The formation program for the men in the configuration stage presupposes a foundational formation received from college or the discipleship stage of priestly formation. Therefore, the aim of St. Mary’s Discipleship Stage Program is to garner the philosophical foundations necessary for the work of formation at the theologate stage.

Regarding the unity of the divine essence, we must first believe that God exists. This is a truth clearly known by reason. We observe that all things that move are moved by other things, the lower by the higher. The elements are moved by heavenly bodies; and among the elements themselves, the stronger moves the weaker; and even among the heavenly bodies, the lower are set in motion by the higher. This process cannot be traced back into infinity. For everything that is moved by another is a sort of instrument of the first mover...Accordingly there must be a first mover that is above all the the rest; and this being we call God.

-Thomas Aquinas, Compendium Theologiae