Mise en Place

Mise en Place, which translates from French to “everything in its place,” is a culinary term that describes preparing and organizing ingredients to maximize recipe efficiency. Consider a carrot cake. Without a recipe, baking tools, an oven, and the precise measures of ingredients (don’t forget the carrot!), the cake wouldn’t be possible.  Without mise en place, there can’t be success in the kitchen—I know first-hand from my time studying at the Culinary Institute of America.

I’m more than a year removed from culinary school, but mise en place applies to seminary life too. More than most places, seminary requires a well-ordered life. So what are the key ingredients of a fruitful seminary experience?  There are three essential ones: prayer, fraternity, and academic pursuit.
      
Prayer is the first ingredient seminarians need. St. Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians reminds us to pray without ceasing, and seminarians would do well to take this advice.  No matter how each day goes during this strange semester, maintaining a relationship with Christ ensures that He is our source of hope and peace.
      
Then there’s the fraternity element. Carrot cake is only possible because the ingredients come together in the right way. In a community of men who share and pursue the same ideals, coming together as brothers is crucial in our common pursuit of holiness. A good way to grow in fraternity is seeing the other as a son of God, which means that we are all brothers in Christ. Taking a moment to ask how a brother’s day is going, encouraging one another, and praying for each other are ways to grow in fraternity.
      
And of course, there would be no final product without academic pursuits. Men who are studying to evangelize and preach the good news of the Church ought to have knowledge of her teachings. Seminary life enables this by giving seminarians the opportunity to study philosophy and theology.
      
As the kitchen mise en place guides the baker to bake a delicious cake, the seminary mise en place guides seminarians to become holy priests. May our lives in seminary be ordered towards this goal!

Mr. Atunzu is a College II seminarian for the Archdiocese of Baltimore.