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Message from the President-Rector

 

Dear Friends,

In times of change, when missteps and uncertainty can abound, there’s an enticing tendency to grasp for quick answers. While it can be helpful to seek a solution, I believe it’s important to ponder, “Are we asking the right questions?”

In the Gospels, the rich young man, desirous of greatness and asking questions, “went away sad, for he had many possessions.” What happened next for him is unknown, yet seminary formation continually invites men into this space: will I walk away from Jesus or stay with him? Rather than turning away, the relational choice is about bringing whatever is arising in one’s life to Jesus, both the self-inflicted and the crosses that come our way.

Isolation is the ailment of our age.  Making the choice to be with God and others pushes against the tsunami of distractions and habits that keep us from being attuned to persons, especially the Persons of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  For the rich young man to be healed of his attachment to many possessions, he needs to stay in relationship with Jesus.  Healing comes through relationship.   

That will be the primary lesson of the Church’s newest stage of formation, the propaedeutic.  It’s a re-founding of the conviction that the seminary is not so much a place, as a set of relationships that integrate a man’s human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral strengths, and weaknesses. Seminary becomes first about healing and can only become about schooling in the context of that healing.  Each year we look to renew and deepen the relational expertise which will facilitate that healing in the men.  Our Herald testifies to this commitment. 

Men can learn lots of things.  In fact, many would prefer it, “just tell me what to do and how to do it.”  That seems “safer.”  But it’s not really safe if the man is still trapped in the illusion of control. His experiences, skills and knowledge become “riches” that he’s stockpiled and tempt him to manage on his own. To raise up a man of faith – a man who can be configured to Christ – is to see his personal adherence to God (CCC, #150) happen through his “lack,” that space where Jesus’ splendor shines upon the seminarian, and he endures conversion to a more excellent way: “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

In Christ,

Fr. Paul Hoesing
President-Rector
Kenrick-Glennon Seminary