LIFE IN THE SEMINARY
The fifteenth in a series of articles by Leo Coshan, describing his experiences testing his vocation in the Societas Verbi Divini (S.V.D. Society of the Divine Word)
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29 Jan 79
Hello Ramblers!
Greetings for the New Year. This is my first communication to you in 1979.
As I write tiis it is snowing furiously outside. Brrr! tWhat a winter we are
having this year! And yet, one must expect it to be cold. It is seasonal, after all. Praise the Lord for giving us the variations in nature that make for an interesting life.
Yesterday we celebrated a day for Justice and Peace. I was reminded of a psalm that we say quite regularly at our Morning and Evening Prayers. There is a line in it that goes: "Mercy and faithfulness have met, Justice and Peace have embraced ". For those interested in Scripture the quotes are from the Grail version of Psalm 84, v.10. In the Jerusaem version it is Psalm 85,v.10 and reads "Love and Loyalty now meet, Righteousness and Peace now embrace". A footnote says that these are personified attributes of God, which will inaugurate the kingdom of God on earth and in the hearts of men. In the R.S.V. the same lines read "Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet, righteousness and peace will kiss each other" If we stay with this section of the psalm for a while we see that the following lines show the meeting of two of the attributes: "Loyalty (Faithfulness) reaches up from earth and
Righteousness (Justice) leans down from heaven" What a beautiful text this is for a meditation! It is God himself who brings about loyalty and justice. We
must just let the Lord work through us. When we are sufficiently receptive to the mercy of God working in and through us then there will be justice and peace among men.
Yesterday also Saw the Pope opening the Merisan conference at'Puebla.., By the time you read this we should know in full all that will have happened. Our thanks and praise will reach up to heaven for the continued care of the Church. The Holy Father is :certainly a very inspiring leader.and has impressed the world so far. All this goes to show thnl the Holy Spirit is not asleep, but is as dynamic as ever.
There have been some changes in our community. We have a new rector. Father Walter Boyle is from Kildare and has been in Indoneia for the past five years. He brings with him a fine sense of community life based on prayer. We are encouraged to examine the working of basic Christian
communities, hy spenrling some time living with other communities, both religious and secular; Catholic and non-Catholic, We also have some new members. Six came out of the novitiate last September/October. Now we are thirteen students in in forrntion and three priests. Among the new students, one is an Architect, another is from Indonesia. Another is a
Welshman. It is quite an international comrnlnity. Most of them will be in
London for the next five years, some going in for degrees and others for either a theology diploma or a basic ordination course. Our timetahle at the Missionary Institute at Mill Hill has also been altered. We now have four periods of lectures per morning. It is in the experimental stage as yet. For us it is a bit of a rush getting away to an ~arlier start, but so far we seem to
have coped. My courses continue from the last Semester with, additionalIy ,
Pastoral Theology or Psychology and two Missiology courses. There is enough to keep me busy! with plenty of reading to do and, later essays to produce as assignments.
Pastorally, I have taken on catachetics again, but with a difference. Six girls
in a family of nine are hoping to make their First Communion at Easter. There are many other fields of pastoral activity possible. Some of the others
are getting involved in things like Family and SociaI Action, Christian Life
Movement, Young .Christian workers etc. Recently three White Father sturlents were ordained deacons by Bishop Victor Guazzelli. The ceremony was very impressive. In the summer these young men will be ordained priests at their homes and then away to various parts of Africa for their mission work. If any of you do get a chance to witness an ordination it would he quite an experience and one that the people of God now are able to see more than hefore. Soon it will be Lent and we shall. all be preparing for the great feast, 'l'here will be many rambles before then. I wish you all good walkinrg and good.sharing. And as you walk and share with each other and drink in the good air of the English countryside just breathe a "t.hank you"
to the God who made all this possible.
God Bless you, f iends. Shalom.
LEO COSHAN, S.V.D.
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