Father Dan Dorsey, right, signs Austine Duru's First Oath during Austine's, left, and Dennis Makokha's June 30, 2006 First Oath ceremony and Mass.

Stages on the Journey
En Español

Initial Contact
Request a packet of vocational literature telling you about Glenmary, a society of brothers and priests serving in areas where less than one percent of the population is Catholic. 

Talk With a Vocation Team Member
If you like what you’ve read about Glenmary, contact us by phone at 800-935-0935 (in the USA) or by filling out our contact form (outside the USA). Tell us about your family, education, work and volunteer experiences and your personal faith journey. We'll discern together where the Holy Spirit may be leading you, as you learn more about Glenmary.

Headquarters’ Visit
Come to Cincinnati for a day or two to meet Glenmarians and to hear our stories. Learn more about vocational opportunities in the home missions. Help us discover if your gifts and your call from God might be a good fit for missionary ministry.

A Mission Trip
Join others in a three- to four-day journey with the vocation director through Glenmary mission regions. Meet a variety of missioners, lay coworkers and local people who may help in your discernment about Glenmary priesthood or brotherhood.

A Mission Placement
Live in a Glenmary mission for four to eight weeks to experience ministry firsthand. The local missioner will offer you many activity options. Learn what missioners do; why they give of themselves in neglected areas; how their busy ministry still allows time to pray, recreate and enjoy life.

Aspirancy Program
Aspirancy is for men between the ages of 18 and 21 who do not have a college degree or philosophy requirement. We have two aspirancy programs, both under the supervision of the Vocation Department and Father Steve Pawelk, vocation director.

In the United States applicants between the ages of 18 and 21 pursue their college and philosophy degrees at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, while discerning further their call to Glenmary.

In Mexico, we offer an aspirancy program for Latino/Hispanic men who are not academically qualified to enter the seminary or who need assistance with documentation. This program is offered in cooperation with the Diocese of San Juan de los Lagos, Jalisco, Mexico.

Prenovitiate
This one-year program is based at the Glenmary House of Studies in Hartford, Ky., a rural mission area. Here, men have a combined experience of first-hand missionary life and of academics under the direction of Father Vic Subb and Brother Tom Sheehy. Formal studies take place at Brescia University, which is a 30-minute drive north in Owensboro, Ky.

Novitiate
The novitiate is a two-year experience presently housed at Maple Mount, Ky., under the direction of Father Dave Glockner and Father Tom Kirkendoll. The first year of novitiate is an intensive spiritual year which focuses on God and our growing in life in God through prayer and the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience. First-year novices also study the Glenmary Oath, the Glenmary charism, Glenmary history, our founder and important documents like our Constitution and Directory. The second year, through a supervised ministry program, is spent in apostolic and missionary service in one of our missions. After these two years of novitiate, a man takes his First Oath.

Postnovitiate
Postnovitiate seminarians will study at St. Meinrad School of Theology in St. Meinrad, Ind. Brothers in advance training will normally study at a school in the Louisville or Western Kentucky area. The type of trade or schooling that a brother might pursue is determined in consultation with Brother Tom Sheehy, director of brothers in training. Father Vic Subb is the director of seminarians.

• Meet our current students

• Meet our formation team

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