Priests of the Beatitudes

And you, priest of the Lord, Bless the Lord!

The steps of Formation to the Priesthood

The main steps of the formation of a priest in the Community of the Beatitudes

The three callings to be confirmed

The different stages leading a brother of the Community of the Beatitudes to receive the priestly ordination are following a course of psychological, intellectual and spiritual maturation. They aim at checking and rooting the three callings he has received, i.e., to live in the Community, to be consecrated, and to be a priest. No one can commit himself fully in such a kind of life, if he does not do it with his free will and with the certainty that God is calling him. This certainty is not only based on psychological feelings, but has also to be confirmed through a genuine discernment on the part of the persons in charge of him. A brother who wants to enter the Community will spent at least two years in any of our houses to welcome the grace specific to the Community of the Beatitudes, with a heart open to all the possibilities that are offered by the presence of all the states of life under the same roof.

If, as it is often said by the brothers, “ I am not fit for marriage“, it should not be because he is afraid of it or because he wants to escape responsibilities, but because an other calling seems to be able to mobilize all his capacity to love.

The first cycle

The choice of consecration

The second stage is the official entrance of the brother in the seminar. It is the first cycle. It is marked by the choice of consecrated life. For any brother of the Community, the choice of celibacy is a choice of being consecrated for the Kingdom of God. It is not only a choice of celibacy for priesthood, which is the choice of any secular priest but a choice of celibacy for itself, thus accepting to give all his life to the Lord, without any condition, not even the priestly ordination. This availability is a true gift of the Holy Spirit. It cannot be obtained without a work of purification and simplification, which leads to holiness and union with God. During this process, the calling for priesthood will deepen and be clearer in the heart of the brother. This first cycle takes place in one of our house dedicated to the formation of seminarians. During these two years, the seminarians are attending courses of philosophy studies.

Philosophy is a powerful tool for human maturation if it is not considered as an end in itself. It should rather be considered as an opportunity for questions and wonder, a mean for the mind to become more open and flexible. It is necessary to get rid of generally accepted ideas to discover new paths to approach truth. It is also the time to set down the bases of the personality, i.e. knowledge of oneself, human balance, union with God and orientation to consecrated life. If this process is achieved, the brother will receive the religious habit at the end of the first cycle.

The year of pastoral insertion

After the first cycle, the brother will spend one year of pastoral insertion in one of the house of the Community, in order to complete and confirm the work accomplished on the human, relational, psychological, intellectual and spiritual levels. At the end of this year, if the calling for priesthood is fully authenticated, and if the brother is judged mature enough to make a free choice, he will enter the second step of his formation, the second cycle.

The second cycle

The year in Israel

The second cycle begins by a year spent in Israel. It is a specific point of our course of formation due to the vocation of our Community. This time has a fundamental importance in the process of maturation of the seminarian. This staying in Israel completes the preparation of the ground : it teaches the sense of the roots through the contact with the Jewish tradition and opens the mind to theology, it widens and purifies the sense of the Church, and above all, it reveals the incarnation of the Scriptures.

The cycle of theology

It takes place immediately after the year in Israel in a House of formation for the second Cycle. Two targets are structuring those three years : the acquisition of pastoral charity –the brother is judged after his ability to assume the role of a pastor- and the outlines of a personal synthesis which requires to have explored all the fields of theology. This synthesis is not only intellectual, but is rather an integration of all the intellectual, personal, fraternal and spiritual aspects of his formation. Through this work of synthesis, he will acquire an aptitude for discernment. Pastoral charity is tested through pastoral activities and finds a place of growth in fraternal charity and life in the Spirit.

The last stage

At the end of this long process, the council of the seminar is gathered a last time to decide officially of the aptitude of the brother for being ordained a deacon. A report is written for the person in charge of the priests, to be submitted to the bishop.