Pax in Nomine Domini

At the seminary, our days are very structured; we pray the Divine Office together in the mornings and evenings and have daily Mass and Adoration. However, it can sometimes be helpful for us to remember why we do all this, to remember what the priesthood is all about since it can be easy to fall into doing the motions. Learning to minister and bring the Gospel to others comes with true deliberation and grace. To practice this and gain experience, we have semesterly Street Evangelization. We go out in groups of two to minister to passersby, asking for prayer intentions, or just to be a witness. Recently, we all went to the Wharf in DC, a large pier with many people to evangelize. We met together beforehand in the seminary to discuss what we were going to do and where. We then all grouped up at St. Dominic’s Church near the Wharf, where the teams would swap off and take turns, either evangelizing or praying a Holy Hour.

Another seminarian and I walked from the church to the Wharf. I was very nervous and excited, because although I had street evangelization once before, this was in a different environment, so I was not sure what to expect. We walked on for a while, scanning around, and trying our best to look natural. We eventually both found a group of cyclists along the edge of the pier, sitting down and eating lunch, it was perfect! We went up to them and started a conversation. They were incredibly friendly and started talking to us and giving us some of their lunch! We eventually further introduced ourselves as individuals studying to become Catholic priests and asked if there was anything that they would like us to pray for. Writing down their intentions, one of the bikers asked about celibacy, and we had a long and fruitful conversation. I doubt we converted him on the spot, but I realized that God placed him there for a reason, for himself and us. It went really well! Afterwards, I was very enthused and all of my worries melted away. We walked on, had a few short talks with others, and then went back to the church for our Holy Hour.
 
There is a Templar Chant that I like. It is about going off into the Holy Land on the Crusades and living by the Name of the Lord. The majority of the chant is in Occitan, but the refrain and title is a Latin phrase that always sticks out to me: Pax in Nomine Domini (Peace in the name of the Lord). This refrain came to mind when I went out on street evangelization, and it occurred to me that I also live its meaning as I go to class.  Although I am not crusading in the same sense, I have been learning all year in the seminary how to bear witness, strengthen my relationship with God, and carry His name with me. The name of the Lord is something powerful because it reflects the great love He has for us. When we went to talk to those cyclists, it occurred to me that we were leading by example and were transferring God’s love by having simple conversations and taking prayer requests. I realized more clearly that this is what seminary forms us to be, what priests are supposed to be, to take peace in the Lord’s name and to share that with others.

Asher Kosack is a Propaedeutic Year Seminarian for the Archdiocese of Baltimore