By Fr. Brian Kane
Rector, St. Gregory the Great Seminary;
Director of Seminarians
“He was my Totus Tuus leader!” exclaimed a grade school student I met this summer. As I travel around the diocese, when I mention that I work with our seminarians, one of the first things I hear are the names of the seminarians the students have met at their parish or on Totus Tuus or at Camp Kateri.
It is exciting to see the impact our seminarians have during their various summer assignments. Seminary formation programs run on a regular college schedule, which allows us to give them important pastoral experiences for a few months each year.
This summer, we have 26 Lincoln seminarians engaged in different apostolates and work opportunities across the Diocese of Lincoln. Several are counselors in the Totus Tuus (Latin for “Totally Yours”) weekly summer parish catechetical program, and at Camp Kateri in McCool Junction, assisting with SKY Camp and Leadership Camp. There is always a presence of seminarians on the annual diocesan canoe trip on the Niobrara River.
Three seminarians are studying Spanish in Guatemala, others are working at the Marian Center and Our Lady of Good Counsel Retreat House in Waverly, the Chancery in Lincoln and St. Gregory the Great Seminary in Seward. Two seminarians participated in the Institute for Priestly Formation (IPF) program in Omaha, on the campus of Creighton University.
All of the seminarians and transitional deacons who are in their final years of formation receive a parish assignment, during which they assist and shadow the pastor, learning important pastoral skills and experiencing parish life while living in a rectory.
I remember my summer assignments as being a great time to take a break from classroom learning and enter into the “field hospital,” as Pope Francis referred to the world, in which priests are called to serve.
Reflecting on his summer assignment, one of our seminarians—who was on a Totus Tuus team—said, “This experience gave me a chance to live out the meaning of Totus Tuus: to belong totally to Jesus through Mary. Embracing this summer gave me the chance to live out what the seminary’s propaedeutic year taught me: a time to use the tools and gifts we had been given. In my reflection this summer, I’ve been able to see the positive change and spiritual fruits that my first year in the seminary have given me.”
Another seminarian, who has been working as a counselor at Camp Kateri, said, “The biggest grace of working at the camp has been the gift of working with the youth of our diocese. I give all the credit to Jesus, Mary, and Joseph as they have helped our families and our Catholic schools from across the diocese form some amazing kids. I am filled with so much hope for the future of the Church! God is raising up great saints all around us.”
One of the seminarians studying Spanish in Guatemala commented that “this is such a different place; we have been learning a lot about the culture and the language. I’m able to have conversations in Spanish and am surrounded by such faithful people.”
It is inspiring to hear our two transitional deacons talk about the babies they have baptized and the preaching and teaching they have the opportunity to do each day at their parish assignments.
Summer is an important time in the formation of our future priests and in their process of discernment. Please continue to keep them in your prayers. It is my hope that you will meet them in their travels and see them in action.
