It is interesting (and indeed welcome) to have some reaction to the prayer of St Alphonsus. "Anonymous sinner" struggles with the notion of a God who will damn people for an unrepented mortal sin, "Peter" thinks that recommending St Alphonsus is as loopy as promoting devotion to St Philomena, and an elderly priest questions the relevance of 18th century prayers for today.
Regular readers of the blog will not be surprised to find that I stick firmly to my guns on this one. Being thought "loopy" is certainly no deterrent. (St Philomena, pray for us.)
I do not find St Alphonsus' focus on the last things in any way gloomy or morbid. Hell is rarely mentioned nowadays except to try to explain why nobody is likely to go there; and yet it is a part of our faith expressed unambiguously in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. For that matter, it would be difficult to read the gospels honestly without accusing Jesus Christ of having the same preoccupation as St Alphonsus.
The point of St Alphonsus' prayers is not to make us all live in a state of perpetual anxiety but to motivate us to love God. The horror of sin has largely disappeared from Catholic spirituality and therefore people routinely commit sins that are objectively grave matter without the least idea that there might be an eternal danger in such a way of life, or even that they might be a reason not to go to Holy Communion before confessing them.
More seriously still, we have lived through an era in the Church when priests have engaged in grossly immoral behaviour, even sexually abusing children and young people - yet carried on saying Mass and ministering the sacraments without any sense that their sacramental ministry was sacrilegious. The possibility of eternal damnation seems not to have occurred to anyone.
Father anonymous asks whether any priests nowadays say the preparatory and thanksgiving prayers before and after Mass. He is probably right that these are rare and that people are surprised (even upset) if Father asks them to be quiet in Church before and after Mass or if he is not available immediately to sign Mass cards or have a chat.
Where he is wrong in my opinion, is to say that these prayers and those of St Alphonsus are anachronisms and will not come back. Expressive as they are of the eternal truths of our faith, they speak to our fallen human nature in a way that can never become outdated. I rejoice in the Holy Father's Motu Proprio freeing the Classical Roman Rite. But I think this must be accompanied by classical roman priestly piety and asceticism if there is to be a real reform in the Church. It is quite possible for the priest to pray before and after Mass - if he does, he will find that the people also catch on and the Church becomes quieter and more prayerful. If he is clearly saying the vesting prayers while vesting, people will soon learn that he does not encourage conversation at that time. There are plenty of other times he can talk to people and show what a jolly chap he is.
Whichever period of history you choose, whichever style of spiritual writing, whichever favourite saint, the reform of the Church, and particularly of the clergy, has always begun with a focus on the eternal truths, our unworthiness to minister at the altar, the infinite mercy of God and the objectively real prospect of either eternal happiness in heaven or eternal torment in hell.
The particular genius of St Alphonsus was to blend meditations on hell with a heartfelt sense of the infinite love of God who will do anything in his power to keep us from such a fate. In recent years, "spirituality" has ignored the eternal truths in favour of "self-esteem", being "integral", excusing ourselves because of our "brokenness", being a "whole person" and generally making sure that we always feel comfortable with ourselves, never have any fear of the loss of grace - and never really change.
Yes, the eternal truths are scary. St John Chrysostom said that in the presence of the august sacrifice of Christ in the Mass, we should be in fear and trembling with our hair standing on end. The almost total loss of this sense of holy fear from Catholic spiritual teaching is an even greater mark of the hermeneutic of rupture than the abandonment of the traditional roman liturgy.
The second-hand bookshops mentioned by Father are changing. The unwanted books are more likely to be the stacks of yellowing paperbacks from the 1960s and 70s promoting a new and easier spirituality: "self-actualization" and the "search for intimacy" that proved the shipwreck of so many priestly and religious lives. The "stacks of old piety" are being eagerly bought up by the younger clergy because they offer a solid and practical rule of life for the priest.
St Francis Xavier on the missions, St Francis de Sales converting 70,000 calvinists, St Charles Borromeo visiting his mountain parishes, St Robert Bellarmine engaged on his voluminous writing, Blessed Damien Veuster caring for those with leprosy, St John Bosco doing his wonderful work for boys - all these and countless priests who followed their teaching and example said the pre-Pius X breviary, made a meditation or two each day, and spent time in preparation and thanksgiving for Mass. They fasted, did penance, worked hard, took little time off, feared hell, desired heaven, loved God, and gave their lives in the service of others. They were the most "rounded" of "fully human" characters. Their way of life and the prayers they said will never be anachronistic because they express the timeless bedrock of genuine priestly piety. We will never reform the Church or ourselves without it.
56 comments:
Well said, Father! As a seminarian trying to gain this spirituality, I can say from experience that it is hard to get this from my professors and spiritual directors. My hope is that future seminarians will not have to suffer as much as I and my brothers have had to in order to gain a truly Christ-centered spirituality.
Saint Philomena, pray for us!
Saint Maria Goretti, pray for us!
Go for it Fr Tim!
You are spot on as ever. i love to watch the Oratorian Priests vest for & after Mass. i've occasionally strolled into the sacristy to engage a Priest in conversation, only to stand back in reverence seeing the care in which the vestments are put on. One can clearly see they are praying & that 'now' wouldn't be a good time!
i noticed a lovely prayer card of a priest who had recently died..it was obvious the Priests were offering their Mass for him.
i agree these prayers aren't morbid..i'm sure i'd be one of the first to notice anything depressing. No they reveal God's mercy in reminding us of the possibility of hell.
some might be very surprised to know that lots of catholics pray these sorts of prayers. In Miles Jesu before & after Mass we say the prayers of St John Chrysosom. Preparation & thanksgiving for Mass is essential.
The prayer of St Alphonsus is rich & beautiful. Interestingly our founder is called Fr Alphonsus Maria Durran MJ, so his parents must have had a devotion to him.
An interesting & very important post.
Have you ever read "The Power and The Glory" by G. Greene?
I'd love to log in to post this comment, but I've blogged so little and lived so much I forgot my password!
Beautiful explanation, Father. I believe that if priests took the time after Mass to say a prayer of thanksgiving it would encourage the congregation to do the same. As it stands now in my parish, if you don't leave immediately after the final hymn, you probably won't be able to greet the priest since he will be gone by the time you finish your prayer of thanksgiving.
I suppose St Alphonsus' style may not be to everyone's taste, but I totally agree with your diagnosis. There seems to be an all-too-frequent tendency today to focus on feeling good rather than being good, on 'wholeness' rather than holiness.
Thank you, Father, for so aptly restating what should be known and seriously pondered by all Catholics, and yet is forgotten, or worse, denied and derided by many: that mortal sin is deserving of everlasting damnation.
You are, I fear, all too accurate when you attribute so many modern-day enormities to the loss of this salutary fear: what a young Dominican priest of my acquaintance calls "Salvation anxiety" - as opposed to the smug presumption thereof.
At Mass, my priest is one of the rare ones who, like you, makes this point clear; but I must confess that though intellectually I assent to this, in my life I don't lay it to heart, given how I slide into sin, and don't feel guilty enough!
I go regularly to confession, but worry that I may be substituting the easy availability of absolution for a real and lasting repentance. How does one judge what is a firm purpose of amendment?
In recent years I've been reading a lot of St. Alphonsus of Liguori and if anything comes through in his writings it's the love of God. Both his profound love of God and his profound insight into God's love for mankind, not just in general, but for each particular individual. True, St. Alphonsus speaks of the reality of hell and the presence of evil in our world, yet in his honest examination of the spiritual wars being waged the love of God for humanity and the merits of the cross are all the more emphasized. St. Alphonsus points to God's passionate love which overcomes all evil. It's hard to point this out without acknowledging the evil that exists.
St. Alphonsus, pray for us!
Well said Father, you will be aware, as am I, that recent work has indicated that lack of a traditional ascetic during priestly formation has created a harvest of failure. The norms of the priests of the past show that a strong ascetic applied with self offering is the most attractive proclomation the church can offer. Strange to think all those busy priests and religious had time to prepare for Mass, give thanks afterwards, say the little hours and bring people to Christ... they even managed to say Prime !
God bless!
Thanks so much for this beautiful post. One of your very, very best.
There's something marvellously priestly about it, in the best sense of the word.
Thanks so much for fulfilling your vocation and for being part of the great movement of genuine renewal that is now coming to fruition in the Church, vivified by the Holy Ghost Himself.
Actually, Father, I agree with most of what you have said. I believe that human beings can damn themselves and reject the friendship with God. However, when I read spiritual writers like St Alphonsus (and the leaflet to which I referred in my first comment) there is often a impression conveyed in which the vast majority of people will be damned.
That's what I struggle with. That we can so easily - and in most cases do - lose the friendship of God. I am a Catholic (convert of one year), believe in the infallibility of the Magisterium in matters of faith and morals, and love the Classical Roman Rite. But in my heart I find it difficult to maintain an active prayerful love of God in juxtaposition with a belief that the vast majority of people - and, especially, my friends and my family - will go to Hell.
Just to explain where much of my anxiety is coming from: I was in Confession on Saturday and was told that something I had done was a mortal sin (I sincerely believed that it was a venial sin - and in fact when I did the RCIA last year the topic of sin wasn't mentioned once, let alone mortal sin) and that the Communions that I had made since then were, therefore, all sacriligeous. This horrified me as I go to daily Mass and had no idea that I was "heaping (eternal) coals upon myself". The thought that if I had died before making this Confession then I would have been damned has shaken deeply and I have been struggling to pray as it's as if someone has taken away the image of a good and loving God that I had.
Sorry for rambling.
Major events in my "conversion" to practising the faith
-preferntial option for the poor in RE
-the sermon on hell in Joyce's Portrait of the Artist (voomed to confession, and have never stopped going since)
-reading The Stripping of the Altars
I know you don`t need anyone to stick up for you, Fr Tim , but I would like to say I have met you and you are not only NOT "loopy" But as sound as a pound in every way.
Not to change the subject, but whatever became of the prayer
"En ego" which we were encouraged to recite after Mass when I was young.
I think the prayer is still to be
found in certain editions of the
1962 Missal.
After Summorum Pontificium, I wonder if this prayer might make a come back.
It's me again.
I've just googled for "En ego"
and it is to be found at :
http://www.preces-latinae.org
It is in the latest edition of Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, so
why do people no longer recite it ?
Dear Father,
Could you please pray for the baby whose mother has an abortion scheduled for tomorrow?
Thank you, Father.
Bravo, Padre!
1st anon - yes, I read "The Power and the Glory."
2nd anon - there is an important question of optimism about human acts. I think that you can have a proper and firm purpose of amendment each time you go to confession. People do overcome persistent sins by this means but sometimes it is painfully gradual.
Anonymous sinner - you should have been told in RCIA that mortal sin involves 3 things - grievous matter, perfect knowledge and full consent. Since you were in good faith, the sin you mention was not subjectively a mortal sin because of lack of perfect knowledge, and your communions were not sacrilegious.
When I have time, I'll post something more on damnation to try to dispel the notion that it detracts from a good and loving God
Thank you for this post Father. It has made me more determined to remember to pause and thank God after Mass rather than just gathering up the chldrens' bits and departing.
I think lots of people who read your blog do so as your spiritual children in some sense - so thank you for your efforts. I am always helped by what I read here.
Amette
servus dei - which seminary are you in?
Fr Tim - I am concerned about how many priests actually believe in the real presence? Can you clarify whether a Mass is valid if a priest's intent to consecrate is not %100?
On your observation about book shops...
While visiting the Franciscan Monastery in Washington DC, I noticed on a table stacks of books labled as 'FREE'. Apparently these were the books in the gift shop that did not sell. They included yellowed copies of books about 'spirituality' all writing in the 60's and 70's. We had a good laugh at all the titles and then recommended they burn the whole lot, instead of offering them for free.
Fr. Tim,
In a future post, could you give a "Seminarian Old Piety Rundown", i.e. a list of 10 or so books that you feel would best help inoculate an ascetic and spiritual life in present-day seminarians. As servus dei mentioned, Heaven knows we ain't gonna get such recommendations from some of our spiritual directors.
Thanks!
Brian
Hmm. So "mortal sin involves 3 things - grievous matter, perfect knowledge and full consent. Since you were in good faith, the sin you mention was not subjectively a mortal sin because of lack of perfect knowledge"
Like most of my generation, brought up as a Catholic and educated in a Catholic school in the 1970s, I was never taught the difference between mortal and venial sins and was given no idea of what constitutes a "grievous matter".
(I was also never taught that the Mass is a perpetuation of Christ's sacrifice of Calvary, but an Anglican told me about that one)
Does that mean that it is impossible for me to commit a mortal sin?
(and if so, please no-one spoil it by teaching me).
Actually, Father, I agree with most of what you have said. I believe that human beings can damn themselves and reject the friendship with God. However, when I read spiritual writers like St Alphonsus (and the leaflet to which I referred in my first comment) there is often a impression conveyed in which the vast majority of people will be damned.
St. Alphonsus Ligouri is the perfect saint to pray to for help with anxiety about sin. He is the patron saint of those who suffer from scruples. (By the way, I am not diagnosing you with scruples. I happen to be prone to them myself.)
Father, I should like to see you post more on Confession too.
Dr Peter H. Wright, the 'En Ego', in English, is included in the Thanksgiving Prayers After Mass in the approved versions of the Divine Office and of the Sacramentary. It's also in HANDBOOK OF PRAYERS, edited by Charles Belmonte and James Socias, published by various publishing houses of Opus Dei and also included with the Daily Missal by the same publishers (and, I think, editors). The prayers in these books (of Opus Dei) is in both Latin and English.
PS In my previous post I was referring to the Sacramentary approved by Paul VI and the post-Vatican II Divine Office.
Fr Tim
I think that "anonymous sinner" might find that St Alphonsus is more of a kindred spirit than he/she imagines. St Alphonsus was tortured by scruples all of his life, even as a priest and a bishop, and it is just this which gives his moral theology that blend of gentleness and rigour which was really quite revolutionary in his time. It has been said of him that he was "a lion in the pulpit, a lamb in the confessional", and whilst that could be easily misinterpreted as saying that he was lax (a charge which his enemies did not hesitate to make), it does portray a side to his character which is not always apparent from his devotional writing. By the way, I thoroughly recommend Frederick Jones CssR's biography "St Alphonsus Ligouri - Saint of Bourbon Naples". It is quite outstanding and is a model of what hagiography ought to be.
The Power & the Glory..we studied that for A Level English. To be honest not a very inspiring story to young girls in the 6th form!Then again much older & wiser there is a certain sympathy for the 'whisky Priest'. i expect though Graham Greene is a topic or another day!
That was probably one of the most inspiring things I have ever read. God bless you, Fr Tim Finnegan, we all love you.
I do understand Anonymous Sinner's viewpoint about his concern for the number of people who may be damned, but this apparent hardness in the Saint's writing is a matter of style, language and period formulation, rather than the tenet of his proposition.
We must surely remember two things, firstly, it not by God that they shall be damned, but by themselves.
Secondly, that we are unwise, as many saints remind us, to dwell upon the sins of others. If we were all to concentrate only upon our own salvation, and leave the others to God, then very few, if any, would be damned at all.
It seesm to me reading several of these posts that the error of scrupulousness is creeping in on the tails of a renewal in traditional understanding. This is due partly to the lack of the culture of support which existed when our good traditional practices were in universal use. Of course we must be aware of our sin, and truly contrite, but we must not fall to thinking that we are greater sinners than any of our peers, this is a deformed spirirtual pride. Nor, most importantly, must we forget God's love and mercy, as St Alphonsus tells us – He longs for us to love him and yearns for our contrition, and gives us endless opportunities for both. Read the saints, then we shall not fall into the trap of thinking that the soft and loving God is some invention or error of the post-Vatican II reformers, but an eternal part of the fullness of our Faith!
Thank you for the wonderful post, Father. Have you ever thought of moving here to Lancaster?...Pennsylvania, that is.
On pre-Mass prep. My PP either does this in his house and then enters the church just before Mass to vest up. He does this with the altar servers 'on guard' in the front vestry. They are saying their pre-Mass prayers then too.
Sometimes he kneels in the front pew for his pre Mass Prayers, but I bet he gets interrupted then.
I agree with Jackie. These prayers are not morbid, they are hopeful-like the Sorrowful Mysteries.
I don't particularly take to sugary or flowery language, but surely its easy enough for those of us who find that difficult to tone down the purple as we pray. It would be a shame to ignore the rich words of any saint just because of the use of language.
The biggest does of sugar I've endured was when a recent visiting priest informed us we were all saints and such nice people and we should stop beating ourselves up..and on and on. Oh dear PASS THE INSULIN!
I have had to struggle with my fear of hell-of never being good enough for this overdemanding god-but I still believe a healthy fear of hell is good for me.
I have sympthaty with AnonSinner as I have had similar struggles.
God bless
History has a strange way of making fools of us because it's always changing and is usually unpredictable. The stacks of yellowing spirituality of the last forty years that lie unsold in second-hand bookshops will be rediscovered in 50-100 years time and will be commended by some with as much incredulity as your recommendation of equally outdated spirituality is now. It's called action and reaction and keeps the world stable. For me, St Alphonsus's spirituality is driven more by fear in a pathological understanding of the word than by the love of God. How well, I wonder, did he know St John's Gospel? The pre-concilear Church was ruled by fear rather than love and the relaxation of an emphasis on hell is probably the main reason for lapsation. But rather that than a false response governed by misery. It leaves God with something to do. For a significant part of the human race hell already exists on earth. Look at the daily news. And if humanity goes from bad to worse on death serious questions about a personal, loving God are starkly raised. Hell is anything but a better place. I am looking forward to reading your defense of eternal punishment. I bumped into your blog when I was surfing references to the recent Motu Proprio. As for that, thank God for it on aesthetic and devotional terms. But it's going to bring in a great deal of lost luggage with it and most of it is best left where it is. By the way, the reason why old spiritual manuals are rarely to be found these days is because booksellers have for years been pulping them as redundant stock and those that survive now have a rarity value. The same fate will soon affect unsold paperbacks. History is full of surprises.
Thank you Father for defending
St. Alphonsus. His book of sermons
had a tremendous impact on my conversion.
Pam
Hear, hear, Father -- an excellent post. Unfortunately, my fiancee says we can't name any children after this great saint "because he'll get beaten up." I guess that's just a disadvantage of speaking English.
St Alphonsus was an important part of my return to the faith from agnosticism. His "Preparation for Death" is a very rewarding read.
Excellent post Father. I have been thinking these same things for a long while now, as I see priests rush into the sacristy right before Mass and put on their vestments in a room full of altar servers and their mothers. The chit chat is so loud, there is no way the priest could say vestment prayers without a great deal of concentration.
I would love to see the practices you suggested, and I do believe that when a priest leads by example, people will follow suit.
You refer to St Robert Bellarmine.Remind me, Father,is this the same Bellarmine who was involved in the trial of Giordano Bruno who was burned at the stake as a heretic? Like many conservative Catholics you have a highly selective reading of Church history!
"involved in the trial" - not his finest hour, perhaps, but thank you for at least avoiding accusing him lighting the flames himself with an evil cackle.
Bruno enjoyed the favour of Queen Elizabeth I in the early 1580s when she rather more actively promoted the torture and barbaric execution of Catholic priests in England.
Gladys - first off, please never ask seminarians on this blog for any information that might identify them. Normally that would have got your comment deleted but I think it was just an oversight in this case and it is worth reminding people anyway.
(On the validity of the Mass.) The priest must intend to do what the Church does. If he has doubts about the real presence, he can still consecrate validly.
But if his state is that of an obstinate refusal to believe, that could affect his intention - he may deliberately intend to do something other than what the Church does.
But this is a complex question. Normally we are right to assume that a validly ordained priest saying the words of consecration is going to consecrate.
richard - sorry but I'll just have to spoil the fun :-) Actually there is the little problem in any case of our conscience which will, imperfectly, tell us in certain matters that "this is serious".
I'll post something on the question of mortal sin.
Father Tim ~ apologies to servus dei and to the blog for my faux pas. I had no idea that such a rule existed.
I was concerned because I met a priest recently who simply doesn't believe in the real presence and regards the eucharist as "symbolic" rather than a real presence.
My understanding for a real Mass to take place there be form (the words of consecration), matter (bread and wine) and lastly intent (he's got to mean it).
As you suggest the last point is complex.
Anonymous sinner: Fr. Tim didn't mention it, but if you go to his parish website (a link at the top right hand corner of his blog) - you will find an excellent listing of Catholic resources. It's not listed under "sacraments" but if you follow the links below that section in "downloads" you can get a nice summary sheet geared for adults for the sacrament of confession. Separate "cheat sheets" are available to children and teens.
The website www.catholic.com is excellent. There are many topics covered. The person who started the website is Karl Keating. A well-known lay catholic particularly geared towards Catholic apologetics. [I've known Karl personally, as he used to attend my parish.) He wrote a best seller called "Catholicism and Fundamentalism" - I don't know what your background is, but that's a good book which, even if one didn't come from a protestant fundamentalist backgroud, still gives a great delineation between catholic beliefs as opposed to "all comers." the website covers many topics the new Catholic would be interested in - and also is a good brush up for cradle catholics, and gives a lot of pointers on how to defend the faith. [you can't defend what you don't understand!]
You may also, next time in confession, tell the priest that you are a fairly recent convert and are still in need of help in discerning venial/mortal sins. This will help the priest help you.
What the priest said about KNOWING something is a grave matter and using your own free will to commit the sin applies, of course. But you still have the obligation to try and get yourself informed as best you can. I'm sorry your RCIA program didn't do an especially good job in the area. [It's not always easy for cradle catholics, either.] Perhaps you might mention to the parish priest/pastor of the church in which you received your instruction? The mortal/venial issue isn't "intuitively obvious" to converts a lot of times, and it may help them to beef up that area. They can't "fix" the problem, unless they know they have one.
Best wishes to you...all this discernment is a life long process. So don't feel you stepped out for a beer when everyone else "instantly got all this." Just remember the priest is there to genuinely help you and not play "gotcha." If you are having difficulties re: certain types of sins, ask the priest if he can recommend some reading material to help you with those specific things.
God bless,
Karen H. -- San Diego
The Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano, Italy is a perfect example of how a doubting priest can still confect a valid Eucharist.
Quite a few Eucharistic miracles have happened precisely because the priest has doubted the real presence.
Two points arising from some of the comments. I think a baby baptized Alphonsus might have a hard time when he goes to school. But I had a robust great-aunt called Alphonsine and nobody would have got very far if they tried to bully her. The name Alphonse was a regular cause of merriment in the days of the music hall and was usually associated with hairdressers.
On a more serious note, surely it is Christ who consecrates and is the operative figure in dispensing the sacraments? The priest acts in persona Christi. Equally, surely all the baptized are, or should be, vicars of Christ?
Yes, "when Peter baptises, it is Christ who baptises..." (Augustine). That is the reason why the moral worthiness of the minister does not affect the validity of the sacraments. But still the minister must intend to do as the Church does. for the sacrament to be validly administered.
Equally, surely all the baptized are, or should be, vicars of Christ?
That is not an expression the Church uses commonly except of the Pope. The baptised do have the the reponsibility to bring Christ to others, of course.
Anonymous who wondered how well St Alphonsus knew St John's Gospel: he quotes 17 times from St John in his 'Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ' - randomly chosen because it was the first complete book of his I found on the Net (thus searchable).
Many thanks to Fr. Sean Coyle for his post re the prayer "En ego".
I've only just read it !
Sorry.
I'd like to see the prayer appear on parish missalettes.
It might just encourage people to say a prayer of thanksgiving after Mass.
I am a big fan of saint Alphonsus, have read a far number of them, good for meditations.
Especially "on the Sacred Heart" I think in the short book "practice of the love of Jesus Christ" I think that is contained in the book "The crucifiction and death of Jesis Christ"
St Robert Bellarmine was not a popular saint during his lifetime because he suggested that the papal prerogative was limited. He only achieved canonization in the 1930s because Pope Pius XI was pro-Jesuit and this was done to counteract the Dominicans who boasted that they had more Doctors of the Church than the Society of Jesus. The Pope gave them St Albert the Great and and clipped their wings by canonizing St Robert Bellarmine soon after.
Another example of classical roman priestly piety and asceticism leading to a real reform in the Church [for laymen too] is St. Josemaria Escriva:
http://www.opusdei.ca/art.php?p=23497
http://www.opusdei.ca/art.php?p=23430
Thank you, Geoff. I agree with you that St Josemaria and Opus Dei offer the same classical teaching on the spiritual life, helping many people to live holy lives.
It's really good to see that St Alphonsus is being commended to be read. Last sunday (yesterday) the "Sons of Alphonsus" celebrated their Titular Feast - that of The Most Holy Redeemer. Alphonsus was passionate about the ending love of God for each one of us - The Redemptorist Motto - Copiosa apud eum Redemptio - describes this.
St Alphonus - Ora pro Nobis!
I have been thinking about this for a while and this post has raised it again.
There seem to be far too many seminarians in the UK who are deeply unhappy with the formation that they are receiving in the Seminaries.
There is precious little support for these guys within the Seminaries. How do people think that we can help these Men in their journies?
Usually, seminarians post comments anonymously. Therefore we do not know whether they are studying in the UK or not.
I must add that having a connection with Wonersh and having visited Oscott, I have met many seminarians who are happy with the spiritual formation that they receive.
One should also remember that it is a very ancient tradition for students of any institution to complain about their education.
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