Before presbyteral ordination

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julianwu

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Hello. Just want to ask this odd question: how do our brothers spend their last days as transitional deacons? Do they spend it with their families or do they spend it in the seminary (secluded)?

Dunno but, there’s this belief in my country that deacons nearing ordination should stay secluded (I just don’t know where) because the temptation is stronger months before they become priests (aka the devil works harder). There’s even a horror movie (called Seklusyon, which is ‘seclusion’) based on this belief haha.

Thank you!
 
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I can only speak for what I see in the monastic tradition: life goes on. One day they are fulfilling their liturgical duties as a deacon, and the next day the archbishop is ordaining him at the conventual Mass. However there are lots of studies that go on before ordination. Our last priest ordained, in 2017, spent three years at the Institut Catholique in France studying. But he was back for a year before he was ordained.

What does happen at our abbey, is that after ordination the new priest is allowed to have a couple of weeks “vacation” with his family. Our latest priest postponed it until just a couple of weeks ago. Our next presbyteral ordination will be this coming June 29th. We will then no longer have a deacon in the liturgy as there is no immediate prospect for the transitional diaconate. So please pray for vocations!
 
I spent the weeks between my graduation from seminary and my priestly ordination traveling to the ordinations of my classmates and visiting family. I took a few days on a bit of a retreat at the monastery where I was staying right before my ordination day.

I’m not sure where that belief comes from, and I’m not sure how seclusion would help. One can be just as tempted in seclusion as any other time.

-Fr ACEGC
 
In our diocese, the transitional deacons come home from the seminary for a week-long retreat immediately before ordination. Then they have three weeks off before they report for their first assignment. They may have a bit of free time between leaving the seminary and the start of their ordination retreat; I suppose that would depend on the academic calendar of the seminary and when the semester ends.

I’ve never heard of the “keep them secluded” school of thought.
 
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