About human formation
We see human formation not simply as a programme to be taught but as a fertile environment in which a man can thrive and flourish to become the best version of himself. Here, he can perfect his specific ‘talents and gifts that have been moulded by grace’ and attend to his ‘limits and frailty’ which, if left untended, will become an obstacle in his service to others.
The four dimensions of formation must be authentically integrated into the wholeness of the individual. The human formative process facilitates spaces that interrogate how what a man is learning in the intellectual programme has changed him, how he is responding to his experiential pastoral encounters and as a spiritual human being, how his spiritual and human growth reflect and complement each other, free from duplicity and without the need to pretend, so that they become, as St John Henry Newman put it, like ‘two pieces of wax moulded into one’.
In order for this process of growth and conversion to be achieved, there is a need to initially commit to and develop a culture of openness. This can only be achieved through individual self-discipline and willingness situated in an environment of acceptance and trust, actively and deliberately cooperating with a healthy docility to the work of the Holy Spirit. In this way, each man will become a man who is ‘called rather than driven’ and open to the formation process.
