Message from the Rector
September 2026
“Take courage; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
These words, taken from the Gospel according to John, are the theme for the upcoming World Youth Day in Korea in 2027. Some of our seminarians and alumni will be making the trip together, and I thought it would be a fitting theme for our 2026/27 year. As part of our fundraiser, we carried a replica WYD cross 14 kilometres from Silvermere Lake to the Seminary, and then back, on September 14, the feast of the Triumph of the Cross. At every kilometre, we stopped and prayed a Station of the Cross. We also had a relic of the True Cross of Christ attached to our replica cross. Although it was only a sliver of the actual cross, it was very moving for us to know that the Lord had given us a share of his cross to carry. The seminarians took turns carrying the cross, praying the Stations and the Rosary, and singing Taizé chants as they made their way along the road. Many looked at us with curious glances, others honked in support of what we were doing, and one truck turned the corner aggressively and left some black exhaust in our faces. Such is the reality of disciples who are challenged to take up their crosses and follow him each day. The cross continues to be a sign of contradiction for our generation today. At the end of the three-hour-and-forty-five-minute journey, we arrived at the homes of our generous benefactors, who hosted us with a gracious dinner, and we topped off the beautiful evening with a dip in the lake. In one day, we experienced the mystery of the cross and the resurrection.
What we did at the beginning of the year has set the tone for us as we begin the year together. We are a community of disciples, ready to take up the cross of Christ each day, knowing that we are not alone on the journey. When we help each other carry our crosses, the journey becomes light and joyful. At World Youth Day 2002 in Toronto, in his last WYD appearance, Pope St. John Paul II invited the young not to be afraid of following Christ on the royal road of the cross. Priests and religious have a special calling to follow Christ ever more intimately on his path from Calvary to the resurrection.
Life here at the Seminary is not easy or comfortable. If our seminarians wanted that kind of life, they could go somewhere else. However, those who have come have chosen to make this year’s journey together. They are committed to living and growing, which means daily dying to sin and self so as to live for God and for one’s neighbour. May the Lord of the Harvest bless our efforts this year to make disciples after the mystery of the cross of Christ. May he grant us the grace and courage not to be afraid on this path, because he goes before us on the way.
Rev. Anthony Nguyen OSB
Rector
For a fuller explanation of the importance and aims of a minor (high school) seminary see “Fostering Vocations at an Early Age.”
