“We are rejoicing”

Fr. Brannon Lepak ordained to the priesthood 


OKLAHOMA CITY – As the rain slowed and The Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help filled, Deacon Jonathan Brannon Lepak stood at the back of the church watching quietly in anticipation. His faith journey was a long, winding path that started, stopped and started again – all leading to June 26 when he was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City.

“Today, we are rejoicing … that the Lord continues to call men to this special friendship, to anoint and consecrate for service those he has chosen from among us for a special share in his one eternal priesthood, the priesthood of Jesus Christ,” Archbishop Coakley said during his homily.

“Though many, many have had a part to play over the years in encouraging and preparing Deacon Brannon for his priestly vocation, few … have had as much influence as the members of his own family, especially you Gloria and Brannon’s late father, Louis. Thank you … for your generosity and sacrifice in offering us the gift of your son for service to the Church.”

Father Lepak felt a call to serve in high school. He discerned a life with a monastic community and as a teacher in his search for a life of deep prayer. 

After studying philosophy and theology with the Dominican friars, he met with Father Brian Buettner, vocations director. But, he still wasn’t sure if being a parish priest would satisfy his need for deep contemplative prayer. Then, he came home to Christ the King Catholic Church.

“I was watching Father Rick Stansberry celebrate Mass and I thought that is actually the highest form of prayer right there. I was trying so hard to find a specific way of prayer, but I realized it’s all in the Eucharist and God already has done it for you.”

He was accepted as a seminarian for the archdiocese and recently earned a master’s degree in divinity at Pope Saint John XXIII National Seminary in Massachusetts.   

During his homily, Archbishop Coakley said priests ordained today are entering an age not so different than the apostolic age following Pentecost.

“We have entered … a new apostolic age, … which calls us to a new kind of witness and to a new kind of ministry. We must be more mission-focused, more intentional or we will be carried along and swept away in the fast-moving and dangerous currents of secularism in which we will find ourselves becoming indistinguishable from the world into which we have been sent to be light and salt,” he said. 

“It is a time of great opportunity to embark upon the great adventure of Christian discipleship and the priesthood.”

Diane Clay is editor of the Sooner Catholic.


Read Archbishop Coakley’s homily online archokc.org/homilies.