Formation

A pre-academic stage in which seminarians are required to spend a minimum of 12 months concentrating on vocational discernment, dedicating time to prayer and growing in Christian discipleship. The propaedeutic stage “seeks to provide seminarians with the basic groundwork they need to engage in priestly formation” (PPF 119). The propaedeutic stage will provide each man the opportunity to be removed from the negative influences of the culture, to deepen his relationship with Jesus Christ and to build up healthy habits so that he may be more apt to fully engage in the process of being formed as a priest of Jesus Christ. 

The propaedeutic stage at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary will be marked by a focus on a seminarian’s prayer life, frequent pilgrimages and the chance to build fraternal bonds without the hindrance and distraction of technology. This will include a technology fast that will limit use of phones and computers. While this stage is not technically an academic year, a seminarian in this stage can earn college credits, not exceeding nine credit hours per semester. At MTSM, those in the propaedeutic stage will take courses on the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the History of Spirituality and an Introduction to Catholic Literature. 

The primary focus of the Discipleship stage is “growing in an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ through the life of meditation and contemplation, as well as the training of one’s character in Christian virtue, so as to lay a solid foundation for future stages” of formation (PPF 132). The discipleship stage lasts a minimum of two years and it is during this stage the seminarian completes his study of philosophy. While the propaedeutic stage is envisioned as a preparatory stage for fully engaging in the process of being formed as a priest of Jesus Christ, the seminarian in the discipleship stage begins this full engagement. This includes a full academic course load, formation and participation in the liturgical life of the seminarian, and all other aspects of the seminary’s life and work. 

The configuration stage is the time that the seminarian prepares “more immediately for Holy Orders” (PPF 135). As such, it is during this stage that the seminarian develops a relationship with Christ that is “more intimate and personal and, at the same time, will lead to an awareness and an assumption of priestly identity” (Ratio fundamentalis 68). In this stage, the seminarian is challenged to “acquire a proper priestly spirituality; this includes a greater awareness and personal assumption of priestly identity as he conforms himself to the sentiments and attitudes of the Son, understood as self-offering for the pastoral care of the sheep” (PPF 136). 

While there is no strict timeframe indicated for this stage of formation, it is during this stage that the seminarian receives candidacy if this was not received at the conclusion of the discipleship stage. With the reception of candidacy, the seminarians at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary begin wearing clerics while at the seminary. It is also during this stage that seminarians receive the ministries of Lector and Acolyte as preparation for entrance into the clerical state through the reception of Holy Orders. At the end of the configuration stage, the seminarian petitions for diaconate ordination. 

The vocational synthesis stage lasts a minimum of six months and is “intended primarily as a time not of evaluation, but of integration and transition” (PPF 137, 144). Furthermore, this stage is “not a period of discernment for the priesthood, which began intensely in the propaedeutic stage and was confirmed during the discipleship and configuration stages” but it is more a time for “adjusting well to the life of ministry before advancing to priestly ordination” (PPF 138). Therefore, most of the time during this stage is spent in a parish in the particular diocese or institute of the seminarian where he exercises his diaconal ministry. During this stage, Mount St. Mary’s Seminary will offer the opportunity for seminarians to return to the seminary for practical training in celebrating the sacraments of the Eucharist, Penance, and Anointing of the Sick, and a preaching practicum. At the conclusion of the vocational synthesis stage, the seminarian petitions for priestly ordination.