By Devin Watkins
Pope Leo XIV met on Saturday with Spanish seminarians attending the seminaries of Alcalá de Henares, Toledo, Cartagena, and the Interdiocesan Seminary of Catalonia.
In his address, the Pope invited them to read his letter to the Archdiocesan Major Seminary of Trujillo in Peru, saying it covers the essential aspects of priestly formation.
“But today,” he told the seminarians, “I would like to focus on something that silently sustains everything else and that, precisely for that reason, runs the risk of being taken for granted without being cultivated: having a supernatural view of reality.”
Pope Leo then repeated a quote from G.K. Chesterton’s book Heretics: “Take away the supernatural and you will not find the natural, but the unnatural.”
The unnatural, he explained, is not only what causes scandal but includes ways of life that push God to the margins of decisions we face in our daily lives.
Humanity was created to live in relationship with God, he said. “When that relationship becomes obscured or weakens, life begins to become disordered from within.”
What could be more unnatural than a priest who speaks of God but lives without an awareness of God’s presence, not letting Him into the wilderness of life, wondered Pope Leo.
“Nothing would be more dangerous than becoming accustomed to the things of God without living from God,” he said. “Therefore, at bottom, everything begins—and always returns—to the living and concrete relationship with the One who has chosen us without merit on our part.”
A supernatural vision of reality means seeking the deeper meaning of everyday life, said the Pope, recalling how important it is for seminarians to be formed to safeguard this principle.
He invited men in formation for the priesthood to practice the presence of God, so that they translate the believer’s gaze upon reality into concrete life choices.
Pointing out that trees “die standing” by remaining upright while already dry inside, Pope Leo said seminarians and priests can likewise confuse fruitfulness with intensity of activities.
“This is the foundation of all priestly formation: to remain with Him and allow oneself to be formed from within; to see God act and to recognize how He works in one’s own life and in that of His people,” he said.
The Pope upheld the importance of tools in seminary formation, such as psychology, but recalled that the Holy Spirit is the true protagonist who shapes our hearts to serve Christ in His people.
In conclusion, Pope Leo XIV urged the Spanish seminarians to allow the Lord to transform them in the ordinariness of each day.
“Dear sons, I thank you, in the name of the Church, for the generosity of having decided to follow the Lord,” he said. “Always do so with the certainty that you do not walk alone: Christ goes before you, the Blessed Virgin Mary accompanies you, and the whole Church sustains you with her prayer.” – Vatican News
