Part 1: Introductions

Every person is given a special mission by God when he is created. Sometimes, this mission is immediately recognized at some point during the person’s life, and other times it must be slowly discerned and understood over years of prayer. All seminarians, in discerning the call to the ministerial priesthood, must be prepared to accept this great task. This period of preparation in a seminary can take anywhere from 7 to 10 years and can be categorized into three specific stages: Propaedeutic, Discipleship, and Configuration. The overall goal of seminary formation is not only to prepare a man for priesthood, but to configure the man’s heart to the Sacred Heart of Christ, the true High Priest. The rector at my seminary summed up the stages well when he said, “In the propaedeutic stage, we form the man. In the discipleship stage, we form the Christian. In the configuration stage, we form the priest.”

The Program for Priestly Formation (PPF), which governs how US seminaries should structure their formation, states the purpose of formation is not for the functions of the priesthood, but for the entirety of the person: The mission of the priest flows from his identity. The identity of the priest, like that of every Christian, is fundamentally rooted in a relationship with the Trinity (24). Most people tie their identities to their careers. What they do determines who they are. The reality is the opposite. From my identity flows my mission, and my identity is rooted in my relationship to God. It is He that made us, and we are His. (Ps 100:3) The stages of formation root the seminarian in his identity as a beloved son of God.At each stage, every seminarian is guided by the four dimensions, or pillars, of formation: Human, Spiritual, Intellectual, and Pastoral. In each dimension, we see how the priest is to be configured to the Lord. Christ, in His humanity, was perfect and used His body as an instrument for our salvation. He was completely and perfectly free because His intellect, will, passions, and emotions were all ordered correctly toward God. The priest must also fully understand and use his own humanity for God to work through him, and his own passions and powers must also be ordered correctly. Christ turned to the Father in prayer constantly, and the priest must do the same. Christ himself says apart from me you can do nothing. (Jn 15:5) God the Son is also called the Word of God, or the Wisdom of God. To be a priest of His, the priest must be a man of wisdom and focused on the continuous study of the mysteries of the Faith. Finally, as Christ is the Good Shepherd, so the priest must be a true pastoral leader for the Church. I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. (Jer 3:15).