The Integral Formation method of education aims to help each student fulfill the mission for which he was created, developing a personal and intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. Christ becomes the ultimate motive for all the student’s choices and actions. The student’s intellectual and human growth moves closer to perfection through God’s grace and the student’s spiritual efforts. Spiritual formation is an ongoing process of conversion. The goal of the spiritual formation program is to help all the students develop an authentic spiritual life. Their thoughts and actions are influenced by a Christian view of the human person and of the world.
Within the context of spiritual formation, daily mass plays a key role in allowing for the necessary space for the student to grow spiritually. The student is introduced into the liturgy by means of brief homilies, hymns and following the mass with missals. Thus, active participation is highly encouraged so that each student may come to understand and enjoy the riches of this sacrament.
Grace Through Fuller Appreciation of the Sacraments
Students attend daily Mass and have ready access to the Sacrament of Confession.
Many students have never had this opportunity before so Dublin Oak includes both of these sacraments early in Catholic Formation lessons so that students may gain more graces through a fuller appreciation of them.
Confirmation is a Sacrament through which we receive the Holy Ghost to make us strong and perfect Christians and soldiers of Jesus Christ.
In Baptism we are made Christians, but we are not very strong in our faith till the Holy Ghost comes in Confirmation. You remember how timid the Apostles were before the coming of the Holy Ghost, and how firm and determined in their faith they were afterwards; and how fearlessly they preached even to those who crucified Our Lord. Soldiers, because we must fight for our salvation against our three enemies, the devil, the world, and the flesh. Our Lord is our great leader in this warfare, and we must follow Him and fight as He directs. A soldier that fights as he pleases and not as his general commands, will surely be beaten
Through frequent periodic counseling, the members of the spiritual formation team seek to encourage each student’s personal development in general as well as his spiritual growth. The student is entrusted to a religious in this task in order to achieve the goal intended more thoroughly and in a more personal and attentive manner. The student, however, is free to speak to any counselor or to choose one for this purpose.
We continue the Catholic tradition of making pilgrimages by an annual trip to the National Marian Shrine at Knock. More than just a cultural outing it is lived as a spiritual encounter.
In the other trips around Europe, we make a point to visit the great sites of devotion particularly on the trip to Italy, by spending days in Rome, visiting churches and going to see the Pope.
