Confirmation Mass
The Confirmation of 27 Students of SAINT ALOYSIUS’ MINOR SEMINARY (SAMS), KITIWUM, May 14, 2023
A Welcome Address Presented by the Rector, Fr. Emmanuel Fale Lon on the Occasion of the Visit of the Bishop of Kumbo to SAMS to Administer the Sacrament of Confirmation to 27 Students. May 14, 2023
Bishop Nkuo anoints one of 27 students confirmed recently at SAMS, Kitiwum.
My Lord, Msgr George Nkuo, the Bishop of Kumbo Diocese! Rev. Fathers, Rev. Sisters, brother, Dear teachers and students, Dear Parents, my dear brothers, and sisters in Christ.
My Lord,
On behalf of the SAMS community, I heartily welcome you here today for the administration of the Sacrament of Confirmation to 27 students. A Child always feels protected when the parents are around. You demonstrate your fatherly concern with your official and impromptu visits to us. When the students see you around even at a distance, they feel so happy, so loved, so protected, and so encouraged in the discernment of their vocation. The students feel so privileged not only to see the bishop, but to take pictures and touch the bishop as well. When I was growing up in Nkanchi City, I saw the bishop at a distance and was very happy.
In the course of the year, we have demonstrated and instilled the spirit of fraternal love in the community, avoiding violence in all its forms. In our little way, we the teachers, auxiliary and teaching, the sisters and priests, and the seminarian on pastoral year have lived in communion with one another, thus, teaching the students to do the same. We have demonstrated, unworthy as we are, that the priesthood is a noble vocation. We are glad to announce that out of the 26 students in the final year, 23 have applied to continue formation to the priesthood. We are proud to say that the Spirit of God is moving us in the right direction.
My Lord, in his letter to the Smyrnaeans, St. Ignatius of Antioch said: Ubi episkopos, ibi ecclesia: Where the bishop is, there the Church is. And Saint Irenaeus said, in his Adversus Heresies II, 24,1: “Where the Church is, there is also the Spirit of God and where the Spirit of God is, there is also the Church and all grace.” The Sacrament of Confirmation, which you shall administer to these students, will “seal them with the gifts of the Holy Spirit and strengthen them for service to the Body of Christ.” Confirmation deepens our baptismal life that calls us to be missionary witnesses of Jesus Christ in our families, neighborhoods, society, and the world. These young men will be strengthened today to go out and continue to be witnesses of Christ in all aspects of their lives.
We thank you, my Lord, for making this day possible with your available presence. It is our prayer that you will be endowed with the same gifts of the Holy Spirit to continue to lead the flock entrusted in your care. We are happy to be with you, once more, and we, therefore, invite you to continue to lead us in this Eucharistic Celebration.
– Fr. Emmanuel Fale Lon