By JOSHUA MCDERMID
Friday 6 March saw the Corpus Christi College seminarians and staff joined by the seven bishops of Victoria and Tasmania for a day of meetings about the running of the seminary, but most importantly from our perspective, Mass and lunch. Principal celebrant and homilist, the Most Reverend Paul Bird CSsR, Bishop of Ballarat, encouraged us to take this Lenten season seriously, by engaging in sacrifice, self-denial and repentance. He explained, however, that this does not mean that Lent should be sombre, recalling Jesus’ words: “When you fast, don’t put on a gloomy look as the hypocrites do.” Indeed, he implored us to renew our serious commitment to God through penitential practice in response to God’s love and mercy. Furthermore, we were graced with the superb singing of our College Schola, under the capable direction of Olek Stirrat.
Photographs by: Jean-Sebastian Gery, Fourth Year Seminarian
After Mass, we shared a brilliantly prepared lunch. It was a valuable opportunity to spend time with the bishops and hear about their own stories of seminary formation and priestly ministry. We also joined in celebrating the 21st birthday of seminarian Nicholas Calandra and the upcoming birthday of our Dean of Studies, Dr Frances Baker RSM. Finally, our lunch concluded with some words from the Most Reverend Peter Comensoli, Archbishop of Melbourne, who encouraged us to study hard, and presented our three first-year seminarians Nicholas Calandra, Dominic Lawes and Tobias Dinh (all from the Archdiocese of Melbourne) with a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and a Corpus Christi College badge. The badge, which contains our seminary coat of arms, was also presented to seminarians Kanishka Perera (Archdiocese of Hobart), Dominic Manatad (Diocese of Sandhurst) and Leo Mascardo (Diocese of Port Pirie), who joined our community at different stages in their formation over the last year.
As always, we greatly enjoyed and appreciated this opportunity to spend time with the bishops and look forward to their next visit.