During my time as a seminarian at Saint Meinrad, tragedy struck my family. While driving to visit my grandmother for a weekend getaway, my mother passed away in a traffic collision. It was a Friday afternoon in September. We happened to have that Friday off from classes. Normally, on a long weekend, I would go home to visit family or take a weekend trip somewhere with brother seminarians, but that weekend I decided to stay back at Saint Meinrad to get caught up on some assignments. When I got the call from my sister to tell me what had happened, my world stopped turning and life as I knew it up to that point was essentially over. My mother was the center of our family and was a rock for me. She was my support system, biggest cheerleader, fiercest defender, and showed her love to me unconditionally and constantly.
Since it was a long weekend, there were not many people around to turn to in this moment of tragedy. I tried to call Fr. Denis, but I knew that he was out to dinner with an alumnus who was visiting. I found Fr. Christian working in his office. He settled me down a bit. I called Fr. Denis again. This time I was able to connect with him. He said simply, “Where are you? I’ll be right there.” As I was standing in the threshold of my room on third floor Anselm, I could hear him quite literally running down the hall. When he got to the door, I basically collapsed in his arms. He held me with the loving arms of a father. We found my classmate, Fr. Rory Traynor from the Diocese of Manchester, down the hall. He and Fr. Christian drove me home to be with my family.
The next week, we had my mom’s funeral. That is a sentence that is still unbelievable for me to write. Something like 90 seminarians and about 10 priests from the seminary made the seven hour round trip trek to my home parish for the funeral. That’s what Saint Meinrad does: we show up. We show up to celebrate life’s successes and we show up to be with those who are suffering …with those in need of Christ’s love. The love I felt that day from the community at Saint Meinrad gave me hope that I would be able to endure the most difficult chapter of my life.
Between Fr. Denis, Sr. Patty, Fr. Tobias, Fr. Guerric, Fr. Jim, the faculty and staff, my amazing classmates, diocesan brothers, and friends, the community of Saint Meinrad became the embodiment of Christ’s love, peace, and hope in the midst of turmoil.
Fr. Zach Samples, Alumnus, Diocese of Springfield in Illinois