The National Directory for the Formation, Ministry, and the Life of Permanent Deacons in the United States (Ascension)

X NDPD 119

Dimensions in the Formation of Deacons

them. Directors should acknowledge and be aware of age-appropriate affective and moral development in middle-aged men. If warranted, a participant may also consult (or be asked to do so) with a quali fied professional, approved by the director of formation, to assist in this assessment. Every participant for the diaconate should be aware of his own life history and be ready to share these with his formator. It may not be possible for each diocesan director to serve as personal formator due to the numbers of men in initial formation. Formators should be properly trained themselves so as to assist the men in forma tion with developing self-knowledge and growing in moral and emo tional freedom. Such formators, ideally deacons, should be specifically trained to guide participants in honestly assessing the state of their marriages, their emotional and moral life, their work life, and their relations with their pastor and how these affect their capacity to fully enter formation. Spiritual Dimension 118 “Human formation leads to and finds its completion in the spiritual dimension of formation, which constitutes the heart and unifying center of every Christian formation. Its aim is to tend to the development of the new life received in Baptism.” 14 “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a per son, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” 15 The spir itual life is, therefore, dynamic and never static. The first goal of initial spiritual formation is the establishment and nourishment of attitudes, habits, and practices that will set the foundation for a lifetime of ongo ing spiritual discipline.

119 A man should not be admitted to initial diaconal formation unless it is demonstrated that he is already living a life of mature Christian

14

BNFPD, no. 71.

15 Pope Benedict XVI, Encyclical God Is Love ( Deus Caritas Est ) (Washington, DC: USCCB, 2006), no. 1.

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