All the religious of the Institute of the Incarnate Word and the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará in Guyana, gathered at Our Lady of the Assumption Parish in Hague, for the celebration of the Solemnity of the Annunciation.
This event also celebrated the 29th anniversary of the Institute of the Incarnate Word and two seminarians’ consecration to Mary, through the method of St. Louis de Montfort.
Father Hugo Cardenas, pastor of St. Francis Xavier Church in Charity, presided over the Matins liturgy of the Solemnity of the Annunciation. Father Pedro Torres, assistant to the mission parish Santa Rosa in Moruca, offered a short sermon to accompany the Matins liturgy.
Father Humberto Villa, the superior for the Guyanese missions and Charity’s Don Bosco Dormitory celebrated the Mass of the Solemnity of the Annunciation. During this celebration, two seminarians consecrated themselves to Mary, having completed a thirty-three day preparation, according to the recommendations of the great Marian advocate, St. Louis de Montfort. These two seminarians are the first two vocations to have completed their novitiate in Guyana and have now entered their first year of philosophical studies.
Parishioners and friends were invited to the reception, which was held in the Blessed John Paul the Great Novitiate House, located next to the church. Two postulants helped to serve the food and drinks, the postulants being the first two IVE Guyanese vocations since the Institute came to Guyana in 1995. Both postulants attended the Don Bosco Dormitory in Charity and, after completing secondary school, entered novitiate. One, Damian Gonsalves, belongs to one of the IVE communities on the Pomeroon River, and the other, Carlos M. Henry, belongs to the Santa Rosa mission in Moruca, where Fr. Wilian Montalvo serves as the parish priest.
We give thank to God that we were able to celebrate these events and with great joy, together with parishioners and friends, and that we have two new vocations to the priesthood, for, as the Lord says, “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” (Mt 9:37).
Our Lady of the Annunciation, pray for us!
