The start of the 2006-2007 academic year, of the Seminary at Mount St Benedict, was celebrated with a special Mass and dinner on Friday September 15.

Archbishop Gilbert presided at the Mass and among the many concelebrants were the Rector Msgr Michael de Verteuil, vice rector Fr Robert Llanos, lecturer Fr Arnold Francis, Frs Michael Makhan, Henri Brenon and Christian Pineau FMI, Carmelite Fr Garth Eversley and Dominican Fr Dwight Black.

Beginnings are a time of formation. This was essentially the theme of the first part of the homily delivered by Archbishop Gilbert. He reminded us that the Seminary is different from all other academic institutions in that the aim of the Seminary is not just to produce academic priests and laity, but to produce holistic human beings.

For that reason, there are programmes to develop the human, the emotional and the spiritual aspects of all those in formation. The goal of this formation is always to make one more open to the power of God.

 In this regard, Archbishop Gilbert touched on the fact that Jesus’ own availability to His mission was to be a sign of our response to His call. Referring to the Gospel reading (Matthew 9: 35-10: 5), he said that Jesus did not get stuck in one place but moved when the need arose.

He then invited all present, priests, religious, seminarians, students, and visitors to see themselves as called by God to be His prophets. We must be open to God’s and the Church’s call, wherever it leads us. We must be willing to leave everything behind to follow Jesus’ invitation to serve in His harvest. We must never get stuck in a place of comfort.

Beginnings are a time for challenge and reward. This was shown in a very practical way during the Mass. Our hours of preparation with the choir, readers, the servers and those doing the prayers paid off beautifully.

With participation from persons representing the different cultures in the seminary, there was a truly Caribbean, even a universal feel. There were persons from Suriname to Liberia, from Canada to Guyana. There were priests, religious and laity, students and formators, young and not so young, men and women, all gathered to sing the praises of God.

Beginnings are times of thanksgiving. In this regard, we wish to thank all those who celebrated this opening Mass with us. We thank Archbishop Gilbert for his support and powerful words of motivation.

We thank all the clergy and religious who travelled far and wide to be with us on that special day. We thank all the external students who sacrificed time and other duties to join us in prayer.

Most of all, we thank God who called us to this time of new beginning. I pray that this year, we will all be faithful to this call, a call to newness, a call to a beginning.