The Jubilee of Seminarians celebrates the gift of God’s call to the priesthood and priestly formation. It is an opportunity for the Church to renew her commitment to form priests after the heart of the Good Shepherd and encourage others to respond generously to Christ’s call. Through this Jubilee event we are reminded of the need for seminarians to be formed to know and love the Word of God, proclaim the Gospel with love and truth (1 Cor. 13:6), and to deepen a love for Jesus in the grace of the Holy Spirit. Aware of the multiple and diverse societies and cultures of our age, they will bring the proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ for the salvation of the world.
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, thank you for calling men to your holy priesthood.
Guide with your Holy Spirit those you have chosen and who have responded.
Strengthen in them the virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity to imitate your Son Jesus Christ.
Deepen in them a love for your grace communicated to us through the sacraments, and give them a longing for Eternal Life with You.
TEACHING
Fulfilling Jeremiah’s prophecy, “I will give you shepherds after my own heart” (Jer. 3:15), the Lord continues to call men to the priesthood to be spiritual shepherds after His own Heart.
Without priests the Church would not be able to fulfil her mission and faithfully respond to the call of Christ: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19) and “Do this in remembrance of me” (Lk 22:19; c.f. 1 Cor 11:24). Seminarians are formed to respond generously to this call through the gift of Holy Orders. By this Sacrament of service, they will announce the Gospel and offer the daily sacrifice of the Mass. (Pope John Paul II’s Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, Pastores Dabo Vobis, on the Formation of Priests in the Circumstances of the Present Day, 1992, n.2)
It belongs to the Church’s mission to “care for the birth, discernment and fostering of vocations, particularly those to the priesthood.” (ibid., n.13) The entire Christian Community is called to “advance and spread a vocational culture within the People of God,” (Congregation for Catholic Education – Pontifical Work for Priestly Vocations, Pastoral Guidelines for Fostering Vocations to Priestly Ministry, 2012, n.13). Seminarians are the fruit of the Church’s response to the Lord’s call to send labourers into his harvest (c.f. Mt 9:8; Lk 10:2). Together the People of God collaborate in the work of caring for the next generation of priests, by which the Church is fed with the word and grace of God (Lumen Gentium, 1964, n.11)
“2. The formation of future priests, both diocesan and religious, and lifelong assiduous care for their personal sanctification in the ministry and for the constant updating of their pastoral commitment is considered by the Church one of the most demanding and important tasks for the future of the evangelization of humanity.
“The Church’s work of formation is a continuation in time of Christ’s own work, which the evangelist Mark illustrates in these words: “And he went up on the mountain, and called to him those whom he desired; and they came to him. And he appointed twelve, to be with him, and to be sent out to preach and have authority to cast out demons” (Mk 3:13-15).” (Pastores Dabo Vobis, on the Formation of Priests in the Circumstances of the Present Day, Pope John Paul II, 1992).
Among the many vocations that the Holy Spirit never ceases to call forth in the People of God, the vocation to the ministerial priesthood calls one to “participate in the hierarchical priesthood of Christ” (Optatam Totius, Pope Paul VI, 1965, n.2) and to be united with Him “to feed the Church in Christ’s name with the word and the grace of God” (Lumen Gentium, n.11).
The vocation to the ministerial priesthood is at the service of the common priesthood of the baptised, by which the baptismal grace of all Christians is nurtured and affirmed (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n.1120).
TESTIMONY
Daniel O’Kelly was in his last year of university in 2019 when he returned to confession for the first time in years. “Through the priest I heard the words of Christ and everything changed. “I was searching so long for God and meaning, but he was actually searching for me, he desired a relationship with me.”
Daniel entered seminary in 2021 and was placed on a short Advent placement at St Catherine’s in 2022, where he initially ran the idea of a new confessional to Fr Greg Morgan and drew up an initial design.
“In my own life, it was a long time before I came back to confession, and it was when I was most desperate. I had tried to live on my own instead of opening myself up to the infinite grace of God, where he was always already waiting. The space that’s been created, I really wanted beauty to lead and to draw people in. It’s incredible to think this is a structured piece of a building like any other, but within, a miracle happens.”
Daniel completed the new confessional, now at St. Catherine’s, and will continue his seminary studies in Rome this year.
– Daniel O’Kelly, Archdiocese of Sydney (From The Catholic Weekly). Image courtesy Giovanni Portelli/The Catholic Weekly, Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney.
PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION
For all diocesan and religious seminarians studying for the priesthood, that they be blessed with faith, hope, and love to imitate Jesus Christ in His life and death for the salvation of souls.
We pray to the Lord.
For all seminarians, that they receive the grace of trust in the Lord’s abiding love for them. May they surrender the anxieties of the world for true freedom in the Holy Spirit.
We pray to the Lord.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Pope John Paul II’s Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, Pastores Dabo Vobis, on the Formation of Priests in the Circumstances of the Present Day (1992).
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