More than 200 friends, family members, priests, deacons and the faithful filled The Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help on June 1 to witness the transitional diaconate ordination of John Grim and Jonah Beckham. God willing, they will be ordained to the priesthood in 2025.
The two-hour ordination included readings by George Galster, uncle of John Grim, and Maggie Beckham, mother of Jonah Beckham. The Gospel was proclaimed by Deacon Howard Harper, and Father John Paul Lewis presented the candidates to Archbishop Coakley.
Once the candidates declared their willingness to fulfill their duties as deacons, they knelt before Archbishop Coakley to promise respect and obedience. Archbishop Coakley placed his hands on their heads and prayed over them, bestowing the Holy Spirit and conferring the diaconal order.
Both men received a Book of the Gospels and were vested by deacons – Deacon Beckham by Deacon Bob Quinnett and Deacon Grim by Deacon B.D. Tidmore.
“I was moved as I processed down the aisle by the warm embrace and love of Holy Mother Church made visible by our cathedral and all those present at the ordination,” Deacon Grim said. “I am filled with gratitude for Archbishop Coakley, for calling me to orders and ordaining me, but also because of his fatherly care for the Church in Oklahoma.
“May Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary, watch over him, and may the Holy Spirit guide me to serve him faithfully as his deacon.”
Deacon Beckham echoed the feeling of gratitude.
“I have had so many people come to me and say how big my smile was during the Mass, and I couldn't stop!” he said. “The fact was, I couldn't help it. The amount of joy and peace that I had in my heart throughout the ordination is something words cannot describe.”
During his homily, Archbishop Coakley reminded the new deacons of their call to serve others and to be aware of the current challenges as a member of the clergy in the modern age.
“It’s significant that we gather here in the cathedral church, this beautiful church that 100 years ago was dedicated. Certainly, a beautiful testimony of the faith of those who have gone before us. It’s a testament to an era passing, that is an era that was known for so many centuries as Christendom.
“That era, that age when the Church and society were so closely aligned as sometimes to be indistinguishable. The culture in which we live no longer supports the commitment of faith and the handing on of faith through society and the societal institutions. … It’s the world and the Church that you know and which I dare say is quite different from the world that I knew when I was ordained.
“We’re living in an era that has much more in common with the early apostolic age … when the Church was still an outlawed institution and those who identified as Christians, those who sought initiation into the Church, to the faith of the apostles, prepared themselves not for privilege, but for persecution and even martyrdom.”
Archbishop Coakley delivered his homily below a mural featuring Our Lady and Blessed Stanley Rother, who was ordained in the same cathedral and became the first U.S.-born priest to be beatified. Archbishop Coakley was joined by Archbishop Emeritus Eusebius Beltran and Abbot Lawrence Stasyszen.
“Blessed Stanley said that we’re all called to a life of radical fidelity to the Gospel. It’s not enough to be a good churchman. … In this apostolic age, it’s ever more important that we realize that we are called to be disciples,” he said.
“Your life and your ministry must be deeply rooted in an intimate friendship with Jesus, who alone can and will sustain you my brothers in the challenges that await you. … So as deacons, as ordained ministers of Jesus Christ, who lived among his disciples as one who serves, do the will of God in charity from the heart. Serve others with joy as you would serve the Lord.”
The day after the ordination, both deacons preached their first Masses at their home parishes – Deacon Beckham at Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church in Edmond and Deacon Grim at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church in Chandler.
“Once I got to the ambo, I began proclaiming the Gospel and giving my homily, and I saw many faces of people I have known since I was a little kid,” Deacon Beckham said. “They have watched me grow up and have seen my faith mature, and now, here I am, preaching the word of God to them as a deacon. It was a blessing I will not soon forget.”
Deacon Grim preached about the Eucharist and the faithful offering their whole selves to Jesus.
“As a newly ordained deacon, I am awed by how God can use me, his lowly instrument, to do such amazing things,” he said. “I baptized a baby for the first time. God the Father adopted this child to be his beloved son before my very eyes. God is so good, merciful and loving. May all glory and praise be his forever.”
Diane Clay is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.