Priestly Formation - Saint John's Seminary
Celebrating 140 Years of Mission!  

Priestly Formation

“I will give you shepherds after my own heart" (Jer. 3:15).

“And he went up on the mountain, and called to him those whom he desired; and they came to him. And he appointed twelve, to be with him, and to be sent out to preach and have authority to cast out demons” (Mk. 3:13–15).

“The seminary can be seen as a place and a period in life. But it is above all an educational community in progress: It is a community established by the bishop to offer those called by the Lord to serve as apostles the possibility of re-living the experience of formation which our Lord provided for the Twelve. In its deepest identity the seminary is called to be, in its own way, a continuation in the Church of the apostolic community gathered about Jesus, listening to his word, proceeding toward the Easter experience, awaiting the gift of the Spirit for the mission. Such an identity constitutes the normative ideal which stimulates the seminary in the many diverse forms and varied aspects which it assumes historically as a human institution, to find a concrete realization, faithful to the Gospel values from which it takes its inspiration and able to respond to the situations and needs of the times” (Pastores Dabo Vobis, nos. 1, 60).