Welcome to I.P.F.

For the next ten weeks I will be staying and studying at Creighton University where I will be taking part in a program called the Institute for Priestly Formation. I.P.F., as it is known is a summer program for seminarians from around the country. During ten weeks participants study spirituality, in particular the spirituality of diocesan priests. The program is meant to provide the structure and freedom for seminarians to develop a strong, vibrant and life long prayer life. By being away from everything and with limited classwork, the program aims to create the environment in which there is no reason a deep prayer experience cannot occur. Our schedule each day is as follows

Morning Prayer 7:40am
Class: 8:10-10:10am
Mass 10:30am
Lunch 11:30am
Dinner 5:30pm
Evening Prayer: 6:30pm


As you can tell there is a lot of free time which is nice! The time is meant to be spent reading, relaxing, exercising and in prayer.


My first impressions have been great. The University is beautiful and very hospitable. The other seminarians (175 of them) are very friendly and seem like a good group. I am having slight technical difficulties and have not been able to hook my computer up to the Internet. (AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH) Hopefully they will fix this tomorrow.


Beginning Friday we will be on an 8 Day SILENT retreat. Everyone I know who has done one says it is great, but challenging. I am a little nervous as I cannot stay quiet for ten minutes let alone eight days. As this blog is meant to be an honest look at seminary life, spirituality and my personal journey, I will be sharing it with you each day. I will be posting journal style entries as I go through the retreat, although refraining from email, texts, etc... As I am a firm believer that we take the journey of faith together, please keep me in your prayers beginning Friday and journey with me online. The adventure ahead, awaits us all.