Today 20 years ago I knelt in front of Bishop Bernard W. Schmidt and through his imposition of hands I was ordained a priest. It was a weekend of great celebration with an pre-celebratory dinner on Friday night with family and friends from out of town at St Michael's, to the Mass of Ordination on Saturday morning at 11AM in St. Joseph's Cathedral in Wheeling and then my first Mass on Sunday morning at 11AM at St. Michael's in Wheeling where I had spent a summer as a transitional deacon and on the weekends of my last year in seminary.
We all ask ourselves the same question(s) at times and usually cannot come up with a satisfactory answer. The question is, "Where did the time go?" Whether being parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, friend, coworker, professional business person or blue collar worker we all ask ourselves this question which I think is healthy. It gives us some parameters to reflect on where we have been and where we think we are going and hope to go.
As I will celebrate the Mass this morning at our priest retreat I will continue to give thanks to the Lord for the blessings of these past 20 years. I have indeed been richly blessed to be an integral part of so many lives sharing in their joys, victories, their sadness, their short lived defeats and perhaps have disappointed and angered a few along the way. There have been many "mountain top experiences" and some "deep valley and desert" ones too, but isn't that life for all of us?
I thank you for your prayers and encouragement along this journey and continue to ask for you to keep them up! Will there be another 20 years of ministry? According to the diocese I won't be an "active" pastor at the age of 83 but then again who knows what the Lord has planned!
We all ask ourselves the same question(s) at times and usually cannot come up with a satisfactory answer. The question is, "Where did the time go?" Whether being parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, friend, coworker, professional business person or blue collar worker we all ask ourselves this question which I think is healthy. It gives us some parameters to reflect on where we have been and where we think we are going and hope to go.
As I will celebrate the Mass this morning at our priest retreat I will continue to give thanks to the Lord for the blessings of these past 20 years. I have indeed been richly blessed to be an integral part of so many lives sharing in their joys, victories, their sadness, their short lived defeats and perhaps have disappointed and angered a few along the way. There have been many "mountain top experiences" and some "deep valley and desert" ones too, but isn't that life for all of us?
I thank you for your prayers and encouragement along this journey and continue to ask for you to keep them up! Will there be another 20 years of ministry? According to the diocese I won't be an "active" pastor at the age of 83 but then again who knows what the Lord has planned!
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