It has been much too long since I've returned to this humble cyberhome to share my incessant thoughts and endless ramblings with whoever it may be that stumbles onto this tiny blog. Quite frankly, our life has been fairly regular and ordinary in these past weeks - days and weeks go by, we have our ups and downs in the spiritual life, we have our little joys and our little struggles in our married vocation, and life continues. I'll admit, the "ordinary-ness" of married life used to slightly scare me, but now, it really is a tremendous gift for which I remain abundantly grateful. So, long story short, there hasn't been much to write about in these past weeks.
Until today. :-)
We traveled this weekend, to the Kansas City metro area, about 500 miles southwest of where we live. We piled into the car with two friends early on Friday morning and headed out shortly after eight; arriving in KC, KS (or at least a suburb of it) right around 5:00 in the afternoon, after a good eight hours of driving. It was there, in the heart of the Great Plains, that we witnessed the ordination of a dear, dear friend to the sacred order of deacons.
The ordination itself - held on Saturday morning in a local parish church - was nothing short of completely beautiful. We arrived about an hour before the Mass to pray and prepare; yet, I found it impossible to pray coherently in that time, as the choir was rehearsing and it was entirely heavenly. The choir eventually began to rehearse "Lift High the Cross" - one of my most favorite hymns - and the beauty of that moment, of what was about to happen to five men (four to be ordained priests, our friend to be ordained deacon), was all too much and tears stung my eyes. All I could do was smile at B as I tried to choke down what almost became a sob. The occasion of this ordination was truly providential -the four men ordained to the priesthood are the first priests of the male branch of a relatively new religious order; and our friend, ordained to the diaconate, would then be just a step away from joining his brothers in God's holy priesthood. The process to ordain these men has been very long - many different steps needed to happen, all in God's time, in order for this blessed day to come. As I wiped away my tears - the first of many that day - I think I realized the magnitude of the ceremony about to happen, and the gratitude owed to our good God for truly blessing this work done for His Kingdom.
There really are no adequate words to describe what then transpired - an almost transcendent ordination Mass, where the joy felt among the faithful was palpable. We smiled proudly as we watched our dear friend join his fellow brothers in the community, to make promises of obedience and respect to the ordaining bishop and to, more importantly, make eternal promises to God as His ordained ministers. Next to the Liturgy of the Eucharist, the Rite of Ordination may have been the most beautiful part of the day - watching these five young men literally lay down their lives in service to God's holy people and make solemn promises to both Christ Jesus and a successor to Christ's apostles. Another moment where the tears flowed freely was watching our friend - now a deacon - be welcomed by his fellow deacons into this sacred, beautiful order. My heart was full of joy at that moment - a joy that could only be expressed by a shower of happy tears.
Two hours and 45 minutes later, Mass concluded - really, it felt like just minutes had passed. We attended a lovely luncheon and caught up with many old friends - sisters from the female branch of the order that we knew from our time in college, other college friends, even some priests from back home who had made the trip for the ordination. A priest friend summed it up well - "It's a small world when it comes to our family in the Church." Really, it couldn't have been said better. While we didn't know many people at the ordination, by day's end we had gotten to know many more, and it was that much closer to feeling like a family.
In the evening we attended a lovely dinner reception - not unlike a wedding celebration. We ate delicious food, indulged in an open bar, and even took to the dance floor at one point and spun around to a merengue. Many members of the order are from Italy (our friend included), so the reception offered me a truly precious moment to practice la bella lingua, which I haven't spoken consistently in what seems like years! The most special moment of the evening was by far our little private moment with our friend when he was able to offer us his blessing. In heavily accented Italian, he prayed with us and over us, and it was a great gift to us, so special, in fact, that I can't possibly attempt to describe how wonderful it was. Following his blessing, we were able to share a few more words, where we again reiterated our great joy at his "yes" to God and humbly asked for his prayers for us. And, before long, sadly, it was time to depart, and bid our goodbyes - as the gears in our heads began to crank along as we started to brainstorm ways of, God willing, getting to Rome for his presbyteral ordination (the likely location in about a year).
The prevailing sentiments we took away from his weekend was a sense of great joy as we watched these five men resoundingly answer "yes" to God's call. I shared with our friend how happy it made us to watch him say "yes" to God, and how beautiful it was to pray with him as he discovered his vocation and committed to it. There is something uniquely special in witnessing a resounding "yes" to God's call to His holy priesthood, and I couldn't be more grateful for the opportunity to witness these fine young men make these solemn promises to God this weekend.
We also remain sincerely grateful to God for our friendship with "Don Ale" (that's what we'll call him now) and his prayers for us. He blessed us with his presence at our wedding almost two years ago, and it was an honor and a privilege to return the favor. (And we only hope that it might be God's will that at least one, if not both, of us somehow make it to Rome to see him ordained a priest!) God willing, he'll be the godfather to our firstborn daughter (or second-born son) someday. We remain convinced that it is truly this friendship with God's chosen priests that will encourage and inspire us in our own pursuit of holiness for years to come.
Thank you, Father God, for the gift of these priests (and deacon) to us! May you bless and sustain them all the years of their faithful service to you.
a presto.
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