Advice for Seminarians

The other day I met some seminarians who flattered me a bit by asking me if I had any advice for them as seminarians. They obviously knew who I was and were perhaps thinking of me as someone whose experiences in the parish, tempered by a desire for liturgical integrity, could provide them with some worthwhile counsel. And just then a bit of advice came to me that I did in fact give:

Show yourself a man.

That of course was David’s advice to his son Solomon about to take over as king of Israel. “I go the way of all the earth,” said he; “Be thou strong therefore, and shew thyself a man; and keep the charge of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest, and whithersoever thou turnest thyself: that the Lord may continue his word which he spake concerning me, saying, If thy children take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail thee (said he) a man on the throne of Israel.”

But that first word of counsel was all I repeated: Show yourself a man. As in, go forth with courage and determination not to turn aside from your duty. I also told this gaggle of seminarians that I remembered sitting in Kramer Chapel on the day of call service with my classmates preparing to take our first calls into the field, and thinking of us as soldiers of a kind, and the field as a field of battle. Soldiers in the Church Militant, fit with the armor of God.

Seminarians need to know that they are going to battle against the devil and his minions, as they go forth to deliver the goods to the people of God. Certainly the devil does not want that to happen, and therefore will not be idle against them. There will be tribulation and challenge. You must be prepared to take your stripes, I said (and perhaps they knew that I know well whereof I speak).

I also told them that I hope the seminary was telling them this too, for to withhold this from them isn’t doing them any favors. They need to know that through much tribulation we enter the kingdom of God.

The joys of the ministry are myriad, but there are also times of strife wherein the pastor will be wounded by the devil’s blows. And seminarians need to know this so that it doesn’t surprise them when it comes.

Jesus’ way of putting the matter is like this:  “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”

So, dear seminarians, Show yourselves men.