The Holy Spirit and Priestly Vocation

Abstract This article explores the role of the Holy Spirit in the journey of seminary formation as articulated in the Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis (Fundamental Norms for the Formation of Priests) released by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy in 2016. The article examines how the Ratio Fundamentalis understands the role of the Holy Spirit in a seminarian’s vocational journey. It asserts that the Holy Spirit plays the crucial tasks of awakening, discerning, transforming, and confirming the priestly calling of a candidate. The same Holy Spirit who called the Church into being also inspires the candidate to respond to the call awakened from within his depths. As the seminarian undergoes the formation journey, his vocation is tested. With the accompaniment he receives from formators and spiritual directors and with the light of the Holy Spirit, he discerns the authenticity of his calling, his motivation is purified, and his inner person transformed. At ordination, his vocation is confirmed as he receives the sacramental anointing of the Holy Spirit, which configures to him Christ and empowers him to act in persona Christi capitis (in the person of Christ the Head).