Ordination

On Trinity Sunday three of my confreres and I were ordained to the Priesthood by Cardinal Schönborn. Photos can be seen here.

The following is a reconstruction and translation of the words of thanks which I said on behalf of all four of us at the end of Mass:

Your Eminence, My Lord Cardinal: thank you for ordaining us to the priesthood! You are a successor of the Apostles, a successor of those men to whom the Lord said: “vos autem dixi amicos: but you I have called friends.” What a mystery! Not only did the Lord reconcile His Apostles to Himself, saving them from the slavery of sin and death and taking them up into the Divine Friendship; but He made them instruments of His salvation, sending them to bring reconciliation and salvation to all peoples, so that all men might become the friends of God. You have ordained us as priests that we might serve as instruments of that Apostolic mission; that  through us God’s voice might be heard, sins might be forgiven, and the Eternal Son’s saving Sacrifice might be made really present. We promise you ever to preserve and deepen our unity with you and the other successors of the Apostles in union with Peter – that unity which is the cause of our friendship with God. And we promise to listen to what you [plural] say, for Our Lord can say to you [again pl.] what he said to the Apostles: “he who hears you hears me.”

In this hour we wish to thank all those who have helped us to experience the friendship of God throughout our lives. We thank all the priests who gave us the sacraments; we thank our Lord Abbot for proposing us for ordination; we thank our Altabt Gregor for guiding us through the years of our formation; we thank our novice master, Abbot Christian, and our junior masters P. Prior Simeon and P. Kosmas; we thank P. Karl and all our professors; and we thank all our confreres who have given us such a powerful witness of friendship with and in the Triune God. We thank especially our parents, the six here present and the two of whom we may hope that they look down on us from above, for giving us the greatest of all gifts by raising us in the faith; we thank all our families and friends, and all who have prayed for us especially our Godparents. We thank all who helped to prepare the celebration of our Ordination: the sacristy, the guest masters, the altar servers, the schola, and all the countless others.

Let us together give thanks to almighty God, who in His unspeakable Love has given His only Son to redeem us, His slaves, that we might no longer be slaves but sons in the Holy Spirit, the Spirit in which we cry, “Abba, Father!”