Third year seminarian Hoang Dinh recounts the Melbourne September Ordinations.
This year, the 9th of September marked a very important date on the calendar for the Archdiocese of Melbourne. Two new priests, Anil Mascarenhas and Toan Nguyen were ordained by Archbishop Denis Hart on a splendid Saturday morning at St Patrick’s Cathedral. Like all ordinations, the Cathedral nave was filled to capacity. A significant number of priests, many religious and seminarians, joined parishioners, friends, relatives, and family from interstate and overseas, who traveled from near, far and wide to be present. Concelebrating bishops included; Bishops Hilton Deakin, Terry Curtin, Peter Elliot and Mark Edwards.
The Cathedral choir was, as usual, outstanding, beginning with the processional hymn All People that on Earth do Dwell.
“Both ordinands are gifted young men who will serve the Church with generosity and be the bearers of God’s love to people. We pray for them and ask the Lord, the giver of all good gifts, to bring down upon them the love and power of the Holy Spirit in this Sacrament of Orders”
One of the many highlights of the ceremony, was after the fraternal embrace by all the priests present given to the newly ordained, Fr Anil and Fr Toan embraced each other, to which the congregation could not help but respond with a resounding emotional applause.
On behalf of the newly ordained, Fr Anil in his moving thank you speech, expressed profound gratitude to the people who have shown generous support throughout their journey to the priesthood. He made special mention of this ordination year, which also marks Archbishop Hart’s Golden Jubilee celebrated earlier in July.
Father's Anil and Toan, join Father Marcus Goulding and Father Trevor Tibbersma who were ordained earlier in June.
We thank God for He has blessed us with new priests to serve the people of the Archdiocese of Melbourne.
The cathedral was no doubt the most joyous place in all of Melbourne that morning.
Tu es sacerdos in aeternum secundum ordinem Melchisedech
The above photo's have been kindly made available by Third Year Seminarian Joe Nguyen. The official Melbourne Archdiocese photo's can be found here.
FULL TEXT OF REV. ANIL'S WORDS OF THANKS AFTER MASS
“Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul” said Karl Ranher. I couldn’t help but be reminded of his words, as this noble attitude of a contented heart fills us. Love and gratitude - this is what we feel at this moment of our lives, to God for the gift of faith, for calling us, choosing us to be his instruments for His service as priests of Jesus Christ.
Despite the beauty of Rahner’s words, they capture only so much and cannot completely express our gratitude on this occasion to his Grace, Archbishop Denis J. Hart, for accepting and ordaining us to the priesthood in the fiftieth year of his own priesthood. We are thankful to you, your Grace, for your encouragement and your continual guidance and the assistance you have offered us during the years of our formation.
We owe our special gratitude to our parents, and family members for sowing the seed of faith and helping us to answer God’s call. Despite all of life’s challenges, you have been a source of strength and inspiration in our formative years that have enabled us to persevere in our vocation to become a Priest of Jesus Christ. So we acknowledge that our priesthood is an answer to your prayers and the fruit of your sacrifice. We are forever grateful to you.
The presence of our bishops, brother priests and deacons and religious here today is a great sign of encouragement- we are very thankful for your prayerful support and presence here today.
We would also like to thank all our formators, past and present staff of Corpus Christi College and Catholic Theological College, for imparting to us the guidance and knowledge necessary in our journey towards the altar of the Lord.
We are grateful to all our fellow seminarians past and present, for today we are who we are, because of your love, friendship and mentoring. We pray that one day, in God’s time, you too will all join us at the altar, so that together with the psalmist I began by quoting, we shall “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good for His love endures forever” (Ps 118).
We owe our gratitude to all who have become the Lord’s good instruments for us during this journey. From our hearts, a very sincere “Thank you!” also to all the priests and parishioners who have welcomed Fr Toan and myself into their communities during our pastoral placements.
Our gratitude also goes to all those who assisted in todays Liturgy: the Masters of Ceremonies, altar servers, readers and the choir. (and the ushers).
And finally, to all of you present with us here on this great day of celebration, a most heartfelt thank you and may God bless you all!