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Meet Our New Seminarians!
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This year, Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary welcomes four new seminarians for the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, and one seminarian returning after some time away. All five will introduce themselves in coming issues of The Courier. This month, please welcome PHILIPS JOHN PAUL, ISAIAH LIPPERT and TIMOTHY ZAPPA. Pray for these men as each discerns God's call for him!
Philips John Paul
Hello, readers! I hail from Pondicherry (also known as Puducherry), a city located in the southern part of India, with a population of around 898,000 people. Yes, you heard that right - I am from the distant land of India!
As you read this, you might be wondering, "What is this guy doing in The Courier?" Fair enough! Allow me to introduce myself. I am Philips John Paul, and I’m 23 years old. My family consists of three members: my dad, my mum, and myself. While I am originally from Pondicherry, I received my schooling in another state adjacent to it, called Andhra Pradesh. In case you didn't know, India has about 36 territories, each with its own language. So yes, I am a bilingual. Oh wait; it’s trilingual, actually! I speak Tamil, Telugu, and English. I began my education at a private school where my parents taught. Later, for my high school, I attended a Jesuit Institution, where I also had the privilege of serving as the senior sacristan for about two years, which played a significant role in shaping my faith life. Our family is devout; we regularly attend Mass and pray together as a family. I served at the altar almost every day since my First Holy Communion. All these factors instilled in me a desire to follow the heart of Christ and become His priest.
I entered the diocesan seminary back in India right after high school. The first two years of my formation were known as Initiation Years (I & II), followed by a Propaedeutic Year. Afterward, I began my college seminary, where I studied philosophy and graduated earlier this year.
A bit of backstory: My grandfather was a catechist who closely collaborated with Italian and American missionaries back in his day. The stories of their hard work and dedication have been passed down to me by my family. To this day, we pray for each of them during our family prayers. Despite being in the seminary discerning my vocation, the thought of how sacrificial these missionaries were never really left me. I began sharing my desire to serve elsewhere with my spiritual director, who advised me to resist making hasty decisions and to discern if the Lord truly desired this path for me. Fast forward four years later, in June 2022, after truly journeying with my spiritual director, as I grappled with which diocese to apply for, the Holy Father announced that Bishop Barron was appointed the bishop of Winona-Rochester! I greatly admired Bishop Barron and had grown up watching him. To me that seemed like a cue. After a few weeks of prayer following that announcement, I felt compelled to contact the Vocations Director of WinonaRochester, Father Jason Kern.
Fast forward ten months and a series of conversations later, here I am in Winona - from the distant East to the Midwest - beginning my discernment journey here as a seminarian for the Diocese of Winona-Rochester. This time last year, I wouldn't have believed it if any of you had told me that I'd be 8,220 miles away from home this year. Yet, here I am! The Lord's thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are our ways the Lord's ways (cf. Is 55:8-9).
As I embark on this new journey, I humbly request your prayers for me, that I may draw closer to the Lord, and petition our beloved Mother to safeguard me, her child, under her mantle. Please be assured of my prayers for you as well! On a side note, I'm looking forward to becoming a Midwesterner in all possible ways as well!
Isaiah Lippert
My name is Isaiah Lippert, and I am one of the seminarians involved in the propaedeutic stage of seminary formation in St Paul this year. I’m 24 years old, and I was raised in a large Catholic family about 30 miles south of Mankato. My family’s faithful practice provided the first and most influential formation for my early faith, but this was complemented by the fact that my siblings and I were homeschooled, so Catholicism was made a subject of study, just as important as any other school subject. Catholic textbooks, assignments, discussion, and daily prayer were all part of my home's dynamics, so (thanks be to God) that meant I never had the chance to divorce the faith from my daily life. The faith was not something in my life; my life was something inside the story of our faith, and that foundation was probably the most fundamental reason why I entered IHM Seminary right after high school.
I spent three years in seminary initially, learning much and growing much, but also stricken by a lot of confusion. The faith I had (or thought I had) known was promptly challenged in both healthy and unhealthy ways, and, especially after having been trained to make sense of intense philosophical writings, my sharpened mind met the newfound depth in the paradoxical, counter-cultural, suprarational, and somewhat eerie mysteries of Catholicism, and the result both fried my brain and totally wrecked my heart. I found some degree of solace in the knowledge that I could simply take things a day at a time and let God reveal as I was ready to receive, but by the
end of junior year my formators rightly intuited and declared that I should leave seminary formation to discern and grow in a different sort of environment.
Far from being a secondary or accidental lot, I see now that where I landed after discerning out was entirely guided by the hand of the Almighty. With a further-developed understanding of Catholicism, an overwhelming delight in its beauty, a newfound gift for teaching it, a resurgence of interest in learning more about it, and a gentle sense of being called to pastoral ministry, I am now back in seminary formation three years later, having finished my degree in philosophy and having worked two years as a faith formation coordinator in a local Catholic tri-parish. Very few of my own words seem adequate to describe the good God has done for me, so I feel led to close instead with the words of one of my favorite hymns:
Be still my soul the Lord is on thy side, Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain, Leave to thy God to order and provide, In every change He faithful will remain
Timothy Zappa
Hi, my name is Timothy Zappa. I am originally from Saint Paul, but I consider Hastings, MN, my hometown. I graduated from Hastings High School back in 2012. My hobbies include hiking, painting, weightlifting, camping, botany and board games of all kinds.
After high school I attended a couple different colleges before getting a degree in wildlife ecology and management with a minor in biology. College gave me many great opportunities to grow closer to God, from standing in front of Victoria Falls in Zambia, to the small personal relationships with people seeking Him. Along the way God has helped me become more aware of His love for the beauty of creation and the people who live in it.
I have felt a gentle tug towards seminary since I was young. However, both internally and externally, there has been a need for growth, and in God's time. As I grew after college I helped to coordinate small groups and online meet-ups during COVID, taught faith formation from third to tenth grade (not all at once, thankfully), was a mission coordinator and then president for the Rochester Catholic Young Adult Group, and I put together murder mysteries, canoe trips, game nights, book studies, and Catechism studies. None of these things would have been possible without the support of God and the help of many other Catholics and Christians in the area, to whom I am forever grateful.
My journey to enter this propaedeutic year has not been a straight line. It has spanned multiple dioceses and two continents! It has had hills and valleys all along the way, and, looking back, I can only thank God for it going the way He wanted. I look forward to this next stage in the journey, and I look forward to seeing where He takes me next.
