The Rectory Life

Over the past week, I have had the pleasure of staying at St. Sebastian Catholic Church in Akron, OH. I will be living here until I move into seminary in just a couple of weeks. It has been nothing short of a joy and a blessing. I currently am living with two other seminarians and two priests.

Each morning, I wake up to my alarm, freshen up, put on my cassock, and descend to the sacristy. Starting off the day with morning prayer and the holy sacrifice of the mass really is easy when you live a 30 second walk from the church.

Over the past week, I have had the pleasure of sitting down with many priests and pastors from the Diocese. I didn’t expect to be so excited about being back home. I thought that I would have suffered more “home sickness” from leaving Columbus. This diocese has a wonderful fraternity of priests who know how to live fully alive as humans. One day last week, the rectory got breakfast and went swimming at a local deacon’s pool. How much more normal can a group of guys get?

So far, my favorite liturgical occasion that I have participated in is Tuesday evening benediction + compline. Most of it is chanted, and it is simply beautiful. I wouldn’t know most of the basic latin hymns such as the O Salutaris, Tantum Ergo, or Salve Regina without consistently attending services like this at Ohio State.

I hope more parishes start doing a public celebration of the liturgy of the hours as the Second Vatican Council states in Sacrosanctum Concilium. I understand that not every parish has the capacity to do it, but certainly St Sebastian’s does. The running joke is that it takes 12 guys to serve benediction because the sacristy continues to grow. We were able to get all four of the incoming pre-theology men to serve together tonight.