Rejoice and be glad!

In the past few issues of the Sooner Catholic, we have featured each of the five young men who are preparing for ordination to the priesthood this summer. On Saturday, June 29, as the universal Church celebrates the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, I will have the privilege of ordaining these five men as priests of Jesus Christ for the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City.
 
What a great day for an ordination as we celebrate these two great apostles who spent themselves for Christ and his people! Ask any bishop and he will tell you that an ordination is one of the most awesome privileges and responsibilities that comes with the episcopal office. Ordaining a priest is like begetting a son. It is an experience of spiritual fatherhood unlike any other. A priest is a priest forever!
 
Deacons Will Banowsky, Zac Boazman, John Herrera, Alex Kroll and Jerome Krug will begin their priestly ministry among us this summer. During their priesthood, they will serve all over the archdiocese in a variety of capacities. They will be pastors, chaplains, teachers, confessors and spiritual fathers. They will baptize and heal. They will proclaim the Gospel and celebrate the Eucharist.
 
These five men have each travelled this journey with the support of many people, beginning with their parents and families. They have been accompanied by fellow parishioners, friends, pastors and seminary formators who have encouraged them, challenged them, guided them and inspired them. The cost of their education and formation for priesthood has been provided by the faithful of the archdiocese. Such an occasion, then, is reason for the whole church to rejoice.
 
These are challenging times for priests and for all Catholics. I am grateful for the bold faith and generosity of these young men who set out on their journey during such times. I pray that their witness, their joy and their holy lives will encourage many other young men to explore the possibility that God might be calling them to the priesthood as well. I pray that their response to God’s call will inspire everyone they encounter to embrace a life of generous missionary discipleship.
 
For every priest, the occasion of an ordination helps us renew the grace of our own ordination day with all of its joy, its hope and its holy fear. On that day, I prayed a prayer of Saint Hilary, who prayed it himself as he began his ministry – “As we spread our sails of trusting faith and public avowal before you, fill them with the breath of your Spirit, to drive us on as we begin this course of proclaiming your truth. We have been promised, and he who made the promise is trustworthy: Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
 
Amen!