For Luke Nicholas, there’s nothing like maneuvering the vintage Chevy Silverado on isolated dirt roads, the hydraulic bed of the truck packed with firewood. He and a fellow seminarian from Saint Meinrad Seminary recite the rosary en route to the trailer park, thinking forward to the moment they will unload the firewood for a family in need. In the wintery dusk, the truck’s blue-green paint job glints like the heart of a flame.
The seasonal, free wood delivery ministry organized by diocesan seminarians in St. Meinrad, Indiana is sometimes referred to as “Project Warm” or the “Woodlot Crew.” Regardless of what name they call it, locals in the rural community are sure to reach out whenever a tree is felled on their property. The seminarians will put the wood to good use by chopping, seasoning and conveying firewood to those in need – changing lives in the process.
Ember into flame: the origins of “Project Warm”
Tracing its beginnings back to the mid-1800s, Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology sits side-by-side with Saint Meinrad Benedictine Archabbey. The campus is also a retreat spot for laypeople, and for good reason: the antique stone stairs, gray spires and out-of-the-way location make for serene surroundings.
Saint Meinrad seminarians will become diocesan priests rather than priests belonging to a religious order. However, the Benedictine way of life deeply influences them, especially the emphasis on “ora et labora” (“prayer and work”).
That’s exactly what the wood delivery is all about, explained Joshua Osborne, co-manager of the woodlot. He shared how the program has been a decades-long ministry to the community and an important part of the lives of many seminarians.
Project Warm traces its roots to the Benedictines. In the 1960s, the ministry originally involved students who attended college on the Saint Meinrad campus, where Benedictines taught. “The Benedictine faculty that were forming the college students, they set it up as a ministry,” said Osborne.
In its current form, Project Warm delivers firewood yearly to the disadvantaged, from late fall to late spring. Some of the approximately 20 seminarians and young Benedictine monks helping out this season participate on a volunteer basis. Some are paid through government grants. The seminary provides funds for Project Warm, but seminarians facilitate it.
“The spiritual grace from the Eucharist is ultimately what’s powering everything,” explained Osborne. “The Lord is providing the wood, all our energy, all our desire to serve people.”
Project Warm remains a beloved tradition at Saint Meinrad. Just recently, Nicholas ran into a Saint Meinrad alumnus in his home state of Alabama. The alumnus of the 1970s made sure to ask, “You all don’t happen to still give wood to the poor, do you?”
Osborne and Nicholas – Southerners from Arkansas and Alabama, respectively – had to acclimate to the cold Indiana winters when they first arrived for formation. Osborne described moments when the delivery truck wheels become trapped in snowy driveways.
“Getting involved with Woodlot made me realize how many people go without heat,” Nicholas reflected. “A lot of the people we bring wood to almost never have central heating and they might not even have power out to their house… There are also times we deliver to people who are decently well off but are elderly and can’t really lift wood from a truck.”
From woodlot to hearth
Facilitating wood deliveries is an involved process, which the seminarians manage to find time for in the midst of studies. Osborne estimated that, through their streamlined system, the Woodlot Crew currently dedicates “about 10 hours total per week between the 20 of us” during winter’s peak.
Volunteers operating chainsaws receive safety training before going on expeditions to nearby homes to cut up donated trees. The raw material is then brought to the woodlot on monastery land, a concrete slab in a clearing near the forest.
One of the most striking features of the woodlot is the variety of material donated, Nicholas observed. The woodpiles feature everything from standard pine to fine cherry and maple, wood that almost looks too pretty for firewood.
From time to time, seminarians gather for “woodshop days,” splitting wood with axes, mauls and chainsaws so it can be prepared for yearlong seasoning. “In spring – like March, April, when it’s warming up – we make a really big push to split a lot of wood so it can dry over the summer,” Nicholas explained.
Chopping can be grueling work, so Osborne enjoys it when the seminarians listen to music or hold “competitions” as motivation. “We set two logs next to each other and see who can do it faster.”
Nicholas enjoys winding down after a woodshop day, sharing food and beer after a hard day’s work.
Those in need of firewood can get in touch through the Project Warm call center. If an individual or family is located within 15 miles of the seminary, seminarians will make the journey to the address. Those who live more than 15 miles away aren’t completely out of luck, however – although it’s too far for the seminarians to travel, those folks have the option to drive over in person to collect the wood.
This season, Project Warm has aided approximately 40 clients so far.
“We receive some very nice cards and some very nice words at the end of the season, saying, ‘Thank you so much for the work that you have done, because we don’t know what we would’ve done if we didn’t have your help,’” shared Osborne. “That sort of thing is very powerful for us. It shows the fruits of the ministry, you know, that the Lord’s hand is in it.”
“Seeing the other guys, and the fire in their hearts to serve – and to give of their own personal time to go on these long drives or chop wood all day and be exhausted on their day off – it keeps our hearts in it,” said Nicholas.
Referring to woodlot leaders Joshua Osborne and Phillip Necessary, Nicholas added, “I think these guys are saints. I think a lot of the seminarians here have a servant’s heart, but I don’t think anyone embodies it like they do.”
Fueling future priests’ pastoral vision
Project Warm enables seminarians to practice aspects of pastoral care that will become an even bigger part of their lives as future priests.
“Catholic social teaching cares for the whole human person. It’s about loving the person before preaching to them or trying to convert them,” Osborne explained. However, sometimes clients will allow the seminarians to pray with them.
“It turns into a ministry for the soul as well, for them to be strengthened, to know that the Lord is taking care of them through other people,” he added. Osborne also described how, at times, their ministry turns into expanded intervention when they notice deeper issues at play.
“It’s a reality, in places throughout rural America, that some people have improper housing,” Osborne said. A situation that might warrant continued involvement could include an individual who finds themselves in inadequate housing after the rupture of their family.
“We see what we can do to help them reconcile with family members, help them to see what other avenues of assistance they can have, so that we’re not just putting a band-aid on the situation, but that we’re really able to put them in a stable living situation for their future.”
Nicholas believes that the woodlot fosters a resilience and hardiness that is important for future pastors. “You have to learn how to get dirty,” he said. “There are times and occasions to go to a formal fundraiser dinner as a priest, but that doesn’t mean that we’re not also called to get in the trenches and get dirty and do the hard things that we maybe don’t want to do.”
Osborne emphasized that Project Warm wouldn’t be possible without the wider community pitching in. He gave a shoutout to a member of the maintenance team on campus, whose tireless efforts “really helped us while we were on Christmas break” this year. Help from Catholic high schools is also much appreciated. St. Xavier High School’s football team visits from Louisville, Kentucky annually to support Project Warm. Nicholas hopes that the experience might help the teen boys reflect on the priesthood if they have a vocation.
For Osborne, Project Warm “is a way to pray. It’s a way of prayer for people who work hard with their hands. It’s a way to give up yourself and reach solidarity with those who work from the sweat of their brow.”
Speaking of his classmates, Nicholas said, “When I see guys putting in those extra hours and prayer, those are the guys I look at and think, ‘They’re going to be fantastic priests one day.”
