Priestly Formation
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Admission
The candidate for the priestly formation program contacts his Vocation Director or Bishop of the diocese of sponsorship. A candidate will not be reviewed for admission by St. Augustine’s Seminary without being approved by a diocese. Those wishing to pursue their vocation through a religious order will only be admitted to the Seminary after being approved and sponsored by the Order. Each candidate will be evaluated by the Rector, Academic Dean, Human Formation Counsellor, and a member of the Formation Faculty before being admitted to the Seminary. All candidates will also be evaluated by a professional psychologist selected by the Seminary or by the local Ordinary. This assessment is among many instruments available to help discern the psychological and other factors that can strengthen or hinder a candidate’s vocation to the priesthood.
At all stages of formation, men are encouraged (especially in Spiritual Direction, Meetings with the Formation Advisor and at various Year Group Meetings), to discern their own suitability for priestly ministry to make a free and conscious decision regarding their readiness for Holy Orders.
Formation at St Augustine's Seminary
The Formation Program is a seven-year (or more) course of formation encompassing four dimensions: intellectual, pastoral, and spiritual formation, and communal life. Any introduction to what St. Augustine's is and seeks to be for its students is best undertaken by considering the Seminary as, at one and the same time, a House of Prayer, a House of Study, and a House of Community Living.
“Our Rector, Fr. Edwin Gonsalves, would always say the Seminary is first and foremost a house of prayer. The faculty did everything they could to foster that in us – not just through the formation process, but through example. It came out in the way they themselves live their faith, witness their own faith. They were there in the Chapel praying with us every day. It was there in the way they taught us.”
Stages of Formation
The Seminary follows the Ratio Fundamentalis (2016) and the Ratio Nationalis (2022) that envisions priestly formation as a journey in four stages: the Propaedeutic Stage (Spiritual Year), the Discipleship Stage (Philosophical Studies), the Configuration Stage (Theological Studies), and the Pastoral Stage. For candidates from the Archdiocese of Toronto, these stages are book-ended by two important periods of formation, a Pre-Seminary Phase of formation (that lasts one to two years) and a Post-Seminary Phase of formation (that lasts five years).
“Some of the most significant experiences of my priestly formation took place during the spiritual year. Even though I had already spent three years in formation, I had not yet fostered a sense of peace. My philosophy studies had allowed me to open up my mind to the beauty of the truth of our faith, but that understanding remained an intellectual fascination. I had not yet experienced the peace that comes from being enveloped by an experience of the love of God. I didn’t even know what I was lacking. My formation at St. Augustine’s helped me to foster a harmony between my academic, spiritual, and pastoral life, and to help others find that same harmony in their own lives.”
Self-Evaluation
At the end of each year, the seminarian prepares a self-evaluation according to Seminary guidelines. The annual evaluation provides the opportunity for the seminarians to reflect on their ongoing discernment and response to the formation process. The seminarian is required to be honest and transparent and may discuss the self-evaluation with his Spiritual Director or Formation Group leader. On the part of the Seminary, it provides the opportunity to discern the motivations and qualities that indicate the presence of a true vocation to the priesthood.
Formation Report
The Formation Advisor and the Rector prepare an annual formation report. The report summarizes the self-evaluation of the seminarian and comments from the Evaluation and Discernment Committee, resident and external Faculty and administrative staff (excluding the Director of Spiritual Formation and the Spiritual Director).
CALL TO ORDERS
The petition for ordination to the diaconate or priesthood is made through the Rector’s office. However, the seminarian announces the date for his ordination only after he receives a formal letter from his Ordinary.
“LOOKING BACK, I am amazed at how well the Seminary set a solid foundation that would prepare me for priestly ministry and the necessity for ongoing formation as a priest. I recall fondly how my first years of formation, the Propaedeutic (Spiritual) Year, and my philosophical studies, placed me on a path of renewed vigor in my studies and a deepened love for prayer. The theological studies and pastoral assignments that followed then had a fertile soil in which to take root and bear fruit! My years at St. Augustine’s Seminary formed me to become the priest that God is calling me to be: pursuing personal holiness, striving in wholehearted service to the Church, and pouring myself out for the People of God.”
—FR. MICHEL QUENNEVILLE, ARCHDIOCESE OF KINGSTON