After helping students identify the third archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Richard James Cushing, Leaver told the tour group that he currently studies Portuguese at the seminary. Hoping to serve as an archdiocesan priest after ordination, studying the language sets him up to help minister to the large population of Catholics from Brazil living in and around Boston.

Near the end of the tour Callan Davis, a former intelligence officer in the Air Force, spoke to the group in his fatigues.

"You may ask, 'Why is this guy wearing an Air Force uniform?' I was actually an intelligence officer for a year in the Air Force. And now I -- when I am ordained -- will go back in as a chaplain for the Air Force," Davis said.

His talk emphasized the diversity of ways to serve the Church as a priest, while highlighting the day-to-day life of seminarians. He said seminarians come from many walks of life -- Davis, from Texas, was originally Southern Baptist-- but all share a love for God that they show in daily prayer.

"We pray a lot. When we pray ourselves, we pray for you, and we pray for the world, every single day," he said.

Father O'Connor closed with a prayer service in the chapel, and then invited guests for refreshments at the refectory after closing witness talks from Davis and Leaver.

"Our big focus in doing this is to influence young people to think about vocations, but also to make our parishes here in the archdiocese well aware that St. John's Seminary is alive and well -- and doing very, very well -- and that we are grateful for their support and their presence here today," Father O'Connor said.