The dimensions of Scalabrinian religious formation

1. Community Dimension

After a long and adequate time of Vocational Animation and Orientation, candidates starts the experience of Community Life in a House of Formation.
Here each one is called to develop his personal character. The formation process unfolds through stages and diversified experiences, bringing all the dimensions of formation together in a single harmonious moment – the human, the spiritual, and the religious life, the intellectual and Scalabrinian pastoral.

Through various mediations, the community welcomes and accompanies the candidate or confrere in formation. It supports him with its help, offers him the possibility of a serious dialogue in his search for God’s will and carries out the necessary discernment in his vocational choices. It provides him with a community life that is conducive to his formation, and offers him an environment and the means to promote his growth. Meanwhile, advancing in his formation journey, the Scalabrinian brings to his community the riches of his gifts of nature and grace.

The Rules of Life require that the Provinces that have houses of formation carry out the formation process according to the needs of the specific cultural context; that is, the needs arising from the candidate and his culture and those deriving from the context in which the charism must find expression.

During the initial formation the confreres should be helped to deepen their identity of consecrated persons, in the light of the directives of the church and the charism, to develop solid convictions about the educative value of consecration itself and to assume an attitude of ongoing formation 40, “in every aspect of the personality, in behavior and intentions”.

The story of every Christian vocation is “the story of an inexpressible dialogue between God and human beings, between the love of God who calls and the freedom of individuals who respond lovingly to him. Jesus ‘went up into the hills, and called to him those whom he desired; and they came to him’. On the one hand, we have the completely free decision of Jesus; on the other, the ‘coming’ of the Twelve, their ‘following Jesus. Freedom, therefore, is essential to vocation – a freedom which, when it gives a positive response, appears as a deep personal adherence, as a loving gift – or rather as a gift given back to the giver who is God who calls an oblation”. Vocation is a gift of God and as such it needs to be welcomed and assumed. It is a gift, but, not for the person himself, but it is addressed to the Church.

When he enters the seminary, the young man begins to make an experience of what are family spirit and fraternity. The positive presence of formators and of other Scalabrinians enables him to know and love in a concrete form the real community assessing his own capacity to consider the new family as his own. During this formative phase, the candidate cultivates:
a)  a spirit of cooperation for a smooth running of community life, thus developing also a sense of belonging;
b)  an openness to all members of his community through sincere and authentic relations;
c)  the trust in the formators and the docility that lets him be guided by them;
d)  the ability to accept the values and limitations of the people and of the community exercising realism and forgiveness;
e)  an initial sharing of money and of things;
f)  the initiation to the practice of community prayer, founding one‟s own relationships with others on the base of faith;
g)  a sincere and personal love for the Congregation and its many missionary activities.

The study commitment, viewed not as a privilege but as a means of human and personal promotion and of work and service to others, is also an indicator of the motivations and intentions of the seminarian.

To acquire the resources he will need for the subsequent stages, especially to lessen the impact that philosophy frequently has on beginners, and according to his needs, the seminarian will be directed:

a)  to work on his personality at the human, intellectual, emotional and relational level,
b)  to acquire some knowledge of the Bible, Old and New Testament,
c)  to delve into the mystery of Christ and of the Church, on the basis of the Catechism of the 
Catholic Church,
d)  to learn the main traits of the biography of Scalabrini, of the history of the Congregation 
and of the evolution of the charism in the other Institutes of the Scalabrinian family;
e)  to pick up some notions of spirituality, and of theory and practice of the liturgy;
f)  to acquire a scientific method of study and research,
g)  to discover a taste for reading,
h)  to refine the knowledge of one‟s own language,
i)  to expand the knowledge of the culture and history of one‟s own country,
j)  to form a critical awareness of reality,
k)  to learn some notions of Philosophy,
l)  to approach music, the sacred arts, popular culture, and the theater,
m)  to become proficient in the use of the computer and of the means of communication,
n)  to make up for what is missing in one’s academic education.

The courses of the 3 years of Philosophy are in Redemptoris Mater Seminary,  in Rondebosch. The Rector is fr. Zygmunt Kurzawinskie, helped by fr. Lorenzo Ricci.

3. The Missionary and Apostolic Dimensions

“The whole formation imparted to candidates for the priesthood [and to religious life] aims at preparing them to enter into communion with the charity of Christ the good shepherd. Hence their formation in its different aspects must have a fundamentally pastoral character”.
The seminarian lives his own apostolate – although rather limited at this stage, -as a commitment flowing from his being a Christian.
He improves his sensitivity towards the poorest among the migrants through:

1. 1. a)  his presence in the life of the community where he is pastorally active, even though he 
has no duties of leadership nor stable obligations;
   2. b)  the knowledge of the pastoral undertakings of the Local Church (with special focus on 
the importance and challenging character of the pastoral care for human mobility);
   3. c)  making the experience of extreme situations lived by the migrant people;
   4. d)  sharing of experiences;
   5. e)  apprenticeship in teamwork while doing weekend pastoral activity.
      Once he has assimilated these aspects, the candidate should have acquired to a sufficient degree the following skills and attitudes in pastoral activity:
      Ability to:
      a)  take part in various activities;
      b)  be creative;
      c)  discover people‟s attitudes;

d)  organize activities;
e)  make the best of the activities.

Attitudes of:
a)  sharing even outside the group;
b)  cooperation;
c)  generosity in his activities;
d)  concern and sensitivity towards other people and migrants problems

Seminarians, with the help and accompany of the Formators find the conditions for a balance between the various formative experiences: self knowledge, studying the charism, apostolic experiences, prayer times, personal reflection and group sharing, and the community activities. They are urged openness to and direct contact with the problems of human mobility and with the ecclesial, social and political reality of the territory where the community is located even through participation in the most significant local events and a discerning contact with the mass media.