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.
Wow! God bless him!
O Jesus, our great High Priest,
Hear my humble prayers on behalf of your priest, Father Carl Dennis McIntosh.
Give him a deep faith
a bright and firm hope
and a burning love
which will ever increase
in the course of his priestly life.
In his loneliness, comfort him
In his sorrows, strengthen him
In his frustrations, point out to him
that it is through suffering that the soul is purified,
and show him that he is needed by the Church,
he is needed by souls,
he is needed for the work of redemption.
O loving Mother Mary, Mother of Priests,
take to your heart your son who is close to you
because of his priestly ordination,
and because of the power which he has received
to carry on the work of Christ
in a world which needs him so much.
Be his comfort, be his joy, be his strength,
and especially help him
to live and to defend the ideals of consecrated celibacy. Amen.
+John Joseph, Cardinal Carberry (d.1998)
Archbishop of St. Louis 1968-1979
Ping!
Woo Hoo!
Wonderful!
Congrats. Maybe a Freeper Pope one day!
Now, can we fast track Father Carl to the papacy?
W00t!
May he always turn to the Spirit in the battles and the joys ahead!
Congratulations again.
I was in the Diocese of Bridgeport back in the 80s and 90s. Church of St. Mary, Ridgefield.
What’s his FReeper handle ?
Congratulations, Fr. McIntosh. God bless!
Welcome, Carl. What wonderful pictures.
Congratulations and blessings to him.
Congratulations are in order!
Amen! Let’s keep on Praying for him. Amen.
I certainly hope not! : - ) Fr. Carl will be saying both the NO and TLM masses. Please keep him in your prayers!
Wonderful!
Thank you for the ping. I just sent him a belated PM.
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