Holistic Formation (Transcript from Video)
The 4 Guiding Principles for Every Leader (and Participant) of Any Parish Ministry or Apostolate
For those of you who prefer (or need) to read rather than watch, here is the transcript of the Holistic Formation video content I shared on The Catholic Leadership Puzzle…
Hey there, Christina Semmens, and I'm back doing another post for the Catholic Leadership Puzzle. The last time I shared about the evangelization cycle and what does that actually look like. Those four steps of encountering, engaging, accompanying and mentoring. This is the individual experience that each of us as disciples should be doing within the midst of whatever activities or ministry we are doing within the parish.
What is also connected with this is my topic for today—holistic formation.
Holistic formation is an idea that, Saint John Paul II referenced in his document about priestley formation. In it, he was speaking about the holistic formation of the person and how it constitutes four pieces. And those four pieces are human formation, the spiritual formation, the intellectual formation, and then the pastoral formation. The pastoral formation, of course, was for those preparing for the priesthood, for their role as pastors, as shepherds within the church.
For us as lay people, the fact is, is that you can switch this to apostolic. What apostolic formation is going on? This can be everything from, for example, how do I go and visit the sick and homebound? How do I bring them Eucharist, for example? So it is formative training, apostolic training to help you go and do this particular task, or it could be, I'm a musician or a, cantor, at mass. And so the particular that are attached to doing these tasks within the community. So any of that kind of training is that apostolic formation.
Now, I would argue and say that this tends to be the only formation that we tend to do, within our, ministries. People tend to show up and they go, okay, what do I need to do? Show me how to do it. And that's all we focus upon. We don't focus upon the spiritual formation. We don't focus upon who we need to be as disciples in order to enter into whatever ministry, or task within the body of Christ that we're about.
And we usually do not deal with the intellectual formation. Sometimes we get this. Sometimes we'll get into what is the theology, for example, of someone going and taking the Eucharist to someone who is home bound, who's part of the community or what is the theology of how, what's my role as a cantor, at the mass in order to help the people of God worship more fully We might get into some of that, but I definitely would say that we usually lack, desperately, human formation.
And the human formation is how are we supposed to be with one another. In our world today, this is increasingly a problem. This is a very, very serious problem because most people don't know how to enter into conversation, to be present to one another, actively listen, and to be, you know, accompanying people other than I'm doing my task and therefore, I'm here. So again, we're very task oriented, especially within American church.
What I'm proposing here is, is that this idea of holistic formation needs to be an intentional part of all that we do. So, if we are a leader of a ministry, for example, then we need to be looking at how are we doing these four aspects of formation throughout the course of our year. So, when we're planning events, what are we doing in order to ensure that human formation, spiritual formation, intellectual formation, and apostolic formation are occurring?
Too often, we only focus upon the task and training people to do the task. And what then happens is that the preeminent value of who the person is and who they are and the particular gifts and talents that they bring to that particular ministry or task is lost. They just become another cog in the wheel. And people feel that. They sense that, so, as leaders, we especially need to be entering into our own formation so that we are able to enter into deeper relationships. And this is where human formation comes into play.
Human formation can be something as simple as we come together as someone's home. We don’t always have to be at the parish, but it could be at someone's home or going out into the community in order to have a dinner. Of course, this all depends on the number of people that are involved in the particular ministry. But I even would argue and say that as a leader, you need to be meeting with small groups of people and putting people in small groups within the ministries in order for them to be developing friendships. Because nothing is more important than having like-minded friends who are accompanying you on the journey and they understand what it is you're going through.
For example, Paul, he was with Barnabas at first, then later on he had Timothy, then he had Luke, you know, so it's something where we need to be, intentional about making sure that human relationships can be occurring and they have the opportunity to occur within the course of ministry.
It's not just we show up, we do, and we're not functionaries. So we need to be doing that. So that's the rst thing. So how is it that we can grow in human relationship with one another The second is spiritually. Many times we will neglect the care of the spiritual life of those who are involved in ministries because we're thinking, well, they're coming to mass and that's like on them, no, for us to be intentional. So for example, to do something as simple as a Marian consecration together, or to pray a novena together as a group in order to, be praying and, be interceding for all those who are involved in the ministry, all those who are being touched by the particular ministry that you are involved in, and doing these different things throughout the year.
Another thing is to be attentive to going on retreat together. There is a great way to combine human and spiritual formation all in one fell swoop of where you get to go and develop relationships and friendships, but then also you're being intentional about ensuring that your people are continuing to grow closer to Jesus. So you can't give what you don't have. So we have to be attentive to the spiritual life of those who are involved in our ministries as well.
And then of course, the intellectual formation, the apostolic formation kind of speaks for itself, but the intellectual formation should be always, how can we grow in the mind of the church about what we are supposed to be about as the body of Christ So the intellectual formation can take all sorts of forms. It can be very specic as I was talking about, like the theology behind why do we go and visit the sick and bring them Eucharist, or it could be something about salvation history, for example, doing a Bible study together, or it could be going and doing service projects together. and this could be a way that you're continuing to grow in human formation, spiritual formation, doing the corporal spiritual works of mercy, but then also intellectually us growing in our understanding again, of the mind of the church, of how is it that we are to be disciples out in the world.
That final piece, again, that apostolic formation tends to be the one that's already on the schedule. It tends to be one that we already are attentive to putting, together a training session or an opportunity. But that formation is also about accompaniment. This is also where we should be pairing people up, going out two by two. It should never be just a cantor. They should always have someone else, a musician that they work with, or another cantor. And it might not be that they're at the same mass, but they're able to prepare together. They're able to pray together, they're able to prepare the music together, and they become a resource for one another. Or you put all the cantors together and you gather them weekly so that they're able to do this kind of work. These are just all sorts of different suggestions.
But it's the reason why we have to be attentive to the holistic formation of everyone who has been entrusted to us. If we are a leader of anything, then we definitely need to take steps in order to make sure that this is happening, that these, these aspects of formation are being tended to. Even if we're a participant only and we're not in a leadership position, we should be asking for these things. So it's always a top down and bottom up. This is how church is, this is how the body of Christ should be. We should be asking for those things that we're hungry for, that we're thirsting for, even when we don't know it. So asking, Hey, can we go on a retreat together or can we participate in the parish retreat together you know, so it isn't something that is just an individual taking care of themselves, but rather they are part of a community, which is a part of the larger community. And what should be going on within all of those communities is holistic formation. So I hope that this has kind of given you, an overview of what holistic formation is and what it could potentially look like, but this is denitely something that needs to be happening within an all of our ministries. It needs to be happening within all of the activities that are going on with the parish community.
And this is what develops kind of our ministry battle rhythm. So, going back to my own history of being in the military, the idea of a battle rhythm is there's a rhythm and a movement to the things that we do at particular times. And the church gives us that battle rhythm in the liturgical year. So, we should be looking for those opportunities for us to collaborate, integrate, and to build upon things that are already going on, but being intentional about asking those who are entrusted to our care. So us being intentional about inviting them to participate. And if they don't, then seeking them out and asking, “Hey, what's going on? Did you go to a retreat on your own?” But it's not a matter of them having to come to your thing, although that's great, but rather you using other opportunities for people to be nourished and to be cared for, and for them to be known and to be loved. Because that's exactly what Jesus asks of us, doesn't he? He asks of us to know and to love. And first we begin with God, with Him, and then we love others. And we can't do this if we ourselves are malformed. And so we have to be very intentional about making sure that we are being coming W H O L E.
I hope that this has helped you and would love to know your thoughts about this idea of holistic formation in the midst of all of our ministry activities and how you think that might look. I just gave a couple of ideas, but would really like to hear your thoughts. God bless and know of my continued prayers for you today.