Action-reflection-action is a process not reserved to just three weeks of village stay or regular Friday village visits during the year. It is something that runs right through the year when the seminarians are with us. Class room lectures are applied to the concerns and the needs of the context. Based on this method, the seminary endeavours to form affectively wholesome priests and religious who will be spiritually mature and intellectually competent. In the overall training and formation great care is taken to develop personal conviction about one’s priestly and religious responsibility and accountability.
The seminary provides an atmosphere of love, freedom and mutual trust which is fostered through occasional community building programmes, daily meditation and celebration of the liturgy of which the source is often the life experience (in the village, especially) and the class room lectures. The students are trained and encouraged to prepare and conduct appropriate methods of meditation to help their self-expression and benefit the community at large.
Similarly, attempts are made, under proper guidance, to introduce variety to the liturgical celebrations through active participation, which would suit the different times of the year and meet the challenges of the community’s life context.
Moreover, the seminarians are made to involve themselves actively in the day to day life and running of the seminary by giving them responsible leadership jobs, like shopping and kitchen-store keeping etc.
Theological education is given a strong missionary dimension, emphasizing the concept of being sent by Jesus, even as He himself was sent by the Father.
Constant listening to God’s Word is mediated for us through various events of history culminating in the momentous event of Jesus Christ and articulated in terms of symbols, world-views and liberating action.
Reflecting on the word thus being listened to, and trying to live and actualize its meaning and message – these three form the essential aspects of the theological training which is expected to produce and maintain a chain process of action-reflection-action during the entire period of training.
Pastoral formation, missionary orientation and a capacity to contextual theologizing are threefold objectives of such a programme of training.
Therefore, KPRT’s programme of studies and activities enable future evangelizers to develop creative ministries to address the concerns of the context. It is in this way, our future leaders will get to know their people and come to understand their “joys and sorrows, their hopes and anxieties” and become what their vocation bids them always to be: “a sign and sacrament of Christ’s love – Khrist Premalaya.”
Further, the seminary aspires to intensify the missionary fire and enthusiasm and makes them proficient to adapt themselves to the emerging challenges, the society and their ministry might call forth.
In this way the academic studies are integrated with practical field experiences, the modalities of which are envisaged in the following way.