Young men encounter Experience With God’s Call

Encounter With God’s Call gave young men a glimpse into life as a seminarian and to discern God’s calling in their lives.

Encounter With God’s Call is a seminary discernment experience for high school juniors through recent college graduates (ages 16-25). During Encounter, the participants further discern the call to priesthood and learn about college seminary life. Throughout the weekend, participants pray, meet, and relax with seminarians. Together we all seek to listen for God’s voice and our call.

Jesse Ochs, seminarian and co-chair of the seminary vocations committee wrote the following reflection on Encounter With God’s Call. 

Encounter With God’s Call (April 14-16) was a busy, yet fruitful weekend at Conception. We hosted approximately 50 young men who courageously discerned coming to Conception Seminary College.

These young men engaged in a variety of activities, including group talks, personal prayer time, Adoration, Reconciliation, and more. They participated in the Liturgy of the Hours with Conception seminarians and had the opportunity to meet with them and ask them questions. Seminarians also gave talks on the joys and challenges of discernment and seminary life, and Fr. Brian O’Brien from the Diocese of Tulsa gave his input on what parish life is like for a priest. The seminarians and Fr. O’Brien then sat on a vocations question-and-answer panel, and the young men who came were given the opportunity to ask questions regarding anything about the priesthood or seminary in general.

Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate as we would have liked, with temperatures dropping into the 30s and 40s, with snow on Saturday and Sunday. Despite the lack of cooperation from Mother Nature, we were able to continue with most of our activities except for the Eucharistic Procession. In place of the Procession, we added spiritual trivia to the agenda, and the young men seemed to enjoy testing their spiritual knowledge.

The young men experienced the fact that seminarians are just normal people who like to have fun and relax by engaging in two socials and playing sports and games on Saturday evening.

On Monday morning, those who were still in Conception awoke early and went to Mass at 6:45 a.m. They then attended classes and went to a session focused on spiritual direction. This session was a “pilot” program, as well. Overall, the Encounter weekend was a blessed time full of God’s love and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Click here for the event’s Facebook photo album.