Dear Friends and Benefactors,
The high-tech life of man keeps him on the alert in a constant and exhausting state of expectancy. At every moment he awaits the beckon of his phone, notifying him that a message, email, or advertisement requires his immediate attention.
What a strange world, where the servant calls for the master!
It leaves one to wonder, does man today not resemble a dog taken out on a leash for his daily walk? In this strange inversion of things, the telephone plays the role of the master!
This may sound like a simple joke at first, but to our great concern we see that man is shackled to his cellphone by a true psychological chain.
This dependency is a real addiction that makes man a slave, creating a constant nervous tension in him. Even though this tension is unconscious, it is no less real, and its insidiousness makes it all the more dangerous.
Man has thus become “man in a hurry”. We know him well because we ourselves are specimens of this new race. He loses all sense of reflection and meditation, and contents himself with juggling images full of feelings. Reason declines and is dominated by impressions. Man rushes around, often frantically, but he has lost his compass and wears himself out in this most unbecoming role of a weathervane.
This man in a hurry, the technological invention of our times, no longer has any vital relation to what is real, the very thing that measures and orders him. Like a wisp of straw tossed in the wind, he is swept to and fro, rushing from urgency to urgency, leading him to every excess in which he sinks and drowns.
These urgencies wear a man out and surreptitiously turn him away from the contemplation of being, the purpose for which he is made. In this pointless race that his life has become, he turns more and more to possessing and to the realm of material goods. This goes to his head and he no longer thinks about the meaning of existence and the meaninglessness of his own life.
As these unending urgencies destroy in man his profound understanding of the reason for his existence, it is evident that the most necessary task today is restoring to him the sense of God, Who is immutable in His eternal present and in His charity.
This work of returning to God is the absolute urgency of our times.
It calls for priests, who are men of God first and foremost, and these men receive their formation in the seminary.
The seminary, the work of works, must therefore be our priority, and it demands from each and every one of us the support of our prayers and generosity.
As Rector of the Seminary during these past twenty years, I have been able to see that you understand this urgency, and therefore, I would like to pay tribute to your generosity and express to you my heartfelt thanks.
Now that my Superior has asked me to leave this beautiful position of Rector to our dear Fr. Michael Goldade, may I ask you to continue to support this beautiful work and to pray for him?
And knowing your generosity, I dare to put to you a somewhat personal request: please pray for me, that I may fulfill my new task as God wills.
For my part, as I leave this pen to the new Rector, I assure you of my faithful prayers,
In Christo Sacerdote et Maria,
Fr. Yves le Roux