Mission of The Rome Experience

The Rome Experience was founded in 2009 at the request and under the guidance of the Bishops’ Advisory Board. The program is designed for seminarians who have completed their first year of theology and the goal is to complement existing programs of formation in diocesan seminaries. As with the seminaries, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Program of Priestly Formation (5th ed., 2005) and Pope John Paul II’s Pastores Dabo Vobis (I Will Give You Shepherds, 1992) serve as the guiding documents of the program. The courses guide each seminarian to apply newly-acquired knowledge and insights to his own vocation.

The Rome Experience is an intensive six-week program during which each seminarian can reflect on and foster his original call to the priesthood as he prays and studies in the cradle of Christianity, beside the Chair of Peter and the saints. Additionally, each student will realize his true worth as a beloved son of the Church and develop confidence in his maturing spiritual and intellectual ability to live his vocation as a priest with complete dedication.

Following up the spiritual formation of the seminaries, the daily plan will encourage and support each seminarian’s desire for intimacy with Jesus Christ. This intimacy will help him identify with Jesus Christ, prepare him to live his life as “Alter Christus,” and understand how this intimacy benefits him, and his future flock, during his life as an active, working priest. The program will introduce the seminarians to the spirituality of St. Josemaria Escriva.

Program Overview

Spiritual Retreat at Ars, France
The Rome Experience begins with a silent, directed retreat in Ars, France at the Shrine of St. John Vianney, patron saint of parish priests. The retreat focuses on Christ’s presence in the Eucharist as the source and summit of the priestly life and emphasizes a personal, loving relationship with God through personal prayer, the lectio divina, and the celebration of the liturgy. The retreat provides time for reflection and rest for the body and mind to prepare the seminarians to fully absorb their spiritual pilgrimage to Rome, the cradle of Christianity.

Intellectual Formation
The Rome Experience offers a variety of courses accredited by the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. These courses are oriented toward a greater understanding of the Holy Mass, its early history, the foundations of the Roman Liturgy, and the early history of the Church in Rome. They are designed to help the future priests develop a strong theological foundation for their own spiritual lives and to understand their pastoral mission: to help them be holy so as to be leaven in the world.

Cultural Formation
The best way to understand how Christianity has shaped the past 2000 years of Western culture is to live and study in the City of Rome. Each week the seminarians will go to key artistic, architectural, and historical sites that show the development and traditions of Catholicism. Seminarians receive preparation for these visits so the sites can be more deeply understood and appreciated, and opportunity is available at each site for prayer, meditation, and reflection.