This month I find myself reflecting on two visits that have already begun to shape the life of our seminary community: the visit of the good people and priests of St. Columbkille Parish to St. John’s Seminary, and our own visit to St. Mary of the Assumption Parish. Both encounters left a deep and lasting impression on us.
What stood out most was the simple joy of recognition. At St. Columbkille, parishioners walked our halls, joined us at Mass and for a Rosary procession, and spoke with seminarians as if greeting sons or brothers. At St. Mary’s, our men experienced again the warmth of a living parish — families, elderly faithful, and a pastor who opened his heart and his parish to them. Conversations after both visits revealed the same theme: parishioners felt encouraged to meet the men preparing to serve them, and the seminarians felt the concrete reality of the people whose spiritual needs will one day be entrusted to them.
We are beginning these visits deliberately because we know that seminary formation can never be an island.
Our men are being prepared not for some sort of abstract ministry, but for the concrete life of the local Church, the very parishes our alumni already serve with generosity and fidelity. I hope and pray these encounters foster a living bond of prayer, an affection, and a mutual support system between St. John’s and the parishes of our dioceses. They remind us that the seminary exists for the God’s people and those people have a real stake in the formation of their future priests!
For me, these visits reveal the essential link between seminary formation and parish life.
Classroom theology, the rhythm of the sacred liturgy, and the discipline of fraternity all find their purpose in the faces of the faithful. When a man in seminary formation hears a mother speak of her hope for her children, or listens to an elderly parishioner describe a lifetime of fidelity, his understanding of priesthood is quietly transformed. He begins to see more clearly the men and women he will one day serve as a spiritual father—their joys, their burdens, their need for the Sacraments, and their hunger for Jesus Christ.
As we mark the end of October and enter the Church’s period of prayer for the faithful departed, we do so with special gratitude. In the seminary’s Book of Remembrance we have been inscribing the names of those who have gone before us in faith — benefactors, alumni, parents, and friends.
Beginning on All Souls Day and throughout the days of November we entrust them and the souls of all the faithful departed to the mercy of God.
May the faith of those who have gone before us, together with your own generous faith, continue to inspire these men, many of whom will one day give their lives in priestly service
With gratitude for your friendship and support,
Bishop Robert Reed
Rector
Saint John's Seminary
Most Reverend Robert P. Reed
Bishop Robert P. Reed, a native of Boston, was born in 1959 to the late William and Jeanne Reed, the youngest of five children. He received his early education at St. John’s Preparatory School in Danvers, Massachusetts, before beginning his priestly formation at St. John Seminary in Brighton. He continued his studies in Rome at the Pontifical North American College, earning advanced degrees from the Pontifical Gregorian University and the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum).
In addition to his theological training, Bishop Reed pursued studies in television management at Boston University’s College of Communication, blending his pastoral calling with a deep interest in television and digital media.
Ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Boston in 1985, he served as pastor of seven parishes over the course of his ministry. In 2016, he was consecrated a bishop and appointed Regional Bishop for the West Region of the Archdiocese of Boston.
Bishop Reed is President of The CatholicTV Network and CEO of its parent organization, iCatholic Media, Inc., which encompasses a parish bulletin service, a printing company, and The Pilot—the nation’s oldest continuously published Catholic newspaper.
He previously chaired the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Communications and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Catholic Relief Services (CRS) as well as the Board of Governors for the Pontifical North American College in Rome.
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