ELUSIYAN
FRANCIS TOLULOPE
INTRODUCTION
For
fear that Christian may be like sheep without a shepherd, Christ has set up the
church to always have her own priest, and this is seen in the apostolic
succession till present epoch. God chose what is weak to shame the strong and
so priest mind seek the will of God and that of the church, because priestly vocation
transcend human strength and wisdom. And that is why we cannot overlook the
place of guidance and counselling in the framework of seminary formation and
priestly vocation in general. Because priest, as a shepherds of God’s people,
they too like Christ must be ready to give their life for the faithful as
rulers of the community, they cultivate the form of asceticism by which they renowned
their own convenient, seeking only what benefit the many for salvation, and one
of those things is guidance and counselling. They we even be ready to break a
new ground in pastoral method under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the
formation in which they have received.
By
and large, the place of guidance and counselling, either as a discipline or it
practical aspect is very much essential in priestly vocation because it is the
process by which students are given advice and learn how to deal with emotional
conflicts and personal problems both in the seminary as well as how to
incorporate the same in daily life. And that is the heart of what we shall
discuss in this paper “The importance of guidance and counselling to the
priestly vocation” but this discourse shall be run open under the following
thematic outline.
-DOCILITY
-DISCIPLINE
-TRANSFORMATION
-AWARENESS OF SELF
IMAGE AND WORTH
-THE COMMUNITY: THE
PEOPLE OF GOD
-PASTORAL KNOWLEDGE
DOCILITY
Because
of the nature of priestly vocation in the world today, one cannot dispute the
essentiality of guidance and counselling, because guidance and counselling bridges
the gap between the students and the school administration, since they can
channel their problems through guidance and counselling office, Student get
comprehensive pieces of advice on various aspect of formation which include, spirituality,
humanformation, intellectual formation and pastoral formation. It also allows
students to talk freely about various things which they feel uncomfortable
talking about with their parents; which include things like spiritual
difficulties. It also allowsthe students to become better people because they
are taught by the counsellor about how to behave in a proper manner. And it
also gives room for student who are undergoing some difficulties in their lives
to have good place to ask for questions and clarity from the guiding and
counselling office. There are some questions that one may find difficult to ask
even his/her parents. One can ask any question without fear because the persons
in charge are very willing to help, by so doing it create room for openness or
docility which is very much important for any candidate in priestly vocation.
DISCIPLINE
In
priestly vocation, discipline is very much important for the proper formation
of catholic priest, because the priesthood of the church is the love of the
heart of Jesus Christ and a priest is another
Christ, they act in the person of Christ and on behave of the church, and as
such where ever they go, they carry that image of Christ and that of the church, hence it is very mandatory
they represent Christ well and this cannot happen in vacuum, it must begin from seminary formation and that is
why guidance and counselling is very much applicable in this area of seminary
life for candidate in priestly vocation. Because in guidance and counselling,
student are given solutions on how to deal with psychological problems which
might affect their studies. Through this, the students are able to develop problem
solving skills which to an extent help them deal with particular issues
surrounding their lives. Students are advised on how to cope with different
situations facing them in their school life. For instance, on how to relate
with opposite sex and with their peers. It also helps to shape a student’s
behaviour and instil discipline in students. Students who are guided and
counselled in a right way tend to know what to do and how to do such things.
Students get to live in harmony with others in seminary community. In so doing,
they also learn to appreciate the people around them and come to harmony with
their environment.
TRANSFORMATION
In
priestly vocation, the church beliefs that change is constant and as such they
do not expect perfectionism from any candidate. For anybody can make mistake but
even in human weakness students must strive to amend their mistakes and
reposition themselves back to the right track and being it a priestly vocation,
guidance and counselling is inevitable, because it helps the students to
develop the skills of self-study, self-analysis and self-understanding. It also
helps all students in making appropriate and satisfactory personal, social
educational choices. It helps students develop positive attitudes to self in
formation, to others, and to appropriate national issues, to work and to
learning. It helps students acquire skills of collecting information and also
help students who are underachieving[1]
use, their potentials to the maximum. It helps students relate behaviour
meaningfully to cognitive achievement and the chances of success in life.
AWARENESS OF SELF IMAGE
AND SELF WORTH
It
is not new that the church has her own identity and image, so also is the face
of seminary formation such that candidate need to develop himself to the full
spectrum so as for him to be able to be more effective and pastorally inclined
and one of the ways to help candidate in this regard is through guidance and
counselling either as a discipline to study in class or meeting with
counsellors for insight and advice. Guidance and counselling help students
acquire as early as possible in their lives a positive image of self through self-understanding
and self-direction. It also assists students in the process of developing and
acquiring skills in problem solving decision making. It also assist student
build up/or sharpen the child’s perception of reality, development of a sense
of autonomy and to whip up the motivation for creativity and productivity. It
can also help student to learn how to appreciate their culture both in the
seminary as a seminarian or outside the walls of the seminary as a priest.
THE COMMUNITY: THE
PEOPLE OF GOD
It
is a known fact that the church train priest to be effective rulers of Gods
people and not just a spiritual father but also an adviser both in actions and
words, so also the guidance and counselling is very befitting as a discipline
here because it make up part of the courses in the seminary, in that regard it
creates community awareness and visibility of the student support systems
required for student success. It enhances economic development and the churches
growth through quality preparation of students for the world. It also provides
an increased opportunity for collaboration and participation of community
members, that is the people of God in the life of the church.
PASTORAL KNOWLEDGE
Pastoral
formation is an essential aspect of priestly vocation because that is where all
what we have learnt in the seminary is been practicalized. So the study of
guidance and counselling in the seminary will help the seminarian in formation
to know the modalities of counselling during pastoral assignment both within
the period of formation and after priestly formation. So in a way it aids our
pastoral knowledge on how to relate with people of God and the approach
necessary for different situations in their lives.
CONCLUSION
By
way of conclusion on the account of the importance of guidance and counselling
to priestly vocation we have realized
that, it helps priest in formation to be more productive and creative in all
aspect of seminary formation. It stimulates the candidate to be more docile to
formation and it gives room for dialogue or interface between the formators[2]
and the formadee[3].
Guidance and counselling indeed is of great benefit to priestly vocation in
fact it is inevitable.
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