At Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood, young men are studying day and night to determine if the priesthood is the path for them.
This year, that path will cross with a pope's.
It happened once before there and by all accounts it was magic.
It was 1:00 a.m., October 3rd, 1979, when an exuberant Pope John Paul II came bounding into the main chapel at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood.
For a young man named Timothy Senior, studying for the priesthood at the time, it still conjures up deep emotion.
Now Bishop Senior, who, as fate or perhaps destiny would have it, now runs the very same seminary and is preparing for the prospect of another Papal visit.
"If that were to happen, we'd be working around the clock to get the place in shape," Senior said.
By all accounts, it likely will happen.
When popes travel, they typically stay with the local archbishop and in this case, that would be Charles Chaput, who lives on the second floor of the seminary's main building.
Security concerns restrict any filming of the residence.
We did see, however, the private steps the Pope would use to get there.
And while we couldn't go up, we were granted the first ever television access to other parts of the sprawling 75 acre, 650,000 square foot complex with my guides Ryan Kaupe and Eric Banecker, two seminary students who are more than eager about their impending papal encounter.
"It's an amazing opportunity that we definitely realize that not many people get," Kaupe said.
The cavernous library which houses tens of thousands of rare books and bibles dating to the Middle Ages is where the seminary's some 160 priests-in-training come to study.
Action News cameras were allowed at the seminary's daily mass where the students come together to pray at 4:00 p.m. each afternoon.
It is a solemn and stunning experience.
There are also the basics, like a dining hall and a gym for the seminary's basketball league.
But few things stoke the curiosity of those who visit this place as much as a tunnel.
The underground tunnel connects two of the seminary's main buildings and was once the longest in the country outside the Pentagon.
A fact that even made the seminary an answer to a trivial pursuit question.
But beyond the unique images and sounds that make the seminary truly incredible, those who live there say it really is all about the experience.
"Really the years spent here are so formative not only for the things we learn, but who we become," Banecker said.
One more piece of trivia- three other popes have visited Philadelphia but before they were popes: Pope Pius the 12th, Paul the 6th and Benedict the 16th, who is now Pope Emeritus.