WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES AUGUST 31, 2017 21
BUZZ
A seminarian from St. Matthias Church
went on a spiritual pilgrimage
BY ANTHONY GIUDICE
AGIUDICE@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@A_GIUDICEREPORT
A man from Ridgewood who is
studying to become a priest
recently traveled to Portugal
and Spain to take part in a spiritual
pilgrimage with several other seminarians
that has not only strengthened
his faith, but also deepened his bond
with the faithful at his hometown
church, St. Matthias.
Brendon Harfmann, 23, was born
and raised in Ridgewood, attending
St. Matthias Church and School as a
child. Aft er graduating from elementary
school, Harfmann moved on to
Cathedral Preparatory, and in 2012 he
went to St. John’s University. During
his time at St. John’s he lived in the
school’s seminary and graduated in
2012 with his bachelor of arts degree
in philosophy and theology.
Now Harfmann is in St. Joseph’s
Seminary in Dunwoodie, Yonkers,
completing his master’s degree before
getting ordained and becoming a priest.
Even though his uncle, Father
John Harfmann SSJ, was a Josephite
priest, he never saw him much
before he passed away in 2012.
However, Harfmann was influenced
at a young age by a priest from St.
Matthias Church.
“I always think back to sixth grade.
There was a newly ordained priest at St.
Matthias,” Harfmann said. “The priests
at St. Matthias were always a huge infl
uence on me. When I was kid I wanted
to serve. I wanted to be involved in the
youth group, and be involved as much
as possible. I remember one day, just
telling the priest at the end of the Mass,
‘I want to be a priest,’ and I knew nothing
of how to get to that end, but I just
saw what he was doing, it infl uenced
positively and I said I want to do it.”
Harfmann’s list of infl uences continued
as he entered high school, and
really credits Cathedral Prep with
helping him solidify his decision on
wanting to become a priest.
“My time at Cathedral Prep, that was
the most infl uential aspect of where
I am today,” Harfmann said. “The
priests, when you see a priest and you
think, ‘I can do that,’ they really were
the people who made that happen.”
While studying at Cathedral Prep
and St. John’s, Harfmann always stayed
close with the people at St. Matthias. He
began working there, and visiting all
the time. And it was these people who
helped and supported Harfmann on his
pilgrimage.
On July 26, Harfmann, along with
eight other seminarians and a single
priest, traveled to Spain to begin the
“El Camino” pilgrimage, walking the
traditional Camino Frances route from
Ponferrada to Santiago de Compostela.
The entire route goes from France to
Spain, but for this trip Harfmann and
his crew took a shorter route.
Over the course of nine days, Harfmann
and his seminarian brothers
walked the 130 miles between the two
countries.
“We just went without knowing too
much about it,” Harfmann explained.
“We knew that it would be diffi cult
physically, spiritually challenging,
but we knew that if we could just get a
little taste of what the entire Camino
was like, we knew that maybe in the
future we would do that entire thing.”
During the physically exhausting and
mentally draining journey, Harfmann
eventually found himself alone on a hill.
Atop that hill, with the weight of his backpack
getting heavier, his feet pounding,
and his throat dry, Harfmann said he
had a personal encounter with God.
“I was overtaken by a sense of God’s
presence there. For me, throughout my
life, I’ve had these wonderful experiences
of encountering God and Christ
in diff erent ways and through diff erent
people, but for me that was one of the
main points in my life where it was a
one-on-one,” Harfmann remembered.
“There was no church; there was no
cross; there was nothing. It was me on
this hill in the middle of Spain, and an
encounter with Christ, the beauty of the
Earth, the overwhelming knowledge
that I could fi nish this pilgrimage, I could
do so much more that God is always with
us. That’s what that moment was.”
The adrenaline gained from his
experience on the hill, the support
and prayers he received from the
parishioners back in Ridgewood, and
knowing that the end of the nine-day
journey was in sight helped Harfmann
hike the rest of the “El Camino” with
his brothers to Santiago de Compostela
where he got the chance to pray for not
only himself and his fellow seminarians,
but all those who supported him
as well, at the Cathedral of St. James.
“I encourage every person that asked
me about it, I’ve encouraged them to
experience it for themselves,” he said.
“You can’t always put these things
into words, but I know that it was an
encounter and an experience that I’ll
remember for the rest of my life.”
Photos courtesy of Brendon Harfmann
Brendon Harfmann during his pilgrimage through Portugal and Spain.
