THE RECTOR'S MESSAGE TO THE GRADUATING STUDENTS

8TH JUNE, 2019

AN IGNORANT CATHOLIC SEMINARIAN IS A FUTURE PENTECOSTAL PASTOR.

VERY REV FR. HABILA DADOH

I sincerely thank God for sparing us to this day in which our theology four students are graduating. I thank all the bishops of the province and the administrator of Kafanchan for looking after you from the first day of your seminary training today. I also want to thank Propaganda Fidei, POSPA, MISSIO AND AID TO THE CHURCH IN NEED for their support in training you and providing facilities for your formation. There are other benefactors that I cannot mention here, I thank them too. To the parents of our graduating students, thank you for your guidance and support. To the friends of our graduating students, thanks to you all.

I thank the formators for their inexorable sacrifices. They have been simply awesome in exercising their responsibilities. They have disseminated their knowledge, they have shown you their spirituality, and they have always made themselves available to you and for you. All these were meant to prepare you for an exceptional pastoral outing after your formation. The visiting lecturers have also been outstanding; thank you and God bless you for the unalloyed services.

Let me congratulate those who are the reason of our presence here. It is simply not easy. You have made it to the end here. It started just like yesterday and today it’s ending. Forget all the obstacles that were on the way; forgive those who didn’t want you to make it; forget the ugly ups and the dreadful downs you passed through, enjoy the pleasant memories you passed through; it is the Lord’s doing, it is marvelous in our eyes. I am very privileged to be part of the team to graduate you from this noble institution. But remember that this is not really the end, but the beginning of another herculean responsibility of being another Christ. In all these, Congratulations!  

It is important you know that any seminarian that does not align himself, does not propagate, live and where possible, practice what the Catholic Church teaches, if eventually he becomes a priest, he will only live his kind of life and not the one desired by the Holy Mother Church. An ignorant Catholic seminarian is a future Pentecostal Pastor. You may graduate from the seminary with first class honours or whatever degree, if you, in your pastoral engagements, step out of the teaching of the Church, if you sermonise outside what the Church teaches, if you live a flamboyant life, if you carry out spiritual practices that are contrary to what the church teaches, then you are in my judgement, an ignorant seminarian who became a full blown Pentecostal pastor living and operating in the Catholic church.

I am genuinely proud to say that in our seminary, we teach what the Church mandates. We go to the extent of encouraging you on how to dress respectfully and to keep yourselves decent as potential Catholic priests; but you are at liberty to practice what you want when you graduate from the seminary. It is at this point that it becomes apparent whether or not formation passed through you or you passed through formation. As I mentioned last year, that whatever you do outside what we have taught you, then remember that you are a near pretender. If after being taught how to compose and comport yourself when giving a homily, you start jumping from one spot of the church to another in the name of preaching, then know that we did not teach you that. When you dress contrary to the way you do in the seminary, know that formation did not take place in you; when you use sandals or anyhow shoes on the altar of sacrifice, know that you only pass through formation. By the time you refuse to give a listening ear to parishioners, or you refuse to hear their confessions or you go into excessive drinking of alcohol, and by the time you start looking down on parishioners, or disobedient to your elders, and by the time you begin to choose which Mass to celebrate, which parish you will prefer to work, or begin to change cars arbitrarily, kindly remember that no formator in our seminary, gave you lecture or seminar on how to do that. 

St. Polycarp (ca. 69-155) who was deeply concerned how priest live their lives said, “The presbyters should also be compassionate, merciful to all, turning back those who have gone astray, caring for all who are sick, not neglecting the widow, the orphan, or the poor, but always taking thought of what is good before both God and others, abstaining from all anger, prejudice, and unfair judgment, avoiding all love of money, not quick to believe a rumor against anyone, not severe in judgment, knowing that we are all in debt because of sin”. (Ignatius of Antioch.  “Letter to the Ephesians”.  Ed and trans. Bart D. Ehrman. Loeb Classic Library.  In The Apostolic Fathers I (LCL 24). Cambridge MA.:  Harvard University Press, par. 17, pg. 237).

Dear graduates, as you leave us and eventually go into the priesthood, may I appeal to you to develop a strong love for Eucharistic adoration. Improve your love of the Rosary, your divine office and other spiritual devotions to keep you spiritually watchful. The Church needs prayerful priests; be among them. God has called you for a purpose; you cannot afford to disappoint Him. God wants to use you for his mission, give Him the opportunity. God wants to use your hands, keep them holy and unstained, God wants to use your lips/tongue, keep them uncontaminated; God wants to use your eyes, keep them focused on heavenly things; use your talents for the glory of God. Your prayer can change the world, your spiritual life can convert sinners; the way you celebrate the Eucharist can bring healing to an ailing generation. God can make impossible situations possible through you. You don’t have to shout, you don’t have to form prayer ministries, you don’t have to climb mountains, God can use you in your simple but inspiring life.

VALEDICTORY SPEECH BY THE STUDENTS’ AUXILIARY; REV. JAMES KALAT HENRY, AT THE GRADUATION OF THE 2018/2019 SET

The Rector, Very Rev. Fr. Habila T. Daboh, The Vice Rector who doubles as our Class Director; Very Rev. Fr. Julian Okafor, Our esteemed Team of Formators, Representatives of the GOSHEMSA here present, Rev. Frs and Srs., Our Administrative staff, Our hard working domestic staff, My dear fellow graduating Students (Reverends and Brothers) My dear wonderful brother Seminarians, Friends and Relations of our graduating Students, And indeed, everybody here present, good afternoon to you all.

The Psalmist says: “When the Lord delivered Zion from bondage, it seemed like a dream. Our mouths were filled with laughter, indeed we were glad” (Ps. 126:1). Like the Israelites, today, no doubt seem like a dream to my classmates and I standing before you. Today our mouths are filled with laughter, today we are all glad. But again, unlike the Israelites we are not being delivered from bondage. Rather, we are filled with laughter and gladness because today, our dreams, I would say are being fulfilled. For this, we give praise and thanks to Him of whom nothing greater than can be conceived.

Looking at the faces of my fellow classmates, I see smiles and expression of joy and happiness. But I bet you, when you look deep beyond this smiling faces, there you will discover scars of different kinds. This is because nothing comes easy in this journey of life. We all have passed through series of brokenness and mending until we are what we are today. What this means is that behind every success is a proportionate sacrifice.

Today, I am very happy leaving Good Shepherd Major Seminary. I am happy not because I am leaving not to return again as a student, but because I am leaving well-equipped, leaving with repertoire of experiences, in fact, I can say I am leaving fulfilled. Standing before you, I can recall with vividness, the series of admonitions we received from our formators and even external lecturers, right from our days in first year Theology up to this day. We sincerely cannot thank our formators enough for the sacrifices they have had to make, all to make us who we are today. Please, permit me to specially appreciate our amiable Rector, a man I prefer to call the ‘silent achiever.’ To say that we have learnt a lot from you through these years we spent together, it will be an understatement. But I think I can summarize it by saying you have taught us to believe in the reality of the priesthood, through our belongingness to this community, and today we are all gradually becoming that which you hope to see us become.

Fr., on 15^th October, 2018 when I and my other brothers were inaugurated as functionaries to pilot the affairs of the school, within the students’ level, for the 2018/2019 Academic year, you handed over to me a total number of 218 seminarians. Along the line, 9 out of these numbers fell out. These brothers of ours are no longer with us today not because they are the worst of sinners, nor is it the case that the rest of us are more perfect than they are. No! I see their exit as a fulfillment of Jesus’ saying, that: “Many are called, but few are chosen” (Mt. 22:14). At this point, we pray God to grant their hearts’ desire wherever they find themselves in this journey of life. Fr. I stand here with mixed feelings to say to you that out of the 209 left, today, 24 are bowing out for good. Frs. It is easier for me to say that I and my classmates are walking out or walking away. But that will of course defy the Igbo adage says: “No matter how tall an Okra tree grows, it cannot be taller than its owner.” Bearing this in mind, dear Frs., today we are bowing to you in appreciation for all you have done in our lives. Indeed, our four years on this compound was not all rosy, because you surely exercised to the fullest, the words of Proverbs 13:4. Today, we say thank you to you for not sparing the rod, thank you for not spoiling us. In return, we promise never to disappoint you and the Church at large.

To you my classmates, permit me to begin by reminding us of that first pull, I mean that first voice we individually heard, to which we responded, and today we are here. I ask; do we still listen to that voice in the midst of this noisy world, characterized by so many strange voices that keep calling out to us? I beg of you brothers, as we go out, kindly be careful so as not to make mistakes that we will spend the entirety of our priesthood trying to correct. Brothers, we no doubt have had series of histories together; the sweet, the sour, the bitter, in fact, the litany is endless. I beg you to see all these as the ingredients that spice up human life.

Dear Reverends and brothers, today is unarguably one of the best days of our lives, in fact, I will not be surprised if some of us nick-name it ‘world freedom day.’ As a matter of fact, by way of true confession, myself I sincerely can’t recall the number of times I longed to see this day, especially those moments I will jump out of bed in the middle of the night, rushing to go and see Fr. Agba, only to realize it was in a dream that he called me. Be it as it may, permit me to tell you this bitter truth; as we are all joyfully packing and checking out of the Seminary today, we shall one day long to come back here, and this is not magic, but simply because “No place like home!” when we go out there and discover how noisy the world is, we shall long to come back home! When the demands of the ministry gets high out there, Reverends, I bet you, we shall long to come back home! But you know what, brothers? When these feelings begin to becloud us, our only source of solace will be the Blessed Sacrament. And so, we pray God to be the focus of all our actions, through Christ our Lord.

To you my dear and wonderful brother seminarians, standing before you this afternoon, I must admit that I am bleeding deep within me, especially looking at you my dear brothers, and knowing that this is my last address to you both as your leader and as one of you. In truth, dear brothers, I will miss you, but I promise to always remember you in my prayers. Leading you through these moments has taught me a lot on leadership and community living.  I cannot thank you enough for the moments we shared together, and as I leave you, my last words to you are: “To succeed in this formation, make yours the habit of doing the right thing at the right time. If it is time for you to pray, pray and don’t do any other thing! If it is time for you to read, read and don’t do any other thing! If it is time for you to play, play and don’t do any other thing! If it is time for you to eat, eat and don’t do any other thing!” He who has called you, will surely do it for you because he is faithful (1Thes. 5:24). A special thanks to my dear brothers who assisted me in this office; Reuben Shaba and Danbako Zakaria. I sincerely appreciate your love and friendship.

To the representatives of the ALUMNI here present, thank you for finding us worthy enough to be initiated into the rank of the elders of this noble institution, and thank you also for this initiative, and for choosing to begin with the class of 2019, for it will go a long way to inspire our younger brothers to want to be alumni, someday like us.

To our parents, relations, friends and the members of our worshiping community here present, who have come to share in our joy, as we thank you for all you have been to us, and the various roles you have played in our formation through these years, we pray God who knows your needs to graciously grant them, through Christ our Lord. Allah ya taimake mu!!!

With this speech, I Reverend James Kalat Henry, on this day 8^th June, 2019, cease to be the 1^st student auxiliary of Good Shepherd Major Seminary, Kaduna. I now invite Reuben Shaba to come take the mantle of leadership from me, to serve in this capacity until a new auxiliary emerges, while Danbako Zakaria assumes the position of the second auxiliary.