2nd Annual Lenten Concert

By: Brendon Laroche
Seminarian, Pre-Theology II

On Saturday, April 9, 2011, St. Charles Borromeo Seminary held its second annual Lenten concert. The concert's title was "Into Your Hands, Lord... Lenten Lessons Through Word & Song." The concert featured the St. Charles Borromeo Seminary choir. Numerous seminarians also served as musicians, soloists, members of small ensembles, readers, technicians, etc.

Brendon Laroche

The Lenten Concert is a new tradition at St. Charles. It had its modest beginning during Lent of 2010. This year's concert showed an evident increase in attendees. It is the seminary community's hope that attendance will continue to rise and put the Lenten Concert on par with the seminary's traditional Advent concert.

The Lenten concert is an almost entirely student-organized event. Dr. Theodore Kiefer, the seminary's Director of Liturgical Music, provides invaluable assistance by helping direct the choir, arranging music, and playing the organ. Ultimately, however, the Lenten concert is directed, coordinated, and performed by the seminarians themselves. The seminarians also provide all the publicity for this concert.

Like the Advent concert, the Lenten concert is not just about entertainment. It is about using music to bring into clear focus the penitential nature of the Lenten season and the great and saving work of Jesus Christ that it commemorates. It does this through a variety of music: Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony, as well as contemporary pieces. Interspersed with the music are readings from Sacred Scripture, the Fathers of the Church, great spiritual classics, and papal documents. The readings seek to further draw out the spiritual message of music. The ultimate goal of the concert is to enrich the spiritual lives of its attendees by presenting them with a prayerful meditation on the Passion and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ.

IPF Symposium

By: James Harper
Seminarian, First Theology


The Institute for Priestly Formation held a symposium at St. Charles Seminary from the 17^th to the 20^th of March.  The symposium was a great opportunity for the seminarians to experience a taste of the IPF program for what it is as well as for a break from the standard track of studies at the seminary.

James Harper (front right) with other seminarians and Fr. Rafferty during the IPF Summer  Program

Logistically speaking, each day of the symposium held two conferences, one in the morning with a second in the afternoon.  Other trademarks of the IPF program were present with evening opportunities for Eucharistic Adoration and healing prayer.  The theme for the symposium at St. Charles was Good Shepherd:  Living Christ’s Own Pastoral Authority which reflected upon the integration of spirituality with the pastoral duties of a diocesan priest. 


As one of four Allentown seminarians to have been on IPF’s summer program in Omaha, I had a particular connection when the program came to St. Charles.  Furthermore, my seminary responsibilities as technical coordinator led me to a frequent interaction with the same staff from my summer experience.  All in all, these conditions led me to a great personal reflection and connection with my previous experiences from last summer.  With the symposium at the seminary, I found it a blessed experience to have reflected upon my spiritual growth during and since the summer program.  It was also comforting to find the symposium was well received at the seminary and that my peers who did not attend the summer program were also able to benefit from an institute that does so much to benefit priestly formation.

My First Practice Homily

By: Mark R. Searles

Seminarian, First Theology

After almost a whole year in 1st theology, my classmates and I passed another milestone this past week, our first practice homily! Starting this Spring semester, we have had our first class in homiletics. The first half of the semester was a typical class with lectures and discussions on public speaking in general and some helpful specific insights on giving a homily. Now in the second half we get our first chance to prepare and deliver several homilies.

Mark Searles with his Mom and Dad



My first assignment was a Sunday homily for the 3rd Week of Lent, just this past Sunday. At first I was nervous about the length of this Gospel as John tells the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:4-41), but the sequence of readings for this Sunday have a beautiful theme regarding water and thirst as the Israelites wander in the desert seeking water from Moses in the 1st reading and the Samaritan woman finds living water in Jesus. So after carefully reading through the selected passages, I began to pray with them in a Lectio Divina-style, meditating on God’s Word, and noticing what pops out. I also read a few commentaries and quickly saw how very many awesome themes and images there were to choose from as the Holy Spirit led me to a very specific focus: the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

As I began to sit and write, I felt drawn to speak about Reconciliation as I noticed how the woman at the well talks to Jesus and despite her troubled past, she admits to her struggles and Jesus is not harsh or criticizing, but loves her and offers her mercy in the waters of eternal life, something much greater than the well water she originally came to find.

In my own experiences with this great sacrament, I was drawn to speak about a story from the 2nd grade as I stood in line for my 1st confession. I remember the night vividly going over the sins in my head that I practiced at home with my parents and standing behind some of the CCD kids I did not know while my other friends were in shorter, faster-moving lines! So I got nervous and then a few tears started to fall as I thought this was a pretty intimidating sacrament and hopefully 1st Communion won’t be so bad! But one of the nuns came over to me and brought me to a kind, young priest who cheered me up, calmed me down, and then I experienced the beauty of God’s love in a unique and new way through the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time. It wasn’t hard or scary after all, I even enjoyed it. It was really myself and Jesus sitting there as I opened my heart up a little bit and Jesus spread out His arms wide to embrace me, pouring out His infinite love and mercy upon me, a little kid about 7 years old.

After writing my first homily I was especially glad that the Holy Spirit put this comical experience from the 2nd grade on my heart. Despite some nerves standing before my class delivering this first practice homily, I thought back to my days growing up and thinking to myself, maybe I’ll be a priest some day, but I bet giving a homily will be hard and intimidating. My initial anxiety, just like I was standing in line again for my 1st Confession, quickly went away when I realized how much grace and love God pours out upon me and I began to feel that I can do all things through and in Christ. In the end, it wasn’t scary at all and all of my classmates enjoyed listening to each other and hearing the various ways God inspired each one of us. Now we’re on to tackle our next big assignment in homiletics, the Easter homily!