The Call to Service: House Jobs in College Seminary
By Alan M. Guanella

When new men come to the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) Seminary, most do not expect to find it overwhelmingly similar to their own home.  How many families have fifty siblings and over five bathrooms?  One of the similarities of life at the seminary to life at home is that of chores, or as they are known in the seminary, house jobs.  These chores daily call seminarians to service.  Not only are these jobs required for the efficient running of a seminary: cleaning bathrooms, doing dishes, taking out trash, mowing lawn, etc., but these jobs teach seminarians a great deal about service. 

The Program of Priestly Formation (PPF) states that “The seminary is a school of human virtue, of growth in honesty, integrity, intellectual rigor, hard work, and tolerance, where the common good is built with solidarity and discipline—all leavened by humor and healthy enjoyment.”  The seminarians’ daily classes seem to fulfill the “intellectual rigor” and on more than one occasion, the “hard work” is fulfilled by house jobs.  These house jobs, however, are not simply chores that are done out of strict obedience by seminarians, the “humor and healthy enjoyment” that the PPF states is always present when doing house jobs.  Much fraternity can be kindled when men clean bathrooms, do the dishes, or work in the yard…and work together.  The motto of IHM, Psalm 133:1, rings clearly: Ecce quam bonum…Behold how good and how splendid it is where brothers dwell as one.

The saints themselves understood the value of work.  In Saint Francis’s Rule of 1223, he stated that his friars “should work in a spirit of faith and devotion and avoid idleness, which is the enemy of the soul, without however extinguishing the spirit of prayer and devotion.”  Saint Benedict, in his Rule, states that “[i]dleness is the enemy of the soul.  Therefore, the brethren should be occupied at certain times in manual labor, and at other fixed hours in holy reading.”  The Saint continues and states, “[b]ut if there is one who is so negligent and slothful as to be unwilling or unable to meditate or read [on Sundays], let some work be given him to do, so that he may not be idle.”

As it can be seen from both Saints Francis and Benedict, work is necessary for spiritual growth and the removal of idleness from one’s life.  The house jobs done by the seminarians teach service—and service always in, as Francis said, “a spirit of faith and devotion.”  If you ask any seminarian if his house job is a burden to him, there are few that will respond affirmatively.  Seminarians understand the value of work and the necessity of it.  Seminary house jobs are more than routine chores, they are part of the formation process that enables seminarians to learn humble service, the service our Lord Himself taught, and the service He daily calls us to perform.