During one's formation years in a seminary a prayerful study of, and obedience to, Pope John Paul II's apostolic exhortation on the formation of priests would ensure fulfillment of the man and not just the program. [Pastores Dabo Vobis, I Will Give You Shepherds. March 1992. Quoted in italics below.]

But even before entering a seminary, the candidate should have at least a summary view of what that formation entails.

First he must be disabused of the idea that to be a priest is to be "another Christ." There is only one Christ. To become a priest is to be configured instead to Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church; to be instead "a minister of Christ".

This requires fundamentally giving-up one's self-importance and attachment to self. Even more deeply, this means living the truth of one's "nothingness", being stripped of one's self, in order to put on more fittingly Christ Jesus the one true Prophet, Pastor, and Priest.

Years of formation and preparation are accordingly needed in all areas of a seminarian's being and activity.

"May the God of peace make you perfect in holiness. May he preserve you whole and entire, spirit, mind, and body..." St Paul's prayer applies no less to would-be seminarians who may not yet be clear about the four areas of formation that Pope John Paul II illuminated in his exhortation: the spiritual, the human, the intellectual and the pastoral.

First, the spiritual. While mind and body take time and space to form, the spirit grows beyond those limited dimensions. Mind and body can be trained like circus beasts. But seminaries do not train. They educate.

Seminarians are not there just to conform but to learn to form themselves even as they are transformed by the Spirit of Jesus and of the God of peace. Without this transformation of their spirit they would become empty preachers/modern-day scribes, heart-less pastors, or narrow specialists/sacristy priests.

Spiritual formation, even before entry into the seminary, means already living intimately united with Jesus Christ. "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." Spiritual formation further means intimate communion with the Divine Triunity. It is the core which unifies and gives life to one's being a priest and his acting as a sacramental priest, preacher, pastor who must draw all good things from the Father, through the Son in the Holy Spirit. Without this extremely important core of a seminarian’s formation the three other areas would be left without foundation and unity.

From their spirit-centre men who seek priestly formation are to exercise wisely their spiritual intellect to understand and reason, their spiritual affectivity of free will to make choices, and their creative power or spiritual energy to regulate mental and physical drives.

These gifts of intellect, free will and creative energy reflect the Wisdom, Love and Power respectively of the Triune God in accord to whose likeness humankind is called to be. To prepare for spiritual formation in the seminary is to clear the ground for that true, good and beautiful wellspring of an intellectual, moral and practical outflow and growth .

For the priestly intellectual formation a future seminarian prepares well if he already immerses himself in liberal arts studies, or the humanities, and some sciences.

Later in the seminary (or shortly beforehand) his intellect's search for truth and wisdom should be met first by a well-ordered and full academic program of philosophy to accord him time and opportunity to broaden and deepen his capacity for theology.

This search is ultimately a desire to find God. But, as St Thomas says, this desire of the will is love. So only a person who loves freely will find wisdom and God. Intellectual formation, though of the head, begins and culminates in the spiritual freedom of the heart.

The same holds true for human formation. This is the affective and the old "moral" aspect-- properly understood--of seminary or any human life. It is inclusive of, but not coterminous with, mere ideas in psychology and counselling, or even with the "ethical". It is engagement instead primarily with the "moral"--Christian virtues in particular--both individual and social.

One is primarily affected and tested in association within human community. This occurs, as St Thomas' Christian and philosophical "psychology" holds, on both levels of sense ("emotions") and intellectual affectivity; namely, good or ill will. Rightly modelled education then of moral conscience and emotive balance, ideally in the family first and then in the larger community, will be an on-going task in seminary formation.

Yet this minimal love of neighbour as of oneself needs greater affective maturation involving, among others, development of true friendships and nurturing of the spiritually grounded gift of celibacy. This is possible by loving as Jesus loves, and further loving as in the Trinity. Such greater love will transform human morality within or outside a seminary to true spiritual maturity.

Finally, created in the image of the Creator, the pre-seminarian with his creative energy and drives needs also to prepare for pastoral formation by doing already what can done with his "hands".

Are they consistently "praying hands" or learning to be so for others? Are they often raised, palms up to heaven, in praise and thanksgiving, and petitioning and receiving from the Father the "daily bread" for all? Are they outreaching hands consistently to the hungry and the thirsty, the homeless and the naked, the sick and the imprisoned--as active channels of God’s mercy?

Are they hands being formed not just in the initial ministry of the word, of worship and sanctification through sacramental celebrations, but also in every practical application of pastoral theology through involvement in certain services-- [all] in deeper communion with Jesus' pastoral charity?

The would-be seminarian should be mindful that, like the intellectual and the "human" formation, the pastoral is rooted in the spirit which is the hinge of all and the force which stimulates and makes it develop.

It is the spiritual then that integrates the three other areas and aspects of formation and unites them to the Triune God who is Wisdom, Love and Power.

A vocations promoter, but especially the vocations director who assists the applicant in discerning further his own calling and in actually preparing for seminary admission, look if possible into the applicant's state of spiritual maturation. This, above all, is his concern even while he helps the applicant test his own willingness and readiness for intellectual, moral and practical growth in the long process of priestly formation...