Journeying to SMA priesthood

By Fr. Tim Cullinane, SMA

This book is of great practical value. It ought to be on the obligatory list of spiritual books for all preparing for priesthood. It will serve future priests well into their priestly lives and can be a good evaluation tool in on-going formation. All priesthood is a calling to be a servant for others.
Fachtna O'Driscoll SMA
Superior General Rome, November 2013

• Language: English
• Publisher: SMA publications
• Release date: May 11, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311239815

Book preview

It is with great pleasure that I write these few words of introduction for this very attractive and useful book. Fr Cullinane has done a great service to SMA in writing this book. Much of what is contained within is not confined to SMA so it is a book of huge relevance to all those preparing for priesthood, within Africa and throughout the world.Fr Cullinane brings to his topic a huge personal experience. What he brings to this field is not something culled from academic study, though the ideas within would stand up to the most rigorous examination of academia, but from 50 years of missionary priesthood in the SMA. His missionary career has been one of great variety: school ministry,Seminary Spiritual Direction in Ireland, Provincial administration, community leadership,seminary Rector, Regional Superior, Seminary Spiritual Direction in Africa. From this vastexperience Fr Cullinane has shared with us a wealth of treasures.Fr Cullinane writes from the heart, a heart rooted in Christ and in a love for priesthood. A heart that has a huge regard for the human condition and that knows our hearts are ever restless until they rest in Christ. The words in this book are both inspiring and challenging.They show a missionary priesthood as a sublime calling from the Lord, a calling given tosome but not to many, a calling that has to be discerned within the church and not merely by individual choice.

This book is of great practical value. It ought to be on the obligatory list of spiritual books for all house of formation. It will serve our future priests well into their priestly lives and can be a good evaluation tool in on-going formation. All priesthood is a calling to be a servant for others. Missionary priesthood is a particular call within priesthood to be a servant to those outside one’s own cultural background and place. It is a call ‘ad gentes’, ‘ad extra’ and ‘ad vitam’. Fr Cullinane reminds us that it is not always easy to respond to this call and it requires a certain aptitude that has to be resourced and strengthened through prayer over one’s entire life. If one is choosing missionary priesthood in hopes of entering a comfort zone in one’s own country or another, then it is clearly not a missionary vocation one has discerned but rather a call motivated by one own personal satisfaction needs. A thorough reading of Fr Cullinane’s book will help the student discern between a true call of the Lord and the promptings of a selfish spirit.

I congratulate Fr Cullinane on this fine achievement. The preparation of this book has taken years of study, reflection and prayer. May it serve all our students to prepare for priesthood with great courage and dedication and may it help all of us priests to live our missionary priesthood with great commitment and integrity.

Fr Tim, thank you.

Fachtna O'Driscoll SMA

Superior General Rome, November 2013

FOREWORD

You did not choose me. No, I chose you and I commissioned you to go out and bear fruit, fruit that will last (John 15:16).

The fact that you are reading this book means that more than likely, you are in an SMA Formation House preparing for SMA priesthood. The book is meant to help you on your journey. It is designed so that at the end of each chapter there is an opportunity to listen to the word of God, who is your real formator, to reflect and share with others the fruits of your reflection on this word, on the content of the various chapters and be enriched in turn by the sharing of your brothers. It is a book to be prayed and reflected through rather than read

In 2010, I was at Agoe in the Republic of Benin, as the Church began to celebrate 150 years of Christianity. The President of the country, the entire episcopal conference except for one bishop who was ill in France, over 10,000 people, 300 priests and up to 400 sisters took part in the celebration, Over the wall was the well-kept cemetery where many of the early SMA and OLA missionaries are laid to rest, 12 of them before the year 1900, many of them dying in their twenties and thirties after only I to 5 years in the country. In their wildest dreams they could never have imagined such a celebration would one day take place across the wall. The ceremony was all the more moving because of the priestly ordination of 4 SMAs from Republic of Benin who would later in the year go out as missionaries to different parts of Africa, and be a link in a chain going right back to Melchior de Marion Brésillac himself.

As a student in formation you are called to be another link in that chain called by God Himself to be an SMA missionary priest. Pope Benedict said on one occasion, Each of us is the result of a thought of God, each of us is loved by God, each of us is necessary to God. There is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel, by the encounter with Christ. There is nothing more beautiful than to know Him and to speak to others about Him which is what missionary priesthood is about. This is your vocation. I hope that this book will help to deepen it.

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of one who bring good news, who herald peace, bring happiness, proclaims salvation.

Tim Cullinane SMA

Chapter 1 SMA VOCATION

Rabbi Zusu said, When I appear before the Almighty, I am not afraid to be asked, Rabbi Zusu, why have you not been like Abraham, the patriarch or like Moses our great teacher? The question I truly fear is, Rabbi Zusu, have you been Rabbi Zusu?

I know the plans I have in mind for you, says the Lord, they are plans for peace, not disaster, to give you a future filled with hope (Jer. 29:11). As for Jeremiah, God has a plan, a vocation for each one of us. To be our real selves, to be true to who we really are, we must find that plan, that vocation and be faithful in following it. The theme of vocation, of God calling people for a special mission runs right through the bible. We see it in God’s call of Moses, The cry of the sons of Israel has come to me and I have witnessed the way in which the Egyptians oppress them, so come, I send you to Pharaoh to bring the sons of Israel, my people, out of Egypt. When Moses says to Pharaoh, who am I to go to Pharaoh? God says, I shall be with you (Exodus 3:9-11). To Jeremiah, God says, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, before you came to birth I consecrated you, I have appointed you as a prophet to the nations (Jer. 1:5) and when Jeremiah expresses reluctance for his mission, God says, they will fight against you but shall not overcome you, for I am with you to deliver you (Jer. 2:3). At the last supper, Jesus said to the apostles, you have not chosen me but I have chosen you and commissioned you to go out and bear fruit, fruit that will last and His last words to them before he ascended into heaven were, go therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you and know that I am with you always, yes to the end of time"(Matt 28:19-20). From the bible quotations above, we see the essence of vocation: a call, a mission, a need to respond and God’s promise to be with.

God still calls people, ordinary people like you and me for a special mission in life. Cardinal Newman wrote, God created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another. I have my mission – I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. Somehow I am necessary for his purpose, as necessary in my place as an Archangel in his… He has not created me for nothing. More recently in speaking on the nature of vocation, Pope Benedict compared the vocation of each of us to that of Mary with one important difference, Mary received her vocation from the lips of an angel. The angel does not enter our room visibly but the Lord has a plan for each of us. He calls each of us by name. Our task is to learn how to listen, to perceive His call and to be courageous and faithful in following it.

God calls some to be teachers, others engineers, doctors, farmers, mechanics, politicians, diocesan priests etc. Some he calls to go outside their own countries as missionary priests like our founder Melchior de Marion Bresillac. The fact that you are in an SMA Formation House indicates that you have heard this call in your heart, for God never calls someone to be an SMA unless he has first put the SMA vocation in his heart. To respond to the call can be costly but to be true to oneself one must answer it. Jeremiah speaking of his own call and of its cost said, You have seduced me, Yahweh, and I have let myself be seduced. I am a daily laughing-stock. The word of God has meant for me insult, derision, all day long. I used to say, I will not think about him. I will not speak in his name anymore. Then there seemed to be a fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones. The effort to restrain it wearied me. I could not bear it (Jer. 20:7-9). For those who do respond generously the reward is also great. When Peter said to Jesus, what reward will we get, we who have left everything to follow you? He said, "I tell you solemnly, there is no one who has left house, wife, brothers, parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God who will not be given repayment, many times over in this present time and, in the world to come, eternal life(Luke18:28-30).

Lectio Divina

Vocation in the Bible

Exodus 3:9-11Call of Moses

Luke 1:26-28Call of Mary

Mark 10:17-27Call of Rich Young Man

John 1:35-45Call of First Disciples

Luke 4:16-22Mission of Jesus

Reflect/Share

1.What first attracted you to the SMA? How has this attraction changed or developed over the years?

2.What resistance do you find yourself in responding to God’s call?

3.Read again what Rabbi Zusu said. Do you feel the SMA is the right place for you? Why?

Chapter 2 Formation in the SMA

Formation in the SMA is about your growth as a person and as a missionary. It involves two people, God and yourself. The work of God comes first and is the most important. There are few people who realize what God would make of them if they abandoned themselves entirely into his hands and let themselves be formed by His grace (St Ignatius). We are the clay, you are the potter, and we are all the work of your hands. However, unlike a piece of clay, we are free to co-operate or not co-operate with God’s action in our Formation. Before the rain comes, no matter how hard a farmer works nothing will grow but when the rain comes he has to co-operate by digging the ground, planting the seeds and keeping his farm free from weeds. It is the same with us and God in our Formation. An SMA vocations’ poster sums it up well, Join the SMA to be all you can be with God’s help and your willingness as did Ignatius in another context, pray as if everything depended on God, act as if everything depended on yourself."

Pastores Dabo Vobis, the document on the formation of priests issued by Pope John Paul 11 in 1992, says there are four areas of priestly formation: human, spiritual, intellectual and pastoral.

Human Formation is the foundation: The priest should be balanced and strong, affable, hospitable, sincere and prudent, able for pastoral responsibilities, never arrogant or quarrelsome. The affections of a priest should be mature so that he can love like Christ; he should have a good sexual formation so that he understands the nature of celibate life (43).

Spiritual Formation is the core which unifies the life and pastoral activity of the priest. Those who take on the likeness of Christ the priest by sacred ordination should form the habit of drawing close to him as friends in every detail of their lives (45)

Intellectual Formation: If we expect every Christian to be prepared to make a defense of their faith and to account for the hope that is in us’ (1Pt 3:15) , then all the more should candidates for the priesthood be able to do it and have the ability to relate to people at every intellectual level. It has been said, If you ordain a pious fool, he will soon lose his virtue after ordination and you will be left with the other part."

Pastoral Formation: All formation finds its completion in pastoral formation; it is preparing seminarians to enter into the charity of Christ the Good Shepherd…Hence their formation in its different aspects must have a fundamentally pastoral character (57). Pope Francis has talked about the type of priests and bishops needed for the Church and says, The risk that we must avoid is priests and bishops falling into clericalism, which is a distortion of religion. It is not about saying, I am the boss here. It