Liturgy at The Institute for Priestly Formation

By: James Harper, Seminarian
First Theology

In a summer of spirituality at the Institute for Priestly Formation in Omaha, liturgy is the core about which our prayer takes place.

Each day, we begin with Morning Prayer prior to class.  For the most part, Mass took place after class, towards the center of our day. Evening prayer varied significantly over the summer. Sometimes it would unite us as a full community within a holy hour. At most other times, evening prayer was the opportunity to gather in smaller corridor groups in which we could form deeper ties in which to

share everyday and spiritual experiences.

As with our usual seminary formation, seminarians had the opportunity to serve during liturgy as readers and servers, thus becoming actively involved as many of us would usually be. Aside from essential liturgy assisting roles, the IPF program also had an excellent arrangement of opportunities for music ministry to enhance

the perception of our liturgy day to day.

On a personal note, although I never served at the altar, I did serve through music as one of three seminarian organists. On the occasion of a saint’s feast, we would sometimes arrange a choir to sing a psalm and a meditation at Mass. Of course within our smaller corridor groups at evening prayer, everyone had to actively

take a role at some point.

In closing, the liturgies at the IPF program were very prayerful due to the involvement and reverence of our staff and brother seminarians such that it may be the center of our daily prayer life. And without the liturgy as the core and the focus upon integrating it with our daily prayer, our summer would not have been
as spiritually fruitful.