Chapel Dedication
 The
dedication of a church, like baptism, confirmation and ordination, is a rite
that is enacted only once. And just as these sacraments mark a new stage in the
life of the Christian, so too the rite of dedication points to a new and
characteristic moment in the life of a community, especially a seminary
community.
 After two years of restoration work, the new
seminary chapel was dedicated by Archbishop George Pell on 2 March 2000. The
chapel proudly bears the name of Corpus Christi Chapel, the name that was most
popular among staff and students of the seminary.
The Archbishop emphasised to the seminarians that the day’s ceremonies
were not just empty ritual but pregnant with symbols and grace.
The intention of the ceremonies was to remind the seminary community that they
form part of the whole body of Christ. The building of living stones, which St
Paul teaches, makes a spiritual house offering spiritual sacrifices. Only
regular prayer will make the chapel a holy place and a power station for the
dioceses it serves.
During the Mass of dedication the relics of four saints and beati were enclosed
in the chapel’s altar:
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St Francis of Assisi, who spent more than half of his
forty-one years in solitude, was never ordained a priest. Nonetheless, as a
deacon he delighted in being involved in the liturgy of the Church. Francis had
much to say on the dignity and importance of the priesthood and urged his
brother priests to offer the sacrifice of the Lord’s most sacred body and
blood with a holy and pure intention.
He also said a priest’s motivation should not be mundane or arise from
human considerations, for the priestly ministry is more honourable than any
other on the earth. Indeed, he maintained that Christ is reborn in the holiness
of priests’ lives.
“Above all the grace and the gifts that Christ gives to his
beloved is that of overcoming self.”
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St Thomas Aquinas is affectionately known among certain of the
seminary staff, who may or may not specialise in philosophy and moral theology,
as “every seminarian’s favourite saint.” St Thomas’
magnificent theology is especially distilled in the hymns and prayers he wrote
for the feast of Corpus Christi, including the hymn from which the college
motto, De Te Vivere is taken.
Archbishop Pell drew on the example of this saint’s faith, piety,
intellectual genius and application to enable priests to preach and teach
effectively.
“Reason in man is rather like God in the world.”
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Alojzije Stepinac was one of the great confessors of the Catholic
faith in our time and died in 1960 after spending fifteen of his twenty-two
years episcopacy in prison and under house arrest.
Cardinal Stepinac challenged the totalitarianism of the Nazis and communists and
refused to sever the Catholic Church in Croatia from the Holy See. He led his
people by the silent sermon of his unwavering faith.
“I know what my duty is. With the grace of God, I will carry it
out to the end without hatred towards anyone, and without fear from
anyone.”
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Teresa of Culcutta’s relic was included among the saints
without apology by the Archbishop. (The consecration of the altar occurred some
three years before Mother Teresa’s beatification in 2003.) Archbishop
Pell observed that she is rightly acknowledged as one of the most influential
women of the twentieth century and her service to the poorest of the poor was
the fruit of her faith.
Mother Teresa spoke at Corpus Christi College, Clayton, in 1981, at the
invitation of Archbishop Frank Little. On that occasion she insisted that every
seminarian must relish his time in the seminary as an opportunity to better
align himself with Christ.
“Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be
extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired.”
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 Archbishop Pell encouraged the seminarians
present to be faithful and loyal to the Church and to the truths of our faith,
and to accept with joy the cross of rejection from a world sometimes deaf to
truth. He urged the students to commit themselves to building up the Body of
Christ with and under the leadership St Peter’s successor. He prayed that
the flame of the spirit would become a light for them on their journey and that
they would come to know the one true God of love.
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