A month of ministry
Toronto seminarians gain an intimate look at missionary life through their experience in Grouard-McLennan
As they prepare to return to the Archdiocese of Toronto, seminarians Alessandro Sousa and Andrew Wuebbolt are leaving behind a definitive mark on the High Prairie parish they served. They are also returning home with a greater sense of what the life of priesthood is really calling them to.
Alessandro and Andrew, diocesan seminarians at St. Augustine Seminary in Toronto, spent this past June at St. Paul’s Parish in High Prairie as part of a new pilot project between the Archdiocese of Toronto and the Archdiocese of Grouard-McLennan, to offer these Toronto seminarians a missionary experience in our archdiocese.
Over their four weeks of “missionary experience” in the Archdiocese of Grouard-McLennan, they’ve gotten a first-hand look at the broad span of parish life. They are both coming away from it with a more “incarnational” sense of the priesthood – something that will be a great asset in their discernment as they now prepare for a third year of formation at St. Augustine Seminary.
“We got to see some of the other sides of ministry life outside of the liturgy,” Andrew explained. “So for me, it’s been a kind of ‘testing ground’ for my discernment, to ask: ‘Do I feel that God is calling me to this kind of life, to this kind of ministry?’
“Not just youth ministry, not just the celebration of Mass, but the whole span of it – from baptisms to funerals and everything in between.
“A priest can in one day do three or four different things that each have totally different environments. That is what has most challenged me in this experience, but it has also helped me in my discernment.”
This project was initiated by the new archbishop of Toronto, Archbishop Frank Leo, who envisioned it as a way to offer seminarians, in their initial “discipleship” stage of formation, a chance to get some pastoral experience in one of the missionary dioceses partnered with the Archdiocese of Toronto. Andrew and Alessandro were selected as the initial “guinea pig” seminarians for this experiment, having both completed their propaedeutic spiritual year and their first year of philosophy studies.
While High Prairie pastor Fr. Lawrence Odemenna is in Vancouver completing his studies in hospital ministry, the rector Fr. Edwin Golsalves and vice-rector Fr. Michael Corpus of St. Augustine Seminary also joined the seminarians for the month.
“Through discussion with Msgr. Charles Lavoie and Fr. Michael Uso-Ereyi, it was decided to bring us to High Prairie,” said Alessandro. “We accepted and came – very much unsure of what would follow.”
Arriving on June 1st, the seminarians were quickly thrown into the busy world of pastoral life. Their multitude of tasks included altar serving, ministry with seniors in local care homes, ministry to the sick in hospital, Indigenous ministry with the Metis of East Prairie, working closely with parish council, house blessings, a variety of home visits with parishioners, youth ministry, volunteering at the parishioner-run thrift store Twice as Nice, and much more.
For their last full day in High Prairie, they organized a solemn Mass and procession for the parish’s feast day – the Solemnity of St. Peter and St. Paul. At the June 29th Mass, they gifted to the St. Paul’s parish religious art and three banners of their patron saint. The Mass ended with a Eucharistic procession and benediction.
Though their ministry has been predominantly in High Prairie, they’ve had the chance to visit other parts of the archdiocese as well, including Valleyview, Grande Prairie, McLennan, Peace River, Girouxville, Falher and Grouard.
Especially in an archdiocese like ours, where most parishes do not have associate pastors with which the priest can share responsibilities, the seminarians uniquely got a taste of the fullness of a priest’s daily life.
“One thing that strikes me with how this experience has affected my discernment is that it has shown me just how important a priest is in the lives of the people he serves,” said Alessandro. “There’s a lot of important moments in people’s lives that you are invited into just by virtue of being a priest. He’s going to be called for happy moments, sad moments, and he’s responsible for making sure things go smoothly during these great transitional periods.
“For example, when our rector Fr. Edwin came here, a person came to him after hardly 10 minutes of knowing him and asked him if he could do a burial. They had no idea who he was, but they know he is a priest, so they needed him there at that most pivotal moment. So just by virtue of the fact that you are a priest, you are welcomed into these most intimate moments in people’s lives. It puts in stark contrast what life is as a priest and how great his responsibilities are.”
This is only an excerpt. Read the full story in the July-August 2024 edition of Northern Light