Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology

I was recently accepted to the Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology at Seton Hall in New Jersey. I am entering as an M.A.T student with a Systematic Theology focus.

Below is my Personal Statement that I wrote and sent in my application.

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Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology

Personal Statement

Michael Johnson

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My purpose in studying for an advanced degree at the Immaculate Conception Seminary is to make the transition from solitary study and existential foundation in Christ to the joining of a community of seekers who have also heard a call and chosen to pursue it. My intention at the seminary is to commit myself to the study of scripture and Catholic theology, with a particular interest in the works and lives of the saints. At the seminary I hope to strengthen the foundations of my faith, to write, and to engage in thoughtful exchange in the classroom. 

Originally a student of the humanities, my undergraduate schooling was in literature, philosophy and film. After graduating, I felt a deep need for a life-practice, and I discovered the studio practice of the artist to which I have devoted myself for the past 13 years. An artist learns to live by a fidelity to inspiration and to periodically turn away from the world; this is a great training ground for discernment and receptiveness to the spirit. There is a natural seeking and spirituality involved in the practice of the artist, and by grace my own pursuit slowly led me to Christian faith. I now feel that the aesthetic life is a preamble to faith, and that the artist’s studio might not be too far away from a monk’s cloister if the practice finds the right basis. My own artistic practice over time became united with prayer and fasting. 

Although I was baptized Catholic as an infant and made my first communion, I was not raised with much religion and it was not a part of my life at all in early adulthood. The movement of my soul toward Christian faith was a slow and drawn out unfolding of hunger and thirst. While I may have been slow of heart to believe, there have been events of consolation and periods of desolation in my life that have remolded my soul and delivered me to Mary and Jesus. As I look back it feels as if there has a been a gentle guidance all along.  In some ways I am grateful for my genuine path toward faith, and I now maintain a calm and steady flame of  belief and prayerful practice built around the rosary. I hope to keep the spirit that now animates my life in motion with works of love and acts of service built on a solid theological foundation. I feel an inspired call to the seminary that gives me the courage to apply. My decision to exchange the time I devote to artwork to the committed study of theology feels like finally consenting to an exchange of hearts that I’ve seen depicted in paintings like those of Saint Catherine of Siena. 

The last work of art that I am in the process of completing as I write this is a cast drawing of Mary in the Annunciation scene originally sculpted by Andrea della Robbia. I have been studying cast drawing with a mentor online at the Grand Central Atelier for the past 2 years. It was perhaps no accident that along the way I happened to read St. Louis De Montfort explain in True Devotion to Mary, how “the saints are molded in Mary…those who embrace the secret of grace which I am revealing to them I may rightly compare to founders and casters who have discovered the beautiful mold of Mary, where Jesus was naturally and divinely formed; and without trusting their own skill, but only in the goodness of the mold, they cast themselves and lose themselves in Mary, to become the faithful portraits of Jesus Christ.” In essence this describes where I currently find myself – pouring myself into the mold of Mary with drawing and prayer, at the threshold of a change, with a desire to take a leap of faith and enter the Immaculate Conception seminary. The form of one’s life might be the greatest work of art, wrought by the Holy Spirit insofar as we learn to surrender ourselves in faith. May each stage of the soul’s journey to God have such mysterious beauty. Thank you for considering my application. 

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