Rector’s Corner “Feed My Sheep”
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t its heart, a seminary exists to provide for the needs of the people of God—forming would-be pastors and shepherds to teach and lead God’s people, and forming them to do it with the love of Christ. The Lord Jesus’ command to St. Peter, “Feed my sheep,” comes in conjunction with Jesus’ drawing out Peter’s love, a three-part question in response to Peter’s previous three-part denial: “Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep!” Jesus is always drawing out of us a loving response to his own love for us! The seminary community, then, has as the means to this formation the drawing out of the love of God which each man has already received, perfecting it, and refining it. Each man brings the love of God with which he has been blessed, and deepens it, alongside all of the other things he learns and ways in which he is formed, so as to be able to give it away to those whom he will serve. In a sense, he has to be a good sheep so as to be a good pastor of sheep.
This edition of Roman Echoes shows a little insight into the four pillars of priestly formation in which each man grows on his way to the priesthood. We have received a great response to our recent video Gratitude From the Gianicolo, which you can watch by way of our website, www.pnac.org/gratitude. So many have loved the section of the typical day of the seminarian as an insight into our work. This season of the year is when we celebrate the ordination to the priesthood of our fourth-year seminarians. Please keep our men being ordained in your prayers, that their lives are a generous response to the Lord’s call to feed his sheep, to sustain you and me in the Church by their lives. Thank you for your support!
Very Reverend Peter C. Harman, STD ’99 Rector
This season of the year is when we celebrate the ordination to the priesthood of our fourth-year seminarians. Please keep our men being ordained in your prayers, that their lives are a generous response to the Lord’s call to feed his sheep, to sustain you and me in the Church by their lives.
ROMAN ECHOES 2021 • VOLUME 25: ISSUE 4
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