Upcoming Ordination

06-12-2016Weekly ReflectionFr. Brian Jazdzewski

Most of you are already aware that ordination is the final step for a seminarian before he becomes a clergyman for the Roman Catholic Church.  Some of you are aware that Deacon Daniel Sedlacek is going to be ordained to the Holy Priesthood for our diocese on Saturday 25 June 2016.  I think it’s even more likely that even fewer of you are aware that he is the nephew to Junior and Judy Pieper (members at St. Boniface).  I know that Junior and Judy are among a really small number of people in our parish cluster who are blessed to have a priest in their family.  Please pray for Deacon Sedlacek as he awaits these final days before ordination.

Most of you are already aware that ordination is the final step for a seminarian before he becomes a clergyman for the Roman Catholic Church.  Some of you are aware that Deacon Daniel Sedlacek is going to be ordained to the Holy Priesthood for our diocese on Saturday 25 June 2016.  I think it’s even more likely that even fewer of you are aware that he is the nephew to Junior and Judy Pieper (members at St. Boniface).  I know that Junior and Judy are among a really small number of people in our parish cluster who are blessed to have a priest in their family.  Please pray for Deacon Sedlacek as he awaits these final days before ordination.

A few words about the future priest: During my appointment in Jim and Chippewa Falls, I came to know the Sedlacek family who were members of the neighboring parish in Cornell.  Daniel and some of his siblings were involved in our deanery youth ministry program.  The Sedlacek’s have, and continue, to live in rural Cornell where they operate a small-sized family dairy farm.  The farm not only provides for their living, it also provides a place for them to grow in their relationship with one another… and God.  I bring out these points to make an obvious reference that priests are called from regular families around regular places in our diocese to give their lives in service to us, Christ’s people.  I hope that we continue to recognize that among us, in our part of the diocese, God is likely calling some of our boys and young men to the priesthood.  Our job is to recognize priestly traits in the fellas among us and encourage them to consider a calling to the priesthood.

A few words about ordination:  Since ordained clergy are called from their regular lives to provide service to Christ’s people, the ordination ritual is ours to participate in.  The ritual is among the small amount of diocesan Masses at which our bishop presides with the maximum grandeur.  Attendees find inspiration through the silence, through the assembly, through the prayers, through the actions, through the music, through the singing and countless other ways the Holy Spirit chooses to speak to those who attend.  And, since we are about an hour from La Crosse, you might want to consider making the trip to our cathedral to discover how the Lord may want to bless your life.

Included in the ordination ritual are significant pieces which take place during the celebration of Holy Mass.  After the Homily, the ordination takes place.  Historically, the more meaningful pieces for me have been the imposition of the bishop’s hands on the candidate along with the bishop anointing the hands of the newly ordained with the Sacred Chrism.  To me, these are the precise moments when ordination takes place; the moment when the Holy Spirit touches the soul of the candidate and transforms their soul to live for Christ and His people.  From this point forward, believe me, the priest’s life is changed forever… eternally even.

Our diocesan and universal church are never the same following an ordination.  We, the people of God, have prayerfully and materially presented a candidate for the priesthood who will forever change the face of the earth.  Each priest makes daily sacrifices to be instruments of bringing God’s graces to his people through the sacraments.  These people will then be eternally claimed by Christ and changed forever. Original sin and the grip of the enemy are removed through the prayerful sacramental actions of a priest.

However, our work does not end there.  We continue to do our part to pray for priests, hopefully daily.  We also respond to our baptismal call and make efforts to grow in holiness each day.  Practically, some people choose to pray specifically for priests by adding one Hail Mary to their meal prayer.  Others may choose to use a different way to pray for priests of the past, present and future.  Perhaps you will consider using the following prayer, maybe even just once, to support the priesthood of our Catholic church: O Almighty and Eternal God, look upon the Face of Christ, and for love of Him Who is the eternal High-priest, have pity on priests. Remember, O most compassionate God, that they are but weak and frail human beings. Stir up in them the grace of their vocation which is in them by the imposition of the Bishop's hands. Keep them close to you, lest the enemy prevail against them, so that they may never do anything in the slightest degree unworthy of their sublime vocation.

O Jesus, I pray for faithful and fervent priests; for unfaithful and tepid priests; for priests laboring at home or abroad in distant mission fields; for tempted priests; for lonely and desolate priests; for young priests; for aged priests; for sick priests; for dying priests; for the souls of priests in Purgatory.

But above all I commend to You the priests dearest to me: the priest who baptized me; the priests at whose Masses I assisted and who gave me Your Body and Blood in Holy Communion; the priests who taught and instructed or helped me and encouraged me; all the priests to whom I am indebted in any other way, particularly (your priest’s name here). O Jesus, keep them all close to Your heart, and bless them abundantly in time and in eternity. Amen. Mary, Queen of the clergy, pray for us; obtain for us many and holy priests. Amen.

BACK TO LIST