Pope Leo greets seminarians during their Jubilee (@Vatican Media)
Pope Leo to seminarians: Be passionate about priestly
life
Pope Leo XIV welcomes some 4000 seminarians and formators to
the Vatican for their Jubilee, offering them a meditation on the Sacred Heart
of Jesus and the priestly life.
By Christopher Wells
Seminarians who have come to Rome for the Jubilee are not
only pilgrims, but witnesses of hope, who “fuel the flame of hope in the life
of the Church”, Pope Leo said on Tuesday morning.
In a meditation delivered in St Peter’s Basilica, Pope Leo
told seminarians they are called to bear witness “to Christ’s gratitude and
gratuitousness, to the exultation and joy, the tenderness and mercy of His
Heart, to practice a style of welcome and closeness, of generous and selfless
service, allowing the Holy Spirit to ‘anoint’ their humanity even before
ordination.”
Learning to love as Jesus loves
The Holy Father emphasized, too, the importance of formation
“centred on the heart”, of learning “to love as Jesus loved”.
This must be done through the development of the interior
life, the first work of discernment, and involves returning to the heart, where
we find “traces of God” and where God speaks to us.
Pope Leo said that formation of the interior life involves
recognizing the deepest sentiments of the heart, “which help you discover the
direction of your life.” He noted that the “privileged path” that leads to
interiority is prayer, because without an encounter with God, “we cannot truly
know ourselves”.
And he invited them to invoke the Holy Spirit frequently,
“so that He may shape in you a docile heart, capable of perceiving God’s
presence” in nature, art, literature, music, and science.
“Above all”, Pope Leo said, “learn how to listen, as Jesus
did, to the often silent cry of the little ones, of the poor and the oppressed,
and of the very many people, especially young people, who are searching for
meaning in their lives.”
The Holy Father called on seminarians to learn to preserve
and meditate on the events of their lives, as Mary did, in order to learn “the
art of discernment”.
'Be passionate about the priestly life
Finally, Pope Leo invited seminarians to be meek and humble
of heart, as Jesus was; and like Paul, to adopt the sentiments of Christ in
order to grow in human maturity, and to reject all pretence and hypocrisy.
The task of seminarians, the Pope said in conclusion, is to
“never settle for less, never be satisfied, not be passive recipients, but to
be passionate about the priestly life, living in the present and looking to the
future with a prophetic heart”.
Before leading them in the proclamation of the Nicene Creed,
Pope Leo expressed his hope that seminarians might deepen their relationship
with Christ, asking Him to make their hearts like His Sacred Heart, “which
beats with love for each of you and for all humanity.”
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