rounded person truly in touch with what you’re about. The seminary has a very structured environment; designed to make you focus only on these questions of yourself. The rigorous structure is one of the things that I was most apprehensive about – but it turns out that’s one of the things I’m beginning to really like (ask me about this in 6 months and we’ll see if it sticks). They have been very laxed this week to help ease us into monastic life; but we are learning about it. We aren’t permitted to leave the hilltop without permission and leaving overnight requires a near act of God. There is a pretty strict dress code (no shorts, blue jeans, t-shirts, tennis shoes, etc – only kakis and polo shirts or better). On Sunday’s we’re required to wear clerics (yup, all black with the white collar) – even though we’re not ordained. We’re required to do community work each week (sometimes daily) where we all sign up for a job and do it throughout the year (sound familiar family?). We do weekly work at parishes off the hill – everything from teaching classes, to visiting retirement communities, to helping at mental institutions. They have evenings of quiet, recollection and other special events. Rooms are way dinky. I’m currently living in a room that’s about 10’ x 10’ square. It’s funny how much stuff you’ll get rid of and be ok with if you need to. Even with all this going on, you’ve never met a happier group of guys on a whole – including me. It’s definitely different than corporate life; but in a good and healthy way from what I’ve seen. I still have apprehensions about this year – but I’m very, very, very happy I made the choice and know this is where I should be now. I have a lot of adjusting to do; but all of it seems like kind I’ve really wanted to make. The tremendous focus this place puts on your growth and on what’s truly happening in yourself by stripping away all the chatter is amazing. The support for this kind of growth is amazing. I already count myself as blessed to have been given the opportunity to experience this much of it. Will I make it?? I don’t even have the first clue – and that doesn’t matter to me. I have to say that I believe I’ve found something truly wonderful and am chomping at the bit to dive even further into it. I feel like I’ve grown a ton just in the four day’s I’ve been here. If I could summarize what I’ve learned it would be this: I know now that I have never looked at myself as deeply as this place is making me look. I know that I’m happy to be seeing these things in myself – even if they are hard to see – because I’m growing like I’ve never grown before. I know I’m madly in love with and thankful to God for what he’s given me. I’m ready to follow Him and find out what He wants of me – whether it is the priesthood or not. I know I’m happy right now. As a reminder for those of you in the area; Oktoberfest in Mt Angel is September 13th – Sunday the 16th. You can come up to visit during the weekdays, and there’s a good chance I’ll be able to get off the hill on Saturday the 15th. I do have some sort of picture taking thing at some point during that day. Please let me know if you’d like to come up for a visit. They’ll be having events up here on the hill if any of you’d like to come up. You can join in or listen to the monks sing vespers (way fun), attend mass with the seminarians, etc. Everyone is welcome (yes, women too.J) Just send email and/or call me anytime. I’ll probably be in Portland this Saturday afternoon, but only for part of the day and that will be filled up with lots of errand running. Let me know if you’ll be around for lunch or the like. That’s the story so far. I’ll be sure to send out another update here when classes start. God bless, |