The Desert Formation Experience (DFE) is an annual 30-day spiritual pilgrimage that the first-year graduate seminarians make to the Holy Land.

During their journey, they have the opportunity to experience firsthand the places Christ walked and taught, ministered and lived, suffered, died, and rose again. An opportunity that tangibly seeks Christ's guidance and places into context their on vocational walk toward the priesthood.

Some years may require modifications to the quintessential pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In those instances, the Formation Team develops a new itinerary that nevertheless meets the desired outcome for the seminarians to confirm their lives to Christ with a deeper spiritual conviction of their future priestly vocation.

2025 DFE Vlog: Pilgrimage with the Seminarians

The current and unfortunate circumstances in the Middle East will not allow for a pilgrimage to take place in the Holy Land this year. In lieu, the seminarians will embark on a "Pilgrimage of the Saints" where they will have the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of some of the most prominent Saints of the Catholic Church as well as visit some notable Marian apparition sites.

The DFE pilgrims will maintain a spiritual "vlog" (i.e. video log), sharing insights from each day of their journey. Follow along with them as they visit sites including Fatima, Santiago de Compostela, Avila, Montserrat, Lourdes, Ars, Assisi, and Rome. Go to the Vlog.