College seminary to host Bishop Bruté Days on June 14-17

Thomas Thang, right, and Josiah Guerra-Cristobal, play with a soccer ball on June 17, 2015, at Bishop Simon Bruté College Seminary in Indianapolis during its annual Bishop Bruté Days, a vocations retreat and camping experience for teenage boys. Looking on is Nathan Herr, left. (File photo by Sean Gallagher)

By Sean Gallagher

Bishop Simon Bruté College Seminary in Indianapolis will host its 11th annual Bishop Bruté Days on June 14-17.

The four-day retreat and camping experience is for boys ages 13-17 who are open to the possibility of a call to the priesthood. Operated by priests, seminarians and other adults, it takes place on the campus of the archdiocesan college seminary at 2500 Cold Spring Road, in Indianapolis.

Father Joseph Moriarty, vice rector at Bishop Bruté, said Bishop Bruté Days is helpful for teenage boys because it “is an immersion experience.”

“They are allowed to participate in the schedule of the seminary for a week and can discern then if God might be calling them to live this way in a larger way through their college years,” he said.

Bishop Bruté Days is a combination of outdoor games and sports activities with times for worship and spiritual enrichment, such as daily Mass, eucharistic adoration, confession and presentations on the faith given by seminarians and priests serving in central and southern Indiana.

Father Moriarty said he hopes that this year’s Bishop Bruté Days will help its participants by giving “them a clearer sense of God’s call in their life, and thus a fuller understanding of their call to holiness with a strengthened willingness to live this call out in the world.”

He said the chance for young men to meet seminarians and priests in informal situations can help them broaden their vision of where God might be calling them in their lives.

“It gives them a witness of happy, fulfilled priests, who, like many of the pastors and other priests they know, are convinced that God has called them to live this way and receive joy in doing God’s will,” Father Moriarty said. “Also, I think this extended time affords participants an opportunity to be with priests and ask particular questions and relate in a longer period of time since the participants are here for four days with the priests.”

Father Moriarty encouraged teenage boys across the archdiocese to consider participating in Bishop Bruté Days, saying that the experience will help them discern their vocation, no matter what it might be.

“A priestly vocation is a great gift,” he said. “No priest, … parent, or friend should ever seek to manipulate the will of God, but should always seek to facilitate it. If you think you might be called to participate in Bishop Bruté Days, take courage and be not afraid as our desire is always to facilitate the will of God to his honor and glory.”
 

(Participation in Bishop Bruté Days costs $75. Registration forms and more information can be found at www.archindy.org/bsb/events.html, by calling 317-924-4100 or sending an e-mail to ashea@archindy.org.) †