Detroit -- At a vespers service with Eucharistic exposition the night before his Jan. 28 installation as the archbishop of Detroit, Archbishop Allen Vigneron said to his brother priests that their shared purpose is to receive, and then hand on Christ through the Eucharist.

“We don’t invent the savior we offer to God’s people,” he said to about 150 priests while speaking from the pulpit at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament. “He has handed Himself to us through the apostles. And we, in turn, hand Him to those we serve.”

Specifically, Archbishop Vigneron said the way to do it was through the Eucharist.

“It’s an act of entrustment,” he said. “We’re stewards of the Eucharist.”

Cardinals Adam Maida, Edmund C. Szoka and Roger Mahoney, of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, were present at the service, as was Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Nicholas and Marquette Bishop Alexander Sample. A vespers service for priests is a tradition the night before the installation of a new bishop. The evening prayer service included the chanting of prayers, reading from Scripture, and benediction.

It also offered the new archbishop his first opportunity to address the priests in the archdiocese pastorally from the cathedral pulpit, which towers over the sanctuary.

“I’ve never been up in this pulpit before, but it seems to heighten expectations as far as I can see,” he quipped before his homily, drawing chuckles.

He then spoke on St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians by reflecting on the apostle’s stated mission of being a steward of the faith.

Archbishop Vigneron talked about how he’d received Christ in his own life, and the people along the way who had led him to the Eucharist -- from grade school teachers, to his pastor growing up, to seminary professors. He named three places he thinks of frequently in terms of how he received Christ in the Eucharist -- his childhood home parish, Immaculate Conception Parish in Ira Township; Sacred Heart Seminary; and Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish in Harper Woods, the parish of his first assignment.

He encouraged the priests to, likewise, reflect on how they had received the Eucharist.

He also told the clergymen to see themselves not as part of an institution, but to see their ministry as being “about Christ,” and to take the chance of seeing a new archbishop installed to “re-appropriate our priestly identity.”

He said his own aspirations were to be a priest, and to help his fellow priests become the ministers they’d been inspired to be throughout their lives.

“Whatever it takes and whatever it might cost us to do this, we will pay the price,” he said. “Because no gift is more precious than to do what St. Paul did -- to receive Christ’s mystery, then to share Him with our brothers and sisters.”

Priests present at the service seemed to connect with Archbishop Vigneron’s thoughts about how they’d received and are commissioned to pass Christ on.

Fr. Gerald McEnhill, pastor of Our Lady of Refuge Parish in Orchard Lake, said each priest has his own story to reflect upon about how he’d received Christ through the Eucharist.

“Our priesthood is anchored in the holy Eucharist and we should always be proclaiming that and living it and being strengthened and nourished by the Lord as we share in holy communion,” Fr. McEnhill said following the service.

Fr. Stephen Rooney, pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Temperance, said he could identify with Archbishop Vigneron as he listened to the homily.

“He put it in incredibly simple terms that any of us can identify with,” Fr. Rooney said. “As he was remembering the people who had passed on the Eucharist to him, I was thinking of the people who had passed on the Eucharist to me. It was a very beautiful, very meaningful, and very simple message.”

Reflecting on the new archbishop’s encouragement for the priests to renew their own priorities in ministry, Fr. Marc Gawronski, pastor of St. Mary Parish in Monroe, said it was an apt time to do that, particularly in receiving a chief shepherd who is one of them.

“Welcoming home a shepherd that we know is a wonderful opportunity for all of us to, as he said, rededicate ourselves -- especially together in unity and communion as a presbyterate,” Fr. Gawronski said. “We do know each other and, of course, we know Archbishop Vigneron, and he knows us. And I think that’s going to be a wonderful blessing as he begins his ministry here.”