I began my career in ministry back in 1981, teaching in a high-school seminary in Chicago. It was always my quest to find a good video on priestly vocations to show to the young men in my classes; however the options were usually slim. Since that time, there have been a number of videos produced on the topic of priestly vocations—some better than others—but they still tend to exhibit one of the following shortcomings:
- They try to be too “hip.”
- They make the priesthood overly dramatic, with the priest moving in slow motion with a dark background, a smoke machine, and music that sounds like it’s from Star Wars.
- They present seminarians and priests as “lone rangers” who have concluded the world is a rat race and have taken the road less-traveled—thus implying that the rest of us lay folks have taken the easy road but are stuck in meaningless positions in life.
I was delighted to come across a new video put together by two recently ordained priests who filmed it during their final year at Mundelein Seminary/University of St. Mary of the Lake—the seminary for the Archdiocese of Chicago. It was brought to my attention by Fr. Matt Litak, the associate pastor of my home parish, Christ the King (Chicago), who is a classmate of the two filmmaker priests. I think the video does a nice job of showing what life in the seminary is like, not taking itself too seriously, portraying the seminarians as just everyday guys, highlighting the importance of discernment, presenting the priesthood as an attractive choice without elevating it so far above the lay vocation, and highlighting ordination day. I think this video would go over well with young men in junior high, high school, college, and young adulthood.
Let me know what you think.
God calls us to holiness through living out our vocations, a theme explored in Christ Our Life, Grade 5, Unit 4.
I’m going to share this with my DRE. I think it shows a good variety of men who are discerning their vocation and that they are like all of us in the activities they enjoy – skateboarding, playing basketball, working out, playing music, drawing, etc. It also shows that some still have their doubts about God’s will for their lives and that it is alright to decide it’s not for them. But in any case, they all seemed to agree that it was a good life experience and will help them in their chosen vocation.
Love It! It’s Real, and it shows men considering the priesthood as regular people.
Love it! I think it shows a great snap shot of seminary life in this era. Great job! We plan on showing it to our young men here.
This video was terrific – spot on. Thank you for bringing it to our attention.
Wow! A fabulous video! Thank you so much! It was great to see these young men having fun and being themselves in the seminary on the way to becoming a priest. All young men in every parish should see this!