The SEE25 Conference presented by FOCUS is hosted annually around the New Year. This year, it was held in Salt Lake City, Utah, from January 1 to 5. A generous benefactor underwrote the costs for each of the seminarians to attend. Thirteen of the fifteen seminarians from the diocese of Spokane could attend together before heading back to seminary for a new semester of formation. The seminarians were asked to share from their experience at SEEK this year.
Nicolas Gutierrez, Cor Christi Propaedeutic Year, Bishop White Seminary, Spokane, Wash.
During adoration, I looked at the thousands of people adoring Christ. God blessed me with consolation as I was overwhelmed with His Love and desire for these people, as well as myself. Every one of them has a masterfully crafted life story to draw them to Him that I will never know. Yet I also received the grace to be consoled by the reality that God is actively seeking us as we are seeking Him, and I don’t need to worry about our lives because we are in His hands.
Sean Crepin, Configuration III, Mt. Angel Seminary, St. Benedict, Ore.
I enjoyed my time at SEEK25. The entire week was a great experience and an opportunity to reconnect with many people who have impacted my faith.
A significant and unexpected encounter for me was when, after leaving one of the sessions, a member of the Convention Center staff stopped and asked if I would pray for him. He related the specific reason he needed prayers, and I promised to remember him in prayer. He then asked if I had a rosary that he could have. I responded that I did but that it might not have looked appealing as it was used. I gave him a rosary I had gotten from my seminary and had been using for most of the semester.
After praying for him, I realized how deeply I understood the words of scripture, “and power came out of him,” from Luke 8:46. But in giving away my rosary, I didn’t feel sad, but joy and hope that he would be sustained in prayer by our Blessed Bother and all those who have prayed with that same rosary.
James Vair, Proaduetic Year, St. Patrick Seminary, Menlo Park, Calif.
I was very impressed with SEEK’s program. I was initially concerned that SEEK would be overly emotional and lack a firm foundation for faith, but I found that SEEK’s program is intentional about continued catechesis and education to prepare the baptized to go out and evangelize. I also appreciated the concept that until every soul within a Parish territory was converted to Catholicism, it ought to be considered “mission territory.”