Pope Francis received seminarians from Madrid on February 3 and emphasized the centrality of the Eucharistic Christ in seminary life.
Quoting St. Manuel González García, Pope Francis called for “a seminary in which the Eucharist would be in the pedagogical order, the most effective stimulus; in the scientific order, the first teacher and the first subject; in the disciplinary order, the most vigilant inspector; in the ascetical order, the liveliest model; in the economic order, the great providence; and in the architectural order, the cornerstone.”
“For discipline, confronting the Eucharist every morning—the most vigilant inspector—makes us reflect on the futility of our worldly ideas, our desires to ascend, to appear, to stand out,” the Pope said.
“Silence, prayer, fasting, penance, and ascesis are necessary to free ourselves from what enslaves us, and to be fully God’s,” the Pope added. “And this not only inwardly, but also outwardly, in work, in plans, abandoning ourselves to Jesus: the Lord will be the great providence, let us leave it to Him to propose and realize, let us merely put ourselves at His command with docility of spirit.”