Jesuit seminarians receive the ministries of acolyte and lector
June 21st, Santo Domingo: Four Jesuit scholastic students concluding their studies in Philosophy received the minor ministries of acolyte and lector. Faithful from the San Martín de Porres Parish in the Guachupita sector and Jesuits offered their prayers at the Sunday Mass for: S Manuel González (Central America Province), S Suffren Jeune (Canada Province), S Jean Adam (Canada Province), and Jesús María Sánchez (Caribbean Province); who are receiving these lay ministries as part of their vocational commitment toward priesthood.
The young people were first instituted as lectors, to proclaim the Word of God and transmit it faithfully, and then as acolytes, meaning that from now on they will be able to celebrate the Word, serve at the altar, and distribute the Eucharist. As signs of these minor orders, they received the blessing that accompanies the rite, the Holy Scripture, the Paten with bread, and the Chalice with wine.
On the day the Church celebrates Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, patron saint of youth, these young people were also invited by the parish priest of San Martín de Porres, Fr. Javier Vidal SJ, to bless newborns joining the Christian community along with their families.
The philosophers, who will officially complete their training at the Pedro Francisco Bonó Higher Institute in Santo Domingo on July 8, have lived so far within the Jesuit communities of Valle Llano and Luis Oráa, and the Jesuit Philosophate-Juniorate. At this celebration, they were officially informed of their assignment for teaching.
Before the final blessing, Fr. Miller Lamothe SJ, Superior of the Luis Oráa community and Formator, asked those present to keep vocations to religious, priestly, and lay life in their prayers for the Church: “Let us pray for them, for their fidelity, for their perseverance, so that they may bear good fruit. Let us pray for the young people, so that this desire to become a religious may be born in them. But let us also pray for all vocations, so that young people may wish to undertake a path of service in the Church.”.
