Features of the Propaedeutic Stage
“Seminarians in the Propaedeutic Stage should develop ‘the dynamic of self-giving through experiences in the parish setting and charitable works.’ Hands-on experiences that include contact with the poor are appropriate for this stage” (PPF 373, quoting Ratio 59).
Service to the Poor
The Propaedeutic Stage joins a local chapter of the St. Vincent de Paul Society to serve homeless persons once a week.
By personally encountering the poor and providing for their needs, they may develop empathy, appreciate their own poverty, and experience the Lord’s compassion.
The Poverty Immersion
Every year at the beginning of Lent, after 40-hours devotion and Ash Wednesday, seminarians in the Propaedeutic Stage embark on a poverty immersion for three weeks, together with their Formation Advisor.
Rather than offering a superficial poverty tourism, the immersion places the seminarian, in his own poverty, alongside poor, who “most perfectly imitate Jesus in his outward life” (St. Charles de Foucauld).
The poverty immersion aims to broaden the seminarian’s perspective, order his priorities, undercut the sense of entitlement, and expedite “an end to many of [his] anxieties and empty fears, [such that he] arrive[s] at what truly matters in life, the treasure that no one can steal from [him]: true and gratuitous love” (Pope Francis, World Day of the Poor, 13 November 2016).
Work
Propaedeutic Stage seminarians engage in manual labor at Resurrection Cemetery or elsewhere once a week.
Though relatively limited in scope, the exercise instills from the onset of formation a sense of the dignity of hard work, of accomplishment, and a spirit of service. It also contests the ‘softness’ emblematic of the age.
“By enduring the hardship of work in union with Jesus, the carpenter of Nazareth and the one crucified on Calvary, man collaborates in a certain fashion with the Son of God in his redemptive work. He shows himself to be a disciple of Christ by carrying the cross, daily, in the work he is called to accomplish” (CCC 2427).
Sunday Night Dinner
On Sunday evenings, Seminarians in the Propaedeutic Stage plan, purchase, cook, and serve dinner for the house; they also clean up afterwards. The teams assigned chores on the 2nd floor and Mary, Mother of the Word chapel on any given week collaborate to prepare the meal for the house, as an act of service.
