Tomorrow, 19th of March, 22 priests and religious will celebrate a thanksgiving mass on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of their ordination to the priesthood by Archbishop Michael Gonzi. The mass will be celebrated by Fr Vincent Costa, Bishop of Jundiaí in Brazil, at St John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta at 5.45pm. Some of the ordained work in Brasil, Australia and Germany and will not be to attend. Three have passed on to eternal life.
The work carried by them cover a wide spectrum of responsibilities, varying from lecturing, being parish priests and assistant parish priests, ministering to the aged, being missionaries, carrying out diocesan duties here and at the Vatican and including being a Bishop in Brasil.
This wide variety of responsibilities of these priests show vividly the strong call by the post-Vatican II Church and the generous reply of these priests and religious and that of other ordained persons and lay people who dedicated their lives in the service of the Lord.
This thanksgiving mass will be a joyous occasion which will shower them with the grace of God to enable them to continue their work of service to the people of God, in Malta and abroad.
Let us pray that the Lord may keep them in his love and fill them with his Spirit so that they may continue in their pastoral work for this to be fruitful for the benefit of God’s people as entrusted to them by their bishop.