HOLY Spirit Provincial Seminary, Banyo, had six new lectors and two acolytes installed on September 9.
Bishop Michael Putney of Townsville presided at the Mass, and seminary rector Monsignor Tony Randazzo and spiritual director Fr Gerry Kalinowski concelebrated.
Christopher Ledwich, Neville Yun, Stanley Orji, Lawrence Uzoegbu and Robert Nixon were installed as lectors, and the new acolytes are Nigel Sequeira and Justus Igbo.
Bishop Putney gave the men some practical advice.
“Seminarians need to study so that they will have something to say … they need to learn skills to know how to say it well,” he said.
“They also have to pray in order to serve Christ himself and enable others to meet him through their words.
“The ordained ministry is a ministry of Word and Eucharist … Men are ordained so that they can help all others to discover Christ in the Word and the sacraments.”
Seminarian Robert Nixon said Bishop Putney “communicated the sense of awe and humility with which the person involved in ministry should approach his role”.
The ministry of lector involves the proclamation of the Word of God during liturgy while acolytes are charged with assisting in the distribution of the Blessed Sacrament as extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion.
Those gathered sang the seminary’s theme song based on a “Holy Spirit Prayer” written by the seminarians last year.
“In a sense the music ‘composed itself’ as a result of the natural dynamic and spiritual movement of the words,” Mr Nixon said of the song’s “collaborative” formation.
“The character of the song reflects a number of elements relevant to the seminary.
“There is a strong sense of movement forth, reflecting the missionary nature of the priesthood for which we are being formed, as well as the personal call to serve which involved setting forth into the unknown.
“There is also an invocation of the Holy Spirit who alone gives the courage and fortitude which makes the service of the Lord possible, despite our many human failings.
“(And) in the chorus most of the words are Latin, reflecting continuity with tradition and history.”
