A Joyful Welcome: Family Day at Saint John's Seminary

A priestly vocation never begins at the doors of a seminary.

Long before a man enters Saint John’s Seminary, the Lord has already been at work through the people, places, and experiences that have shaped his life. For many seminarians, the first lessons in prayer, sacrifice, generosity, and love of Christ were learned in the family home. Family Day at Saint John’s offers an opportunity to recognize and give thanks for those who have helped make a vocation possible.

This past Sunday, September 20, the Seminary welcomed the families and friends of our seminarians for Mass, the Rite of Investiture, and a family brunch. Throughout the day, parents, grandparents, siblings, and friends gathered with seminarians, faculty, and staff—sharing a meal, visiting the campus, and seeing more closely the community in which their sons and brothers are being formed for priesthood.

The celebration also marked an important step in the formation of eleven seminarians who have completed the propaedeutic stage. Through the Rite of Investiture, they received the cassock as they entered the next stage of their formation at Saint John’s. More than a change of dress, the investiture marks a deeper commitment to conforming their lives to Christ and to discerning the call to serve His Church as priests. It also signifies their fuller incorporation into the life of the Seminary community.

Congratulations to:

• Mr. Aaron Beecher — Archdiocese of Boston
• Mr. Adam Chamberland — Diocese of Portland
• Mr. Quinn Cunningham — Archdiocese of Boston
• Mr. Nicholas Huegel — Diocese of Fall River
• Mr. Ryan Immerman — Archdiocese of Boston
• Mr. Michael Joy — Archdiocese of Boston
• Mr. David Leff — Diocese of Portland
• Mr. Thomas Pawlak — Diocese of Rochester
• Mr. Adam Sorrels — Archdiocese of Boston
• Mr. Benjamin Woodruff — Diocese of Rochester
• Mr. Daniel Zatta — Archdiocese of Boston

Yet the significance of Family Day reaches beyond the seminarians themselves. Saint John’s exists to prepare men for the priesthood, but priestly formation is never simply a matter of academic study or spiritual exercises. The Seminary seeks to form men who can give themselves generously to Christ and to His people—and that kind of self-giving is often first witnessed and learned within a family.

As Fr. Sullivan reflected, it is fitting that the Seminary celebrates the families of its students because “most of them first heard a call to follow the Lord while growing up in their family homes.” The family is, in the words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “the first school of Christian life,” where a person learns “endurance and the joy of work, fraternal love, generous—even repeated—forgiveness, and above all divine worship in prayer and the offering of one’s life” (CCC 1657).

These are precisely the virtues that priestly formation seeks to deepen and strengthen. At Saint John’s, the men entrusted to our care are being formed not simply to understand the teachings of the Church, but to embody them—to become men capable of generous self-gift, faithful to Christ, attentive to others, and ready to serve the people entrusted to them. The Seminary builds upon the foundations laid throughout each seminarian’s life, helping him discern how God is calling him to give those gifts in service of the Church.

This mission is beautifully reflected in the Gospel’s image of the vineyard. Jesus tells of a landowner who goes out throughout the day calling workers to labor in his vineyard: “You too go into my vineyard.” The call to labor for the Kingdom belongs to every baptized Christian, but it takes different forms. For the men at Saint John’s, the years of formation are a time of discerning and preparing for the particular mission of the priesthood—to become spiritual fathers who will proclaim the Gospel, celebrate the Sacraments, and accompany God’s people throughout their lives.

Family Day reminds us that this formation takes place within the wider life of the Church. The Seminary is a community of formation, but it is also part of a much larger network of families, parishes, dioceses, priests, bishops, and benefactors who accompany these men toward the altar. The support and witness of their families are among the many gifts that have brought them to Saint John’s, and their continued prayers remain an important part of their journey.

In welcoming those families to the Seminary, we are reminded of what lies at the heart of Saint John’s mission: to form men who are ready to give their lives in service of Christ and His Church. Family Day gives us the opportunity to celebrate the beginnings of that journey, the community that sustains it, and the hope of the priestly ministry toward which these men are being formed.

Pray With Us

As we give thanks for our seminarians and all those who accompany them in formation, we invite you to join us in prayer.

Send us a prayer intention.