MOUNT HOLLY — Nicholas Kramer graduated from St. Joseph College Seminary last month.
But before he left, he wanted to leave behind a special gift in gratitude: a log chapel on the seminary campus dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, to whom he has a great devotion.
“I wanted to give something to the seminary as a ‘thank you’ for the formation and education I have received here,” Kramer explains. “I also wanted to use my talents to do something concrete for the honor and glory of God.”
He spent weeks on the project – preparing the area, felling pine trees and cutting them to size for a chapel large enough to accommodate three to five people.
“Since the chapel is a pine log cabin, the vast majority of that time was spent hauling and notching the logs,” he says.
Inspiration for the name of the chapel came to him in prayer, he says.
“I honestly had no idea (what to name it) when I started building. This project had been coming up consistently in my Holy Hour, but never with any sort of saint affiliated with it.”
Later, he says, “it finally hit me that I should name it after Our Lady of Sorrows” – because of his personal devotion and because of the special role Our Lady of Sorrows has played in the life of the college seminary.
Ground was broken for the college seminary on Sept. 15, 2018, the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, and the building was officially dedicated by Bishop Peter Jugis on the same day two years later.
“I love to work with my hands. Ever since I was little I loved building things, so this has been great for my discernment and growth in my spiritual life, because it allows me to use a skill set that I don’t normally get to use to glorify God,” Kramer says. “It also helps to keep me grounded in reality, because while it is important to spend time in prayer and to study, nothing teaches you humility and patient endurance like dragging a 600-pound pine log through the woods just to find out you mis-measured and it is too short.”
— SueAnn Howell, Senior reporter. Photos provided by Nicholas Kramer
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