Postulant Jake Polinski shares his experience in postulancy
This postulancy year has served as a great introduction to the Franciscan way of life, and has thus far created a solid foundation for me to further explore discernment of religious life. We live a balanced lifestyle in our formation house that involves a combination of active ministry, prayer, fraternal time, and formation (which includes one-on-ones, in-house classes, or special events). All four of these areas have been important in getting an understanding of life and how I fit into it, with much of our time spent on human formation. This aspect of formation really emphasizes focusing on building us into mature and responsible adults as a preparation for future formation with the friars. We have book clubs and classes that cover a number of themes like purpose, relationships, etc. all of which are discussed. There are also classes on matters pertaining to our faith, scripture, the sacraments, and Church teaching. These classes are taught by both our formators in house and by many guests whether they are friars in our community, or professional lay people.
I have also had the great opportunity to learn and practice the traditions of the Conventual Franciscan Order like Tuesday St. Anthony devotions, weekly prayer of the ‘Franciscan Crown’ rosary, and the reading of biographies of deceased friars. All of these make me feel connected to the friars of the past and present. One of my favorite traditions that I have encountered was participating in our Epiphany gathering; every Feast of the Epiphany friars gather to share fraternal time and take part in “extractions.” Names of friars are drawn at random from a basket, then names of living and deceased friars are drawn for that friar to pray for. They also receive a scriptural/Franciscan quote, and patron saint for the new year.
It is a great tradition that I had the pleasure to experience at Marytown with dozens of friars from around St. Bonaventure Province, along with Kenyan, and Polish friars! The extraction of saints involved a lot of “oohing” and “ahhs” as well, which added to the humor and atmosphere of the event, it felt like a family gathering!
This gathering took place in the larger context of our ‘Province Tours.’ Every year the postulants take about 3 weeks to tour their respective provinces, thus my fellow postulants Josh, Craig, and myself got to travel across the United States visiting many friaries and meeting lots of different friars. Our journey started at Marytown as mentioned above and then took us through Terra Haute, IN; Mt. St. Francis in southern Indiana; San Antonio, TX; and Detroit, MI. It was a long journey, but it was also a great experience as I got to see the breadth of ministries that the Order has in the United States and got to meet many friars who were hospitable and fun to be around!
Overall, this postulancy year has been fruitful for me and has led me to grow much as a person of faith, it has taught me much about my relationship with God and with other people, and has equipped me with many tools for future success in my life!