Mission Trips Highlight Christmas Break for Seminarians
While many of our seminarians enjoyed a long Christmas holiday break, seniors and first-year seminarians spent a part of that time on the mission field.
Two groups of seniors traveled in December and January to Esquipulas, Guatemala, for their Senior Immersion Mission trip. First-year seminarians, as well as some seniors, traveled to Brownsville, Texas in January for the Propaedeutic Border Immersion Mission trip.
Seminarians enrolled in SJSC’s Propaedeutic Program are freshmen and first-year pre-theology students. The program, mandated by the sixth edition of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Program of Priestly Formation, or PPF, is an introductory stage to priestly formation focused on human and spiritual development.
The trip to Guatemala included time spent visiting and ministering with village residents, visiting an orphanage and playing with the children, visiting a nursing home and celebrating Mass with residents, working in community gardens, and touring local churches and other sites. Seminarians spent both weeks immersed in the community they visited.
The purpose of the trip to Brownsville was to work with the poor, see and hear about the reality at the border, meet refugees, learn about Catholic social teaching, and experience Hispanic Catholic culture. Seminarians met many people during the trip, including the Diocese of Brownsville Bishop Daniel Flores; visited local parishes, including the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception and the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan Del Valle National Shrine; and met refugees and heard their stories.
Unexpectedly, the group also witnessed the launch of the Starship 7 test flight from the SpaceX facility on South Padre Island.