Catholics gather to celebrate Father Mike’s 25th anniversary

More than 200 Catholics gathered on Sunday at the Cathedral of Assumption, Kingstown, to celebrate{{more}} the 25th anniversary of Father Michael Stewart’s tenure in the priesthood.

The celebratory Mass, which started at 8 a.m., featured many of Stewart’s friends and former parishioners, who devoted the morning to honouring the Vincentian priest based in Trinidad and Tobago. He has been living there since 2008 when he was appointed rector of the regional seminary which trains priests for the various diocese.

Stewart, a stalwart in the Vincentian and regional Catholic community, said he was delighted to be back home to celebrate the silver jubilee with his loved ones.

Delivering the morning’s sermon, he offered a litany of thanks to the people who have supported and worked with him during his career as a priest. In August 1979, he left St.Vincent and the Grenadines to pursue studies in theology. Six years later on July 21, 1985, he was ordained to the priesthood.

“Only God knows the love in my heart for God and for you. But I pray that God will keep me faithful to the end and God will keep us faithful to the end,” said Stewart.

He used the opportunity to encourage Vincentian families, especially Catholic families, to consider the priesthood for their children.

“We need local people to invest themselves in the local church. We can have missionaries coming from abroad, but local people, unless they take on the responsibility of carrying major institutions, we would not understand what it is to make the sacrifices ourselves,” said Stewart.

He said the local priests who are pressing on with the work, including himself, are fast ageing.

“We need new people, young people, to inspire the youths to say yes to the Lord, yes to the church, yes to the people,” said Stewart in his appeal.

He admitted that earlier in his career, he had problems speaking about his priesthood but this is not the case anymore.

On another note, he told the congregation: “To come to church to worship is a small thing. If you default on the small, how can you be trusted with the great?”

Stewart also touched on the changing values in society. One such area mentioned, is the situation where some people “no longer say thanks”. He said lots of people are concentrating on grabbing, but common courtesies expressed to others in the society are a stepping stone to be grateful to God.

He also focused on the issues of tithing and prayer. Regarding the former, he told the congregation the more they give to God, the more they will receive. On the issue of prayer, he said this is an integral part of his life and he had developed a deeper appreciation for it when he went to Rome to pursue his studies during the period 2002 and 2008.

He said where prayer is concerned, some people have a presumption that they know how to pray, but may find they don’t know how to do that.

“You can pray a prayer that is inappropriate,” said Stewart, noting that this leads people to engage in self indulgence.

“If God teaches us to pray, then we will pray the appropriate prayer, because God knows what we need,” said Stewart, adding the premise of prayer is having a relationship with God.

He encouraged the congregation to engage in intercessory prayers when they pray, so that they can mediate on the behalf of others.

Even though Stewart is based in Trinidad, at the moment he works out of the Dominican Republic with seminarians.

Reflecting on his stint in Rome, Stewart, during an interview with SEARCHLIGHT early yesterday morning, said he used his time there to pursue a license in Biblical Theology and a doctorate.

He said his programme there allowed him to focus on the “Wisdom Books”, especially the book of Proverbs. The thesis for his programme concentrated on the topic “Wise Counsel About Boundaries and Limits: An Anthropological Approach To The Parental Instructions of Proverbs 1-9”.

The priest said his Roman experience gave him the opportunity to renew himself academically.

When asked about his plans for the future, he responded with a chuckle: “My plans are not my plans.”

In Trinidad he is also the pastor of a church in Curepe called “Our Lady of Fatima”. He will spend the next two years there mentoring two students: Vincentian Orlando Williams and St. Lucian Clephus Joseph.