Program of Priestly Formation (Ascension)

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Program of Priestly Formation

is nurtured, to the practice of daily participation in the Holy Mass, to love for Sacred Scripture, to the prayer of the Church (the Divine Office, or the Divine Praises in the Eastern Catholic Churches), and to the basic elements of the Christian faith as he discerns attentively and purposefully his potential vocation to priesthood in the presence of a supportive community of fellow seminarians and formators. This community is an ideal environment for growth in self-knowledge. In the discipleship stage, systematic formation as a disciple of Jesus Christ is the aim. The seminarian develops his principal strengths and grows to identify, acknowledge, and begin to overcome his shortcomings. In the configuration stage, the seminarian hones his capacity to serve and become a man for others. In the vocational synthesis stage, 51 the transitional deacon experiences a life of self giving in a pastoral setting, as he begins the transition to full-time ministry. This journey of discipleship and growth in Christian faith and service continues after ordination with ongoing formation, in which the ordained priest seeks an ever-deepening conformity to Christ under the guidance of the diocesan bishop or competent authority of the institute of consecrated life or society of apostolic life and in fraternal communion with the diocesan presbyterate and, in the case of nondiocesan priests, the presbyterate within his community. 52 The human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral dimensions of formation are present in each stage and “must be seen through a unifying lens. . . . Together, these dimensions give shape and structure to the identity of the seminarian and the priest, and make him capable of that ‘gift of self to the Church,’ which is the essence 51 Throughout this document the term “vocational synthesis” is used to identify the last stage of initial formation, described in the Ratio Fundamentalis as “the ‘pastoral stage’ or ‘stage of vocational synthe sis.’” Ratio Fundamentalis , no. 57. 52 “Every priest should always feel that he is a disciple on a journey, constantly needing an integrated formation, understood as a continuous configuration to Christ.” Ratio Fundamentalis , Introduction, no. 3.

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