Installation of Lectors and Acolytes

Bishop Joseph E. Strickland of the Diocese of Tyler presided at the installation Mass for the institution of lectors and acolytes on Saturday at Notre Dame Seminary. In the rite, each candidate is handed a symbol of the ministry to which he is being instituted, a bible or a ciborium with bread for the respective ministries, as the presider exhorts the men to fulfill the ministry faithfully.

Institution to these ministries are steps on the journey toward priesthood. Seminarians are typically instituted as lectors in their first year of theological studies and as acolytes the next year. Ordination to diaconate and priesthood usually follows completion of the third and fourth year of theology, respectively.