Norbertine Fathers, St. Michael's Abbey
Contact
Fr. Vianney Ceja, O.Praem.
Vocation Drector
27977 Silverado Canyon Road
Silverado, CA 92676-9710
frvianney@stmichaelsabbey.com
https://stmichaelsabbey.com/vocations/
Dioceses
Fresno, CA Los Angeles, CA Orange, CA San Bernardino, CA San Diego, CA
Mission
Immersed in the 900-year tradition of our order, the Norbertine Fathers live a common life of liturgical prayer and care for souls. Our abbey in Orange County consists of over fifty priests and nearly forty seminarians studying for the priesthood.
Our life at St. Michael’s Abbey is organized according to prayer of the Church: the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours. “Seven times a day I praise You,” says the Psalmist, and by chanting together the prayers of the Divine Office, Norbertines “continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God.”
For more than fifty years, the Norbertine Fathers have served the Christian faithful in Southern California—“lifting high the Holy Eucharist over the miseries and errors of this world” (Saint Pope John Paul II). Our community’s apostolic ministries are many and various—from teaching in schools and at retreats to serving as chaplains—but they all find their source in our common life of prayer and fraternal charity.
Qualifications
Sound mental and physical health; average or above average intelligence; between the ages of 18-28; debt free; good judgement and common sense.
Formation
Postulancy (Four Months)—Each year on August 27th, a new class of postulants enters our abbey. Postulants participate in the abbey’s liturgical prayers, serve the brethren through manual labor, and attend classes with the novices. Novitiate (Twenty Months)—On Christmas Eve, the newest men at our abbey receive the white habit of our Order and a new religious name, thereby becoming Norbertine novices. Compared to the later stages of our canonical formation, the novitiate has a pronounced monastic character to it. Novitiate classes focus on Catholic doctrine, spirituality, liturgy, Latin, and the essentials of a consecrated religious vocation. Juniorate (Seven Years)—Having professed their temporary vows on St. Augustine’s Day, the juniors begin their formal ecclesiastical studies for the priesthood, guided especially by Saints Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. Our seminarians spend two years studying philosophy at the abbey, three years studying theology at the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in Toronto, and at least one year in Rome. Most seminarians also make an apostolic year, usually as a teacher. At the end of the juniorate, the men make their solemn profession to our abbey church. Shortly thereafter they are ordained deacons and, a year later, priests forever according to the order of Melchizedek. .
Province
Autonomous
International
Worldwide
