“A good priest, a nun, must first of all be a man or a woman formed, worked by the grace of the Lord”, is what Pope Francis says in the video message, with the intention of prayer for the month of May, dedicated to the formation of nuns, religious men and seminarians.
Vatican News
Pope Francis dedicates his prayer intention for the month of May to the formation of religious men and women and seminarians.
In the video message released this Tuesday (04/30), carried out by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network with the collaboration of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and with the support of the American Catholic meditation and prayer app Hallow, the Pope insists that ” each vocation is a ‘rough diamond’ that must be polished, worked on, that must be shaped in all its faces”.
Formed, worked by the grace of the Lord
A good priest, a nun, must first of all be a trained man or woman, worked by the grace of the Lord. People aware of their limits and willing to lead a life of prayer, of dedication to the testimony of the Gospel.
In the apostolic constitution Veritatis gaudium, on Universities and Ecclesiastical Faculties, the Pope emphasizes that the integral formation of priestly and religious vocations must encompass both the human and the spiritual, pastoral and community dimensions. It must take into account cultural and social diversity. Formation does not consist only in the acquisition of knowledge, but in the experience of a profound encounter with Jesus. According to Francis, the preparation of nuns, men and women religious and seminarians “must be integral, it must develop from the seminary and the novitiate, in direct contact with the lives of other people.”
Be credible witnesses of the Gospel
This is fundamental. Training does not end at a certain moment, but continues throughout life, over the years integrating the person, intellectually, humanly, affectively, spiritually.
Community life is a central aspect of the life of a religious man or woman or a priest. For the Pope, this is one of the key points in the formation and preparation of those who respond to this vocation. In this sense, Francisco says that, although this experience can be “enriching”, at times it can also “be difficult”, and comments: “Because it is not the same to live together as to live in community”. For Francisco, living and relating to others is not always easy, but community life is always a school of holiness where one grows in different human virtues and learns to go beyond oneself.
Let us pray that religious men and women and seminarians grow on their vocational path through human, pastoral, spiritual and community formation, which leads them to be credible witnesses of the Gospel.
