Program of Priestly Formation 6th edition

SPIRITUAL DIMENSION | 103

towards him each day.” It extends ultimately to the pastoral life so “he will be able to choose, decide and act according to the will of God.” All of the means included here “help to cultivate the virtues of prudence and right judgment. In this ongoing path of discernment the priest will learn how to interpret and understand his own motivations, his gifts, his needs and his frailties, so as to ‘free himself from all disordered affections and, having removed them, to seek out and find the will of God in the ordering of his life with a view to the salvation of the soul.’” 303 s. Ongoing spiritual formation : The final goal of spiritual formation in the seminary is to establish attitudes, habits, and practices in the spiritual life that will continue after ordination. Spiritual forma tion in the seminary is meant to set the foundation for a lifetime of spiritual growth in priestly ministry. The development of sound and lasting habits and attitudes in the spiritual life is a challenging process. Intensive spiritual formation expe riences—such as an extended time period more exclusively focused on the interior life, a thirty-day retreat, a summer program, and so on—are examples of facilitating this process and may be considered for possible inclusion and integration into the seminary program. Spiritual formation needs to be integrated with the other three dimensions of formation—the human, the intellectual, and the pastoral. The necessary growth in the theological and moral virtues involves both nature and grace. The necessary integration takes place when spiritual directors and priest formators work from a common vision of the relation ship between grace and virtue. Spiritual formation also requires that the seminarian have a strong relational capacity. In other words, the semi narian must be able to enter into significant, even deep, relationships with other persons and with God, since he is to be a “man of communion.” 304 Intellectual formation contributes to spiritual formation by helping the seminarian grow in the love of the truth, who is the person of Jesus Christ. This love gives the seminarian the capacity to discern and understand his interior life within the life of the Church and her Tradition. 230. 231. 232.

303 Ratio Fundamentalis , no. 43. Here the Ratio Fundamentalis notes the particular value of the Ignatian rules of discernment. 304 “The Eucharist commits us to the poor. To receive in truth the Body and Blood of Christ given up for us, we must recognize Christ in the poorest.” Catechism of the Catholic Church , no. 1397.