From: Ouko joachim omolo
Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News
BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
FRIDAY, APRIL 27, 2012
This Sunday (April 29, 2012) will be the 49th World Day of Prayer for Vocations to priesthood and religious life. Instituted by Pope Paul VI on the 11 April 1964, the day is marked every Fourth Sunday of Easter, the Sunday that Jesus manifests himself as the Good Shepherd (John 10:11-18).
Vocation to priesthood or religious life therefore, means that priests and religious must be good shepherd. They must lay down their lives for their sheep. In other words, they must be with their sheep all the times even in difficult moments.
This is because he who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
Jesus proclaims: “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd”.
For this reason Jesus instructs: “The Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
In his message, Pope Benedict XVI for this year’s celebration in the theme: Vocations, the Gift of the Love of God- says: “It is in this soil of self-offering and openness to the love of God, and as the fruit of that love, that all vocations are born and grow.
According to the constant Tradition of the Church, baptized males alone may validly receive Holy Orders. By means of the sacrament of Orders, the Holy Spirit configures the candidate, to a new and specific role, Jesus Christ: the priest.
The candidate for ordained ministry, therefore, must reach emotional maturity. That maturity renders him able to put himself in the proper relation with men and women, developing in him a true sense of spiritual fatherhood toward the ecclesial community entrusted to him.
While profoundly respecting the persons in question, may not admit to the seminary and Holy Orders those who practice homosexuality, show profoundly deep-rooted homosexual tendencies, or support the so-called gay culture.
There are two indissociable aspects in every priestly vocation: the free gift of God and the responsible liberty of the man. Vocation is a gift of divine grace, received through the Church, in the Church and for the service of the Church. Responding to the call of God, the man offers himself freely to Him in love.
The formation of future priests must articulate, in an essential complimentarity, the four dimensions of formation: human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral. In this context, it is necessary to reveal the particular importance of the human formation, the necessary foundation of all formation.
That is why, to admit a candidate to the ordination to the diaconate, the Church must verify, among others, that he have reached emotional maturity of a candidate for the priesthood.
While the call to Orders is the personal responsibility of the Bishop or the major superior, the discernment of the vocation and the maturity of the candidate is a grave duty of the rector and the other teachers of the seminary.
This explains why before every ordination, the rector must express his judgment on the quality of the candidate required by the Church, whereas in the discernment of qualification for Ordination, there is a grave duty for the spiritual director.
Spiritual direction is very important for the priestly and religious formation. This is because it is helpful to have a companion with whom you can share your joys and struggles in discerning your vocation and living the Christian life.
A spiritual director should not be a guru who tells you what to do but one who listens and gives feedback about what he or she is hearing and sensing about the movement of the Holy Spirit in aspirant life soundly rooted in our understanding of Christian community.
This is because the Christian journey is not meant to be an individualistic, privatized spirituality. It is in community that we discover who we are and what we have to share.
Spiritual direction therefore, should provide an opportunity for a friendly and discerning experience of Christian community. As a community of two, you and the spiritual director attempt to discern what the Spirit is doing in your life and how you are being called to share your giftedness.
Spiritual direction is very important in formation because it explores a deeper relationship with the spiritual aspect of being human. Simply put, spiritual direction is helping people tell their sacred stories everyday.
Spiritual direction is the contemplative practice of helping another person or group to awaken to the mystery called God in all of life, and to respond to that discovery in a growing relationship of freedom and commitment.
Spiritual direction is not counseling, therapy, or financial advice. That is why it is very important for spiritual director to distance himself or herself when aspirant to priesthood or religious life presence matters pertaining to counseling, therapy or financial.
In some cases a seminarian may want to seek advice from spiritual director about financial difficulties at home, or talk about his or her sexual life, or matters pertaining to psychological problems. These are not the work of spiritual director.
While the spiritual director is not allowed to evaluate a candidate to priesthood or religious life, it is the duty of the rector and his formation team based on the norms and regulations of formation.
This calls for the Bishops, the Episcopal Conferences, and the Superior Generals to be vigilant that the norms of this Instruction be observed faithfully for the good of the candidates themselves and always to guarantee to the Church suitable priests, true pastors according to the Heart of Christ the Good Shepherd.
These norms and regulations must be interpreted within the signs of time. Things are changing so fast, so do norms and regulations. They must respond to the challenges that globalization entails and confront them responsibly.
Given that cultures and traditions are changing, the teaching of culture conditions should also change. It must aim at integral development of individuals and groups. This is where the promotion of the cultural heritage is called for.
They should help aspirants to cherish certain values and, at the same time, open them to an encounter with other cultures – values such as respect for elders and for women as mothers; respect for solidarity, mutual aid and hospitality; unity; respect for life; and honesty, truth and the word of honour as recommended by the Bishops of the Second African Synod.
Seminarians and aspirants to religious life should therefore be assisted to cultivate a profound spiritual life that involves listening to the Word of God, a commitment to the Gospel virtues of poverty, chastity, and obedience. These according to the Synod Fathers are their greatest profession of love for Christ, for his Church and for their neighbour.
That is why it is very important that during formation a holistic approach is needed in the formation of seminarians and aspirants to religious life. That is why, while the importance of a solid intellectual, moral, spiritual and pastoral formation must be upheld, the human and psychological growth of each candidate should be included as a foundation for the development of an authentic priestly and religious life.
It is against the background that the academic staff of the seminary and the special formation team is to work together in order to facilitate this integral formation.
Vocation Prayer:
Lord Jesus,
you said to your disciples:
“The harvest indeed is great
but the labourers are few.”
We ask that we may know
and follow the vocation
to which you have called us.
We pray for those called to serve:
those whom you have called,
those you are calling now,
and those you will call in the future.
May they be open and responsive
to the call of serving your people.
Amen.
People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
Nairobi
00800, Westlands
Kenya
Tel +254-7350-14559/+254-722-623-578
E-mail- ppa@africaonline.co.ke
omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Website: www.peopleforpeaceafrica.org