The diocesan priesthood is the backbone of the mission of the Church. When that backbone is both firm and flexible – a work of grace – then the mission of the Church flourishes "bearing much fruit … fruit that will last" (Jn 15:5,8,16).

It has been both a blessing and an honour for me to have spent by far the greater part of my priestly ministry helping to form seminarians at St. Augustine's Seminary, Toronto, for diocesan priesthood.

In the theology courses which I have taught, I have had the privilege and the joy of exploring with the seminarians some of the greatest mysteries of faith by which we are saved, e.g. Trinity, Christology and Grace.

In the spiritual direction of seminarians, I have always felt I stood on sacred ground. The burning bush is that place deep within the seminarian's desire where the Holy Spirit and his spirit encounter each other (Rom 8:16). My part is to help the seminarian become familiar with how the Holy Spirit works in him forming him for priesthood, and how he in turn is invited to work with the Holy Spirit. In this service, I consider myself more a gardener than a director – watering the soil with encouragement, pruning away obstructive branches, and keeping the plant always turned toward the Light.

When I tell my friends that many of the greatest graces of my life have come to me during my ministry at St. Augustine's, they look somewhat puzzled and say, "Surely you mean in a parish or on the missions, but in a seminary?" My response is always: "if you are where the Lord wants you to be and doing what he wants you to do, without any effort on your part you find yourself standing under a waterfall of Divine love and grace."

In forming seminarians for diocesan priesthood, I have found that my own Jesuit priesthood in Christ has itself ever more deeply matured in him.

Those who have taken any of my courses know that my all-time favourite Father of the Church is St. Gregory of Nazianzus (330-390). Apart from the fact that he came to be known as "The Theologian" because of his Orations on the Trinity, he is also the patron saint of teachers. He believed that the gospel ought to be communicated with eloquence. Just as the blood of Christ is held in a vessel of gold, so too the gospel ought to be proclaimed in words of gold, that is, with a beauty and a power worthy of the gospel message itself.

In his last homily in the great basilica of Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom) in Constantinople where he had been Patriarch, he concluded his ministry there with the following words. I would like to conclude my ministry here at St. Augustine's Seminary with those same words:

             "Farewell, O Most Holy and Blessed Trinity,  my life, my blessing and my glory"