Guide to Ongoing Formation for Priests (Ascension)

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Chapter 2: Ongoing Formation

63 There is much at stake. St. Faustina wrote in her diary, “O Jesus, give us fervent and holy priests! Oh, how great is the dignity of the priest, but at the same time, how great is his responsibility! Much has been given you, O priest, but much will also be demanded of you.” 42 The responsibility is great, and the demands are great. But we do not carry these burdens alone. This chapter surveys some ways for a priest to receive help to become the priest he is meant to be. 64 Every one of us began our priestly formation in childhood. Ideally, a boy destined for the priesthood is born into a loving and intact family, learns the rudiments of his faith along with his elementary education, and enjoys a formation in virtue and self-control from his earliest years. The Second Vatican Council called the family the “first seminary,” 43 because his childhood home is where the future priest begins the personal and spiritual formation that will become the foundation of his vocation. None of us, of course, was raised in a perfect family; many suffer the lingering effects of a family life that was far from the ideal. Nevertheless, whatever its strengths and weaknesses, our family provided the impetus for our initial growth, and it is to our family, especially our parents, that we owe much of our vocation. 44 FORMATION IS A LIFELONG PROCESS Growth Is a Sign of Life

42 St. Faustina, Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul (Stockbridge, MA: Marian Press, 2005), no. 941. 43 Second Vatican Council, Optatam Totius (Decree on the Training of Priests) , no. 2, in Vatican Council II: Volume 1. The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents , new rev. ed., ed. Austin Flannery (North port, NY: Costello, 1996). Subsequently cited as OT. 44 “The Church is called to cooperate with parents though suitable pastoral initiatives, assisting them in the fulfillment of their educational mission. She must always do this by helping them to appreciate their proper role and to realize that by their reception of the sacrament of marriage they become ministers of their children’s education. In educating them, they build up the Church, and in so doing, they accept a God-given vocation.” Francis, Amoris Laetitia (On Love in the Family) (Vatican City: Vatican Press, 2016), no. 85. See CIC, cc. 226, 233 §1, 793, and 1136.

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