60's Sem Life 1: The Food
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- Опубліковано 6 вер 2024
- A recounting of various aspects of Seminary Life prior to the reforms of Vatican II.
In 1965 Vatican II released two documents that began the process of reforming seminary life (Optatam totius and Presbytorum ordinis). This process continued through to the release of
Pope John Paul II's Pastores dabo vobis, 1992. This series of interviews reflects on Life at St Charles Borromeo Seminary prior to the reforms.
I was in the seminary in the late 70s. Fred ran the kitchen and we ate very well. Saturday was often (or always?) steak night. This was the first place I ever had scrapple. God bless Mother Overbrook.
Oh my oh my. Isn't this something? God gave me a very generous gift of joining the priests in their refectory, gorgeous dining room, at Klosterneuburg Monastery outside of Vienna a couple of years ago. They were experiencing very different meals, I can tell you.
Hello Fathers. Wow - thanks for sharing! Father Collins, I remember you very well. I was at Overbrook from 1960 to 1965, and my classmates were ordained in 1970. I really enjoyed this dissertation on the meals the good German nuns provided. For several years after Ieft I might be driving home from work in my VW and would instinctively know what my classmates were eating. I can't recollect eating 'hockey pucks', but I do remember the 'green roast' that was served on Tuesdays and perhaps Saturdays, I believe. Like yourselves, I looked forward to Sunday's ham and potato salad (still love that combination as it always reminds me of the seminary). Fridays - however - were a completely different story. As we (pre-cassock) new men were walking by the refectory our first Friday, I got a whiff of the fish that they were serving. I couldn't eat it nor the pumpkin pie that somehow tasted like soapsuds. For me, Friday's lunches consisted of 2 glasses of milk and 2 buttered rolls. Seminary humor was always unique and special (case-in-point - the Inter-Nos sessions). I remember someone referring to the food as 'grade C, but edible'. The purpose of the prunes was - I believe - to aid digestive regularity. I have to admit that the selfless German nuns did a very good job caring for us. By the way, I was the guy who put the light bulbs on the ham radio antenna over Saint Joseph's courtyard which really annoyed 'Skippy' - the author of 'forced fun'.
Loved watching this confirmed what my former pastor Fr. John McBride of happy memory used to tell me about seminary life!!
Why the prunes in Lent, served w hard rolls?
Bread and water alone is binding.
The prunes keep everything moving.
This sounds like early convent life! I can laugh at it now.