On striving for spiritual perfection and the ‘Year of the Priest’

This past week I had the wonderful opportunity of visiting our seminarians who are studying at St. John Vianney College Seminary in St. Paul, Minn. The Archdiocese of Denver has eight young men who are engaged in undergraduate studies at St. John Vianney College Seminary.

Situated on the campus of the University of St. Thomas, the seminarians fondly refer to the college seminary as “SJV North” or “Jack Junior,” not to be confused with our own St. John Vianney Theological Seminary here in Denver, where these men, God willing, will eventually receive their theological training in preparation for holy orders. Altogether, the Archdiocese of Denver is blessed to have 78 men, in various stages of formation, studying for the priesthood.

St. John Vianney College Seminary is home to more than 150 seminarians who come from 26 different archdioceses and dioceses from across the United States. Enrollment at “Jack Junior” has grown from 70 men in 2002 to 150 in the current academic year, an increase of over 100 percent in less than 10 years. They have literally outgrown their seminary chapel, having now to set up chairs in the vestibule for every Mass.

Not unlike other seminaries today that are intentionally centered on Christ in the holy Eucharist, that cultivate a true devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus and Mother of the Church, and that are unabashedly Catholic, loyal and faithful to the magisterium of the Church; St. John Vianney College Seminary has experienced tremendous growth in the past decade. The seminary claims to form men who are “Men in Christ, Men of the Church and Men for Others.” I found this to be true in every way.

The seminarians begin each day on their knees with a eucharistic Holy Hour and Morning Prayer at 6 a.m., followed by the community celebration of the holy Eucharist. With the right balance of prayer, academic study, charitable service to the local community and fraternal support, these men see their life in the seminary and vocation to the priesthood as a great and heroic adventure. In the words of their fine rector, Father William Baer, these men “see God and the Church as central to their lives, and they see a world around them that needs Jesus Christ, that desperately needs the Gospel of Christ and the graces that only the Church can offer.”

On March 16 of this year, Pope Benedict XVI, announced a special “Year of the Priest” in honor of the 150th anniversary of the death of the saintly Cure d’Ars, John Mary Vianney, patron of parish priests. Our Holy Father writes that this year, which will begin on June 19, 2009, feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and will last until June 19, 2010, is established “precisely to encourage priests in striving for spiritual perfection on which, above all, the effectiveness of their ministry depends.”

Here in the Archdiocese of Denver, I have been asked by Archbishop Chaput to chair a planning committee which will help coordinate various spiritual and pastoral initiatives in order to answer our Holy Father’s desire to celebrate this special “Year of the Priest.” We will also be inviting the lay faithful of the archdiocese to help us celebrate this special year and, most of all, to pray for our priests.

This coming Sunday, May 3, the Fourth Sunday of Easter, will be the 46th World Day of Prayer for Vocations to the priesthood and to the consecrated life. By our baptism in Christ, we are all called to lives of holiness; each one of us is called to be a saint, according to our vocation in life. God calls some, however, to be unique witnesses, through priesthood and consecrated life. Pope Benedict XVI in his message for this year’s World Day of Prayer invites all the people of God to prayerfully reflect on this year’s theme: “Faith in the divine initiative—the human response.”  He reminds us that Mary, the Virgin of Nazareth, is our model. Imitating the Virgin Mary, whom all generations proclaim as blessed because she trusted and believed, “commit yourselves,” urges the Holy Father, “with every spiritual energy, to realize the heavenly Father’s plan of salvation, cultivating in your heart, like her, the ability to be astonished and to adore him who is might and does ‘great things,’ for holy is his name” (Lk 1:48-49).