The IPF Summer Program
Introducing an updated curriculum that meets the dynamic needs of seminarians.
The Church has envisioned an integrated priestly formation that leads seminarians into an intimate, lifelong personal relationship with Jesus Christ. In response, the Institute for Priestly Formation is introducing in 2025 an updated Summer Program for Seminarians that more sharply focuses on supporting men entering into the Configuration Stage, which is both intense and contemplative. The summer program aims to solidify a way of life rooted in communion with the Trinity and exercised in generous priestly service in union with the Good Shepherd.
Primary changes:
- Deepening and expanding the formation already received in the earlier stages of formation
- Shifting from nine to six weeks
- Honing the program into one integrated curriculum instead of four distinct courses
- Offering a certificate program at Creighton University in place of graduate-level credits
Essential continuity:
- Personal relational prayer as the foundation for identity
- Discernment of spirits for daily life
- Silent, individually directed eight-day retreat
- Commitment to daily personal prayer
- Accompaniment in individual contemplative spiritual direction
- Forming fraternity in liturgical prayer and community living
- Based at Creighton University in Omaha, where IPF has flourished for thirty years
Mark your calendar for IPF Summer Program 2025: May 25 – July 5, 2025
- $5,080.00, Programming Costs
- $1,680.00, Housing Costs (6 weeks)
- $6,760.00, Total for participants (not including meal plan)
- $1,194.00 – 21 meals per week in dining hall
- $960.00 – Any 14 meals per week in dining hall
Strengthening the Foundation
Watch the full video.
What’s changing?
Learn more about what changes are in store, beginning with the 2025 program.
The eight-day silent directed retreat
Learn more from Kenrick-Glennon Seminary President-Rector Fr. Paul Hoesing about the impact of the eight-day silent directed retreat.
The transition from the discipleship to configuration
Learn more from Father James Rafferty, S.T.D., IPF’s director of Spiritual Formation about the transition from the discipleship to configuration stage.
Our Hope for the Impact of the Curriculum
Learn more from IPF’s Executive Director Father Brian Welter and Kenrick-Glennon Seminary President-Rector Fr. Paul Hoesing about our hope for the curriculum impact on seminarians and the church.
FAQs
How will the Summer Program curriculum change?
The revised summer program will continue to share the essential content that IPF has offered for many years. Since the beginning of IPF, this content has been developed and honed within IPF’s existing programs. For example, IPF presents many of the same themes in the programs for priests; however, the depth of the teaching and the capacity to receive are richer for those in the priests’ programs. This same depth applies to those seminarians who desire to build on the foundation they have received in the propaedeutic experience and the discipleship stage.
Can seminarians still receive college credits for attending the Summer Program?
The revised Summer Program will be a certificate program within Creighton University. Unlike in the past, it will no longer include four distinct graduate-level courses. Instead, IPF will offer one integrated curriculum that prepares the men to live a prayerful, discerning, priestly life rooted in personal communion with the Trinity and a stable awareness of their identity as priests.
Will seminarians still receive individualized spiritual direction?
The Summer Program will continue to be rooted in daily prayer and regular accompaniment in spiritual direction. The seminarians also benefit from a liturgical and communal life as brothers in formation. Seminarians have always been grateful for the fraternity forged by sharing liturgy and community life over the weeks of the summer.
Will the Summer Program still include a retreat?
Yes. The Summer Program will continue emphasizing relational prayer, discernment of spirits, and priestly identity. The core of the summer will be a silent, individually directed eight-day retreat.
Will the Summer Program still be in Omaha?
Yes. It will continue to be based on the campus of Creighton University in Omaha, with access to its residence hall, dining hall, church, classroom space, and athletic and recreation facilities.