The Seminary as Nazareth

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The Seminary as Nazareth: Formation in a School of Prayer | Deacon James Keating, Ph.D. | Ignatius Insight | February 11, 2010 Pastoral study and action direct one to an inner source, which the work of [priestly] formation will take care to guard and make good use of: This is the ever-deeper communion with the pastoral charity of Jesus, which...constitutes the principle and driving force of priestly ministry. It is a question of a type of formation meant not only to ensure scientific, pastoral competence and practical skill, but also and especially a way of being in communion with the very sentiments and behavior of Christ. [1] How does the seminary guard this inner source of ever-deeper communion with the charity of Jesus? How does formation lead a seminarian to be in communion with the very sentiments and behavior of Christ? In this essay I will explore one way that such a communion may be established and guarded. It is a way of prayer and meditation that invites the seminarian to enter Nazareth and live there with the Holy Family. This way of being and praying is expressed well by Pope Paul VI. Oh, how I would like to become a child once again and start my studies over in this humble and sublime school of Nazareth. How I would like with Mary, to receive once again the true knowledge of life and the superior wisdom of divine truths. [2] Here the Pope reveals his deepest heart, his desire to live with the Holy Family. Such a desire can be satiated as time and space do not deny its fulfillment. At its core such a desire expresses a man's longing to live with God, to live where holiness defines all of reality. Incipiently many seminarians come to the seminary looking to have the same desire fulfilled: I want to live where Christ lives. Vocation directors usually use John 1:38 to attract the attention of young men who are weary of aspects of our current culture and want to seek the "more." In this part of the Gospel of John we hear a question asked by any sincere seminarian, "Master, where do you live?"(v. 38). Jesus says in return, "Come and see." In John 1:43ff there is another version of this conversation that is more relevant to our present meditation on Nazareth, however. In this version Nathaniel asks if "anything good can come from Nazareth?" and Philip responds, "Come and see." What did Philip want Nathaniel to see—the town of Nazareth? No. He wanted Philip to see the kind of man that is formed in Nazareth, a formation that is taken up into the love between Mary and Joseph and their reception of the love of God the Father. Here the "come and see" invites the disciple to behold the kind of man formed in Nazareth, a man who can see very deeply, who gazes with love on the full truth of a man. He sees Nathaniel, knows him and then in response to Nathaniel's astonishment over this knowledge reveals even more: the source of this knowledge, which is Jesus' communion with all things divine. "You will see heaven open up." In other words, you will see what I see. As the seminarian gets closer to the mystery of Christ's own identity and his communion with Mary, Joseph and the love of the Father, he gains a sure footing for entering priestly ministry. The

kind of man Nazareth forms is one who ministers to other's needs from out of his own communion with the mystery of Divine and human love. The seminarian is called to let Christ tutor him in this mystery of ministry: the mission of priesthood can only be sustained throughout the life of a priest if he receives love and stays in communion with that love. Here is the core curriculum of the seminary; here is its "content": The first task of intellectual formation [in the seminary] is to acquire a personal knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the fullness and completion of God's revelation and the one Teacher. This saving knowledge is acquired not only once, but it is continuously appropriated and deepened....Intellectual formation has a...missionary purpose and finality. [3] There may be a number of seminarians who respond to the call to priesthood only to recognize that their "personal knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ" remains undeveloped. If such ignorance lingers while the seminarian is still in seminary his future priesthood may become burdensome because he does not know how to receive love and stay in love. His priesthood is secured and continues toward holiness when it flows from communion with Christ and all who He is. This reception of Christ's love as 'personal knowledge' reaches its apex in mission, for communion founds mission. Christ, Himself, did not remain in Nazareth but was sent forth from his family; even still He continues to spiritually receive their love and affection. Nazareth has not vanished; it is the love between Mary, Joseph and Christ in the presence of the Trinity. Not only can good come from Nazareth it is the very home of goodness and holiness. A Spousal Love The seminary, then, is foremost a transfiguring encounter with Trinitarian love, a love made known in and through a "personal knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ." If the priesthood Christ wishes to share with the seminarian is to be effectively received and personally internalized then he must allow Christ to become intimate with him . To enter into communion with the Trinity is a gift of grace, a grace each seminarian has been appropriating since his baptism. This spiritual sonship, given to each man by the Father through Christ and in the Spirit, founds the fullness of his vocation as one who lives to give himself away in love. [4] As a man's priestly vocation becomes clear and he enters seminary a new configuration of this grace of baptism is waiting: the grace of spousal love. This grace is activated and internalized when a seminarian acknowledges that his vocation is a way of spousal self-donation. All spousal love has its origins in God ("Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her" [Hos 2:14]) [5] who wishes to be close to His Bride (humanity, Church) through the ministry of Christ the Bridegroom who then, in turn, shares His own mission with priests. The Incarnation, therefore, is the gracious overflow of God's spousal love for creation; a love that culminates in the self-donation of the Bridegroom on the cross (Matt. 9:15; Eph. 5:25). Christ himself was formed by the spousal love of Mary and Joseph (Lk. 2:51-52), a love

reflecting God's own for His creation. Mary received Jesus into her own love for Joseph and God the Father; Jesus in turn received their love and gave himself to them (Lk. 2:51), and eventually His own spouse, the Church. The seminarian is invited to enter the grace of familial-nuptial love in the same way Christ knew such love on earth: through the reality of Nazareth, through the reality of Mary and Joseph's love for God, for one another, and for the Son, Jesus. In our current time when the spousal relationship is undergoing profound cultural attacks, and when married couples and priests alike struggle to be true to their vows we need to receive Nazareth in grace and invite it to enter the seminary as refining fire. Seminarians are called to be formed in a prophetic way as men espoused to the Church. That which is now being rejected—marriage—Nazareth will in the end purify, elevate, and rectify through the priesthood. By virtue of his prophetic character the priest is summoned to participate in the communion of love [6] that is Mary, Joseph and Jesus. "[The priest] proclaims the word in his capacity as "minister," as a sharer in the prophetic authority of Christ and the Church." [7] In his chaste spousal love the seminarian gives witness to the singular attention Christ gave to His own Bride, the Church. Time and Grace One rationale for the existence of a seminary is to form the seminarian so he will cherish time. This cherishing is not for its own sake. Time is cherished as sacred because of what the Spirit is doing to and for the seminarians. He is advancing them in age, wisdom and grace (Lk. 2:52). This is how it was in Nazareth. This focus on time and relationships is ordered toward the completion of a masculine identity that was given to the seminarian at birth. His manhood was then related to the mystery of salvation at baptism. Under the loving discipline of his parents he further appropriates his identity as a son and brother and now, in seminary, moves toward espousingthe church and this vocation's inevitable paternal fulfillment. [8] The seminary, then, is primarily a relational process of formation in a priestly identity that can only be established upon a solid process of human and spiritual maturation. [9] In order for this identity to be maturely appropriated by a priest he needs to receive and enter into the communion of love that is Mary, Joseph and Jesus. The reception of such love defines the formation of one who is to share in the original priesthood of Christ, a priesthood that had a significant portion of its character established by way of this same familial-nuptial love. The Holy House of Nazareth, then, is to be transported to each seminary. To have the seminary become the house of Nazareth is to acknowledge that Christ carried Nazareth within Him during his ministry. He was the"product" of the silence, the work, the prayer, and the mystery of masculinefeminine love that He received. When the disciples met Christ, they met Nazareth. Those thirty years of full silence are carried in Christ's Heart, carried there to be forever shared with His priests in their ownamoris officium. [10] Nazareth is still germane to the formation of priests because Nazareth has never ended; Christ remains in unceasing unity with the Father, Mary and Joseph.

Trinitarian Love This domestic fellowship becomes the seminarian's entryway to deeper participation in Trinitarian love. It was the Incarnation itself that revealed the Trinity to man so that humanity might be purified and elevated to know and participate in God's love. As a result of his coming in the flesh we become capable of entering divine love and dwelling there with Him and his saints forever. "The basic principle of priestly spiritual formation is ...to live in intimate and unceasing union with God the Father through his Son, Jesus Christ, in the Holy Spirit" ( Program of Priestly Formation [PPF], 107). To be drawn to the Trinity in and through the holiness of Joseph and Mary's marital love is the way of purification and renewal for all spouses, particularly for those who share in Christ's own chaste spousal love. By seeking communion with the first "domestic church", which is Nazareth, the seminarian remains in fellowship with Mary, Joseph and Jesus thus glimpsing the origin of nuptial love itself: the Trinity. [11] By remaining in such fellowship Christ gives to His sons what was given to Him by Mary, Joseph and The Father. Christ assures the future priest; "I will not leave you orphan, I will come to you" (Jn. 14:18). Some translations express the word orphan as "desolate." In the intimacy of Nazareth the seminarian will find the truth of his spiritual life: desolation is not his inheritance. Seminary spiritual formation is ordered toward moving men out of desolation and toward the consolation that Christ carries for them within His own receptive Heart. Desolation ends when one receives the content of Christ's own heart, a heart defined by communion with the Father and bound in love (the Spirit) to Mary and Joseph. To live in such communion gives rise to priestly mission and a lifetime of self-donation for the welfare of the Church. Nazareth in Practice Succeeding the story of Nathaniel, as mentioned above, St. John moves us to the beginning of the wedding feast of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7ff; Jn. 2:1-12) where all things are made new (Rev. 21:5) because the Bridegroomhas emerged from His formation (Jn. 2:1ff). This formation of Christ'swas nuptial-familial. It was a formation received through a marriage sourced in heaven, announced by an angel and sustained by mystical dreams (Matt. 1:20). From such communion Jesus emerged to reveal His ultimate identity as the One whoconstantly beholds the loving gaze of His Father. Nazareth, as formational reality, protects interiority by promoting and esteeming the communion that is the Holy Family and introducing the seminarian to participate in this communion. The seminarian participates in Nazareth by living where the Holy Family lives, in truth and love. He has to remain with the Holy Family in such humility so they can relate to him, reach him and "see" him. The seminarian progressively learns that he has to inhabit the same reality as the Holy Family, to dwell in a freely offered "Yes" to the will of the Father. If he does so, the Holy Family will heal him, instruct him and send him.

Christ said yes and embraced Nazareth (Lk 2:51), Mary said yes to the approach of God (Lk. 1:38), and Joseph said yes to both God and Mary (Matt. 1:20). Joseph had to suffer a new idea about marriage, one not of his choosing but of God's. Hence Joseph had to trust and depend upon God and Mary in a radical way, since the newness came to him through her. The seminarian must do the same and stand before the Holy Family in all truth and humility. "Here are my wounds, my poverty; may I meet you in the place where our mutual poverty and dependency lead us to depend upon God?" [12] The Gift of Nazareth What should seminarians, who have received the grace of Nazareth, concentrate upon during their four years of formation? In answering this question recall that the Program of Priestly Formation saw spiritual formation as the heart and core of seminary. [13] Hence, I would invite seminarians to follow the example of Pope Paul VI and cry out in prayer for a new spiritual childhood. "Oh, how I would like to become a child once again and start my studies over in...the school of Nazareth." Formators can assist the seminarians to become spiritual children by encouraging them to live in trust, surrender and complete honesty. Paradoxically spiritual childhood is the way to affective and spiritual maturity . The more seminarians make their interior lives available to God the Father, and the communion of love that is the Holy Family, the more they will be on the way to full manhood in Christ (Eph. 4:13). Such growth in maturity is made possible because Nazareth is safe; it is held in love by He who is Truth, and by the One who measures growth in priestly formation not simply by academic years but by an eager receptivity to divine love. [14] The fruit of having communion with the "residents" of Nazareth is not simply spiritual and affective maturity alone, it is also mission. Certainly, Nazareth, as the core (PPF, 115) of seminary life, deepens a life of interiority for mission. Christ did not stay "hidden" for thirty years for himself; he stayed in a bond of love with the Father, Mary and Joseph for the sake of his mission. The very nature of seminary invites seminary formators to intentionally order the contents of class, spiritual direction, human and pastoral formation toward interiority for mission. Out of such formation a priest will be able to lead the laity, those who transform culture, to the very source of their mission: the indwelling Spirit of Christ. Without a love of interiority a priest may not have the capacity to assist the laity in internalizing and securing their own mission. The more he appropriates his own call to holiness as the gift he gives to the laity the more the evangelical mission which marks the laity will be secured by them, as holiness diffuses itself. [15] What Draws a Seminarian to Nazareth? In prayer the seminarian draws close to the nuptial love of Joseph and Mary, learning from them what loving the Church means. Entering this love a seminarian comes "home"; he is taken up into

the love between mother and father. Emotional safety is crucial for growth in affective maturity. As we direct a seminarian to enter the love between Joseph and Mary in his prayer we are entrusting him to the foundational love of all Christian marriages. We are beckoning him to surrender himself and learn from Joseph how to love the "woman" (Jn. 2:4; 19:26-7). Since this tutorial is accomplished in the imagination of the seminarian at prayer the fullness of his own life in relation to Mary and Joseph is opened to him in the Spirit, the source and giver of life. The Spirit protects the imagination from becoming fantasy and therefore disconnected from doctrinal and spiritual truth. At the heart of nuptial love is life, fecundity. Formators should be directing the seminarian to this heart as if the seminarian were a thirsty man needing water. [16] What should the seminarian pay attention to when he is in the heart of such prayer? He is to imagine the life at the core of Mary and Joseph's love! Jesus is formed for mission out of this maternal-paternal love. He is ready for mission because He is formed in humility. This humility flows throughout the love between Jesus, Mary and Joseph. We see it in Christ doing the Father's will, the Fiat of Mary and the "Yes" of Joseph to care for Mary as his spouse. Priestly formation is time immersed in the Holy Family's love. During this time the seminarian experiences spiritual sonship in a new way. He shares his deepest affections with the Holy Family and the grace he receives from this love prepares him to become an emotionally and spiritually mature spouse and father. It is impossible for man to receive fatherhood as a vocation unless he has experienced being loved as a son. This love founds his capacity to make himself one who endures sacrifice for the love of his children. In the priest who bypasses spiritual childhood, spiritual and affective deformation occurs. [17] Tragically, this kind of man takes power and remains isolated and unrelated to the joy that is known in being loved. In this case one becomes authoritarian rather than fatherly, or he becomes a "taker" filled with delusions of entitlement. The seminary is a place of personal vulnerability to the healing love of the primordial Christian family. In this way all facets of formation; academic, [18] human, pastoral and spiritual ought to invite the seminarian to "stay" within the loving relations of the Holy Family. Each person of the Holy Family will bring a particular facet of the mystery of his vocation to the seminarian. In reality the persons and the relationships between the persons in the Holy Family become crucial "content" in the process of formation. Jesus, Joseph and Mary We do not need to linger here on how the person of Christ relates to the seminarian since this relationship is covered so thoroughly in priestly documents and theology. [19] We can make one point here about Christ, however. There is no guarantee of or right to ordination once a man enters the seminary, but if he enters formation fully, there is a hope that he will meet Christ. Christ will then communicate to him a sense of self that is healthy and spiritually mature, since it was born in the interchange between the seminarian's own receptivity to host the truth and Christ's own desire to be that truth for him. Here the seminarian must come to awareness that Christ is his gift

and that all facets of formation conspire to show him Christ. In academic, pastoral and human formation seminary formators want each seminarian to host the truth about self, doctrine, or charity, but more so they want the seminarian to know that it is Christ himself who is the Truth. All seminary formation ends in the sharing of Christ's own priestly heart, a heart formed out of love for truth, His Father's will, and the love between Mary and Joseph. Let me close then with a meditation on a reality that is not as well trod as a seminarian's relationship with Christ: a seminarian's relationship with Joseph and Mary. How Can the Seminarian Approach Joseph? In a March 2009 homily, Pope Benedict XVI said: Joseph agreed to be part of the great events God was beginning to bring about in the womb of his spouse. He took Mary into his home. He welcomed the mystery that was in Mary and the mystery that was Mary herself.... Joseph teaches us that it is possible to love without possessing . In contemplating Joseph, [we] come to experience healing from emotional wounds, if only [we] embrace the plan that God has begun to bring about in those close to [us], just as Joseph entered into the work of redemption through Mary and as a result of what God had already done in her.... He then defined what this healing means later in the homily: ... Joseph was caught up at every moment by the mystery of the Incarnation. Not only physically, but in his heart as well, Joseph reveals to us the secret of a humanity which dwells in the presence of mystery and is open to that mystery at every moment of everyday life . In Joseph, faith is not separated from action. His faith had a decisive effect on his actions. Paradoxically, it was by acting, by carrying out his responsibilities, that he stepped aside and left God free to act, placing no obstacles in his way. [20] If the seminarian can learn to "dwell" in the presence of Mystery and relate all that he is thinking, feeling and desiring to that loving mystery of God he will be healed of that which drags at his soul, and fetters his hope of holiness. Joseph stands close to the seminarian as one who knows the intimate call to spousal chastity in service to the mystery of Christ's own vocation. He intercedes for the future priest to trust in Mary, to let her guide him to all that is good about nuptial selfdonation. Joseph is ready to ask Christ to gift the seminarian with the graces and virtues of Christ's own priesthood. Joseph will also counsel the seminarian on his participation in the renewal of creation, his vocation as an eschatological sign. The seminarian should invite Joseph to pray for him to welcome within his own body the coming of the "new age", the age that orders all love through the lens of God's

spousal love for his people. Joseph wants to tutor the seminarian in this truth, "God wants to renew everything from within the family." [21] As patriarch, Joseph passes on to the seminarian a love of authority, an authority that flows from and is sustained by, his love of Mary and God. [22] Joseph is for the seminarian an advocate for true fatherhood, a paternity that flows from his own love of his spouse. This paternal love is always fruitful as it shares in God's own love for all those He has created. Here is what Joseph teaches the seminarian to: • welcome the mystery that is Mary • love your bride without possessing • live in the presence of mystery and be open to this mystery at every moment. Seek to be docile to the truths inherent in the mystery of your own vocation • not separate faith from everyday life. Place no obstacles in God's way, so God can act through your ministry. These characteristics of Joseph, alone, are sufficient to ponder as content for seminary formation. But, of course there is more. What Is the Gift that Mary Brings? Every aspect of priestly formation can be referred to Mary, the human being who responded better than any other to God's call. Mary became both the servant and the disciple of the Word to the point of conceiving, in her heart and in her flesh, the Word made man, so as to give him to mankind. Mary was called to educate the one eternal priest, who became docile and subject to her motherly authority. [23] And, Pope John Paul II adds, It is [the priest's] task to proclaim Christ her Son. And who can better communicate to you the truth about him than his mother? It is your task to nourish men's hearts with Christ. And who can make you more aware of what you are doing than she who nourished Him? [24] Mary communicates to the seminarian the truth about her Son. The most absolute truth she speaks is: "Do whatever He tells you" (Jn. 2:5). She knew Him so well that it was at her word that the public ministry began, "They have no more wine" (Jn. 2:3). She did not ask for wine; she simply informed Him of the truth: the human race is depleted and they need the joy and the healing of the Spirit. The seminarian seeks out Mary to converse about his own mission, his own appropriation of the truth of Jesus' identity and mission. Here her mystery looms large in the academic study and teaching of theology. She is the one who internalizes the Word, and then lets the intimacy the Word's presence compel her to mission (Lk. 1:39).

The seminarian also approaches her to receive the mystery of woman, to have her tutor him like she tutored Joseph in the ways of a startling and surprising nuptial life: spousal self donation to the church as a sign of Christ's own gift. As then Joseph Ratzinger noted, "Mary's motherhood becomes theologically significant as the ultimate personal concretization of Church. ...She is the Church in person and as a person. She is the personal concretization of the Church." [25] If this is so then the seminarian needs to receive from her the satisfaction of his deepest desire to be "for woman." She will instruct him to know, like Joseph, that God's Spirit is ready to console and elevate the affections and intellect in a way that "indicates another kind of closeness in marriage. The spiritual closeness arising from marital union and the interpersonal contact between man and woman have their definitive origin in the Spirit, the Giver of Life (cf. John 6:63). Joseph, in obedience to the Spirit, found in the Spirit the source of love, the conjugal love that he experienced as a man." [26] Joseph grew in his reception of his deepest identity: spouse of Mary, the New Eve, and the Church. Friendship with him, in contemplative prayer, will result in similar growth in the seminarian. Joseph consented to a life lived in virtuous continence but he "had to do so in dependence upon Mary." [27] In contemplative prayer the seminarian will learn from Joseph to depend upon "the woman" to teach him how to embrace her (Mary, the Church) in loving service rather than physical intercourse. This is analogous to a husband learning from his wife how best to love her within the patterns of marriage defined by natural family planning. In loving Mary in accord with God's will Joseph "found in the Spirit the source of love, the conjugal love that he experienced as a man." Can this truth about Joseph become the centerpiece of all priestly formation on chaste spousal love? Here is what Mary teaches the seminarian: • Mary educates the seminarian in the processes of internalizing the Word • Mary communicates to the seminarian the truth of who her Son is • Mary gifts the seminarian with the truth about woman, and his own spousal gift of self-donation to the Church. Conclusion The love of God, of Mary, and of Joseph is real. Their love is affecting the seminarian even now. The saints are living. We all note these statements as true discursively, but in the rush of pragmatism and productivity that is the hallmark of Western culture we can forget that Mary, Joseph and Jesus' love for one another is still pulsating dynamically between them. Christ wants to gather his priests within this source of formation to prepare them for a life of hosting the truth about man and God, the mystery of mankind approached through the mystery of Christ. Such a host, such a victim priest needs to be communing with those who have this mystery at the heart of their being: The Holy Family. If the seminarian is courageous enough he can be drawn into their love for another and know this mystery himself. Receiving this nuptial- familial

love he will be sent, like the Beloved Son, to change water into wine and wine into the very life of Christ. "Oh, how I would like to become a child once again and start my studies over in this humble and sublime school of Nazareth." ENDNOTES: [1] Pope John Paul II, Pastores Dabo Vobis, 57 (1992). [2] Paul VI, Visit to the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth (January 5, 1964). [3] United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Program of Priestly Formation (5th edition, 2006), n. 137 [4] Documents of Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes: "... man, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself" (n. 24). [5] "And in that day, says the Lord, you will call me, 'my husband', and no longer will you call me, 'my Baal'.... And I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord" (Hos. 2:16, 19-20). "Yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish with you an everlasting covenant" (Ez. 16:60). "For your Maker is your husband.... For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing wrath for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you, says the Lord, your Redeemer" (Isa. 54:5, 7-8). "You shall be called My delight is in her, and your land Married; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a virgin, your Builder shall marry you; and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you" (Isa. 62:4-5). [6] "In the words of the Council, the communion of persons is, in a certain sense, deduced from the mystery of the Trinitarian 'We', and therefore "conjugal communion' also refers to this mystery. Marc Cardinal Ouellet,Divine Likeness: Toward a Trinitarian Anthropology of the Family , (Mich: Eerdmans, 2006), p. 34 [7] Pope John Paul II, Pastores Dabo Vobis, n. 26 [8] See, Pope John Paul II, Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body (Boston: Pauline, 2006), 78:5. [9] In the Institute for Priestly Formation we have come to see the priestly identity as encompassing four realities: good shepherd, spiritual father, chaste spouse, spiritual physician. See John Paul II, Pastores Dabo Vobis (1992) where these identities are noted, especially n. 3

(shepherd and spouse), n. 60 (spiritual physician), and for spiritual father we go to Scripture, particularly the writings of St. Paul, "I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you. For though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, you do not have many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel" (1 Cor 4:14-15). See also PDV where John Paul II refers to the priest having spousal qualities: "The gift of self, which is the source and synthesis of pastoral charity, is directed toward the Church. This was true of Christ who 'loved the Church and gave himself up for her' (Eph. 5:25), and the same must be true for the priest. With pastoral charity, which distinguishes the exercise of the priestly ministry as an amoris officium,....[W]ith this concrete spirituality he becomes capable of loving the universal Church and that part of it entrusted to him with the deep love of a husband for his wife." (Pastores Dabo Vobis n. 23). [10] See, Program of Priestly Formation, n. 25 [11] Program of Priestly Formation, n. 15. See Also, Angelo Cardinal Scolo, The Nuptial Mystery (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005), 335-336. [12] The formation staff seeks to teach seminarians what to do with their pain, their wounds, and their "poverty." Such poverty is to be related to the love held for them in the Holy Family. Pain cannot be run from or hidden it must be shared and entrusted to those who trust God, and have entrusted themselves to Him. [13] Program of Priestly Formation, n.115 [14] See Karen Dwyer and Edward Hogan, "Assessment of Spiritual Formation for Diocesan Seminarians" Seminary Journal (Winter 2008, 37-41), for a method and discussion about measuring objective spiritual growth. [15] See, Father John Cihak, "St. John Vianney's Pastoral Plan" (Ignatius Insight, June 2009), for an insightful essay on the relationship between holiness and lay conversion and mission. Also we note this from John Paul II: "An essential characteristic of missionary spirituality is intimate communion with Christ. ....The universal call to holiness is closely linked to the universal call to mission. ...The missionary must be a contemplative in action...the future of mission depends ...on contemplation. The missionary is a witness to the experience of God." ( Redemptoris Missio, n 91). And John Paul II again: "...it would be wrong to think that ordinary Christians can be content with a shallow prayer that is unable to fill their whole life. Especially in the face of the many trials to which today's world subjects faith, they would be not only mediocre Christians but "Christians at

risk". They would run the insidious risk of seeing their faith progressively undermined, and would perhaps end up succumbing to the allure of "substitutes", accepting alternative religious proposals and even indulging in far-fetched superstitions. It is therefore essential that education in prayer should become in some way a key-point of all pastoral planning" (Novo Millennio ineunte, n. 34). [16] Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Divine Likeness p.35 [17] "Spiritual childhood...means that we acknowledge our nothingness; that we expect everything from the good Lord, as a child expects everything from its father; it means to worry about nothing...it means that we must not be discouraged by our faults, for children fall frequently." St. Therese of Lisieux as quoted in F. Jamart, The Complete Spiritual Doctrine of St. Therese of Lisieux (NY: Alba House, 2001), 15-16. [18] The seminarian's theological imagination is not to be defined by academics, a course of studies to be completed in four years. His spiritual-theological imagination is ordered by his communion with Christ and the saints. The seminary is to promote and protect this imagination as its staff and structures of daily living ( horarium) facilitate the knowledge necessary to receive love from the living God and His saints. Academics only deepen a man's love of such communion with the Trinity. Since a seminarian's identity is not exclusively "student" all studies are to be sublated into his emerging identity as a priest. No seminary reduces a seminarian's identity to "student" as a policy, this reduction happens as a result of a disproportionate weight given to academics in the minds of some students and faculty. Giving academics such weight is, as it were, a default mode of existence for most American seminarians. To study the mysteries of Christ on the way to possessing an intellectual competency in theology is a necessity of the highest order, but the mysteries themselves open the seminarian to want more than competency, they summon him to wisdom---the eventual triumph of love being integrated with knowing the truth. See, James Keating, Resting on the Heart of Christ: The Vocation and Spirituality of the Seminary Theologian (Omaha: IPF Publications, 2009). [19] For example see especially chapters 1-4 in Pastores Dabo Vobis; Cardinal Avery Dulles, The Priestly Office (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist, 1997); Jean Galot, Theology of the Priesthood (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2005). [20] Homily of Pope Benedict XVI; First Vespers of the Solemnity of St. Joseph, Basilica of Marie Reine Des Apotres Yaounde (March 2009). [21] Marie Dominique-Philippe, OP, The Mystery of Joseph (Bethesda: Zaccheus Press, 2009), 80. [22] Ibid, 81.

[23] PDV, 82. [24] Pope John Paul II, Holy Thursday Letter to Priests (1979), n. 11. [25] Hans Urs von Balthasar and Joseph Ratzinger, Mary: The Church at the Source (San Francisco: Ignatius 2005), 30. [26] John Paul II, Redemptoris Custos (1989), no. 19. [27] Marc Ouellet, Divine Likeness (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006), 118.

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