Only in the raising of our minds and hearts to God in prayer can we advance in the life to which the Lord calls us. We cannot grow in intimacy with Jesus, we cannot know how to represent Jesus Christ and his teachings to the Church and to the world unless we are growing in fidelity to prayer. There is another reason, existential if you will, why prayer is deliberately and consistently placed first in seminary life. Given human nature, especially in our ever faster and more secular society, where efficiency and utility are the measure of life, spending time with God in prayer has become much more of a struggle. The seminarian, as a graduate student in a renowned university, might feel, like the busy priest, that he has no time for prayer unless he conscientiously and deliberately makes intimacy with Jesus Christ in prayer his first priority each day.
Prayer is twofold, public and private.
Both are crucial. Public prayer finds expression in the Liturgy of the Church, namely the Eucharist and the Liturgy of the Hours. The liturgy has always been the Church's major opportunity for forming and educating the people of God. That is true in a parish, where for most people the only common experience of faith is the gathering for the Eucharist on Sundays and feasts. Above all it is true in a seminary where future priests are learning to sustain worshipping communities in parishes, primarily through what happens when the people gather for the Eucharist.