Welcome!
The Institute for Priestly Formation is committed to serving seminarians, priests, and bishops throughout the stages of their formation and ministry. The heart of the call to ordained service is personal intimacy with the Lord. One of the most important elements of priestly formation is personal accompaniment. IPF’s programs and retreats keep the focus on this relationship with God, which undergirds everything the priest does. IPF helps people to discern the faithful presence of the Lord in their lives as well as the interference and obstacles of the worldly spirit, so that they might keep growing in union with the Lord. The Institute for Priestly Formation exists to serve the vital need for accompaniment in the spiritual life, specifically for the Church’s shepherds. Now, more than ever, there is a need for priests to be served in their own journey of faith so that they may always draw from their deep friendship with the Lord for themselves as they minister to others.
The Church longs for priests who can share Jesus, not just conceptually, but as a living witness who cherishes the virtues of the Lord, bearing Jesus’ own compassion and mercy toward others. The Church also yearns for priests who can help the faithful to grow in personal relationship with the Lord. IPF’s programs and retreats are designed to nourish and strengthen the interior lives of diocesan seminarians, priests, and bishops, but the wider Church receives immeasurable fruit when their shepherd is united to the Good Shepherd in everything he does. On this website, you will find the current offerings through which the Institute for Priestly Formation seeks to help priests to live in the deepest possible union with the Lord. Please pray for this ministry!
Father James Rafferty
Interim Executive Director
Director of Spiritual Formation
Institute for Priestly Formation
The Institute for Priestly Formation was founded in 1994 and since that time has provided programs for over 3,600 seminarians and over 1,500 priests in addition to serving bishops, vocation directors, and seminary personnel.
Our Mission and Vision Statements capture the heart of why we exist and where we are going.
If you would like to support the work of IPF, you can make a donation here.