Formators and Seminarians of St. Peter’s Regional Seminary in Pedu, Cape Coast, have celebrated this year’s Inaugural Mass which officially opens the 2024/2025 Academic Year. Welcoming Seminarians back to campus after a three-month long break, the Rector of the Seminary, Very Rev. Fr. Robert Charles Snyper, urged all and sundry to strive to be true Christians, and become what he calls “Church members” and not merely “churchgoers”.
In the Homily of the day which coincided with the Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Fr. Snyper drew very important lessons from the day’s readings and urged seminarians to be true prophets who are faithful and conscientious conduits through whom God always speaks his Word to his people. He challenged the Faithful to shun the tendency to discriminate against people especially those suffering, like the “deaf and dumb man” in the Gospel. Furthermore, he urged Seminarians and Priests to learn from Jesus so as not to perform such religious acts as healing for “public show” or to be involved in the use of “unintelligible” words in the performance of such religious acts.
Prior to the Inaugural Mass, Seminarians had a retreat to prepare themselves spiritually for the academic year, as well as “be alone with Jesus”. Preaching the Retreat on the theme, “Called to live in Faith, Love and Hope”, Very Rev. Fr. Eric Awotwe Dadson, who is the Spiritual Director of the Seminary, urged seminarians to imbibe these three Theological Virtues in their priestly formation. He gave very practical ways by which these virtues can become a part of the priestly formation of the seminarian. He enumerated consistent prayer life, a daily and active participation in the Mass, Spiritual Direction, fidelity to the Liturgy of the Hours, and having a simple Christian faith as means by which we can imbibe these virtues in priestly formation. The theme for the school year, “Priestly Formation and Ministry: a call to commitment and sacrifice” (cf. Mark 10:45) was outdoored to serve as a guiding principle for priestly life of decency and decorum.
