Features of the Propaedeutic Stage
Solitude and Community
Solitude and community are not opposites. They are modes of ‘being-with,’ opposed to isolation (cf. PPF 229q).
Jesus made a habit of withdrawing from the crowds and his ministry to ‘the wilderness,’ or a ‘high mountain,’ or to the ‘seashore,’ or to the Garden of Gethsemane – not to isolatate himself from others, but rather to enter into deep communion with his Father. Solitude, then, is a way of being intimate with God.
Jesus also engaged in intimate relationships with his friends, in community. And he often invited his friends to share his solitude, his communion with the Father: “come away with me. Let us go alone to a quiet place and rest for a while” (Mk 6:31).
Because of its emphasis on healing and maturity, the Propaedeutic Stage of the Pre-Theology Program deliberately cultivates the experience of solitude, alongside a more intentional community life.
Apart from the designated times of common prayer, the horarium leaves time ‘unscheduled’ so that the seminarian may discern how best to use it without avoiding the experience of being alone. In this experience, he can discover “the spiritual path that transforms . . . loneliness into a holy solitude.” (PPF 187h). Moreover, the Technology Fast, explained below, frees the seminarian from self-soothing distractions to instill the inner silence needed to hear the voice of the Lord and to “be attuned to God’s movements” (PPF 229g).
The communion established in solitude is the basis of the Christian common life, which is simply a ‘being-with-God’ together.
“Community life helps the human dimension bear maximum fruit during the Propaedeutic Stage” (PPF 127). The common life of prayer, study, work, friendship, and recreation “overcomes the difficulties caused by excessive individualism” and develops the seminarian’s capacity to be a ‘man of communion’ in the give and take of fraternal life (PPF 151).
The Technology Fast
The Propaedeutic Stage offers the seminarian an opportunity to step back from technology, and to reorder his relationship with it. The distance, and the silence it cultivates, invite the seminarian into holy solitude, such that he may reflectively engage his interiority. At the same time, it liberates him to enter more deliberately into relationship with others.
Seminarians have no access to phones, tablets, computers, or other devices Sunday through Friday. They may use their devices for reasonable contact with family and friends on Saturday afternoon, or for express purposes with the permission of the Director of Pre-Theology.
Having consulted with his Formation Advisor about his intended use technology, a seminarian may retrieve his devices on breaks away from the Seminary, provided that the devices are equipped with Covenant Eyes software.
After Easter, the seminarian may gradually reintroduce technology into his daily life, according to the plan he develops with his Formation Advisor.
“Advances to technology have brought great progress to humanity, but at the same time present new challenges. These challenges are particularly present to young adults, who seem alienated from authority or institution and who are accustomed to virtual relationships and constant recourse to social media. In addition, the widespread availability of pornography on the internet is a pervasive reality and a pernicious threat to human and moral development” (PPF 20f).
Breakfasts and Thursday Night Dinner
The Propaedeutic horarium allocates time for prayer, study, work, and service, and provides for the intentional common life of the seminarians. While most meals are taken in the refectory, those in the Propaedeutic Stage share breakfast together in the St. Lawrence Commons Monday through Wednesday, and Friday through Saturday. On Thursday evenings, before the Catholic Culture Seminar, they have dinner together. Seminarians purchase food stuffs, cook the meals, and clean-up after the meals. This allows them the opportunity to develop a shared sense of service, ownership, and brotherhood, even as it helps them resist the inclination to ‘institutionalization.’
Chores
Seminarians in the Propaedeutic Stage engage in house chores once a week.
Divided into three teams, they form a weekly rotation that attends to 1.) the 2nd floor hallway, the Beloved Disciple Lounge, the laundry room, and the Pre-Theology vans (cleaning and fueling), 2.) the 3rd floor hallway, the St. Charles de Foucauld Lounge, and the St. Lawrence Commons, and 3.) Mary, Mother of the Word Chapel, the 3rd floor laundry room, the Study Room, and the John Paul II Music Room.
The team assigned to the 3rd floor on any given week is also responsible for meal preparations in the St. Lawrence Commons. The teams assigned to the 2nd floor and to the chapel collaborate to prepare the Sunday Night Dinner for the community, as described below in the section of Pastoral Formation.
Process Groups
Once a week, Propaedeutic Stage seminarians participate in Process Groups with members of the counseling staff. Process Groups offer a unique opportunity to share struggles and concerns, and to receive multiple perspectives, support, encouragement, and feedback from others in a safe and confidential environment. These interpersonal interactions provide group members an occasion to deepen their self-awareness and to learn how they relate to others.
The Propaedeutic Seminar
Once a week, seminarians attend the Propaedeutic Seminar, a team-presented, weekly series of conferences that provides an extended orientation to all aspects of formation. The seminar addresses topics like Beloved Sonship, time-management and study skills, constructive leisure, daily discernment, living an ordered life, friendship, leisure, fraternal affirmation and correction, celibacy, the life of virtue, among others.
Growth Reflections
Four times during the year (in September, October, November, and January) seminarians in the Propaedeutic Stage handwrite a growth reflection, to help them recognize and track their development, in remote preparation for the exercises of the final evaluation. Considering the time elapsed since the previous reflection, they are to answer these questions:
• Where am I in my relationship with God? (How has it changed, or is changing?)
• What have I discovered about my gifts (strengths) and the areas I still need to grow (weaknesses)?
• How have I let God into my ‘stuff’? (How am I moving with God?)
• How are my relationships developing?
• What is becoming clearer to me in discernment?
• What do I need to help me grow?
Reflections are submitted to the Director of Pre-Theology, who will copy them and return them to the seminarians.
