Seminarians begin Formation Year with Recollection on Forming Hearts for Christ

NAGA CITY – Seminarians of the Holy Rosary Major Seminary held their first monthly recollection for Formation Year 2025–2026 last July 4–5, centered on the theme “Forming Hearts for Christ: Pathways to a Shepherd’s Love.”

Inspired by Pope Leo XIV’s meditation “With the Heart of Christ,” the recollection focused on cultivating a deep interior life, highlighting the Seminary as a “school of affections.”

The recollection began Friday evening with a Penitential Rite and confession led by Fr. Jhun Oliva, guest confessors, and the Seminary’s spiritual directors.

Fr. Xavier Amoroso, Coordinator of Spiritual and Liturgical Formation, facilitated the two-part recollection. In the first session, he outlined the goals of the spiritual gathering: deepening prayer life, growing in affective maturity, sharpening discernment, and becoming compassionate pastors. He emphasized embracing weaknesses as sources of grace and being “bridges, not obstacles” to Christ.

Saturday’s session explored the theme “Inner Sanctuary: Cultivating a Profound Interior Life.” Through interactive activities like the “Stillness Jar,” “Breath Prayer Corner,” and “Heart’s Echo” wall, seminarians were guided in creating space for silence, prayer, and interior renewal.

The day included moments for personal reflection and class sharing. The recollection concluded with a mass, presided by Fr. Amoroso. In his homily, he likened the start of a new formation year to a fresh, clean notebook—open for God to write something new. Drawing from the Gospel’s image of “new wine in fresh wineskins,” he urged the seminarians to welcome renewal not just outwardly but from within.

He closed by encouraging them to “begin again today”—ready to be formed and reformed for the mission ahead.

Source: Holy Rosary Major Seminary Facebook page