The four pillars of formation each demand your time and attention and, like every engaged parish priest, you will find yourselves balancing many competing demands – not all of them equally pleasant or interesting. The most apparent reason is the busyness of your schedule and the volume of work that will be expected of you. Even though my seminary experience goes back many years, I remember it vividly and think about it often – and not because I’m happy that it’s over! No, my memories of seminary formation are good memories, but they also include an awareness of how arduous seminary formation can be.ī.
Now, you may not believe it, but I was once a seminarian.
On the contrary, it has to do with joyful expectation, a deep spiritual conviction that in doing the work of priestly formation day by day the Lord Jesus Christ will indeed come among you, and live among you, and be present to you – even as Father Olier taught us to say, “Jesus, living in Mary, come and live in us!” For this, we earnestly invoke the Holy Spirit to overshadow us. The readiness proper to a seminary community, it seems to me, then has nothing to do with wariness or guarded circumspection.
#Four pillars of priestly formation how to
For your part, as seminarians, you must be spiritually prepared to embrace all the dimensions of priestly formation- …including your ongoing formation as a virtuous and loving human being whose personality is to be not an obstacle but a bridge to Christ …your spiritual formation, as you take advantage of all the opportunities that are here to grow toward a personal sanctity proportionate the beautiful & life-giving vocation to which you, in the grace of the Holy Spirit, aspire …your intellectual formation in which you open both your mind and your heart not to dry speculation but to the rich and living Tradition of the Church’s faith …and your pastoral formation, in which you learn how to love God’s people and to serve with deep fidelity and joyful perseverance.ĭ. Those charged with seminary formation, for their part, must be spiritually prepared not only for the task of conveying knowledge and maintaining an orderly community, but, above all, for the task of modeling that spirit of holiness common to the baptized and the specific spirituality of the priesthood – to model in the spirit of Father Olier progress in prayer, virtue, and an apostolic spirit so essential to the life of a priest.Ĭ. Rather, in our context this Gospel is all about our spiritual readiness to engage in the challenging work of priestly formation.ī.
Nor is the alertness and vigilance the Lord is asking of us about looking good only when our superiors are looking at us. What should Jesus’ warning to “stay awake”, to be vigilant, mean for this entire community of faith as a new academic year begins? Surely, Jesus is not urging us to adopt the vigilance of those who are worried about getting caught in laziness or wrongdoing. Appropriately, today’s Gospel pertains to our readiness as the Lord says to you and to me, “Stay awake!” … something I hope your professors won’t have to say to you during class! II. Suddenly, we are in the waning days of August and it’s time to begin again – whether or not we are ready. As I grow older, I must confess, time seems to pass more quickly and that is especially true of the summer months – they are over in a heartbeat. With you I pray that the year ahead may be a time of blessing for this entire community and for each of you individually.ī. I am happy to greet the newest rector of the oldest seminary, Father Philip Brown, whom I’ve been privileged to know for many years, as well as the members of the faculty and staff but most of all, I greet the new & returning seminarians & students here at St. Mary’s Seminary – the nation’s oldest – now marking its 225th anniversary.
This afternoon we have gathered to celebrate a Mass of the Holy Spirit – to ask the inspiration and guidance of the Spirit as we begin a new year of formation here at St.
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