The Invaluable Experience of a Parish Internship
One of the integral aspects of the formation program at St. Augustine’s Seminary is the parish internship. Seminarians are placed within a parish where they get hands-on experience in daily parish life.
“I was blessed to experience two different parishes for my internship,” says Deacon Daniel Corso, a St. Augustine’s seminarian who will be ordained for the Diocese of St. Catharines this year. “One was at St. Joseph's parish in Grimsby, ON and the other was at a church called St. Alfred in St. Catharines.”
He says having the experience at two different parishes provided a great opportunity to see the differences in parishes while at the same time experiencing the universality of the Catholic Church.
“Every church, from the people in it, to the way that it's built, to the pastor, to the community that it's in, is going to look a little bit different. But what remains constant is the faith and the sacraments.”
He says he can’t imagine not having the experience of an internship as part of his formation.
“I think one of the great benefits of the internship was the exposure and the close contact with people in the midst of their everyday lives, on their faith journey.”
He says on a typical internship day, he “would serve mass, join my pastor and the associate pastor for a cup of coffee after mass. We would also have a lot of our meals together. We prayed together. I spent a lot of time just going along kind of shadowing the priests. I went with them to the hospital as they gave the anointing of the sick and into nursing homes and long-term care homes. We visited schools. It was really beautiful.”
He also found it very touching being able to meet young couples as they were preparing for marriage as well as being there with the priest to console grieving families at funerals.
“Essentially I was shadowing the priest and doing whatever I could in the parish. For instance, I got to participate in some adult faith formation, and weekly catechesis. I was also able to lead an eight-week course in faith formation. That was wonderful because one of the responsibilities of the priest is to teach, to instruct in the faith and I was able to do that. It was very humbling.
“I remember being very grateful for my faith formation at the Seminary in those moments. When people had questions, I was either able to answer them or I knew where to find the answer. That was one of the gifts that St. Augustine’s gave me that I was able to use during my internship and hopefully will translate well as a priest.”
“The internship for me took everything that I learned intellectually and made it intensely personal and practical.”
Read more: Deacon Daniel’s Catholic Register article.
