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Pastoral Formation
Pre-Theologate Pastoral Formation
I am reminding you now to fan into a flame the gift that God gave you when I laid my hands on you. God’s gift was not a spirit of timidity, but the Spirit to be Strong, Loving, Wise. (II Tim. 1:6-7)
St. Paul charges the young priest Timothy not to be cowardly in his exercise of his priestly ministry, but to be strong, loving and wise. The Pre-Theologate aims to inculcate these very same pastoral virtues in the men discerning their vocation at Ave Maria University.
In Pastores Dabo Vobis, Pope John Paul II sees a fundamental pastoral nature in our conversation of hearts, as he writes: “The spiritual life is, indeed, an interior life, a life of intimacy with God, a life of prayer and contemplation. But this very meeting with God and with His Fatherly love for everyone brings us face to face with the need to meet our neighbor, to give ourselves to others, to serve in a humble and disinterested way.”
In this regard, it can be said that the Pre-Theologate serves as a leaven to the whole University community, as staff and students alike bring a decided moral and spiritual tenor to both our residence and the University campus. All residents are welcome to participate in the daily prayer of the Pre-Theologate and they frequently avail themselves of the presence of the Blessed Sacrament in our chapel, including times of exposition. The Pre-Theologate chapel is available daily for group prayer by the campus brotherhoods, who schedule their night prayer and devotions there.
We understand that by opening our hearts to God in vocational discernment, we enter into a unique brotherhood of men united by the common goal of listening to the still, quiet voice of God that may be calling some men to the priesthood or religious life. Fraternal support and, when needed, fraternal correction are the hallmarks of our brotherhood, so we agree to live in charity as a family, to love and support one another as brothers in Christ, committed to self-sacrifice for our brothers and collaboration with them.
As Cardinal Ratzinger writes in The Meaning of Christian Brotherhood: “In Mark 3:31-35 (‘Whoever does the will of God is my brother’), Jesus seems to be speaking of a brotherhood based not on a phenomenon of nature, not on blood relationships, but rather a brotherhood dependent upon a decision of the spirit of man: a saying ‘yes’ to the will of God.”