1. The training for the priesthood.
In the early Christian times, candidates for the priesthood and candidates to the episcopacy were simply picked from monasteries because there were no seminaries. The best priests and bishops were monks. And the best missionaries were monks.
The reason for this is that what the monks learn is what they used to govern parishes and dioceses. And what they learned is what they preach in missionary lands. In short, the formula on how to be a holy monk is the same formula used to make a holy parish or diocese. And the formula on how to be a holy monk is the same identical formula on how to teach pagans to become Catholics. The three formulas are identical. It is the formula of ‘evangelisation’ found in the Apostolic Commission given by Christ to the apostles as found at the end of the Gospel of St. Matthew.
2. What is this identical formula?
The way to be holy, the way to make others holy and the way to make pagans holy is identical. This is, again, mentioned in the Gospel of the 6th Sunday of Easter from the Gospel of St. John. This is a more elaborate description of the Apostolic Commission according to St. Matthew.
This formula is the basis for all curriculum in seminaries because, historically, the seminary curriculum is taken from the training of monks. In monasteries, the seed (semen) of the Word is implanted by God in the souls; the monastic life makes the soul fertile. So the combination of the monastic life that makes the soul fertile and the planting of the seed by God is the perfect ambiance for holiness, for evangelisation and for missionary work.
This is, also, the way for husbands to help their wives become holy and for parents to make their children holy.
3. Where did we go wrong?
Now, where did all seminaries go wrong? Before going into the formula for seminary training in detail, let us look right away and see where we first went wrong. First God, indeed, plants the seed of the Word of God in the seminarian’s hearts. But there was no monastic life (it was abolished) to make the soil fertile. So the seed would find itself on hard ground where the birds easily eat it up, on rocky ground where the roots cannot find firm hold, or in ground full of thorns.
This is the seminary environment. Because instead of keeping the monastic aspect of the training of seminarians, some bright seminary rector tried to adjust the seminary training to the wishes of the world. The seed still falls on the ground. But the soil is not fertile because they eliminated the monastic asceticism essential to make the soil fertile. The seminary was no longer the place where the ‘semen’ the seed of the Word of God can develop.
4. Now, let’s go into details.
As mentioned in previous posts, Pope John Paul II came to the Philippines and in an address in Radio Veritas he ordered the CBCP to reform the seminary curriculum or seminary way of life (which of the two is not clear from sources.) But the two really go hand in hand. When you reform one, you reform both. Praxis go hand in hand with dogma. The news sources did not say, also, what was wrong with the present curriculum.
But in the course of working on the project what was wrong became very, very obvious. There was something wrong; in fact there was a catastrophe and nobody knew it.
5. The evangelical basis for seminary training.
The outline for the Evangelical basis for seminary training or for the training of any soul, is based on the 5th and 6th Sunday on Easter. Here is the outline. We shall put it in the proper order.
First, ‘he will be true to My word.’
Second, ‘he will love Me.’
Third, ‘We will come to him.’
Fourth, ‘We will make our dwelling place with him always,’
Fifth, ‘the Father will send in my name the Holy Spirit.’
Sixth, ‘the Holy Spirit will instruct you in everything.’
Seventh, ‘the Holy Spirit will remind you of all that I (Jesus) have told you.
So what was wrong? No seminary followed the above steps.
6. Do only the first. The rest is the work of God.
Let us first go through the seven steps, and then return to the first, which is the only step that must be done by the whole seminary staff. As we mentioned, the second step is just the consequence of the first step. From the third to the seventh are exclusively, the work of God.
7. The entire basis for seminary training.
Postulancy.
First, all the commands of Christ must be taught during the first year during Postulancy. In one year, all the commands of Christ can be taught. And any seminarian who have not mastered all the commands must not proceed to the novitiate. These commands of Christ are the New Testament interpretation of the 10 commandments of God from the Old Testament. When given the New Testament interpretation, they will be expanded into around more than 80 commands. They are usually referred to as the Commands of Jesus Christ in the New Testament.
The theology professor will simply enumerate the command and will try to explain how that command will be put into practice. For example; he will give the command of Christ ‘to pray unceasingly.’ Then he should explain how to pray unceasingly (as we have explained in previous posts,) The professor will get the command from the New Testament and the explanation on ‘how’ from the writings of the Fathers of the Church (like the ‘treatise’ on prayer of St. Augustine or from the book of Pope Benedict XVI).
That is all that the professor can do. Anybody who can read or write can do this. So even new graduates in the seminary, as often the practice, can teach in the seminary. But sadly professors can do neither. In that they do not know ALL, only some, of the commands of Christ (often they do not know that ‘to pray unceasingly is a command of Christ under pain of sin.) And most often they do not know the interpretation of the Fathers of the Church on ‘how to pray.’ They think prayer is just like talking to another person. Hey, prayer is talking to God and that makes it a world of difference.
In the lecture hall, the seminarians will only hear the sound of the words of the professor. Nothing else. It is the Holy Spirit who explains the meaning of the sound of the words so that the seminarian will understand the message of the words. The meaning of the words is different from the sound of the word. Without the working of the Holy Spirit the seminarian will learn nothing spiritual. So he will not learn how to pray, which is a spiritual activity. The Holy Spirit is not always there. When is he there?
We will answer that after the Noviciate.
Noviciate. After the seminarian had learned the commands of Christ from Divine Divine Revelation and the explanation of that command from the Fathers of the Church during his postulancy,when he starts the Noviciate he will try to put into practice what he had learned. He will not be able to put it into practice perfectly, but the little effort will be enough. He can perfect it later on.
Now to the question, when will the Holy Spirit start acting on the seminarian? Before the first step; because it is through the power of the Holy Spirit will he be able to know the commands of Christ and to be able to obey them even slightly. Assuming the professor had explained the commands well. If the professor did not teach well, then the Holy Spirit will not act. Thus the importance of having professors with perfect knowledge, which is rare. The human effort in seminary training stops here.
Second step; ‘he will love Me.’ A seminarian who knows the commands of Christ and puts it into practice, it is he who loves God by very definition. ‘If you love Me, keep My commandments.’ So the seminarian who loves Christ is he who knows and obeys His commandments. This act is a combination of personal human effort and the gift of grace. After this, everything else is in the supernatural level and, therefore, over and above the capability of any seminary or school. Though some schools in Bologna and in Belgium like to presume that they can teach this. They think they are the Holy Spirit.
Third step. If the seminarian loves Christ, he loves, also, the Father and the Holy Spirit. Thus the Blessed Trinity will come to him. This presence is unlike receiving Holy Communion. This is a more permanent abiding.
Fourth, ‘we will make our dwelling place with the seminarian always.’ This is heaven here on earth. No one can describe this experience. Even St. Paul could not describe it. When all the seminarians reaches this stage, they become one mind and heart. And no one will be separated from Him through sin. The sign that almost all seminarians do not reach this stage is that they engage in sins of impurity from entrance to ordination, aside from the common same sex temptations.
Fifth, ‘the Father will send the Holy Spirit.’ The Holy Spirit comes with the Father and the Son. But he is coming with a special function or attributes specially referred to him.
Sixth, ‘the Holy Spirit will instruct in everything.’ The Spirit will teach you the answer to everything. You will have no question that you cannot answer or any problem that you cannot solve. This knowledge of the entire sphere of theology is infused; not learned from men nor books.
Seventh, ‘and the Spirit will remind you of everything Christ taught when He was on earth without you forgetting a single truth.
8. When this outline for the seminary curriculum was read from the two Sundays of Easter, the Bishop’s Committee on Seminaries told the research group to look around for a curriculum based on this outline. The group searched the entire Philippines and the best seminaries around the world. Also several well known religious school in Rome, some theological schools in Europe, and some private seminaries. And lastly, the research group asked the Congregation of Catholic Education in Rome whose head was a Filipino. His answer was ‘we have no curriculum. We are still making one. ‘
All of them had outlines but they were not based on the above outline. The Church is 2000 years old and we did not have a program for seminaries based on the Gospels? All curriculum were based on man made individual programs adapted to please the world.
9. So what is wrong with all seminarians? And all seminarians can confirm this.
They do not know all the commands of Christ so they are not true to the Word of God.
Second, not knowing the commands of Christ, they cannot obey them so they do not love God.
Third, not having the proper disposition, God will not come to them.
Fourth, Jesus might come to them occasionally but will leave them because the Trinity will not make their abode with them.
Fifth, the Father will not send the Spirit to them due to a lack of proper disposition,
Sixth, the Spirit will not instruct them so they will know absolutely nothing about the spiritual life.
Seventh, they will know nothing about the past teachings of Christ as found in Divine Revelation,
With such ignorance, they cannot lead any soul anywhere near heaven. This was the kind of seminary Pope John Paul was trying to avoid. So the team had to begin from scratch. Fortunately history has information on how monastic life begun; how they formed their monks; and how the monks became the holiest people during their time, how the new monks were trained and how the monks converted the whole of Europe. It was all there on record. And it was completely in accord with the above training program mentioned in the two Sunday Gospels of Easter. Sadly, up to now no seminary is following the above outline.
So we are still producing priest who have not repented, priest who have no Faith, and priest who have no Charity. These same priest are not united with their co-priests and bishops, they are not one mind and one heart with one another, they do not know their theology and the teachings of Christ. They are not free from their sin and the Trinity is not abiding with them. So they do not have the peace of Christ in them; and their source of pleasures are from he things of the world and from vices.
All priests studied in such seminaries, from Pope Francis to the youngest bishops and priest. What a mess. If the Church is like this, what did you expect the world to be?
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