We thank God, and celebrate with the Archdiocese, for the upcoming ordination of 5 men to the Catholic priest-hood May 28, 2022, 10:00 a.m. at the Cathedral of St. Paul. Diocesan priests make two promises to the bishop at ordination: obedience to the bishop and his successor, and to remain celibate so that they can conform them-selves more closely to Jesus Christ in the service of God and his People.
Religious priests, like Franciscan and Dominicans, make three vows to God: celibacy, obedience and poverty- whereby the priest holds most everything in common with his particular religious community and owns nothing, or very little, of his own.
Both Diocesan and Religious priests are called to pray the Divine Office, which are prayers and readings every day. The first reading is from the Bible and the second reading is from spiritual authors or church documents. Below is a sample from St. Augustine (Nov. 13, 345 – Aug. 28, 430), a great Church Father and Doctor of the Church.
―Sing to the Lord a new song; his praise is in the assembly of the saints. We are urged to sing a new song to the Lord, as new men who have learned a new song. A song is a thing of joy; more profoundly, it is a thing of love. Anyone, therefore, who has learned to love the new life has learned to sing a new song, and the new song re-minds us of our new life. The new man, the new song, the new covenant, all belong to the one kingdom of God, and so the new man will sing a new song and will be-long to the new covenant.
―There is not one who does not love something, but the question is, what to love. The psalms do not tell us not to love, but to choose the object of our love. But how can we choose unless we are first chosen? We cannot love unless someone has loved us first. Listen to the apostle John: We love him, because he first loved us. The source of man’s love for God can only be found in the fact that God loved him first. He has given us himself as the object of our love, and he has also given us its source. What this source is you may learn more clearly from the apostle Paul who tells us: The love of God has been poured into our hearts. This love is not something we generate ourselves; it comes to us through the holy Spirit who has been given to us.
―Since we have such an assurance, then, let us love God with the love he has given us. As John tells us more fully: God is love, and whoever dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him. Which of us would dare to pronounce the words of Scripture: God is love? He alone could say it who knew what it was to have God dwelling within him. God offers us a short route to the posses-sion of himself. He cries out: Love me and you will have me for you would be unable to love me is you did not
possess me already.
―My dear brothers and sons, fruit of the true faith and holy seed of heaven, all you who have been born again in Christ, and whose life is from above, listen to me; or rather, listen to the Holy Spirit saying through me: Sing to the Lord a new song. Look, you tell me, I am singing. Yes indeed, you are singing; you are singing clearly, I can hear your words. But make sure that your life does not contradict your words. Sing with your voices, your hearts, your lips and your lives: Sing to the Lord a new song…
―…If you desire to praise him, then live what you ex-press. Live good lives, and you yourselves will be his praise.‖
Peace in the Risen Christ,
Fr. Thomas McCabe