The propedical stage in the seminars: spiritual life, conversion and freedom

The Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE) recently organized the first meeting of trainers of the propedical stage in the major seminars, the first of the four phases of priestly formation in the The fundamental system 2016.

This document, prepared by the Congregation for the clergy (today Dicastery), updated that of 1985 and reinforces the discernment and human formation of future priests.

Fr. Roberto González-Tapia Otero, trainer of the propedical stage at the Major Seminar of the Archdiocese of Madrid, was one of the speakers of the meeting and spoke with ACI Press to deepen the meaning of this formative stage.

Since when is the model implemented in Spain?

Each seminar will make a personal reflection both from reading the Ratio as of the training plan approved by the bishops and the Holy See in 2019. I could not give data from all over Spain because I do not know them. In Madrid we begin to implement the guidance orientations in the disciple stage in the 2017-2018 academic year reforming the discipular stage.

In 2019 we implanted the propedical. Then we have reformed the setting stage. Now we are implementing the new pastoral stage. But we are open to continuously reform our structure from what we are seeing that seminarians need. They are the important thing in the initial formation.

How is it different from the introductory course?

They have nothing to do. The introductory course was a time and space that sought to help people who approached the seminar to clarify the vocational intuitions they had. It was vocational pastoral. That continues today in Madrid under the name of “Grupo Genesaret.” It is a vocational group for boys with formal vocational concern with the intention of entering the seminar, at least explicitly formulated.

The propedical stage is a novelty in training. It is an indispensable formative process and with its own formative dynamic. In addition, the introductory course was not mandatory in the seminar. The propedical is part of the formative itinerary of the initial formation.

How are the objectives of the propedical?

First, offering time and space to develop them. Hence the importance of having a separate headquarters, which can be a building, a floor, a section. This separation occurs in the face to favor its own rhythm.

Second, offering a serious introduction to both intellectual and practical spiritual life from the perspective of conversion and inner freedom, which is what favors a dynamic of discernment.

Personal prayer is greatly encouraged – long spaces per day -, spiritual reading, study in discernment (what does this mean for my life today?), The direct knowledge of priestly life through prolonged pastoral experiences, an observation of intense current reality both intellectual and material.

Community life is more intense than in the rest of the stages, and that favors the rapid and deep insertion in the community that is assigned in the following stages.

How is the encounter with Christ favored?

Dedicating time: in prayer, in the study, in the life of the Church, in the community of the nearby, in the poor, and in the life itself. It is important at this stage to learn to recognize the presence of God and his will in day to day, in history itself, in people.

For that, silence, time and attitude of listening and examination is needed, a lot of exam, although sometimes it can be tired. The climate of simplicity and silence is what most favors the encounter with Christ.

What is intended to seek the self -knowledge of the candidates?

Humility is the basis of all spiritual life, as all mystics remind us. We already know that humility is to live really, as Santa Teresa said. Without humility, everything is lived as a hoax. Knowing is important to be able to build and give in fidelity. Knowledge itself is born from the gaze of life in the light of God.

This also favors a strong faith because your own knowledge is, first of all, a knowledge of God’s loyalty and gratuitousness with us. For self -knowledge there are several tools: classical spirituals, the most contemporary psychological and the reflection we have of daily life in community dynamics.

Everything helps the subject be placed in his place, which is that of a being in need of salvation, and of a God who saves.

How important is your introduction to the prayer of the liturgy of the hours?

It is very important because it helps us get out of ourselves and our way of living time. In addition, it makes us enter the heart of all men through the feelings collected there. We structure us the day around Christ. It is a path of expropriation and cordial obedience. If prayer does not take us out of ourselves it is not prayer.

The liturgy of the hours is a permanent school of prayer. Through it we understand that the important thing is to join the prayer of Jesus and his people. Going entering it is a perfect priestly training school.

Can they be called seminarians who attend this course, given that according to the ‘fundamentalis’ should constitute a different community?

They are absolutely. The seminar is not a place, but a formative community. That formation has stages and dimensions. Each stage focuses more on some dimension, in order to delve into it.

The propedical is focused on the spiritual life, the discipular or philosophical stage focuses on the human dimension, the configurative stage in theology, and the pastoral stage or synthesis has its center in pastoral life.

Seminarians live in the place that helps them live these nuclei. The propedical stage is one more among the others. It includes all dimensions, but its objective claims that seminarians focus through their own space, as occurs in the synthesis stage, which live in parishes.