Help a seminarian of the ICKSP 2021/22
Dear Catholic faithful,
My name is abbe Mitchell Gunnarson. I am a seminarian with the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest. This September, I begin my third year of formation with the Institute and am asking for your help to cover the cost of my seminary formation. My goal for this 2021/22 year is to raise $20 000. The monthly cost, including both tuition and accommodations is €700 or roughly $1100 CAD. Reaching this goal will set me in good standing for my coming year of formation, make up for the $8500 I was unable to pay the previous year, and cover my clothing and other basic necessities. I ask you to be generous and to share my cause with your friends and family. No amount is too small, and recurring monthly donations can be arranged and are greatly appreciated.
This past June, I and twenty-one others received the First Clerical Tonsure at the hands of His Eminence, Raymond Cardinal Burke. In the Rite of Tonsure, the candidate approaches the bishop seated at the altar to as it were, offer his very life in sacrifice. Holy Mother Church, in Her divine wisdom does not take his neck but instead, five cuts of hair from the front, back, top, and sides of the head. She calls the new cleric to the imitatio Christi the imitation of Christ, who by his Passion and five Precious Wounds gave his life for his Immaculate Bride. In this first step toward the altar a man who one day is to be an alter Christus, another Christ, begins to follow the footsteps of Our Lord in a visible manner.
The Church, being ever solicitous of man’s frailty and having received the candidates pledge of death to the world in the words of Psalm 15 “Dominus pars hereditatis mei”, “The Lord is the portion of my inheritance…”, clothes the newly tonsured cleric in the white surplice, exhorting him to put on the new man created by God in justice and truth. “Induat te Dominus novum hominem, qui secundum Deum creatus est in justitia, et sanctitate Veritatis”. Every day, as the cleric clothes himself in soutane he repeats those words of Psalm 15 in prayer, in thanksgiving for what he has received, as a reminder of the dignity and privileges of his state in life and the grave responsibility to lead a life worthy of his calling. The Tonsure is only the door of entry to the clerical state yet it is wonderful to behold.
The life of the Catholic today is fraught with trouble. In my country of Canada dozens of Catholic Churches have been vandalised and even burned to the ground. There is a seeming endless Covid crisis tearing the fabric of civic life, endless scandals from within the Church while the ever-encroaching secular state is left unchecked. And finally, the recently issued and severe regulations on the traditional Roman Rite and those priests who offer it, which has only been in these trying times as ever, a deep wellspring of grace for so many. It is a time for Saints. Each of us must follow Christ wherever He may lead. Please help me in my effort to follow Our Lord to where He has called me to be, I cannot do it alone. It is clearer every day that Christendom, that unrivaled pearl of civilisation, and the restoration of all things in Christ, will not be bought with half-measures but by those who give all.
I assure you of my prayers for you and your intentions, may God bless your generosity. Please pray for me.
In Christ the King,
Abbe Gunnarson
Other ways to donate:
Please note, this is a personal fundraiser, I am unable to issue tax receipts or refunds. If you would like to obtain a tax receipt please donate through Una Voce Canada, https://unavocecanada.org/
Money may also be sent via email e-transfer, mitchgunnar@gmail.com