Spiritual Community
Your personal development as an energized, love-filled member of the Body of Christ is a prerequisite for effective ministry. Our M.Div. program calls you into a process of spiritual growth, on both the deeply personal and profoundly communal levels, that will sustain you in ministry.
M.Div. students are part of a small, close-knit community of men and women from all over North America. In turn, your M.Div. group is part of the much larger University of Notre Dame community. Members of both tend to be inclusive, interested in others, and inclined toward outreach beyond the narrow niche.
Our program especially invites increased participation by members of historically underrepresented groups and students somewhat older than traditional graduate school age.
In our community, lay ministry students and seminarians in the Congregation of Holy Cross (C.S.C.) study, work, and pray together. This prepares them well for the collaboration so vital to their futures in ministry. Meanwhile, aspects of spiritual formation for the two groups have their own appropriate focus.
Lay Ministry Formation Program
In our Lay Ministry Formation Program, your human and spiritual development are understood as essential toward promoting the personal qualities needed for ministry. Opportunities abound to work together, pray together, eat together, reflect together, and share faith.
"Formation is an essential part of the program. As students preparing for ministry in the Church, we are asked to consider four key areas of formation: human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral. Each of these has a part to play if we are to effectively spread the Gospel in our future service. While formation is a lifelong process, the M.Div. is a critical time where we are able to build a foundation for the rest of our lives. Not only does the program provide a full-time Formation Director, but students have the opportunity of having ongoing spiritual direction as well as peer feedback from others in our community. When students take advantage of this, it can enrich our education in ways that take learning far beyond the classroom."
--DAN ALLEN ('10)
Ordained Ministry Formation
For M.Div. students preparing for the ordained priesthood in the Congregation of Holy Cross, their religious order shapes and supervises their spiritual formation, although the vast majority of experiences in the M.Div. program are shared by the entire student community, in keeping with the collaborative model of church leadership that embraces both ordained ministry and lay ecclesial ministry.
