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From our Pastoral Intern Eben MacDonald
So how did I first become a seminarian?
After my conversion experience in college and initial invitation to
consider priesthood, I worked up the courage to contact the vocations
office for the diocese back in Michigan where I was living at the time.
I met with the diocesan vocations director and started participating in
discernment events. As time passed, the seed of desire that had been
planted in me about priesthood became stronger and more intense. After
much prayer and discernment, I felt God was calling me to give this
priesthood thing a try, so I began the application process to become a
seminarian for the Diocese of Lansing, Michigan. I had to fill out a
range of documents including a lengthy questionnaire and application as
well as write an extensive, detailed autobiography. I also had to have a
complete medical physical exam, meet with a psychologist and take
various psychological tests, and interview with the diocesan admissions
team.
In the Fall of 1984, at the age of 21, I learned that I had been
accepted as a seminarian for of the Diocese of Lansing. The Diocese did
not have a college level seminary, but had a house of formation for
college seminarians in East Lansing, Michigan called Oak Street House. I
would be living in the house of formation and attending classes at
nearby Michigan State University to complete my undergraduate degree. In
the Winter semester of 1985 I moved into Oak Street. I lived with
several other seminarians along with a priest who served as rector. We
had meals together, daily Mass and prayer and attended classes at
Michigan State.
All was well at first, but after a while I felt unhappy for a variety of
reasons. I was homesick, and felt out of place; I didn’t feel that this
was where God wanted me to be. I consulted with my spiritual director
and spent much time in prayer asking for God’s guidance. I came to the
difficult decision to leave the seminary formation program. But God
wasn’t finished with me.
More to follow… |
