TESTIMONIALS
A toast from Father James Kerr
Listen here!
Monsignor Powers, all staff and students here at the Pontifical North American College, it is my great honor to express the deep gratitude and thanks of all the priests of ICTE for welcoming us into your lives and into your homes here these last three months. This time of sabbatical has been a great gift for us. There have been so many experiences, but I'd like to focus on just one. Last week, we had the special privilege of venerating the relics of St. Francis in Assisi. It was much more, of course, than just seeing his bones, as cool as that was.
To be here in Rome, this great city of saints, so close to St. Peter, just over the river from St. Paul, and then in between and all around us are seemingly countless other martyrs and saints to be found here. How great a gift that has been. But it is also something much more than mere location. A fancy hotel or nice apartment would not have been the same. It has also been such a tremendous gift for us to be here among you, here in a seminary, the rich garden bed of good soil, where the precious seeds of your vocations are nurtured and cared for, as have the vocations of so many before you.
To be here among you has been a great privilege and a reminder of the precious seeds of our own vocation. We thank you for welcoming us among you, and that with such warmth and generosity, fully conscious that you have such busy and full lives as it is. We'll be out of your hair very soon. But please know we will continue to pray for you all and for the important work that goes on here. And as we go, we hope that we have at least left you with this gift, our great love of our calling and our deep joy in serving the Lord as priests.
And what a beautiful call it is to live as agents of his love and mercy, as builders of communion with him and as messengers of his peace. I think this is now the point I invite you to stand for the toast. To Monsignor Powers and to all the staff and students of the college here, our toast of thanks and gratitude for your welcome. May the saints surround you with their care, and may the seeds of your vocations always be nurtured here in the good soil of God's grace.
In 2017, when he was ordained, Fr. James Kerr was one of Australia’s youngest Catholic priests. Now serving as Parish Priest of Holy Family Parish in the Diocese of Ballarat, Australia, he participated in the ICTE Fall Session and joined the pilgrimage following the footsteps of St. Paul in Turkey.
At the end of this time of renewal, during a toast offered in the presence of Monsignor Powers, Rector of the Pontifical North American College, and the staff of the Institute of Continuing Theological Education, Fr. Kerr expressed his deep gratitude for the experience of fraternity, prayer and renewal lived in Rome. Reflecting on the image of seeds carefully nurtured in good soil, he spoke movingly about the grace of rediscovering and strengthening the precious gift of priestly vocation alongside fellow priests from English-speaking dioceses around the world.