Posted on 06/28/2015 3:29:09 PM PDT by NYer
An overcast day could not keep Deacon Carl McIntosh from smiling.
As the 11:00 am ordination Mass drew ever closer, his smile and his spirit provided the light that the clouds tried to conceal.
Bishop Frank J. Caggiano lay his hands on the head of a kneeling Deacon Carl McIntosh at St. Augustine Cathedral in Bridgeport, and priestly ontological change was impressed upon his soul. In that instant, Deacon Carl McIntosh became Father Carl McIntosh.
Pictured: Deacon Carl McIntosh is all smiles as he waits for his ordination Mass to begin. In the background is an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, to whom he has a great devotion.
“We came here this morning to celebrate the gift that Deacon Carl McIntosh is to the Church,” Bishop Caggiano had said at the outset of the ordination Mass.
Now the diocese and the universal Church celebrate together the ordination of a newly minted Catholic priest!
Father McIntosh’s ordination also had some historical significance. At 64, he is the oldest man to be ordained a priest this year in the United States.
Father McIntosh will celebrate his first Mass at St. Lawrence Parish in Shelton at 11:30 am tomorrow (June 28). Father Michael Jones, pastor at St. Lawrence, will be the homilist.
Excerpts from Bishop Caggiano’s ordination Mass homily at St. Augustine’s Cathedral, June 27, 2015:
Carl, in a few moments, by the imposition of my hands and the invocation of the Holy Spirit, you will enter into a great mystery...
You are going to be configured to Christ, the crucified, and Risen Priest. And from this moment unto all eternity, Christ will press upon your very soul the gift of His Priesthood...
It is a mystery that you and I, and every single one of us in this Church ordained to priesthood are neither worthy of nor can be ever fully prepared to live. But it is a mistake to think that we are the actors; we are the protagonists. We are not. Christ is. In you, and me.
And as you will prostrate yourself in just a few moments here, before the altar, which is Calvary in grace; when you rise from this place you must remember, my brother, what I must remind myself each day...it is Christ I honor, Christ I serve, and Christ whom, through His grace, I will make present in the world through my priestly life. That will be your mission (Carl) from this day forward...
You will do it because you are going to become a minister of the sanctification of God’s people...You will take bread and wine, and through the power of the Risen Lord in His Spirit, that bread and wine will become the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of the Crucified Lord...We will be fed with the Bread of Life.
We are also called to a prophetic office in Christ, which means that you and I are to be heralds of the Gospel, the good news of salvation.
You will (also) share in the Kingly Office of Christ, and if the world ever wonders what it means to call God “King,” look to the Crown of Thorns that the King of Heaven and Earth wore on (Calvary). That is our crown brothers. That is your crown (Carl) from this day forward.
If you wish to be truly holy; wish to be disciples of Christ; wish to sanctify the world; wish one day to come to glory; Our Lady, the Mother of God, is your mother and mine. Today (Carl) she becomes for you, your special mother...She will wrap you in her mantle.
(In your priesthood), go to our mother, and she will never fail you.
And so, my brother Carl, I welcome you into the sacred priesthood today with great joy, and with great confidence that you will do wonderful work...and be a worthy servant of Christ.
Good news thanks. Prayers for his priesthood.
What’s his screen name here?
That's awesome!
Congratulations!
Ash?
Thank you, ELS.
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