People bring up these concerns to me like what does life in seminary look like Why is seminarian formation so long What do I do while Im at seminary Whats expected of me.

That document outlines four primary areas of formation for seminarian who is studying to be ordained as a Catholic priest.

These are the basic tools for seminarian formation, all the activities, classes, and retreats stem from these four pillars.

Theres other devotions in the Church, the rosary, Stations of the Cross, adoration, divine mercy chaplet, all these are offered to the men, as well as retreat days that take place in the seminary.

Each seminarian is also given an annual retreat, usually at the seminary with their brothers.

Its important for them to form those habits before they become an active busy priest in a parish.

This spiritual director provides him with affirmation and support while at the same time challenging him and asking him to grow deeper in his own spiritual life as he discerns Gods will.

Its important that a man is able to have good relationships with men and women of their own age, with their family, with their friends from before or work or school relationships as well as with their seminarian brothers.

If they have any sort of ongoing health issues, those are dealt with so theyre able to be good stewards of the bodies and gifts that God has given them to be able to serve Gods people most effectively.

Obviously it takes time to grow into these vows, so this seminary environment provides a great environment to pray and reflect upon how they can sustain their life in the church and in their ministry.

In my experience, when I entered seminary I already had an undergraduate degree, but I still took two years of philosophy.

These classes provided me with a basic framework and structure of the history of Christianity and Theology, rooted in Aristotle, Plato, dealing with logic, metaphysics, epistemology, and history of philosophy.

Theology classes range widely from moral theology and systematic theology (which deals with trinity), ecclesiology, Christology more pastoral courses such as pastoral counseling, liturgy, preaching (homiletics), many courses in scripture as well as church history.

Throughout the course of seminarian formation, theyre given different placements: maybe for RCIA, teaching confirmation, maybe working with the poor, serving a soup kitchen, possibly working in a hospital setting chaplaincy with those who are ill.

They could be working with youth at a catholic school or CYO summer camps.

Its a great opportunity to be formed by the local parish community, see the life cycle of the parish thought the course of a year, and get more in contact with the local priests at the Archdiocese.

The pastoral placements are great opportunities to be exposed to the administrative side of parish life and the pastoral side of all the many things happening in our wonderful parishes around our Archdiocese.

Four Areas Of Formation Catholic