JOURNEYING WITH SEMINARIANS:The Heart of SGFS Mission

SGFS Community visits the seminarians during their Family Day event at Mundelein Seminary. In times like this, SGFS becomes the family of the seminarians who would otherwise not have no one to share this day with them.

When people ask us what our ministry is about?  We generally say that we foster Filipino seminarians and simply accompany them in their journey to ordination.  We make ourselves available to these young men who are fresh from the Philippines, although some have been in the USA for a longer time, to start their studies and formation to become priests in one of the dioceses of the United States.  But when you ask us for details of the things that we may have done with the seminarians over the twenty-four years that the Support Group has existed, we realize that we have done anything and everything to simply be there for these young men. 

WE CELEBRATE WITH THEM.  Many times, to foster seminarians had meant simply to celebrate the vocation that they have been called to live.  And we celebrate in the entire gamut of their experience, from simply taking them out to dinner after a long trying week of exams, or being there for them on their special occasions, standing as their family on the Family Day Weekend at Mundelein Seminary, or being there with them on the day that they are invested with minor orders until they get ordained as transitional deacons and priests.  We have travelled to their dioceses and met their bishops on the great day of their ordinations and received thanks from their priests and bishops for being there as family to these seminarians.  Most of the time, it would be enough joy in the moment when we receive a phone call from one of them telling us that they have returned from their studies in the Holy Land, or if they heard from their family in the Philippines.  Nothing is too big or too small for us not to celebrate with them the joys of the journey into their priesthood. 

WE CRY WITH THEM.  While it is easy and all so convenient to simply be happy with them, we have also found ourselves involved in the greatest struggles of their formation.  Accompanying them meant that we are there in both the good and the ugly, and there have been some really ugly and difficult times.  We have cried with them over news of sickness and death in their family.  We have cried with them in their frustrations over their formation experiences, or issues in their community.  We have cried along when one of them found out that his sponsorship from his diocese was being cancelled, and he had to return to the Philippines to figure out his next steps.  And then, we cry joyful tears when we heard that he was coming back to be a seminarian for another diocese.  Every story is different, every sorrow personal.  Most of the time, we had no words to offer to make things easier or to solve their problems, but we were simply there to let them know that they are not alone, even though their loved ones may be so far away. 

WE PRAY FOR THEM AND WITH THEM.  Over the years, as communication became easier, praying for their specific intentions might mean simply sending a text message.  They ask one of us to pray for an intention, and we ask the rest of our small community to pray along.  We pray knowing that this is our best contribution.  We always pray for them individually and collectively, aware of keeping sacred the trust that they given us for these prayer intentions. 

WE PROVIDE SOME FINANCIAL AND MATERIAL GIFTS.  In the USA, the dioceses that sponsor these seminarians are the ones who pay their tuition and board and lodging.  Our support group has always been through the years a humble team with minimal resources.  We have been able to provide some pocket money for their incidentals that they can use to buy their books, or to have money to hang out with fellow seminarians when they decide to go to the movies or bowling or eat out.  Those social events are important for them to relate to the rest of the seminary community.  When they just arrive in the country, we also make sure that they have provisions for the grueling winter months of Lake County.  And when they are getting ready for ordination, we know that they would need donors to help them procure their ordination sets, from albs and vestments to books and mass kits, chalice and other priestly implements.  We never give them much, because we do not have much.  But the little we have had over the years has never run out, as we faithfully sent them consistently these little tokens of our care. 

WE OFFER THEM A HOME AWAY FROM HOME.  Especially during short breaks and national holidays, the seminarians might have a day or two to spend away from the seminary.  During these times, some of our homes become their short-term homes away from home.  Over the years, the Salgado residence in Bloomingdale was an overnight destination for seminarians during thanksgiving holidays or short quarter-end breaks.  Recently, Fr. Sunny has been able to provide a getaway place for the seminarians, to the delight of his parishioners in Elmhurst.  These are times when we just allow them to be, disregarding our agenda to have activities, but simply for them to move through the day in their own pace – a later start in the morning, a languid day of reading, a time of quietness in their casual, everyday clothes, or a plan-free afternoon over coffee and television.  During these times, they get to taste Filipino food, especially because Jun Salgado has always been enthused to cook their favorite beef caldereta or tuyo (dried fish) with vinegar.  Every once in a while, we might get treated with some very profound conversations about faith, life, the Church and the world between slices of mango cake or bibingka.  During these times, we let the Spirit move as they find a place to be home, and the Spirit never disappoints. 

AND, WE SIMPLY OFFER LIFELONG FRIENDSHIP.  In a couple of cases, we journeyed with seminarians who were already orphans.  We were introduced at their ordination as their parents and family.  But in all cases, we have simply offered them moral support, companionship, friendship!  And although the commitment of the ministry is to journey with them to ordination and foster them during those years of preparation for ministry, the seminarians would end up being ordained and becoming our lifelong friends themselves.  Many of them may have returned to their own dioceses and are now serving as priests, but even after so many years, they have remained in touch.  One of them is now our spiritual director in the support group.  Another one joined us in our mission trip to the Philippines.  Another one welcomed us in Eastern Spain, where he is now assigned, after he transitioned into his religious community.  We have been visited over the years by priests from Tucson, Arizona where many of our seminarians are now priests.  We have enjoyed a recent visit to one of them who has said yes to a higher calling by joining the Norbertines in California.  We have driven to Davenport many times to visit one of them, now a priest for a few mission stations.  They have also returned to some of our events and are now also helping the cause of our ministry, through their own parishes.  We still hear about their joys, sorrows, successes, and tribulations in ministry.  They would never fail to drop by and spend time to reminisce their beginnings when we walked hand in hand with them in those tender years of seminary life.  And we still simply pray for them because they still convey their deep trust by asking us to pray with them and for them. 

Yes indeed, journeying with seminarians is at the heart of what we do as the Support Group for Filipino Seminarians – USA.  The Lord continues to send seminarians our way.  Last year, School Year 2022-2023, we had five seminarians, each with his own story to tell, and a unique milestone to celebrate and grapple with.  Even during the pandemic, we got to celebrate with a few who got ordained.   Their number differs year after year, but there has never been a year when we had no one to journey with.  A few of them have not made it to ordination, but we believe that God has still given them a piece of our mission somewhere in the world. 

We believe that at the heart of our ministry, we have made ourselves available to be used by the Lord to “serve those who will serve.”  And as we do so in our own little way, a ripple of grace and inspiration may reach the hearts and souls of those who are willing to journey along with us.  We are humbled to be part of this story.  God is good.  To Him be the glory!