Please help an English ICKSP seminarian!

Update: With your generous help I have managed to cover the fees for my first three years, for which I cannot express enough my gratitude. I am hoping now to shift my fundraising efforts to my personal costs of living. Though we try to live with a spirit of poverty and our costs are relatively minimal, certain expenses do inevitably have to be met somehow, such as insurance, travel, study materials, clothing etc. As a full-time seminarian with no income I am entirely reliant on my benefactors. I am very conscious that it is not easy for many of us to make ends meet these days, but please would you consider making a donation, however small, to help me? I will be eternally grateful! It would also be a huge help if you would share this fundraiser with those you know, even if you cannot afford to donate. May Our Lord reward your generosity, and be assured of my prayers.

Thank you once again and God bless.

Dear friends,

My name is Abbé Charles Morris. I am an English seminarian for the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest. I am about to begin my second year of studies for the holy priesthood, the first year of philosophy, at the Institute's seminary in Italy (Gricigliano).

This first year of seminary has been a year of many joys and graces. It was a particular blessing to receive the cassock at the end of the year from our prior general, Monsignor Wach. In our institute we wear the cassock from the end of our first year as a sign of our consecration to God.

Here are the four second year seminarians from the English province together at Gricigliano. I am the second from the right.

This ecclesiastical habit also helps remind us of the goal we are being prepared for, by God's grace and the help of our superiors and professors. During our seminary years, alongside our intellectual formation we strive to "put on the new man". As we draw nearer to the altar, we need to be clothed more and more with Our Lord's virtues and be daily growing in love for God and zeal for souls. The priesthood of Our Lord Jesus Christ is a life of service and sacrifice in which I hope to play my own small part, offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and ministering to souls in a world in ever greater need of the love of Christ.

The priests of the ICKSP have a canonial charism, meaning they live together in small communities and sing the Divine Office together in choir. The Institute combines its devotion to the solemn celebration of the liturgy with a missionary, apostolic charism and is animated by the spirituality of our patron St Francis de Sales. All of these things drew me to respond to the call of the Lord within the Institute, which has apostolates in many different countries, including in England. I spent a happy year of discernment at our apostolate of St Walburge's in Preston before coming to seminary.

Of course, the preparation for this sacred ministry has to be long and thorough. There are inevitably many material costs involved too. With your generous help I have managed to cover the seminary tuition fees (750 euros a month) for my first three years, for which I cannot express enough my gratitude. I am hoping now to shift my fundraising efforts to my personal costs of living. Though we try to live with a spirit of poverty and our costs are relatively minimal, certain expenses do have to be met somehow. For example insurance, travel, study materials, clothing etc. The fees we pay to the seminary do not cover these personal costs, and so we need to take care of them ourselves. As a full-time seminarian with no income I am entirely reliant on the generosity of my benefactors for this.

I am very conscious that it is not easy for many of us to make ends meet these days, but please would you consider making a donation, however small, to help me? I will be eternally grateful!

I will also be deeply grateful for your help in sharing this appeal with your communities, friends and family.

Please be assured of my prayers for you, and those of the whole seminary community. With your help I look forward to, please God, one day becoming an instrument in the Lord's hands for His glory and the salvation of others. May He bless and reward you, and please pray for me too!

Ordinations Week 2020 at Gricigliano: