The priest
THE PRIEST
The figure of the priest
Video on the priestly vocation
Message from the Repairing Parents
Day of Seminar 2022
A day in the life of seminarians
Incarnate Word Offering
THE FIGURE OF THE PRIEST
When you think that only a priest can forgive sins and that what he binds at the bottom of his humble confessional, God, bound by his own word, binds in Heaven, and what he looses, at the same instant unleash God…
When you think that Our Lord Jesus Christ, at the Last Supper, performed a miracle greater than the creation of the Universe with all its splendors, and that was to turn bread and wine into His Body and Blood to feed the world, and that this portent , before which angels and men kneel, can be repeated every day by a priest…
When you think that a priest is needed more than a king, more than a soldier, more than a banker, more than a doctor, more than a teacher, because he can replace everyone and no one can replace him…
When it is thought that a priest, when he celebrates at the altar, has a dignity infinitely greater than a king; and that he is neither a symbol, nor even an ambassador of Christ, but that he is Christ himself who is there repeating the greatest miracle of God…
When you think that the world would die of the worst hunger if it were to lack that bread and that wine, and that this could happen, because priestly vocations are scarce, and that when that happens the heavens will shake and the Earth will explode, as if the hand of God would have ceased to hold her; and the people will howl with hunger and anguish, and will ask for that Bread, and there will be no one to give it to them; and they will ask for his guilt to be absolved, and there will be no one to absolve them, and they will die with their eyes open from the greatest of terrors…
When you think about all this, one understands the immense need for promote priestly vocations…
One understands the eagerness with which in ancient times, each family longed for a priestly vocation to spring from their bosom, like a tuberose rod…
One understands the immense respect that the towns had for the priests, which was reflected in the laws…
One understands that the worst crime anyone can commit is to prevent or discourage a vocation…
One understands that causing an apostasy is to be like Judas and sell Christ again…
One understands that if a father or a mother obstructs the priestly vocation of a son, it is as if they renounced a title of incomparable nobility…
One understands that more than a church, and more than a school, and more than a hospital, it is a seminary or a novitiate…
One understands that giving to build or maintain a seminary or a novitiate is to multiply the births of the Redeemer…
One understands that giving to pay for the studies of a young seminarian or a novice is to pave the way by which a man has to reach the altar, who for half an hour, each day, will be much more than all the dignities of the Earth and that all the saints in Heaven, then to be Christ himself, sacrificing his Body and his Blood, to feed the world.
Hugo Wast
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Video on the priestly vocation
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MESSAGE FROM THE REPAIR PARENTS – Priests of the Heart of Jesus
BOY OR YOUNG !!
I want to make you a call. Have you ever wondered what you are going to be tomorrow? I propose an answer: RELIGIOUS-PRIESTHOOD
For what?
To serve God through giving you to the brothers as sons of God as you.
– I can help you from outside.
– I wish it were true, but there are many inconveniences, too many difficulties because one only gives oneself completely when one is free and if this is always difficult, it is even more so within the hustle and bustle of the world and the family that want to monopolize you for themselves.
What do I do in the Seminary?
– You prepare yourself intellectually in what you like. You learn to see life with clean eyes, without excessive selfishness. You see men as brothers and friends and not as competitors. You meet your best friend: JESS, who even if you fail him, he does not take his hand from you, neither on the flat nor on the uphill.
– The Seminar must be very boring; there are no girls, daily life has to go to the sound of the bell; the discos, the dances…
And what else?
I know the life of the seminars and neither the lack of girls, discos or the rigid but also flexible schedule do not prevent the boys and young people from living happily. All these shortcomings that you are afraid of are diluted in prayer and in the Eucharist, in catechism work, in dedication to the poor in charitable organizations, in the joy of the family seeing that you are happy without having ceased to be. boy and young at the same time.
– My parents will lose a son.
– Your parents will gain a son; you can be sure, because your affection will not have to be divided with other people. When God is loved, others, beginning with the family, become the preferential center of our thoughts.
– Do seminarians live happily?
– I’ll tell you what Jesus said: “Come and see.” I don’t know if you believe it, but when the other young people your age see the joy and availability with which they live, I’m not saying that they feel frustrated with their lives, but I do know that they are a little envious of the happiness of the seminarians, who do not destroy their life in a kind of prison, but they build it living in the world, among the people, but differentiating themselves from the rest of boys and young people by their faith and their ways of acting.
– Seminarians have to be boring; they are not amused
– Who says such nonsense? I repeat to you: “Come and see.” You will see in a short time that these types of fables do not gel in the Seminary. They are boys and young men like you, but not fools. At most antagonistic to the way of thinking and acting of those of their age. Is it clear? Cheer up, you are not going to enter a prison or a reformatory, but an institution where you live the life of a young person under the guidance of God and good people. If you don’t believe me because of prejudice, the worse for you. But since I wish you the best, cheer up and knock on the door of the Seminary. I assure you that you will be happy.
– Are only the good and humble worth?
– And the restless, the infatuated (although these have it a little more difficult), the rebellious, the talkative, the clever and the less intelligent. The ungenerous, if they remain in their selfishness, no; these are the only ones that are not worth it, because this requires generosity to give to others.
Note: If for any reason, you wish to contact the PP. Repairmen, you can do it by writing to:
Saint Jerome Seminary
Priests of the Heart of Jesus (PP. Repairers)
37800 ALBA DE TORMES (Salamanca)
Tel. 923 300 135
SEMINAR DAY 2022
This day has been celebrated since 1935 with the aim of raising priestly vocations through awareness, addressed to the whole of society, and in particular to Christian communities. At the same time, prayer for seminaries and help for seminarians preparing to become priests is intended.
Priests at the service of a Church on the way is the motto that will focus this year on Seminar Day. The Church celebrates this day on March 19, the Solemnity of Saint Joseph. In the autonomous communities where it is not a holiday, it is celebrated on the closest Sunday. In this case, March 20.
The motto for Seminar Day 2022 is inspired by the synodal process in which the Church is immersed. This is explained in the theological reflection that is included among the materials. And he clarifies, the universal Synod in which we find ourselves makes us all set out together.
Next to the Synod, two words: priests and service. Priests, in the plural, reminding us of the meaning of the seminary and calling us to increase our fraternity. We priests have not been called to be alone. The seminary teaches us the importance of community and the need to live a healthy brotherhood.
In addition, the priestly vocation is presented as a service. In the seminary, seminarians learn to live service and to serve their brothers, as an integral and fundamental part of their vocation. Selfish interests and personal profit must be banished and must make room for the development of a vocation received to be delivered. Only from the surrender does the vocation receive all its meaning.
And sums it up, if we said that the example of the priestly fraternity constitutes an impulse for young people who consider a priestly vocation, we can also affirm that the testimony of a life given in service inspires courage in the hearts of young people, eager to give themselves entirely to an exciting task.
PRAYER
O Lord,
that you led your people through the desert to the promised land;
you called the disciples and walked with them announcing the Gospel and led them to Jerusalem,
so that, through your passion and death, they might know the glory of your resurrection.
Now that you accompany your Church, pilgrim in the world,
we ask you to send priests to walk together today
to those whom you summon in your Church;
may they strengthen and comfort us with the anointing of the Holy Ghost;
May they encourage and enlighten us with the preaching of your Word;
that they feed us and sustain us with the celebration of the Eucharist and the giving of their own lives.
Statistical data for the 2018/2019 academic year
135 seminarians were ordained priests in the 2018/2019 academic year, 26 more than in the previous academic year (109), which represents an increase of 24%. Madrid is the diocese with the highest number of ordinations, 14. It is followed by Valencia (10); Toledo (8); Seville and Alcal de Henares (7); and Cartagena and Zaragoza (6).
In the major seminaries there are currently 1,203 candidates for the priesthood, 60 less than in the previous year (1,263). In the 2018-2019 academic year, 236 new seminarians have entered. The number of dropouts has decreased from 152 (2017-2018) to 123 (2018-2019), which is about 20% less.
Madrid is at the head in number of seminarians with 172 candidates for the priesthood. They are followed by Toledo (67); Valencia and Seville (63); Cartagena (60); Cordoba (58); Mayor of Henares (45); Barcelona (35); and Grenada (31).
The total number of minor seminarians in the 2018-2019 academic year is 918 (1,061 last academic year). 29 minor seminarians have passed this course from the minor to the major seminary.
Statistical data for the 2017/2018 academic year
In the major seminaries there are currently 1,263 candidates for the priesthood, 16 more than in the previous year (1,247), which represents an increase of 1.3%. In the 2017-2018 academic year, the number of new admissions of major seminarians increased by 9%, from 275 (2016-2017) to 300 (2017-2018). In relation to the number of ordained priests, in this course it fell from 138 to 109.
Madrid is at the head in number of seminarians with 189 candidates for the priesthood. They are followed by Valencia (70); Toledo (65); Seville (62); Cordoba (60) and Cartagena, (60); Mayor of Henares, (48); Basin (42); Grenada (32); and Getafe (30).
It also increases the number of admissions in the minor seminaries
The minor seminaries have 316 new students this year, which is 10% more than the previous year. The number of minor seminarians who go on to the major seminary also increased, from 33 to 51, an increase of 55%. On the other hand, the total number of minor seminarians decreases in this course: from 1,075 to 1,061
Statistical data for the 2016/2017 academic year
In 2016, a total of 138 priests were ordained in the seventy dioceses in Spain. At the same time, during the…