by Fr. Brian Kane
Rector, St. Gregory the Great Seminary; Director of Seminarians
“Lord, where are you staying? Jesus replied, Come and you will see” (Jn 1: 38-39).
This passage summarizes what we have been preparing for this summer at St. Gregory the Great Seminary. Next month, we will welcome a new group of seminarians to the inaugural Propaedeutic Stage of formation. As I have written in previous columns, this stage is the first step in a young man’s discernment of a call to the priesthood.
The start of the new academic year is an exciting and challenging time. For some men entering formation, this will be their first time away from home. For others, it will be a marked shift from college life and schedule. While that element of formation has not changed, significant change has come in the Church’s approach to formation and to the documents that guide bishops and seminary staff members.
Several priests from St. Gregory’s attended a conference at Mundelein Seminary, outside Chicago. The conference, for seminaries launching the Propaedeutic Stage, was sponsored by the Institute for Priestly Formation. One of the speakers, Deacon Jim Keating, discussed two versions of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ guiding document for seminaries, the Program of Priestly Formation. Deacon Keating compared the 1971 version with the one released in 2022.
Deacon Keating noted that in 1971, the document envisioned a man ready for ordination to the priesthood as one who is “professional and pastorally present.” He is a man who had learned the profession of caring for others, preaching, administering the sacraments and living as a witness to Jesus Christ in the world.
The 2022 version of the document, Deacon Keating said, describes a man ready for ordination as one who is “healed, mystic, teacher.”
While there are certainly many areas of overlap, it struck me how much the focus has changed.
Today, young men continue to ask, “Lord, where are you staying?” But the culture in which these young men live and the many more distractions that pull them in a multitude of directions make it more difficult to hear and respond to Jesus’ reply, “Come and you will see,” with one’s whole heart.
The process of helping men prepare for the priesthood today appropriately follows the path of healing, growing in a mystical, intimate relationship with the Trinity and preparation for missionary evangelism as teachers. This process of formation is not limited solely to men discerning a call to the priesthood. The desire Jesus has to bring healing into our brokenness is an important starting point for all of us. I highly recommend the book “Be Healed” by Dr. Bob Schuchts for anyone interested in learning more.
In the coming weeks, I look forward to expanding on each of these areas of formation —healed, mystic and teacher —as they relate to today’s seminarians. The new formation program is an opportunity to experience what the Holy Spirit is doing in the Church and in the priesthood today.
In the 2016 book “In Sinu Jesu,” the author, a Benedictine monk whose identity is unknown, shared this experience of prayer and of transformation in the priesthood: “Today, I think it was during the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary, the Lord spoke to me of a sacerdotal (priestly) Pentecost, of a grace obtained through the intercession of the Virgin Mary for all the priests of the Church. To all [priests] will be offered the grace of a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit to purify the priesthood of the impurities that have disfigured it, and to restore to the priesthood a brightness of holiness such as the Church has never had since the time of the Apostles.” (p. 159-160 and 197-199)
As St. Gregory the Great Seminary begins the new school year, please keep the men entering formation for the first time in your prayers. Please remember, too, all of the men in formation for the priesthood for our diocese and those in formation for dioceses across the United States. We pray for the Holy Spirit to release the grace of this new priestly Pentecost.
