Future Priests of the Third Millennium

A little insight into the life of seminarians from various dioceses preparing for ministry as Roman Catholic priests, including daily activities, personal interests, special events, the spiritual life, news from the seminary, and almost whatever comes to our minds!



Monday, November 03, 2008

Human Formation


The Church asks men preparing for the priesthood to ready themselves in four separate areas: humanly, spiritually, intellectually, and pastorally. These subheadings are largely self-explanatory. We study, we learn to pray, and then to pray better. We learn how to minister to God's people in a variety of ways. Human formation, however, becomes something of a catch-all category. Under it fall such topics as manners, grooming, personality, dress, weight, the ability to converse and a variety of other things. For me, of late, the pressing issue of human formation has been my habit of nail biting.

I have done it for years. I often do not even notice I am doing it until someone else makes mention of it. Recently, though, I decided it was time to quit. Knowing myself and my weak will, I determined that I would need assistance. For this reason, I acquired a foul little bottle of the most terrible tasting concoction I have ever encountered. I apply it to my fingernails on a daily basis. It has helped significantly, but not without its costs.

Besides having particularly shiny fingernails, the taste of this liquid gets on everything. From my fingers it transfers to my french fries, to my drinking glass, even to my lips. While I have avoided biting my nails, the dreadful stuff seems to be everywhere. Such, I guess, is the price I pay for a bad habit. I know that this small inconvenience now will preserve me from the embarrassment of gnawing on my hands in public throughout the future. Nevertheless, I am not sure I see the advantage of well manicured hands just now.

2 comments:

J. Thorp said...

My dad used to threaten us with cleaning the stalls, the dog kennel, whatever was most disgusting -- so that our nails weren't so "appetizing" ...

I wish you luck, Deacon!

Anonymous said...

Tyler,
I concur. Nail biting is a nasty habit. I too, have been trying here lately to stop. I generally try and allow all the nails to grow but the thumb. I let myself bite that one. Sometimes they get real short. As for the liquid stuff, as a small girl, my mother put something like that on my thumb to stop me from sucking it. It didn't work. I would eventually just suck all the icky stuff and then I could go on sucking happily.

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