Men in Formation

[Big Kill]

edit: As of 11-10-05 men in formation are welcome to join this boards as members. All we need is your name, diocese, name of formation director and anticipated year of ordination. Just click the register button to begin.

Non-members can still post messages in this section as well as read the LINKS section and the CHURCH BASEMENT section.

[Patrick]

I am in formation in the Diocese of Orlando, Florida and am completing year 3 of a 5 year formation program. I would love to hear from others in formation and see how you and your wife are experiencing or experienced your formation program.

[kenwlong]

patdit; congratulations on your journey. On june 9, I will join 27 other brothers-in-Christ in being ordained. Our journey has been over 4 years of classroom work and without the support of the wife, this could easily have become an unmanageable workload. I am amazaed at just how quickly the training time has passed. Continue to foster a deep prayer life would be my encouragement. Taking time every day (not just with Morning and Evening prayer) to be with God will help you during your discernment. Good luck with your continued journey and God Bless.

[Patrick]

Deacon Ken -

Congratulations on finishing the first leg of your journey with your ordination. Also, thank you for your input. The past three years have indeed flown by and with two more years left, the journey seems manageable.

God bless you as you start your official ordained ministry (as I am sure you have been ministering for years).

Pat

[Deacon Rey]

Pat,

I am in the Diocese of Savannah and we share St Leo as our formation University. It has been a blessing to have our wives participate in the formation from the begining and I think it has brought to us a better understanding of the life we would lead.

I happened to work for the Diocese as Director of Hispanic Ministry and having my wife around when I am working in ministry has opened her eys to the call we have received.

Maybe we can encourage our classmates to come here and participate of this medium to be in touch with the rest of our brothers and share our experiences.

God bless you and your classmates on your journey.

Your brother in Christ,

Rey

[Patrick]

Rey -

Thank you for your input. St. Leo's has only started this past year with our formation program. They focused on the new class of aspirants (class of 2011) and the recent class of deacons (class of 2007). The men & women in the fifth year said that they found the program challenging but rewarding.

My class is in the process of completing the last year of lay pastoral ministry formation. We are going to be the last class going through this program. We are entering the third year of lay formation, which with the year of aspirancy means that we are entering our fourth year of the diaconal program. My class was too far along to switch everyone over to St. Leo's.

I welcome your experience and input about St. Leo's. A year from now my class will enter our final fifth year and that will be through St. Leo's.

God bless you in all that you do.
Pat

[Bill Ditewig]

Dear Brothers,

Especially to you in the dioceses of Orlando, St. Petersburg and Savannah: As of 1 November, I've taken on the responsibility of Director of Graduate Programs of Theology at Saint Leo University, so I will be directly associated with your formation. Of course, my own background goes beyond the purely academic, and I look forward to working with you!

God bless,

Bill Ditewig

Deacon William T. Ditewig, Ph.D.
Director of Graduate Programs in Theology
Associate Professor of Theology & Religious Studies
Saint Leo University

Former Executive Director
Secretariat for the Diaconate
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Washingotn, DC

[Patrick]

On a side note, I just finished my final year of formation (through St. Leo's) and was ordained this June. I have to comment that the St. Leo's program was superb and I look forward to the time when I can complete their masters program in Theology. The professors were first class and experts in their field. St. Leo's is a great way to go through formation. I would only comment that this is the academic portion of formation and that the pastoral side needs to be developed by the particular diocese's formation team.

[Frank Morano]

It is amazing how quickly the Formation years fly by.

My classmates and I are always talking about how it felt back at the start of our Aspirancy year (September 2006), looking forward to 2011, our anticipated Ordination year. We saw it as so far away. Here it is now January 2011 and now thinking in weeks instead of years.

Ordination is scheduled for 11 am, Saturday, May 28, 2011 at Our Lady of Angels in Brooklyn, NY. Of course, only if it is God's will for me to stand with my classmates on that day. I continue to pray that I will be with them.