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FATHER MATHEW C. GEORGE
REFLECTIONS ON MY DECISION TO BECOME A PRIEST

My decision to join the seminary after high school graduation brought some relief to my siblings. I have two brothers and two sisters, and being the middle one I was fighting with everyone. For them "‘the big troublemaker" had gone once I joined the seminary, and they believed that now I had no choice but to behave. “Hit and run” was one of my nuisances among many, and my siblings could not tolerate me anymore. When my mother chased me to give a detention I used to climb up the trees and stay there for some time. But she left my younger brother underneath the tree to watch me and inform her when I came down. These are a few stories I could share, and many more that I am embarrassed to publish. That is one of the reasons I won't bring my mother to the United States, as she will reveal my real nature. I also wrote this to give you some hope if you have a son like me – but you have to send him to the seminary.

It was in June 1986 that I joined the St. Aloysius Minor Seminary of my Archdiocese. I was only fifteen years old and was a little immature to distinguish the attractions and distractions of the world. Our minor seminary training is three years, and we had the formation house for the first year in the Archbishops house. There were eleven students in my class for the first year. Being in the bishop's house was a privilege but at the same time made us nervous. Every day we woke up at 5:15 AM and had to be in the chapel by 5:45 AM. Our half hour of meditation in the morning for the first few months was my extension of my morning sleep. It continued with morning prayers and mass. But eventually I began to enjoy the morning mediation as we received some training on how to meditate. We were given training in different disciplines – we learned   the basic prayers, training in English grammar, Introduction to the Bible, Spirituality, Elocution, Etiquettes and Syriac language (my liturgical language is Syriac, not Latin). We were encouraged to use the library and I was so excited to read the life of the saints. I still remember reading books on saints like Maria Vianney, Francis Assisi, Francis Xavier, John Bosco, Aloysius, Theresa of Lisieux, and many more. I thought if I give up myself completely to God, I would be like them. It didn't take long for me to realize that I had so many limitations, and needed to work a lot more to just be a good priest.

My first year in the seminary was mostly uneventful - except I accidently damaged the sanctuary lamp and got into big trouble! The rector made me pay to replace it and complained to all the priests who knew me that I was a "troublemaker." Of the two priests who talked to me about this, one scolded me in front of another seminarian from my parish and advised me to be like him (he left after few years) and the other secretly told me that I should continue doing things like this and only fulfilling what God has asked Jeremiah to do: “To root up and to tear down, to destroy and to demolish, to build and to plant.” (Jer. 1: 10). I was reluctant to heed to that advice since I really wanted to become a priest! Since we were in the bishop's house, the Archbishop called us together once in a while and talked for a few minutes. We were trained to be in our best behavior whenever that happened.

Read part 3 of Fr. Mathew's seminary story
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