Program of Priestly Formation 6th edition

82 | PROGRAM OF PRIESTLY FORMATION

resources for fostering this process of human formation in a seminary context are many. They include the following: a. Instruction : The rector and other members of the seminary com munity offer the seminarians instruction in human formation through conferences, courses, and other educational means. b. Personal reflection : Seminarians are trained to live life reflectively and to examine, with regularity, their behavior, their motivations, their inclinations, and in general their appropriation of life expe rience, especially suffering. c. Community life and feedback : “A seminarian who freely chooses to enter a seminary must also freely accept and respect its terms.” 250 The general demands and the rewards of life in community expand self-knowledge and self-control and cultivate generosity of spirit. The community’s attachment to Sacred Scripture and the sacramental life provides a reflective mirror that helps indi viduals know themselves and summons them to a fuller, more human, more spiritual life. A community’s Rule of Life fosters dis cipline, self-mastery, and faithful perseverance in commitments. d. Application to the tasks of seminary life : Human formation develops through interaction with others in the course of the seminary program. This growth happens, for example, when seminarians learn to accept the authority of superiors, develop the habit of “using their freedom with discretion,” learn to act on their own initiative and to do so energetically, and learn to work “harmoni ously with their confreres and with the laity.” 251 e. Psychological counseling : On occasion, consultation with a psy chologist or other licensed mental health professional can be a useful instrument of human formation. Some patterns of behav ior, for example, which became set in the seminarian’s early fam ily history, may impede his relational abilities. Understanding one’s psychological history and developing strategies to address elements of negative impact can be very helpful in human for mation. This kind of counseling or consultation is distinguished from extensive psychotherapy, which may be needed to address deeply entrenched personal issues that impede full functioning of the person. The seminarian already completed psychological

250 Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, A Guide to Formation in Priestly Celibacy (1974), 74. 251 Optatam Totius , no. 11.