and the Five Seminary Calls and Core Values

Area in Formation: PASTORAL

Core Value: CHRISTIAN SERVICE

Call: SERVANT-LEADERSHIP

 The St. Joseph Seminary College promotes a Pastoral Program that fosters in the seminarian the privilege of being a servant and a leader in the spirit of Christian Service.  It enables them to prepare to respond to the emerging needs of the Church and of society.  Its scheme is defined in promoting awareness of situations, awakening to the life of service, appreciation of work, developing personal charisms, working in teams, justice and peace advocacy, and Christ-like service (PPPF 258). That is why, through the Pastoral Program, the seminarians are expected to relate from the heart, remaining in touch with the emotions and feelings that human situations elicit from them (PPPF 251).

            The College seminarian is the first agent of his Pastoral Formation.  Knowing that no human being discovers oneself and one’s purpose in life except in service of others, the community of seminarians is challenged to support one another in their common pursuit to be men for others.  They are to channel their youthful energies to worthwhile work for the good of others as initiation into pastoral charity (PPPF 264).  This paves the way to the exercise of the role of a servant and yet a leader.  In other words, the seminarians are developed to lead as a future Pastor and his leadership is fully enhanced only in Christian service.

            The families of seminarians are also geared to provide a setting for pastoral formation, especially when they engage in honest sharing of their life situations.  They are also to serve as witnesses to genuine service to neighbors.  The family is considered as the true cradle of love of work, neighbor, and Christian service (PPPF 267).

            The St. Joseph Seminary College Formation Program aims to unfold these goals and provide for the seminarians the foretaste of the Priestly ministry they desire to live.  Thus, they are assigned into the different apostolate areas in and out of Dumaguete City.  Among these areas: Cathedral Parish Feeding Program, Friendship Home, Talay Rehabilitation Center, Dumaguete City Public Market, Holy Child Hospital, Casa Esperanza, and Agan-an Rural folks.  The seminarians report to these areas every Sunday from 9:00 o’clock in the morning until 4:00 in the afternoon.  Their experiences are processed through a Pastoral companion who sees them individually and as a group.  This helps them to see the deeper meaning of their experiences, discover the values that they hold and enrich them, find out their weaknesses and be able to address them, discern more on their real goals in life, and forge a close bond with God.

Area in Formation: ACADEMICS

Core Value: LOVE FOR KNOWLEDGE

Call: EXCELLENCE

            The Academic Formation Program of St. Joseph Seminary College seeks to address the developmental needs of its seminarians.  To meet this end, the intellectual formation is framed to encourage the seminarians to discover and accept the importance of knowledge in life (OP 2004).  Philosophy should hone the seminarians’ ability to read, to comprehend, to evaluate and articulate their learning in the light of a critical and analytical mind (OP 2004).  They are helped to develop the capacity to think clearly, logically, and creatively, as well as the ability to discuss intelligently…to see and examine the various angles of issues and questions, and to be able to discuss about salient matters that affect life as a whole.  Over and above all these, the seminarians are guided to acquire the basic love for study and of knowledge (PPPF 233).

            Knowledge is not just aimed at achieving a personal developmental thrust.  It is also geared towards enhancing in the seminarians a broad analytical view of the cultural, economic, political, historical, moral, and ecclesial forces at work in the world leading them to transcend simplistic approaches to the manifold issues about human life in general.  Hence, blending traditions with contemporary trends in the study of Philosophy today aims to be interdisciplinary and synthetic in its outlook (PPPF 234). This will form the seminarians’ skill and conviction in the search for the truth through the exercise of the intellect.  For this reason, Philosophy introduces such courses as Logic, Argumentation and Debate, Oriental Philosophy, Ancient-Medieval-Modern-Contemporary Philosophy, Metaphysics, Rational Psychology, Philosophy of Education, among others.

            The intellectual formation, the study of Philosophy in general, is to be consciously pursued in the context of the Christian faith.  It is not enough to have theological courses in College.  It is also vital that the world, history, the sciences, and the humanities be studied within the perspective provided by faith while respecting the legitimate autonomy of these branches of knowledge.  In this light, the seminarians are helped in preparing themselves to higher theological pursuits (PPPF 236).

Area in Formation: SPIRITUAL

Core Value: DEEP PRAYER AND WITNESS

Call: HOLINESS

            The St. Joseph Seminary College Formation Program seeks to accompany the seminarians through the following stages: from a duty to pray to a sense of prayer, from an obligatory spiritual direction to a sense openness to the sacred, from a secular attitude to the embodiment of a Priestly life and a Christ-like minister.  These stages are all directed to facilitate the seminarians’ commitment to the ordained life according to their own level of maturity in formation (OP 2004).  All of these developmental stages are goal-values interlinked through focus on the dynamics of personal, communal and individual liturgical prayers, Christian expressions of religious experiences, Scriptural readings, spiritual direction, solitude and silence, discernment, commitment to vocation, and the exercise of Priestly virtues (OP 2004 and PPPF 206).

            The Spiritual Formation Program coordinates with the other areas in formation.  That is why, the seminarians should experience the dynamic interplay between his human concerns, academic studies, apostolic experiences, and his spiritual and prayer life (OP 2004).  For this reason, the spiritual formation has to strike the balance between an individualized approach, mainly through spiritual direction, and the communitarian approach through a disciplined observance of the structure of community prayer (PPPF 214).  The seminarians must be helped in all of these approaches in deepening his Priestly vocation and clarifying his direction (PPPF 205).

            The Spiritual Formation Program of St. Joseph Seminary College outlines the following activities and sessions to address and respond to the needs of the seminarians and to pursue their spiritual development: daily celebration of the Holy Eucharist, prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours and other novenas, Adoration, Meditation, praying the Holy Rosary, Marian devotions, individual and group reflections, regular Spiritual Direction with the Spiritual Director, counseling sessions, Retreats and Recollections, Bible sharing, reading of the lives of the Saints, and many others.  From out of their own reflections and experiences, they are also asked to share during the celebration of the Mass on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays except during examinations week.  All of these activities are made to develop in the seminarians the love of prayer and the desire to live a holy life.

            In cooperation with the Seminary formators, the families of seminarians are to be made aware of their responsibility in witnessing a joyful, lively faith, and active prayer life.  Families should act as extensions of Seminary formation by sustaining the seminarians’ prayer life through reminders, challenges, and family prayer (PPPF 221).  This is made possible through the periodic gathering of families in the seminary like family recollections, family Christmas party, and family meetings (OP 2004).

            The Seminary formators and faculty must spearhead in developing spiritual maturity by an active life of prayer though their individual and communal witness.  They should possess the competence, skills, and interest needed in guiding the seminarians toward spiritual growth (PPPF 218).

            At the end of the College Seminary formation, the St. Joseph Seminary College Spiritual Program should have developed in the seminarians a deep sense of prayer and the witness of the faith (OP 2004).  The Priestly vocation must have been enhanced and the desire to respond to the call to the Priesthood should have been elevated to the level of commitment in the spirit of self-giving if not self-donation.

Area in Formation: COMMUNITY LIFE

Core Value: SACRAMENTAL BROTHERHOOD

Call: STEWARDSHIP

            The St. Joseph Seminary College Community Life Program aims to establish a healthy sense of relationship with others in the context of a community and the guidance of sound Community Life formation policies.  It also wishes to develop individual and communal values in the community and brotherhood of seminarians in the light of the Seminary Vision and Mission (OP 2004).  Thus, Community Life is geared towards developing interaction, teamwork, and fraternity in a healthy manner that each member of the community may be given a chance to grow in the spirit of Sacramental Brotherhood (Handbook 2003 p. 21)

            When Jesus called his twelve Apostles, he formed them into a community that is anchored on him.  In much the same way, the Seminary promotes the building up of a community with Christ as the center of unity and the source of communion.  All relationships that make up the St. Joseph Seminary College community are deemed to take strength from him whose sacred call brought us together into sharing his mission and ministry.  That is why, each seminarian is guided to discover and interact with his own person with the goal of understanding and interacting with others more in the bigger community thereby relating and associating with others maturely and in a healthy way (OP 2004).

            The Seminary Community Life Program desires raise its rich experience of communion in the level of Eucharistic communion which confirms the Church in her unity as the Body of Christ.  The bread which is broken every day and with which we individually partake is the strongest means of the communion of the St. Joseph Seminary College community with Christ and with one another (Cf. 1Cor. 10:16-17). 

            Through our communion with the Body of Christ, the St. Joseph Seminary College community, as a community of disciples and of the faithful…and therefore, as Church, comes to be united with Jesus Christ in the nature of a sacrament, that is, a sign and an instrument of intimate unity with God (Cf. EDE no. 24).  That is why, the communion that the Seminary community celebrates everyday has the profound nature of sacramental identification with Jesus Christ who willed to build the Church as a community of disciples.  This sacramental nature raises our bond more closely as brothers who are journeying and called together to make a faithful response to God’s call as disciples through the sacred Priesthood (OP 2004).

            To foster more the value of community life, formative rules and regulations are made to facilitate individual maturity and discipline and to sustain the importance of respect, decency, order and system, openness, responsible freedom, prudence, and a healthy sense of authority.  The rules and regulations are important components in inculcating and forming the seminarians with a sense of direction and the ability to grow in the spirit of ecclesiastical discipline.  That is why, the seminarians are expected to develop the ability to trust that these rules and regulations are vital in seminary formation and community life as future Pastors of the local Church (Cf. Handbook 2003 p. 22).

Area in Formation: HUMAN

Core Value: COMMITMENT TO AN INTEGRATED DIOCESAN PRIESTLY LIFE

Call: CHRISTIAN DISCIPLESHIP

            The Human Formation Program of St. Joseph Seminary College