Ordination to the diaconate!! I will be ordained a transitional deacon along with two other men by Cardinal McCarrick next Saturday, December 17, at the 5 pm Mass at St John Neumann Church in Gaithersburg, Md. Thanks be to God!
I will make promises of obedience and celibacy to Christ through His Church, and then be ordained through the Laying on of Hands (a Tradition that goes back to the Apostles!). This is the sacrament of Holy Orders (the three offices of Holy Orders are deacon, priest, bishop). A man who is ordained a deacon is ontologically changed...he is a deacon forever!
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So, my recent retreat really helped me to spiritually and personally prepare for this incredible gift of ordination. I want to present some of the powerful ways the Lord spoke to me during the five day of silence at the hermitage.
Day # 2: My retreat director gave me a couple of passages from Scripture on which to meditate. One of them was John 17: 9-11, 16-19. This is Jesus's prayer to the Father for His priests: "consecrate them in the Truth". Consecrate means to "set aside for" or "dedicate". As one of His future priests, Jesus prayed that I would be consecrated to Truth (Himself- Jesus says I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life). Jesus prayed for me!!
That thought hit me hard because we usually pray to Jesus- He is the recipient of our prayers. Actually, though, our prayers never stop at Christ. He always takes them to the Father. He is our greatest intercessor; He is the sole mediator between God and man. But, still, to think of the Son of God on his knees praying to the Father for my sake and the sake of all priests kind of blew me away.
Am I consecrated to Christ? Well, yes, because of my Baptism. But, no because I haven't set aside and dedicated everything in my life for Him. Am I ready to be consecrated to Him? This will officially take place on Dec. 17...that's what this is all about. I say with an ethusiastic 'YES' that I wish to be consecrated to Christ. I am ready to give Him all that I am. At one point in the ordination rite I will prostrate myself and lay down my life for Christ. The Lord is asking that it not just be a symbolic gesture. He wants me to dedicate myself totally to Him.
Christ consecrated himself to the Father for me and all of us - that we might be consecrated. In a special way, though, He prayed that those He calls to Holy Orders would be especially dedicated to Him who is Truth. I truly felt the power of His prayer during these five days with Him "in the desert". He will consecrate me to the Father next Saturday night. Last week, He prepared me even more to make this a full, internal reality.
4 comments:
St Theresa's Prayer:
May today there be peace within.
May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to
be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of
faith.
May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the
love
that has been given to you.
May you be content knowing you are a child of God. Let this
presence
settle into our bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing,
dance,
praise and
love. It is there for each and every one of you.
Greg,you are in our prayers!!!! Congratulations!!!!
1) I have never heard St. Theresa's prayer, but it was beautiful and inspiring--thank you very much for posting it. I plan to print it and carry it with me.
2)Derek--thanks for sharing your story, it was also very inspirational. Don't worry, it did not seem at all to me as if you were comparing yourself to Christ. What I took from your story is that you relied on Christ to get you through boot camp with the Marines--a serious and challenging test. Most of all, I took this from your post: "I have the strength for everything through him who empowers me." Thank you for sharing your story.
3) Greg, I have not had a chance to write you lately, but I have read your posts on this site as regularly as I can, and I always take a lot of inspiration from them. Most importantly, congratulations! By the time you read this, you will probably be, indeed, consecrated to Christ, and I will pray for you and to God for blessing all of us with such a great servant of His--you will be an excellent Deacon, and then an excellent priest. God Bless you, and congratulations!
p.s. I can't stand spiders--don't know if I could have endured that!! HAHA! But I am confident that you slept very well because you indeed were blessed with the Peace of Christ.
P.T.
Greg--Yet another question: can you explain what it means to be "ontologically changed?"
P.T.
Thanks for the comments, all. PT, sorry to take a while to answer your question. But, when I say that I was ontologically changed by diaconate ordination, it means my whole being was changed - being a deacon defines who I am now.
Ontology (or ontological) is a branch of philosophy that studies the existence of things. It has to with "being". "Who am I" is an ontological question, for example.
Ontological changes take place in two sacraments: Baptism and Holy Orders. When we are baptized, we are marked as Christians FOREVER. That will never change. Same thing with Holy Orders: I was ordained a deacon FOREVER a few weeks ago. I won't stop being a deacon in May when I'm ordained a priest, God willing.
One Scriptural basis for the eternal character of Holy Orders is Psalm 110: "you are a priest for ever of the order of Melchisedek".
Baptism and Holy Orders change a person's whole being...some of the saints in the early Church (Augustine, e.g.)wrote about the sacred "character" that Baptism and Holy Orders bring, and that an eternal, "indelible mark" is made on their souls. The person is changed forever; no matter what I do the rest of my life, I will always be a deacon because of my ordination on Dec. 17.
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