Father Adam Marchese’s experience as a seminarian | The Life of a Priest

Father Adam Marchese, a priest for St. Margaret Mary in Winter Park Florida, shares with us his encounter with the Eucharist and some pivotal moments in his life. This is an excerpt from the full interview on The Life of a Priest, a podcast available in the Tabella Catholic App.

Father Adam enters the seminary. When you’re in seminary, he tells us that you grow together as brothers. Below is the transcript of this segment:

Entering seminary I will say when I got there, all I could think was, “what did I just do?”

It was a complete life shift for me. I went from living in my own place, having my own job and kind of setting my own schedule if you will in terms of “all right, well if I wasn’t at work that meant I could go wherever I wanted, to do whatever I wanted.” I got to seminary and I went from having my own place, to sharing a room and having a communal bathroom down the hall, having a curfew.

I was like, “I used to work later than what my curfew is now!” I just couldn’t wrap my mind around that. I’m like, “I’m an adult! Like, what are you doing to me?” But it really was a lesson in obedience and it helps you to grow, and it helps you to actually stay in the formation process and not just try to escape when things get hard.

If it was just free, you know, easy come easy go, you know, come for classes, then leave and do whatever you want to, you would actually be avoiding a lot of the formation process. And like I said, you definitely grow together as brothers and you’re able to, with your spiritual director take the time and pray about it. Is this what God is calling me to?

It really is just a beautiful time. For even those who I know who left seminary, said it was a time for them to grow in their own faith. And come to a greater identity in that, and what it means for them.