The Theology Department held her second departmental lecture on the 4th of December, 2018 in the Seminary auditorium on the topic: THE CENTRALITY OF INTERIOR LIFE IN THE FORMATION OF PRIESTLY IDENTITY. A lecture was delivered and moderated by Sr. Mariam Anyanwu DCC and Rev. Fr. Wilfred Kouijzer SMA respectively.

This topic is not only suitable because it is one of the focuses of formation for this year but more, as Sr. Anyanwu calls it “an integral part of priestly life”.

Sr. Anyanwu took time to analyse the process of priestly formation, the place and responses of the individual being formed in ensuring a holistic formation imbued and patterned on the person and character of Christ.

She identified interior life as the foundation of a contemplative life, a life required of priests and those in training to the sacred priesthood. Interior life entails an introspection not just to discover the self for the self, but rather finding who we ought to be, especially in the eyes of God. Put more simply, she calls it a life that seeks God, an inward search, and the practice of living in the presence of God. This interiority, she said, manifests in the exterior well being, just as the proper functioning of the internal organs of an individual is manifested in the physical appearance of that individual.

This lecture provoked several intelligent questions which were attended to. But the most interesting question is: how can an individual’s interior life be accurately evaluated since it is a spiritual engagement? Amidst various interventions, the answer to the question is summarized in the statement: “By their fruits, we shall know them”.