On Tuesday, a friend and I made a visit to St. Mary’s Seminary. Associated with the University of St. Thomas, St. Mary’s provides the major seminary experience for students from most of the dioceses of Texas.
It was a beautiful place. Our first stop, since we were uninvited visitors, was the chapel. Setup in choral style with the ambo in the center, it seemed very suitable for Liturgy of the Hours. As I try to pray the Liturgy more, I realized that having a community to say it with in a place designed to enhance that experience would be amazing. Beyond that, the chapel is very beautiful.
We continued to walk around the grounds. All brick buildings. Green open areas. Little covered walkways. It reminded me of what an academic campus “should” look like.
Our last stop was the office to see if another friend who is in seminary studies for the Diocese of Austin was on campus. After a plesant encounter with the receiptionist, we left him a note and went about our way.
I would have loved to attend this place. While I was an applicant for seminary, I was given a tour of Holy Trinity in Dallas, the location for minor seminary studies. Maybe because I had been there before or what, but it didn’t hit me. I felt blah about spending the next eight years of my life in an environment like that. At the time, I didn’t know what St. Mary’s was like so I was thinking that every seminary was like that. It might work in the Diocese’s favor to take applicants to St. Mary’s as well as Holy Trinity.
St. Mary’s just felt peaceful and prayful, which is something I haven’t felt in awhile from a physical location.