Guide to Ongoing Formation for Priests (Ascension)

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CHAPTER TWO Ongoing Formation

60 After his Resurrection, Jesus spent forty days with his disciples before he ascended into heaven. The Scriptures reveal little about those days, but we know that they were a time of more intense formation for the newly ordained priests, with Jesus “appearing to them . . . and speaking about the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). 61 What sort of things did they talk about? On the road to Emmaus, Jesus unpacked the biblical law and prophecies to two disciples and showed them how the “Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory.” Luke goes on to tell us that, “beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures” (24:26-27). What Jesus said to those two disciples, he surely would have said to his Apostles, perhaps adding that they too would have to undergo many sufferings in carrying out their pastoral mission. Jesus would have led his newly ordained priests in prayer and perhaps outlined features of the Church that would come fully alive on the day of Pentecost, features to which they would devote their lives. That period of intense preparation, initiated by Jesus himself, is a precedent for ongoing formation in the priesthood. 62 This present document proposes a way of life that enables priests to stay on the path of continual growth so as to remain with Jesus after ordination as he continues to form them for the ministry. Chapter one sketched an image of a holy, healthy priesthood and pointed out some obstacles to its development. This second chapter examines some principles of effective ongoing formation and suggests ways to act on those principles.

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