It's hard to believe, but today is the first anniversary of ordination to the priesthood for me and my classmates. So much to be grateful for - starting with the three best classmates a guy could have.
In the ordination rite of priests, the bishop exhorts the elect to "know what you do and imitate what you celebrate: model your life on the mystery of the Lord's cross." A beautiful piece of calligraphy art with that quote hangs on the wall across from my desk - the gift of my rector and friend Fr. John Conley, CSC. I think of this quote often as I hear Confessions, Baptize, and especially when I celebrate the Eucharist. More than anything else, it is Jesus in the Eucharist who is the gift and mystery of our lives.
This quote also helps explain the name I chose for this blog: "Gift and Mystery." It's the same name that Pope John Paul II used for the memoir he wrote on the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination. He writes:
My hope is that this blog will allow me to share some of the amazing experiences I am able to enjoy all because I have been invited into the great gift and mystery that is the priesthood. And maybe that will help me, and you too, to be ever more grateful for the gift and mystery that is life itself.
At its deepest level, every vocation to the priesthood is a great mystery; it is a gift which infinitely transcends the individual. Faced with the greatness of the gift, we sense our own inadequacy.
Deo Gratias!
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