Spiritual Year 2022/23 Highlights
St. Augustine's Seminary of Toronto has the longest-running Spiritual Year program in Canada. Initiated in 2011, the program has gone through many changes allowing for the formulation of a matured program.
The Seminarians are initiated to familiarity with Sacred Scripture, Catholic doctrine, and classic spiritual authors. The itinerary consists of seminars, retreats, and pilgrimages.
Spiritual Year formation at St. Augustine's is held on a separate wing of the Seminary and forms a distinct community within the larger Seminary body. Seminarians in the Spiritual - or Propaedeutic - Year are set apart to intensify their discernment and spiritual experience.
Other important elements of the Year, which have never changed, are extended periods of silence and a media "fast;' where Seminarians in the Propaedeutic stage abstain from social media, cell phones, and the internet during weekdays. "At first (the social media fast) isn't easy:' admits Spiritual Year Seminarian Andrew Wuebbolt. "Initially, you want to check your phone, but after you enter into it, you get used to it and it's actually pretty freeing. Rather than being focused on taking your phone out, you can spend time deepening your relationship with the people who are around you right then and there, and deepening your relationship with God:'
"It is an exercise of self-discipline and detachment, and it nurtures the interior life: 'Be still and know that I am God' (Psalm 46);' explains Fr. Fred Chung, Director of Propaedeutic Formation/Spiritual Year.
Silent retreats and pilgrimages form a key part of the Spiritual Year program.
Following the footsteps of Canadian Saints
Following the footsteps of Canadian Saints, the Seminarians journeyed to some key sites this year, including Martyrs Shrine in Midland, ON, St. Joseph's Oratory in Montreal, Notre-Dame-du-Cap in Trois Rivieres, QC, and Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, QC, and the tomb of St. François de Laval in Quebec City, the first bishop of the Americas.
