May 22, 2014
by MOSAIC Editorial Team
Each spring, Sacred Heart's second-year graduate seminarians make a four-week spiritual pilgrimage to either the Holy Land or to the holy shrines of Europe. This Desert Formation Experience is a unique and unrepeatable opportunity for seminarians to discern more deeply their sacred calling to the priesthood.
On Wednesday, April 30, eighteen seminarians received a blessing from rector Msgr. Todd Lajiness and departed from Detroit to begin their pilgrimage of faith and formation. This year, they traveled with formation directors Fr. Gerard Battersby and Msgr. Daniel Trapp to the holy sites of the Holy Land, to walk in the footsteps of the Jesus seeking his wisdom and inspiration.
Highlights of the pilgrimage were visits to The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Temple Mount, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Basilica of the Annunciation, and the traditional baptismal site of Jesus at the Jordan River. The seminarians ended their journey on Friday, May 30, after spending three days in the holy city of Rome that included a visit to Assisi and attending a Wednesday audience with Pope Francis.
Each day, the pilgrims celebrated Mass and prayed for the Desert Formation Experience benefactors. They also received regular spiritual talks given by the formators. And each day was in no way like a vacation or a leisurely guided tour, but instead had its trials along the way (as a pilgrimage is meant to be). As one seminarian expressed, It was thirty days of sweat, pain, lack of personal space, headaches, stomachaches, dehydration, sore muscles, sleep deprivation, living out of a suitcase, constant travel . . . and death to self.
And that is the point. The intention of the Desert Formation Experience is for the seminarians to understand more profoundly how the priesthood is essentially a call to conversion and a pilgrimage of faith. They are being called to walk in union with Jesus and his Church at whatever the cost.
Seminarian Tony Smela summarizes the thoughts of the returning men when he writes, The way we pray will never be the same. The way we experience our faith will never be the same. The way we read Scripture will never be the same. Israel and Rome will never leave us.
The eighteen pilgrims shared their day-to-day experiences through their blog shmsdesert.blogspot.com. You are invited to experience along with them their ongoing insights along this spiritual adventure. Don't be surprised if Scripture comes alive more vividly for you as it did for these good men.
MOSAIC Editorial Team