Spiritan Missionary Seminary is a philosophical institution established by the congregation of the Holy Ghost fathers. The seminary comprises of many students of different religious orders and dioceses from all over Africa

The students come from all over Africa with different cultures and different backgrounds, giving rise to a nourishing spiritual, social growth and rich cultural diversity. For us students, this richness of coming from different cultures and backgrounds, and living together harmoniously from different congregations and dioceses has greatly contributed greatly to our religious formation and way of life of many if not all of us as explained below.

Life in spiritan missionary seminary has allowed us to support and share experiences with one another. The bond created by this act of sharing is what builds valuable relationships and gives a deeper feeling and sense of belonging. It has enabled us to grow mentally, intellectually, socially, morally and physically since we interact with people from different background and experiences.

Living in the community has helped to shape and build the morality of many of us. We are challenged by the life style of others in terms of good behavior, flexibility, respect, and time management: crucial values of human development. This is so due to the variety of different personalities of some community members whose lives are worthy to be taken as role models. This has resulted to a lively and vibrant community.

Since the community is an academical arena, it has enabled us to support each other academically by having group discussions on courses works and other extra curriculum demands as they arise. Because of this, many of us who are academically weak are able to flow with the academic current of the institute since they tend to understand somethings better when it is explained to them by their colleagues. This elevates the performance of both the individual persons and the institute at large.

The community has created a family of friends who act like biological family members. This has helped to reduce the stress and loneliness of some brothers who are very far away from their biological families. It has given them sense of belonging and love from others, hence they are living a happy life.

However, though living in the community is of great importance, it is worth mentioning that the coming together of many youth will always escalate to some destructions and obstructions of the normal regulations and our community is not exceptional, but it is worth mentioning that the community have had very few of such cases as explained below and whenever they arise a brotherly support and talk is encouraged.

The youthful spree has sometimes created a weaker sense of responsibility among few members of the community. This can be read in our duties especially in manual work where some people don’t turn up for work or go for work some minutes late  just because they think it is the responsibility of another person to get the job done.

Some people have been negatively influenced by their peers. Peer pressure from some group has negatively transformed some people into less-bodies, hence, the need of support and encouragement, to step up to a higher and better level.

Though we have the above challenges within the community, Spiritan Missionary Seminary (SMS) still remains one of the peaceful and loving community in the area due to the coordination between the students and the higher administration, it is a place and home to be, it is simply home while away from home.

Let’s all strive to support and build our home.

Article By: The Community Chairperson, Br. Emmanuel Penes.

Edited and published by: Fr. Andrew Ndunda C.S.Sp