Course XLIV - Teaching 7: Director of Seminary

A Director of Seminary is a living image of Observance and of duties of life in Community.
He guides the young souls that enter the Seminary with love, understanding, common sense and steady hand, since they will achieve their perfect spiritual Renunciation in accordance with how they start their life in Community.
The entire life in Community will depend on how the Son lives in the Seminary. A Director of Seminary should not forget that the Son delivered to him leaves at that moment any worldly possession that so far had been his entire good; he leaves habits, family, circle and affections, and suddenly is taken to a great loneliness where he just finds his Director, who while on the one hand softens the grief of the just arrived Son, on the other hand begins working on that person who must be deprived of all his own things and transformed into a new person in any sense.
In the Seminary, the soul passes every stage of the spiritual life: purgative (past life); illuminative (present life); and unitive (future life), depending of the design of God.
During these few months, or during the year, the Son lives a life that first is super-tense and later super-emotional, and at the end, he reaches a necessary and indispensable relaxation for a definitive surrender of the soul to God.
A Director has to take part in an objective way in these states and quick changes of the Son that has been entrusted to him, and should to adapt him to them without any rupture; he guides his soul but does not touch it: by making use more of his intention than of his action. The more you touch a rose, the more it is withered.
A Director removes obstacles from the way of the Son; he leads him to understand the immense and subtle value of the life of perfection that he embraced, tries to help adapt himself to that fundamental change, spiritual and organic, effected in his life, and little by little leads him to possess the great secret of life in Community: “He leads the Son to conquer great patience before an illusory and fleeting time; this is an attitude entirely unknown to the world, and he teaches him to achieve, through daily repetition of the same external actions, the trend to the inner expansive duration of the Eternity”. He engraves in the mind and heart of the Son the key words: silence, patience and routine. A Director of Seminary is not only reflects vividly the Observance, but also the very image of the Divine Mother for his Seminarians: what he says is the law and a holy formula to them.
A Director will teach the Sons customs, uses and new behavior to adopt. He does not teach everything suddenly, but little by little, but uninterruptedly: it is important for the Son to adapt himself in a spontaneous way to his new life and to practice his lessons as an habit of life, not as an effort of his will.
As the Son adapts himself to the Life of Community, the Director of Seminary becomes more demanding and imposes more discipline in everything.
Then, discipline must be continuous, hard and steady; he must remember that the Sons are called to achieve an extraordinary work, whether in Cafh or in the world, and this demands strenuous sacrifices and uncommon trials, and only discipline enables to resist when necessary, otherwise, a person succumbs when is not in the habit of being opposed to his own comfort.
The habit of immobility is the most effective auxiliary of discipline.
The Son must ever look down, and his face has to be calm, and his aspect affable. Even though he is tired, his back has to remain erect, not leaning on walls or backs of seats, and they must get up from their seats in one movement.
Their hands must remain immobile when they do not work, and while they walk, their hands have to be on their crossed arms and hidden.
Since the Sons must disappear as men to live as souls, they will forget entirely their past in the Seminary after the backward survey of their lives. To this purpose, they never have to name their relatives, origin, former activities or age. Chronological age stops at the Seminary and just the years devoted to the Divine Mother are taken into account. Also, in order to disappear, they should not be conspicuous and have to walk always in silence, not to move to-and-fro, not to be noisy, not to slam doors and not to walk in the middle of the streets or corridors. Even their physical persons have to dissolve, and this is easier if they behave in silence and without notoriety, slide along walls and always give way to others.
The Director of Seminary will instruct the Sons not to keep souvenirs, letters, family photos or loved objects. None must laugh at the newcomers because of their awkward demeanor or their shaved heads.
A Director is like a drop of water boring the rock; his work never stops. He teaches through his word and his example, by instructing with love, sweetness and steadiness, and corrects continuously.
A Director of Seminary, as an expert in souls, has to inspire trust in the Seminarians and they will open their souls. Certain Sons say all; a word, a glance or a gesture is enough, and they go to the Superior and open their souls, but communication is difficult for other souls and they suffer because of this incapacity. It is necessary to pay much attention to these souls so that they may feel obliged –by love and sweetness– to surrender to the Director.
The Director must keep the Seminarians entirely separated from the regular Community, and has to supervise them constantly and closely. If possible, the Seminarians must be entirely separated from the rest of the Community: their departments (rooms, living room and refectory) must be separate. When the Sons are at their particular rooms, the Director shall go and observe their behavior, even in hours of rest.
When the Sons go out of the Seminary to make a work or to learn an office, the Director will see that the Son treats only the Son destined to teach him.
In days of festivity, when Seminarians meet together with the Community, the Director shall keep them near to him and authorize them just to answer to eventual questions, but they will not converse.
The Director of Seminary has to show to the Sons the treasures of life in Community. The soul is not aware of graces and blessings of the Ordination in a cloister, and he must discover them to the Son. Over all, he discovers to the Son the treasure of continuous silence. As this great silence enters the Son and harms and hurts him, he warns him that this is the first hour of peace, later followed by many other hours of peace and inner happiness.
The Director of Seminary teaches the Son the secret of patience. Every man is creative; but eagerness and haste consume those energies that shape the creative idea: just patience that renounces of the joy of ideation leaves the idea resting in abeyance and becoming reality.
The Director teaches the Son he secret of routine. As days pass by and inner relaxation begins in the Seminary, the son experiences an enormous tiredness that is more psychical than physical. This tiredness, transformed through routine, strengthens his soul, and is the beginning of a true contempt of the world and its illusions.
The Director teaches the Son the secret of fidelity and conquest of the expansive time. The Son losses any support: his life becomes totally different, things are reverted; and spiritual and human things become unpleasant. Then the Director leads the Son to lean on his own nothing: his renunciation becomes his greatness; his detachment is his faith; and the certainty of his insignificance is his strength. Then the Son becomes unshakeable through fidelity.
The Director teaches the Son the secret of perfect obedience, which takes him out of the human aspect and leads him to live in the divine aspect; he teaches him the secret of true blessedness, which is bliss before any little thing of life and appreciation of any insignificant thing; and he teaches him to be in need of nothing in order to achieve all. Through obedience, the Son removes worries and substitutes them for permanent blessedness.
The Director of Seminary will impart to the Sons an accurate knowledge of the Doctrine and Regulation of Cafh, so that they have clear ideas in this sense, not to be deviated from them and to avoid wrong or different notions.
The Director will lead the Sons to know the Interpretations and obligations of Vows that they will take, fulfilling, loving and living them during all the rest of their lives.