The Art of Accompaniment: Practical Steps for the Pastoral Mentor

by Sister Marysia Weber, RSM, DO, MA, and Troy Stefano, PhD

The Art of Accompaniment: Practical Steps for the Pastoral Mentor presents an integral approach to formation during the vocational synthesis stage, weaving together the human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral dimensions of priestly preparation. This works responds to the Church’s vision articulated in Pastores Dabo Vobis, Ratio Fundamentalis, and the Program of Priestly Formation (6th edition), offering formators a comprehensive framework for accompanying transitional deacons in their final preparation for priesthood.
 
The book’s structure mirrors the organic nature of integral formation itself.
 
Part 1—spanning Chapters 1-2—establishes the theological and anthropological foundations necessary for authentic accompaniment, inducting readers into formation as an encounter with both the mystery of the person and the mystery of vocation. Drawing particularly on Saint John Paul II’s understanding of affective maturity, Part 1 prepares mentors to engage in formation as a sacred art that demands both reverence for mystery and practical wisdom. These chapters present the vision of integral formation and affective maturity in the vocational synthesis stage that serve as the foundation for the rest of the work.
 
Part 2 focuses on the parish as a community of formation where the pastoral mentor (Chapter 3) and parish staff (Chapter 4) form a constellation of formative roles and structures that indispensably support the transitional deacon’s integral formation. 
 
Part 3—which includes Chapters 5-6—explores the irreducibly relational character of formation, recognizing that authentic accompaniment requires transformation in both mentor and mentee. These chapters provide concrete strategies and skills for formative dialogue, while emphasizing that such tools must always serve the deeper process of interior transformation. Here, mentors learn to create and sustain formative relationships that foster genuine growth in pastoral charity and priestly identity.
 
Part 4 presents the Church’s benchmarks for evaluating progress in formation (Chapter 7), offering these not merely as assessment tools but as living markers of the integral vision to which we are called. These benchmarks serve as practical guideposts for discerning growth while embodying the Church’s understanding of formation as a unified journey of discipleship toward priesthood.
 
This work seeks to provide formators with both a synthetic vision of integral formation and practical tools for implementation. By integrating theological wisdom with concrete guidance, it enables mentors to accompany transitional deacons through the vital process of vocational synthesis, helping them integrate their years of formation into a coherent priestly identity. The book stands as an essential resource for those charged with forming priests who can effectively serve the Church in our contemporary world, always in fidelity to the Church’s vision of priestly formation.
 
Paperback: $14.95 | Kindle: $9.99
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Sr. Marysia Weber, RSM, DO, MA

Sister Marysia Weber is a Religious Sister of Mercy of Alma, MI.  She is a physician, certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.  She completed her residency and fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.  She received the Howard P. Rome, MD Writing and Clinical Research Award-Mayo Clinic, Department of Psychiatry and Psychology. She holds a master’s degree in theology from Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana.  She practiced psychiatry at her religious institute’s multidisciplinary medical clinic, Sacred Heart Mercy Health Care Center in Alma, MI from 1988-2014. She has served as a psychological expert consultant for the Secretariat of Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations, USCCB.  She became the Director of the Office of Consecrated Life for the Archdiocese of Saint Louis in 2014. She served as facilitator for Rachel’s Vineyard, and as an executive board member of the Saint Louis Guild Catholic Medical Association. She served on the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council, Review Board and Safe Environment Board. She also served as Clinical Instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis, Missouri. She continues her work as chair of the board of directors of MyCatholicDoctor and with the Seminary Formation Council forming seminary formators in the Art of Accompaniment. She was recently missioned to Tulsa, OK and serves as vice president of mission and ministry and co-chair of the ethics committee for San Francis Health System.

Dr. Weber offers workshops on a variety of topics including human attachment, boundaries and character development, depression and anxiety, dialogue and conflict resolution, as well as on social media and its effects on the brain for clergy, seminarians, women’s and men’s religious communities, parents, teachers and students. She presents on Internet pornography addiction—a Catholic approach to treatment to bishops, clergy, seminarians, religious communities, and laity throughout the United States and Europe. She presented to the U.S. Bishops in Dallas TX in 1992 on “Pedophilia and Other Addictions”.  She was a member of the USCCB Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse in 1994-1995.  Dr. Weber has presented to the Curia, Vatican City State on “Sexual Abuse of Minors by Clergy in North America” in 2002.

Dr Weber has published a second editionof her book: The Art of Accompaniment: Practical Steps for the Seminary Formator which incorporates aspects of the transformational focus of the Program for Priestly Formation, 6th edition (https://enroutebooksandmedia.com/artofaccompaniment/

Her bookScreen Addiction: Why You Can’t Put that Phone Downnow also available in Spanish (https://enroutebooksandmedia.com/screenaddiction/) describes how excess screen time alters the brain and offers many practicals to address these effects.  

She also has two chapters in Spiritual Husband-Spiritual Fathers: Priestly Formation for the 21st Century including:“Guideposts for the Seminary Formator in Understanding and Assessing Levels of Preoccupation with Use of Internet Pornography and a Formative Process for Moving from Vice to Virtue” https://enroutebooksandmedia.com/spiritualhusbands/).

Her other publications include “Medical Aspects of Addiction”; “The Roman Catholic Church and the Sexual Abuse of Minors by Priests and Religious in the United States and Canada: What Have We Learned? Where Are We Going?”; “Pornography, Electronic Media and Priestly Formation” in Homiletic and Pastoral Review. Her publications in Seminary Journal include: “Significant Markers of Human Maturation Applied to the Selection and Formation of Seminarians”; “The Discernment of a Priestly Vocation and the Expertise of Psychiatry and Psychology”; and “Internet Pornography and Priestly Formation: Medium and Content Collide with the Human Brain”.

Troy Stefano, PhD

St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary
Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology
B.A., History, St. Thomas University, Miami Gardens, FL
M.T.S., History of Christianity, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN
Ph.D., History of Christianity and Systematic Theology, University of Notre

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