Resting on the Heart of Christ: The Vocation and Spirituality of the Seminary Theologian by James Keating

Author:James Keating [Keating, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780980045567
Publisher: The Institute For Priestly Formation
Published: 2014-08-27T00:00:00+00:00

Meditation

In prayer, which method of teaching and study, the iconic or Ignatian, gives your imagination a new energy, a new direction toward which to order your current teaching and research? What other ways can you imagine teaching and studying that also invite you to a new level of contemplation?

New Designs for Priestly Formation

The seminary theologian is called to abide in contemplation. This contemplative approach to research and teaching serves to form men in priestly identity. Two models of such professorial formation were given above. There are, however, other approaches that may serve a seminarian's growth in interiority as well. The seminary has always been a place of tension between varying models and identities of the priest. The largest tension has arguably been between the monastic formation model and the formation needs of diocesan priests. To differentiate diocesan priestly mission from monastic spirituality, some thinkers highlight pastoral charity as the core identity and behavior of the diocesan priest; papal, conciliar, and episcopal documents also underscore this characteristic.34 A commonly-held but misguided distinction (prone to descending into caricature) is that prayer is for monks and action is for diocesan priests. In truth the diocesan priest who fails to enact his pastoral activity out of a praying heart will soon be reduced to a social worker or counselor. No one expects the diocesan priest to become a Carthusian monk, but parishioners do want the diocesan priest to be prayerfully present to their needs out of the fruit of his own intimate knowledge of Christ. This charitable presence born of intimacy with Christ characterizes both the priest's interior life and his life of ministry. "The most perfect and enjoyable existence from a social point of view would be the most inhuman if it did not serve the interior life."35 Furthermore, the interior life must be ordered toward pastoral charity; otherwise it can descend into a refined egoism.

To assist the theologian in forming priests who enact pastoral charity out of a praying heart, the current seminary culture will need to develop in new directions. "The essence of culture is the initiation into wholeness."33 The promotion of the personal faith life of the seminary theologian is germane to the spiritual development of seminarians. For most seminary theologians, the idea of time for prayerful study is a fantasy presented by idealistic interlopers. Everyday seminary life is a round of teaching, committee meetings, faculty meetings, formation meetings (both faculty and with individual seminarians), and usually some administrative, parttime job either freely entered into to boost salary income (lay theologians) or taken on by resident priest faculty at the behest of the rector for the common good. Like the perennial cry of seminarians, the faculty can similarly chime in, "We have no time for prayer." For this cry to subside, a structural change within the seminary horarium must take place. Faculty members are overwhelmed with the amount of work that fills their plates—from involvement in seminary fund-raising efforts to teaching evening classes for the laity—and it negatively affects their mood and spirit.

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