At 12:15pm today (Rome time), in the Clementine Hall at the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in audience the participants taking part in an International Conference on the Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis (The Gift of the Priestly Vocation), organized by the Congregation for Clergy (Rome, 4-7 October 2017).
Your Eminences,
Dear brother Bishops and Priests,
Brothers and sisters,
I welcome you at the conclusion of the International Conference on the Ratio Fundamentalis, organized by the Congregation for the Clergy, and I thank the Cardinal Prefect for the courteous words he has addressed to me.
The theme of priestly formation is key to the mission of the Church: the renewal of faith and the future of vocations are only possible if we have well-trained priests.
However, what I would first like to say is this: priestly formation depends first and foremost on God's action in our lives and not on our own activity. It is work that requires the courage to let ourselves be molded by the Lord, or it transforms our hearts and our lives. This makes us think of the biblical image of clay in the hands of a potter (cf Jer 18:1-10) and the episode in which the Lord says to the prophet Jeremiah: Get up and go down to the potter's shop (Jer 18:2). The prophet goes and, seeing the potter at work on the clay, understands the mystery of the merciful love of God. He discovers that Israel is kept in the loving hands of God, who, like a patient potter, takes care of his creation, places the clay on the turntable, shapes it, bakes it and therefore gives it form. If he realizes that the jar is not well made, the God of mercy adds some more clay and, with the tenderness of the Father, begins the process of shaping it again.
This image helps us to understand that formation does not account for some cultural updating or some occasional local initiatives. God is the patient and merciful artisan of our priestly formation and, as it is written in the Ratio, this work endures for an entire lifetime. Every day we find - with Saint Paul - that we carry this treasure in earthen vessels, so that it appears that this extraordinary power belongs to God, and does not result from our efforts (2 Cor 4:7), and when we separate ourselves from our usual habits, from the rigidity of our own schemes and the presumption that we have already arrived, and when we have the courage to place ourselves in the presence of the Lord, He can continue his work on us, form us and transform us.
We need to say it with strength: if we do not allow ourselves to be formed by the Lord day after day, we become priests who are spent, who carry out our ministry through inertia, without any enthusiasm for the Gospel or passion for the People of God. Instead, the priest who day after day entrusts himself into the knowing hands of the potter with a capital P, will preserve the enthusiasm of his heart over time, be able to joyfully welcome the freshness of the gospel, to speak with words that can touch people's lives; and his hands, united with the gospel on the day of his Ordination, become capable of anointing the wounds, expectations and hopes of the People of God.
And now we come to a second important aspect: each of us priests is called to collaborate with the divine Potter! Not only are we clay, but we also help the Potter: we work with his grace. In priestly formation, both the initial formation and the ongoing formation - both are important! - we can recognize at least three protagonists, who are also found in the potters workshop.
We ourselves are the first. In the Ratio, we read: The priest himself is first and foremost responsible
for his own formation (Ratio Fundamentalis, 82). That's right! We allow God to form us and to help us to take on the same sentiments as Jesus Christ (Phil 2:5), only when we close ourselves off from the pretence of being a work that is already completed, and allow ourselves to be led by the Lord to become day after day, more and more his disciples. In order to be the protagonist of his own formation, the seminarian or the priest has to give his yes and his no: rather than a mere murmur of human ambitions, he should prefer silence and prayer; more than trusting in his own work, he should be willing to abandon himself into the hands of the potter and his providential creativity; more than following pre-established schemes, the priest allows himself to be guided by a healthy uneasiness of heart, in order to guide his own incompleteness toward the joy of encountering God and his brothers. More than isolation, he will seek out friendship with his brothers in the priesthood and with his own people, knowing that his vocation is born out of an encounter of love: the meeting with Jesus and with the People of God.
The second protagonist is found in the formators and in the Bishop. A vocation is born, grows and develops within the Church. In this way, the Lord's hands shape this earthen jar, working through the car of those who, in the Church, are called to be the primary formators of priestly life: the Rector, the Director of Studies, the teachers, those who are concerned with the ongoing formation of the Clergy and, above all, the Bishop who the Ratio defines as primarily responsible for admission to the Seminary and for priestly formation (Ratio Fundamentalis, 128).
If a formator or a Bishop does not come out of the potter's shop to work in concert with the working of God, he will never have well-trained priests!
This calls for special care for vocations to the priesthood, a closeness that is filled with charity and tenderness as well as responsibility for the life of priests, a capacity for exercising the art of discernment as a privileged instrument of the entire priestly journey. And - I want to say especially to Bishops - work together! Have within you a large heart and ample breath so that your actions may reach beyond the boundaries of your own diocese and enter into connection with the work of your brother Bishops. Concerning the formation of priests, there is need for further dialogue, in order to overcome our own drum beating, to make shared choices, to arrive together at good formation and to prepare trainers in advance for this most important task. Have within you a heart for priestly formation: the Church needs priests that are capable of proclaiming the gospel with enthusiasm and wisdom, able to spark hope in places where ashes have covered the scars of life, and capable of generating faith in the deserts of history.
Finally, the People of God. Let us never forget them: the people, with the trials of their situations, with their demands and their needs, are the great lathe that celebrates the clay of our priesthood. When we go out toward the People of God, we allow ourselves to be formed by their expectations, touching their wounds, we realize that the Lord transforms our lives.
If the Shepherd is entrusted with a portion of people, it is also true that the people are entrusted to a priest. And, despite resistance and a lack of understanding, if we journey in the midst of the people and give of ourselves with generosity, we will see that they are capable of astonishing gestures of attention and tenderness toward their priests. This is a truly and properly a school of human, spiritual, intellectual and pastoral formation. In fact, the priest should stand between Jesus and the people: with the Lord, on the Mountain, he renews the memory of his call every day; with the people, in the valleys, without ever being afraid of the risks and without becoming rigid in judgments, he offers himself as bread that nourishes and water that hydrates, passing by and benefitting those who he encounters in the street, offering them the ointment of the gospel.
In this way, the priest is trained: fleeing from a fleshless spirituality or, on the other hand, by a worldly commitment without God.
Beloved, the question that needs to be entertained, when we descend into the pottery shop is this: What kind of priest do I want to be? A lounge priest, who is quiet and systematic, or a missionary disciple whose heart is ablaze with love for the master and for the People of God? One who is content attending to his own needs or a disciple on a journey? A tepid man who prefers a quiet life or a prophet who awakens God's desire in the hearts of mankind?
May the Virgin Mary, who we venerate today as Our Lady of the Rosary, help us to continue joyfully in apostolic service and make our hearts like hers: humble and docile, like clay in the hands of the potter. I bless you and ask you please, not to forget to pray for me. Thank you.
Speech of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
addressed to participants taking part in the
International Conference organized by the
Congregation for Clergy
Your Eminences,
Dear brother Bishops and Priests,
Brothers and sisters,
I welcome you at the conclusion of the International Conference on the Ratio Fundamentalis, organized by the Congregation for the Clergy, and I thank the Cardinal Prefect for the courteous words he has addressed to me.
The theme of priestly formation is key to the mission of the Church: the renewal of faith and the future of vocations are only possible if we have well-trained priests.
However, what I would first like to say is this: priestly formation depends first and foremost on God's action in our lives and not on our own activity. It is work that requires the courage to let ourselves be molded by the Lord, or it transforms our hearts and our lives. This makes us think of the biblical image of clay in the hands of a potter (cf Jer 18:1-10) and the episode in which the Lord says to the prophet Jeremiah: Get up and go down to the potter's shop (Jer 18:2). The prophet goes and, seeing the potter at work on the clay, understands the mystery of the merciful love of God. He discovers that Israel is kept in the loving hands of God, who, like a patient potter, takes care of his creation, places the clay on the turntable, shapes it, bakes it and therefore gives it form. If he realizes that the jar is not well made, the God of mercy adds some more clay and, with the tenderness of the Father, begins the process of shaping it again.
This image helps us to understand that formation does not account for some cultural updating or some occasional local initiatives. God is the patient and merciful artisan of our priestly formation and, as it is written in the Ratio, this work endures for an entire lifetime. Every day we find - with Saint Paul - that we carry this treasure in earthen vessels, so that it appears that this extraordinary power belongs to God, and does not result from our efforts (2 Cor 4:7), and when we separate ourselves from our usual habits, from the rigidity of our own schemes and the presumption that we have already arrived, and when we have the courage to place ourselves in the presence of the Lord, He can continue his work on us, form us and transform us.
We need to say it with strength: if we do not allow ourselves to be formed by the Lord day after day, we become priests who are spent, who carry out our ministry through inertia, without any enthusiasm for the Gospel or passion for the People of God. Instead, the priest who day after day entrusts himself into the knowing hands of the potter with a capital P, will preserve the enthusiasm of his heart over time, be able to joyfully welcome the freshness of the gospel, to speak with words that can touch people's lives; and his hands, united with the gospel on the day of his Ordination, become capable of anointing the wounds, expectations and hopes of the People of God.
And now we come to a second important aspect: each of us priests is called to collaborate with the divine Potter! Not only are we clay, but we also help the Potter: we work with his grace. In priestly formation, both the initial formation and the ongoing formation - both are important! - we can recognize at least three protagonists, who are also found in the potters workshop.
We ourselves are the first. In the Ratio, we read: The priest himself is first and foremost responsible
for his own formation (Ratio Fundamentalis, 82). That's right! We allow God to form us and to help us to take on the same sentiments as Jesus Christ (Phil 2:5), only when we close ourselves off from the pretence of being a work that is already completed, and allow ourselves to be led by the Lord to become day after day, more and more his disciples. In order to be the protagonist of his own formation, the seminarian or the priest has to give his yes and his no: rather than a mere murmur of human ambitions, he should prefer silence and prayer; more than trusting in his own work, he should be willing to abandon himself into the hands of the potter and his providential creativity; more than following pre-established schemes, the priest allows himself to be guided by a healthy uneasiness of heart, in order to guide his own incompleteness toward the joy of encountering God and his brothers. More than isolation, he will seek out friendship with his brothers in the priesthood and with his own people, knowing that his vocation is born out of an encounter of love: the meeting with Jesus and with the People of God.
The second protagonist is found in the formators and in the Bishop. A vocation is born, grows and develops within the Church. In this way, the Lord's hands shape this earthen jar, working through the car of those who, in the Church, are called to be the primary formators of priestly life: the Rector, the Director of Studies, the teachers, those who are concerned with the ongoing formation of the Clergy and, above all, the Bishop who the Ratio defines as primarily responsible for admission to the Seminary and for priestly formation (Ratio Fundamentalis, 128).
If a formator or a Bishop does not come out of the potter's shop to work in concert with the working of God, he will never have well-trained priests!
This calls for special care for vocations to the priesthood, a closeness that is filled with charity and tenderness as well as responsibility for the life of priests, a capacity for exercising the art of discernment as a privileged instrument of the entire priestly journey. And - I want to say especially to Bishops - work together! Have within you a large heart and ample breath so that your actions may reach beyond the boundaries of your own diocese and enter into connection with the work of your brother Bishops. Concerning the formation of priests, there is need for further dialogue, in order to overcome our own drum beating, to make shared choices, to arrive together at good formation and to prepare trainers in advance for this most important task. Have within you a heart for priestly formation: the Church needs priests that are capable of proclaiming the gospel with enthusiasm and wisdom, able to spark hope in places where ashes have covered the scars of life, and capable of generating faith in the deserts of history.
Finally, the People of God. Let us never forget them: the people, with the trials of their situations, with their demands and their needs, are the great lathe that celebrates the clay of our priesthood. When we go out toward the People of God, we allow ourselves to be formed by their expectations, touching their wounds, we realize that the Lord transforms our lives.
If the Shepherd is entrusted with a portion of people, it is also true that the people are entrusted to a priest. And, despite resistance and a lack of understanding, if we journey in the midst of the people and give of ourselves with generosity, we will see that they are capable of astonishing gestures of attention and tenderness toward their priests. This is a truly and properly a school of human, spiritual, intellectual and pastoral formation. In fact, the priest should stand between Jesus and the people: with the Lord, on the Mountain, he renews the memory of his call every day; with the people, in the valleys, without ever being afraid of the risks and without becoming rigid in judgments, he offers himself as bread that nourishes and water that hydrates, passing by and benefitting those who he encounters in the street, offering them the ointment of the gospel.
In this way, the priest is trained: fleeing from a fleshless spirituality or, on the other hand, by a worldly commitment without God.
Beloved, the question that needs to be entertained, when we descend into the pottery shop is this: What kind of priest do I want to be? A lounge priest, who is quiet and systematic, or a missionary disciple whose heart is ablaze with love for the master and for the People of God? One who is content attending to his own needs or a disciple on a journey? A tepid man who prefers a quiet life or a prophet who awakens God's desire in the hearts of mankind?
May the Virgin Mary, who we venerate today as Our Lady of the Rosary, help us to continue joyfully in apostolic service and make our hearts like hers: humble and docile, like clay in the hands of the potter. I bless you and ask you please, not to forget to pray for me. Thank you.
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