By Nickolas Naticchione
In May 2022, I graduated from Seton Hall University, South Orange. This completed my time at the College Seminary of the Immaculate Conception, Saint Andrew’s Hall, and began a transition into the next stage of my formation at Saint Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y.
Making this transition into the major seminary, now called the “configuration” stage of formation, was not all that easy, as there are many differences from living at Saint Andrew’s to living at Saint Joseph’s. Among these differences were new people, a new and very different building, a new schedule and a new level of academics. What was not new or different, however, was Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament.
At Saint Joseph’s, we have an opportunity to go to Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in the evening on most days during the week. These opportunities for me to stop into the chapel at the end of my day were my anchor during the transition between seminaries. No matter how many changes I needed to adapt to as I continued to settle into Saint Joseph’s, I was always able to turn to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and be with the one constant that I have had since before I even entered the seminary.
When I began to truly discern entering the seminary during high school, it was Adoration that really started the process. It was in Adoration that I was able to develop a relationship with Jesus and begin discovering how He is calling me to serve Him. Now, in my fifth year of formation, being with Christ in Adoration is still that constant where I know I can go to be at peace, certain that He is in control.
During Adoration in my first weeks at Saint Joseph’s, I frequently meditated on how truly grateful I am for my time at Seton Hall, for all the priests, professors and brother seminarians who helped me there, and how that time at Saint Andrew’s was all part of God’s plan for me to continue to discern His will.
For anyone who wants to discern how and where God is calling you to serve Him, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is the place to be. In Adoration, as we gaze on Christ truly present in the Most Blessed Sacrament, we are able to enter into a foretaste of our end of the Beatific Vision, seeing God in all His glory. Discerning and living out our individual vocations are how God guides us to our end of heaven. There is no better place to discover that path than in Adoration.
Go to Adoration and be with Jesus, who is always there and is never changing in His readiness to guide us to Him. Let Him be your anchor through the challenges of change and discernment that come with living out His will, because no matter what changes in your life, He will always be there.
Nickolas Naticchione is first theology, Saint Joseph’s Seminary, Yonkers, N.Y.
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