Keeping Our Seminarians in Our Prayers as a Catholic School

What happens when you have a priest or nun in your classroom??

When priests visit classrooms, I notice that everyone sits up straighter, pays more attention, and is always on their best behavior.?

There's a sense of excitement, nervousness, and everything in between. But it's always great to have our priests and nuns in our classrooms to visit or, if we are blessed, to teach our kids.?

But that wasn't what I meant by my initial question.?

I am talking about your students.?

Yes, in your classrooms and schools, there is a good possibility you have someone who feels God is calling them to life as a priest or a religious order.?

A vocation.?

So I ask my question again differently: what happens when you have a student in your classroom who feels God is calling them to a vocation as a priest or in a religious order??

Further, what are we as schools doing once someone has entered the seminary or schooling to follow that calling from God?

For this article, I will focus on our seminarians—those men studying and discerning the vocation of the priesthood.?

We would get postcards from our diocese with pictures of the men in seminary discerning the priesthood and asking us to pray for them each year. The postcard might tell you where they are from, what college they are attending, or maybe what year they are in their discernment.?

These are fantastic, as they allow us to send home a photo of all of our seminarians for families to see and pray for each night. By seeing the faces of the men on the cards, they became people our families could see and know, and they were more than just names.?

But what about us as schools? What are we doing to support our seminarians??

Here are some great ideas to support your seminarians in your diocese.?

Adopt a Seminarian:?This was an excellent opportunity for the school to allow the students to get to know a seminarian better and invite the seminarian to get to know a specific group of students personally.?

Each classroom (or homeroom) was assigned a seminarian. I asked the diocese for headshots of all the seminarians and any information they could share, such as their birthdays. The classroom (homeroom) received an 8x11 picture of the seminarian to put in their classroom. Each day, during morning prayer, they remembered that specific seminarian by name in their prayers.?

Additionally, students could make a card or write a letter to their adopted seminarian for support and encouragement if they had free time. Classes might choose to send a care package at Christmas, including some goodies or swag for the seminarian.?

What has been great for me is that seminarians who have gone on to be ordained as students still recognize priests as the seminarians their class adopted during a particular year. These reactions always bring a big smile to my face!

Zoom Calls with Seminarians.?Some seminarians could do a Zoom call with the classes to interact, answer questions, and pray together. The calls would allow them to see the value of Catholic education before their ordination day, which would help build strong schools in the future.?

The students' questions for the seminarians were always fantastic, especially in our younger grades! They brought many smiles and encouraged these young men as they completed their studies at the seminary.

If your school has a journalism class or a morning news show, the opportunity to invite a seminarian to be interviewed for the morning broadcast and play pieces of the interview each day for the week is a big hit for our students. Asking them questions like their favorite sports teams, who they think will win an upcoming sporting event, or who their favorite musical group/artist is, in addition to who their favorite saint is, will get your students engaged in their lives on a personal basis.?

One of the things we would remind our students is this: One day, your seminarian might be the person who marries you or baptizes your child, which makes it very relatable for them.?

Pray for a Seminarian on Your Morning Announcements Each Day.?Like many schools, your school likely makes morning announcements, complete with the pledge and prayers. You may recognize your students' birthdays. How about adding an item to your daily announcements by praying for a seminarian as a school?

Before the year starts, map out which seminarian your school will pray for each week. On the morning announcements, be sure that the school keeps that seminarian in their prayers during that week.

A great follow-up to this is to send the seminarian of the week a card or letter from you, as the principal, letting them know that your school prayed for them by name during the week's morning announcements. It's also a great way to include a bumper, sticker, pen, or any other small swag items you may have to send them as a token of remembering your school.

Invite a Seminarian to Be Involved in Things at Your School.?Some of our schools and parishes are blessed enough to have seminarians stationed at the parish for a designated period. One reason for this is to allow them to see the many workings of a church and the responsibilities they will have as future priests. Our Catholic schools should certainly be something. They get to be part of it during their time at the parish.

There are many opportunities for these men to be involved with the school in small ways, as well as more significant ways, based upon the vision of your church pastor. Examples of this include:

• Being at your school Mass each week.
• Setting up time for them to visit classrooms and interact with students.
• Making them part of special evening events by giving them a special invitation.
• Offer them the opportunity to teach an elective class for your students.

Working with your pastor can ensure that a seminarian assigned to your parish leaves with a great experience from your Catholic school.

Swag Bags.?Everyone likes swag! I am talking about T-shirts, car magnets, bumper stickers, pens, pencils, coffee mugs, or anything your school has that promotes your brand. Swag is an excellent opportunity to put together a little swag bag and send it to your seminarians, perhaps on their birthday, around Christmas time, or at other random points of the year to let them know you were thinking about them.

It's also an excellent way for them to keep your school community in their prayers each time they see the swag you send them. School gear and branding will open up a great partnership between the school and parish communities in the future!

Bonus Idea: Vocations Chalice or Statue.?Each week, a class or homeroom can have the traveling chalice or statue to take back to their respective classroom to keep vocations at the center of their hearts that week. For example, one school used a statue of St. John Vianney, while another had a vocation chalice. After Mass, before students left the church, four students would come forward. Two of them represented the class that had the statue last week, with two others representing the class receiving it.?

As a school principal, I would lead the prayer each week, which usually took about 30-45 seconds, and then have students from the first class hand the statue off to the students in the second class. Consider two statues if you have upper and lower grades at your school. Our seminarians can always have a few more prayers!?

There are many ways to support the seminarians of each respective diocese. I have given you a few ideas and suggestions for things I have used or seen done at schools, but the most important thing is that we support our seminarians!?

What creative ways has your school approached supporting seminarians in your diocese??