Some assembly required
Have you ever assembled IKEA furniture? This excruciating endeavor can be done in a few ways: follow the instructions, watch YouTube, or wing it.
Same thing with learning to cook, play a sport, or knit. But sadly, with the most important project in our lives, we often just fly by the seat of our pants.
Becoming a fully functioning adult follower of Jesus Christ as an integrated human person with a deep spirituality, an expansive intellectual capacity, and an impactful pastoral ministry rarely just happens.
The Church follows these four dimensions for the formation of priests, deacons, and those in religious life.
Put succinctly, the four dimensions are: Human — who you are; spiritual — your relationship with God; intellectual — what you know about what you believe; and pastoral — how you serve others.
If we laity are lucky, we get one or two of these partially completed, with others just scratching the surface or totally left behind.
For the last number of years, I have been part of a committee that assists the diocesan formation team for the permanent diaconate. One of my favorite parts of this work is when ordination is just a few months away and we ask the deacon candidate’s wife how the five years of formation has changed her husband. Invariably, a huge smile comes to her face, and she effusively explains how he is so much more patient, prayerful, knowledgeable, and present at home and to other people in his life. It always makes me wish everyone could go through this type of formation.
Most of us, if we are honest, have been about as successful in our life of faith as a person trying to put together a SMÅGÖRA shelf from IKEA wearing a blindfold. We barely resemble a disciple, and we have a bunch of parts either missing or left over.
Imagine taking one dimension a year, or quarterly rotating through all of them, for the rest of your life.
How different might we be?
Here is an overview of the four dimensions and a few ideas to get started.
Human formation: helps a person grow in healthy maturity and virtuous character. The goal is to become a well-integrated person capable of loving and serving others well.
Ideas: Make a few appointments with a counselor; be honest with your failures; seek to grow in virtue and holiness; have intentional screen-free times with family and friends.
Spiritual formation: growing in relationship with God through prayer, the sacraments, Scripture, and holiness. The goal of this dimension is deepening union with Jesus Christ.
Ideas: Begin and end each day with prayer; find time for silence daily; attend an extra Mass a week; work on praying the whole Mass with the priest; go to confession regularly; research Lectio Divina and practice it regularly.
Intellectual formation: studying and understanding the Catholic faith including theology, Scripture, Church history, morality, and doctrine. The goal of this dimension is to form the mind to think with the Church.
Ideas: Listen to episodes of Bible or Catechism in a Year; read books on the saints; or sign up for one of the institutes the Diocese of Fort Worth offers.
Pastoral formation: learning how to serve others practically in daily life. The goal is to put our faith into action.
Ideas: Join the OCIA team as a volunteer/sponsor; help with religious education; become a Mass minister; when you see a need, ask God how you can help.
There is no one-size-fits-all instruction manual for becoming a spiritual master, but there is a singular goal — union. Union with Jesus, His Church, and our neighbor.
Success is not measured in accuracy or how many parts are left over, but in stick-to-itiveness. We are not finished being formed until we draw our final breath.
Jeff Hedglen is the campus minister of the University Catholic Community at the University of Texas in Arlington.