ST. PATRICK’S SEMINARY APOSTOLATE

The COSJ is committed to serving the spiritual lives of seminarians at St. Patrick’s Seminary and University: an essential ministry, as these seminarians will be forming the spiritual lives of the laity for generations to come.


Our priests serve as spiritual directors and extern confessors, give retreats, teach an occasional class, and celebrate the Byzantine Divine Liturgy. Our brothers, sisters, and Third Order members serve the seminary with gardening, cleaning, and other manual labor when needed. Some also provide proofreading services to seminarians for whom English is a second language.

Healing and Deliverance Ministry

“Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons” (Matthew 10:8).


Many people in the Bay Area are in desperate need of healing and deliverance because of addictions, irregular relationships, involvement in the occult, and other issues. Such people can turn to the COSJ for firm but compassionate help. Outside of our monastery, we hold a Healing Mass every first Friday of the month at Mater Dolorosa Church, which is next door to us. We also participate in Project Rachel by holding retreats for men and women who have been involved in an abortion.

Parish Masses

The COSJ monastery is located beside Mater Dolorosa Church, and from the start, we have served the parish in various ministries. There, our priests regularly say both forms of the Mass and hear confessions. Occasionally, our priests celebrate the Byzantine Divine Liturgy at Our Lady of Fatima Russian Byzantine Catholic Church. They also serve other church communities by offering retreats, celebrating Mass on weekends, or offering Healing Masses.

Missionaries of Charity

“The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread” (St. Mother Teresa).


The Contemplatives of St. Joseph have enjoyed a close bond with the Missionaries of Charity sisters here in the Bay Area. Our priests often celebrate Mass for them and act as their confessors and spiritual directors. We also tend to be present, together with our Archbishop, at their Masses of First Profession. Some of the brothers help, too, at the Gift of Love, a hospice in Pacifica run by the MC sisters.

Pro-Life Ministry

“When some lives, including those of the unborn, are subjected to the personal choices of others, no other value or right will be long guaranteed” (Pope St. John Paul II).


“Defend the unborn against abortion even if they persecute you, calumniate you, set traps for you, take you to court, or kill you” (Pope Francis).


As an intensely pro-life community, the Contemplatives of St. Joseph participate each year in the West Coast Walk for Life in San Francisco. Several times during the year, some of the members give men’s and women’s retreats as a part of Project Rachel. Above all, however, the COSJ is dedicated to praying for the conversion of men and women everywhere who are either directly involved in the abortion industry or indirectly supporting it by moral laxity and indifference.

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