Thoughts on Spiritual Formation & Discernment: Getting to Know Fr Michael Nasser

The Very Rev. Michael Nasser joined St. Vladimir’s Seminary in the summer of 2025 to serve as the Seminary’s Spiritual Formation Director. It was a return to the place he began his seminary studies and formation in the early 1990s. Fr. Michael studied at St. Vladimir’s Seminary for two years before completing his M.Div. at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, in Brookline, MA. He also received his Th.M. at Holy Cross following studies at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Beverly, MA, in the fields of Missions and Youth Ministry. Fr. Michael’s priestly ministry in the Antiochian Archdiocese has spanned more than twenty years, taking him to parishes in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Michigan; to Antiochian Village where he served as Camp Director; and to Tijuana, Mexico where he served as a mission priest.

Fr. Michael has been married to Khouria Vicky since 1994, and they are blessed with three wonderful (and now adult) children: Maria, Joshua, and Elena.

Fr. Michael sat down with first-year seminarian Seraphim Hamilton to talk about his experience at St. Vladimir’s Seminary and to offer insights about forming the next generation of priests—as well as how best to go about discerning whether you are being called to ministry in the Church.

Watch the discussion in its entirety, or read an abbreviated transcript below.

 

Tell us about your history with St. Vladimir’s. How long have you been interacting with this institution?

Well, it began in the dark ages of the early 1990s. The Seminary played an important part of my journey to ministry. It’s actually the place that I was petrified of when I was just starting to think about life in ministry, and in the priesthood in particular. So I had to sort of get over that hurdle of coming here to this place. And once I came to visit, I came during college, I was all in. I was going to quit going to the college I was at and come to the collegiate program here (at the time you could actually finish college here). But no, I held off, and I didn’t actually graduate from here. I did two years here, and then a year at Holy Cross, and I finished up my M.Div. up there. But I loved my years here and great, great experiences.

Any big impressions on shifts between then and now?

It’s a much different place in lots of ways. I’m still finding parts of the campus that didn’t exist when I was here, it was all just forest area that you couldn’t even get to. Much bigger, much more complex. We had some—we would call them—luminaries that were here. My professors were Fr. Hopko, Fr. Meyendorff, Professor Kesich—names that are revered names now, so to not have them here was a little strange. I’ve adjusted now, of course, but so impressed with the faculty we have, so impressed with the leadership of Dr Tudorie and the staff. In many ways, the atmosphere on campus is better. It’s lighter. There’s a bit more joy in the air. So it’s almost the best of what it was, and now it’s even better. So I’m really enjoying my time here so far.

 

 

Thank God! Between being a seminarian here and now Spiritual Formation Director, sketch out how you ended up back here.

I’ve had a very varied ministry—parishes, I was a camp director, I was a mission priest in Mexico for three years, all of which I feel so blessed for, all the opportunities that I’ve had. But the opportunity to come back here was really not in my mind in any formal way, although I thought even early on in my ministry, at some point, I would love to share what I was learning along the way with the next generation of leaders in the Church. I hadn’t really thought about how that would work, except maybe in retirement, volunteering. I told the previous dean of the school that someday—having been a parish priest at the time, for about thirty years—I said, I want to come back and teach a class, and the name of the class is “What It’s Really Like to Be a Priest” [laughs]. And we laughed about it at the time. And then there was a change in administration, and when they were looking for a new director of spiritual formation my name came up through some common colleagues that I share with some of the staff here, and they approached me. At first, I just thought it was a joke! I literally laughed at the first phone call. Then that was followed by a lot of intimidation about what it would mean to come back and help to work for the formation of the seminarians and their future ministry. But the more I thought about it, the more excited I got about the possibilities of sharing what God has taught me through the many different ways that I’ve served in many different locations and situations. And now that I’m here, I’m even more convinced that I think this is where God wants us to be. And I’ve just been loving my time talking with the seminarians.

 

It is a heavy task, to direct spiritual formation of the people who are going to be spiritually forming others. … How do you approach that? What is your vision for what you want to accomplish here?

I look back at my own life and realize how many ways God was forming me through other people. Some of them knew they were doing that and did it intentionally. Some didn’t, but were still very beneficial to me. And just how many situations I was in and, I would say, especially the difficult ones. You know, when you go through a difficult time, the difficulty can be just all you see. Sometimes it just fills your vision. And at the time, it was hard to see those as good experiences. But now looking back, I look back at all my experiences, and especially the really tough ones, and I can recognize how valuable those were in my formation, my development, in my growth, both as just a Christian, as a human being, and as a priest. 

So as I’m meeting with the students right now … we’re just getting to know each other. But one of the things I’m sharing with them is that I want to provide an environment and a relationship where the students can process their time here, and specifically their challenges with trying to find ways to grow from them. You know, life in seminary isn’t easy for married students. They’re uprooting their families. They’re bringing them here. Some have kids … and moves are always difficult for families. This is difficult in the sense that they’re not moving into their own house somewhere. A lot of them have moved out of houses, now they’re living in little apartments, and in all kinds of ways it’s difficult. The life of a seminarian is very full in terms of time commitment. So you know, the seminarians are torn between their schoolwork, their parish assignments, their other responsibilities being a student and in family life. And then you have single students who have their own struggles as they’re going through this phase of life, just a different struggle. But everybody has hard times here. In the past and even in my own experience here, those hard times were just seen by so many of us as things to get through, and at best survive. But as I look back at my life in ministry, so many of those challenging times were the opportunities that I needed to grow. I didn’t want those things to happen at the time. The last thing I wanted is to go through those difficult times. But as I went through them, and then reflected later on them, now I can look back at that as crucial to my growth. So one of things I’m hoping to do is help the students. And I told them, I said, “Come in. Tell me your tale of woe. I will be compassionate.” I’m not going to just tell you, you know, “Suck it up,” because they are difficult [experiences] and we should acknowledge that. At the same time if we just “get through it,” we’re missing big opportunities. So one thing I hope to do is help them process that and realize that God, even in those really difficult times, is using those difficulties to form them in really important ways that they’re going to benefit from later on, when they’re out doing ministry.

 

Could you speak a little more to the way in which you yourself were spiritually formed at seminary? What specific things kind of cut into you in a way that leaves that cross-shaped mark that we’re looking for?

Well, when I was here there was no spiritual formation program, and as I explained to the students in orientation this year, the whole program here, then and now, is spiritual formation. You know, I’m not in charge of the seminary, even though the seminary’s job is the spiritual formation of the students. I am a part of that, and it’s not the part that relates to the running of the chapel and the liturgical life, as much as I serve there, and that’s a part of what I do here. Father Alexander [Rentel], he’s the Rector of the chapel. That’s really his job in addition to the other things that he does. I don’t do the work of a professor, at least not at this point, and will always, if I teach, it’ll be the minor part of my time here. As I see it, and as I’ve talked with the Dean Dr. Tudorie and others, I really want to work on bringing all the rest of that experience: the community life, the challenges of operating in a tough schedule, the difficulties as students start to encounter real people in their ministry, whether it’s through a parish assignment or through their CPE program. Maybe they’re working in an emergency room, in a big city hospital, or they’re at a nursing home, dealing with real people and then learning how to process that. It’s all those other things that are not really part of any set program that I want to help the students process. And specifically—I love the way you say that, to “find that cross-shaped mark”—those are ways that we are called to serve and live out a crucified Christian life, which is not an option. Christ said, “If you want to follow Me, you deny yourself, you take up your cross.” He didn’t say, “One of the ways to follow.” That [taking up your cross] is the way. And if we’re not learning to do that—and I would say especially in the seminary, if students are coming here and they’re being shown crosses, or there are crosses they come across, and all they want to do is get around them, or just survive them, get through them, get past them—then they’re not going to be formed in those situations, in those encounters with those challenges, with those crosses, and they’ll miss that opportunity. I tell students … “I don’t want to give you bad news, but life isn’t easier once you’re done.” It really isn’t. It’ll be easier in the sense that if you learn how to handle the difficulties and use them for your spiritual growth, or more properly, let God use them. Don’t close Him out of that struggle. Then those things become the ways that we all grow personally. And I think what’s unique to a seminary is we’re not growing just for ourselves. I think we should all be growing as Christians, but the people at the seminary, the students, are here specifically, as they can go out and minister to others who all need to be taught how to encounter the crosses in their life. So how does a priest or somebody serving any function in the Church as a leader of ministry, how do they teach somebody else how to bear their cross and grow spiritually if they themselves haven’t done it? And so that’s what I see is really my job, trying to help everyone process those challenges well and practice the ways that they’re going to have to continue bearing the crosses. Because once we get out of here, there are just different crosses in a life of ministry.

 

For someone to whom the thought has occurred, “Hey, maybe I should consider becoming a priest,” what is a good sign they should consider that?

It’s such a hard thing, because the call to ministry really is a mystery, no less mysterious than the other sacraments. We look at the Eucharist as a mystery, and we know that we don’t define how bread and wine become the very body and blood of Christ. In the same way, with the same respect, I think we should approach the mystery of men being called the priesthood. So it’s not that we don’t say anything, but we have to recognize that this is not something that can be fully explained or understood. It’s just something we know to be true. When I have heard of a young man who has either his own sense of a call or my perception of a potential call, one of the things that I’ve suggested they do is develop a relationship with the altar of their church, which I know sounds like a crazy thing. How do you develop a relationship with what some people consider a piece of furniture? Yeah, that piece of furniture, to some, is the meeting place of heaven and earth. It’s where the gifts are offered from the people through the clergy set up to be offered up to God in the Eucharist. It’s the source of so much of our life in the Church—the sacraments, the liturgical life. And then we ask a, typically, young man to go and stand at that altar. As Bishop John of the Antiochian Archdiocese says so beautifully, a priest stands before God on behalf of the people, and he stands before the people on behalf of God. So when a young man starts to sense that calling, that’s one thing I do is say, come and just be an altar server. See what developments happen, and see what understanding starts to grow because, principally, that’s what a priest does. This is the—you might call it—the paradox of the priesthood. The most central thing the priest does is serving at that altar. That defines him in so many ways … and yet, if we just go by time spent, it’s probably the place he spends the least amount of time. Even priests that serve daily services, the majority of their day is not served at the altar, but it does define everything else they do. So I think that’s one way to help them develop the potential for relationship with that very sacred place. And because it’s a mystery, I think all we can do is just try to remove barriers that can be removed. For me, it was the fear of, if that first domino fell, if I came to the seminary and if I wasn’t blocked through that, then maybe everything else is going to come, and maybe I’m not ready for all that. So walking slowly with somebody who’s trying to discern their call. Being reminded that every step that you’re not going to walk alone. You walk with Christ, you walk with your priest, and others that are going to walk with you. You’re not going to walk this path alone. Another barrier I think we really need to work harder at is, you know, fears of financial instability. There are some people who are called to poverty, especially monastics, and for them poverty is not a barrier. But for a married man, or a man who wants to be married, it’s not wrong to want to financially support your family. And so I think there’s lots that we could do to remove the barriers for—and I think we’ve come a long way—supporting clergy financially. I think we still have work to do, but then I think we have to communicate that. When I talk to young men and I say, you know, “Have you thought about priesthood?” “Well, I would, but I want to take care of my family, and I don’t want to put them through living a life of poverty.” Well, a lot of them don’t know that’s not necessarily the case. So removing those barriers that I think we can, and there are others.

 

 

How does a person distinguish if they’re concerned about, “Oh, maybe I’m just being spiritually delusional. How could I be a priest? How could I stand at that altar? I’m just going to put this away, because this is from the devil.” How do you manage all of those thoughts?

Don’t do it yourself. You process it with a father confessor that hopefully you have a good relationship with and that you can dialog with. I tell the students here, your job was to discern as best you can that God intended for you to come and get the experience of being at the seminary, and your job is to decide how much you’re open to. Are you willing to be ordained, first as a deacon and then later as a priest? Other than that I really think that those that our candidates really shouldn’t play much more of a role. Their job is to be available, to be perceptive, to dialogue with a good mentor, like a spiritual father, to take that spiritual father’s advice over their own. They might say, “Well, I could never stand there. And if their father confessor says, “I think you should at least pursue this next step”—if they don’t feel that it’s wrong, that it’s the wrong direction—I don’t think they should let either their pride or their humility stop them. I think, in their humility, they say, “Father thinks I should do this. I’m willing to do it. I take the next step and I present myself to the bishop and let the bishop decide.” … I just think it’s easy to get over involved. And we might say, in a worldly sense, you have every right to. It’s your life. Well, as a clergyman, it’s not! There are traditions where you get a new name. You are told where you’re going to live. You’re not typically asked. And you know, the bishops try to accommodate. They want a good situation for the priest, for his family, but ultimately you are submitting your life to service in the Church, and specifically through the bishop. And so practicing that, practicing that willingness to be obedient and to just present yourself and say, “Here I am, Lord. If it’s Your will, send me.” And let God and the bishop take care of the rest.

 

 

Father Michael, is there anything else you really want to communicate to people as they maybe consider coming to seminary or as they are praying for the seminary?

Yeah, we need prayers. This is a tough place to be. Just think about it as sort of a tactical area. You know, if we were in a physical war, the opposing army would try to knock out headquarters and ammo depots and training centers. This is the training center for those that are going to lead the spiritual combat for the Church in the years to come. So to be praying for the seminaries, even financially support the seminaries. … For people that are considering or even just get an inkling of service, learn about it. These days you can go on the website, you can take virtual tours, you can come and visit. We have an open house … or just like I did in my young adult years, come and make an excuse for a visit. I had a friend being ordained across the river, and I came here for a couple nights. And you know, there’s nothing like coming to see what it’s like. I still remember, even how old I am, that for the entire two nights I was here there was never a time I woke up for a second that I didn’t hear typewriters somewhere in the building! You don’t hear that anymore, thankfully, as people just click on their little keyboards. … Be open that maybe God is calling you, and if so, work on your trust that you’ll be okay. Work on your trust in Him, that He’ll get you through. I think for me, that was the big lesson of my journey to coming here as a student, was all these kinds of fears. I mean, it’s so many fears layered on fears, and what I got to by the end of the process was “Okay, it’s okay to be afraid.” But am I really thinking that if God wants me to do this, that He’s not going to provide for me a way through all those things I’m afraid of? And then it was just enough for me to say, “Let me give Him a chance to do that,” and I came. And thank God, I’ve been blessed ever since.