Program of Priestly Formation 6th edition

PASTORAL DIMENSION | 145

teaches, sanctifies, and guides or leads the community. The grace to be a shepherd comes with ordination. That grace, however, calls for the priest’s personal commitment to develop the knowledge and skills to teach and preach well, to celebrate the sacraments both properly and prayerfully, and to respond to people’s needs as well as to take initiatives in the commu nity that holy servant leadership requires. Developing this knowledge and these skills while still in the initial stages of formation enables him as a priest to assume the role of a shepherd, who learns to recognize God at work in the lives of his flock and who, ever present to them as a “man of communion,” directs the flock to Christ. 434 The aim of pastoral formation—the formation of a “true shep herd” who teaches, sanctifies, and governs or leads—implies that such formation must include a number of essential elements: a. Proclamation of the Word : Pastoral formation needs to emphasize the proclamation of God’s Word, which indeed is the first task of the priest. 435 This proclamation is aimed at the spiritual nourish ment of the people and the conversion of sinners and is rooted in the seminarian’s or preacher’s ability to listen deeply to the lived experiences and realities of the faithful. This listening is followed by the preacher’s ability to interpret those lived experiences in the light of Sacred Scripture and the Church’s Tradition. 436 Understanding this intersection of God’s Word and human experiences, the seminarian as preacher initiates a lifelong mis sion and ministry of bringing God’s Word to the world through preaching and teaching. This requires that the seminarian couple the deepest convictions of faith with the development of his communication skills, so that God’s Word may be effec tively expressed. b. The sacramental dimension : The celebration of the sacraments is central to the priest’s ministry. Although the seminarian cannot celebrate the sacraments as a priest does, he can accompany priests who do, and he can prepare those who participate in 370.

434 Ratio Fundamentalis , no. 119. 435 See Presbyterorum Ordinis , no. 4.

436 See USCCB, Fulfilled in Your Hearing , 20; USCCB Committee on CCLV, Preaching the Mystery of Faith . See also St. John Paul II, letter to Archbishop John L. May, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, August 8, 1987; Notes on the Correct Way to Present Jews and Judaism in Preaching and Catechesis in the Roman Catholic Church (1985); We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah (1998).