Borromeo Seminary

It is our hope to raise $5,000 to purchase new music equipment to provide incredible opportunities to help us grow and develop the gifts we have received while making available for any seminarian who wishes to share his musical gifts.

The identity to be fostered in the seminarian is that he becomes a man of communion, that is, someone who makes a gift of himself and is able to receive the gifts of others. (Program for Priestly Formation, Paragraph 202).

One of the great gifts of the call to the priesthood is that God does not ask us to leave behind the talents and passions that make us who we are. Rather, He invites those discerning the priesthood to bring their gifts to Him, so that they may be transformed into instruments of evangelization, drawing others into relationship with Him. While the call to priesthood certainly involves deep prayer and rigorous academic formation (and it does), the Church also invites seminarians to bring their whole selves – with all their gifts and abilities – into this call to serve.

Through this invitation, and through the generosity of benefactors of the #WeGiveCatholic initiative, it is our hope to raise $5,000 to purchase new music equipment to provide incredible opportunities to help us grow and develop the gifts we have received while making available for any seminarian who wishes to share his musical gifts. This addition not only enriches our community life but also provides a way to express beauty and joy through music – both powerful means of evangelization. In this way, what begins as a personal talent becomes a shared blessing, forming in us the kind of men who can give themselves more fully to the people of God.

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Who We Are

Formation and the Seminary Today:
In the past three decades, some major changes were made by Rome and the United States Conference of Bishops that impact how seminaries understand the formation process. Formation is now viewed in phases, personal benchmarks that must be achieved before he moves to the next level. These benchmarks contain human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral elements that require integration throughout the time spent in formation. Like the past model of formation, there is a certain gradualism in the process that allows each seminarian to mature at his own pace. However, today there is a more personalized map that each seminarian must begin to prepare for himself. What does this map look like? In these years of formation, the seminarian is called to embrace his personal humanity. This includes self-knowledge of his gifts as well as areas that need further growth. He becomes vulnerable in the process and at that same time transparent with a spiritual director and formation advisor (a public life coach) who mentors him. He must learn how to interact with others in the marketplace and field hospitals of the city. He engages the culture of today. He is exposed to the beauty of music and art by attending concerts and visiting art museums. He travels and appreciates ethnic diversity, partakes in unfamiliar cuisine, and is subjected to ideas that stretch him outside of his comfort zone. He learns how to debate with his peers through the lens of the gospel. The seminarian embraces a healthy lifestyle through diet and exercise. He plays intermural sports and has a daily workout routine to balance his study and prayer time. He learns to be a well-rounded Christian man who is prepared to lay down his life for sake of the Gospel in order to be all things to all people in Christ.