Alleluia! Alleluia!

What a celebration will be had!  And you are invited.

At 11.00 am on Saturday, 17 December, Deacon Paul Durkin will complete his journey and be Ordained as a Priest of the Diocese of Broken Bay.

The priesthood was established by God among the Israelites during their exodus from Egypt. God chose the tribe of Levi as priests for the nation. Their primary duties were the offering of sacrifice and prayer for the people.

Christ, in offering Himself up for the sins of all mankind, fulfilled the duties of the Old Testament priesthood once and for all. But just as the Eucharist makes that sacrifice present to us today, so the New Testament priesthood is a sharing in the eternal priesthood of Christ. While all believers are, in some sense, priests, some are set aside to serve the Church as Christ Himself did.

The Sacrament of Holy Orders is the continuation of Christ's priesthood, which He bestowed upon His Apostles; thus, the Catechism of the Catholic Church refers to the Sacrament of Holy Orders as "the sacrament of apostolic ministry."  In the Sacrament of Holy Orders, a man is incorporated into the priesthood of Christ.    There is only one Sacrament of Holy Orders, but there are three levels: the episcopate, the priesthood, and the diaconate.

No bishop can minister to all of the faithful in his diocese, so priests act, in the words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, as "co-workers of the bishops." They exercise their powers lawfully only in communion with their bishop, and so they promise obedience to their bishop at the time of their Ordination.

The chief duties of the priesthood are the preaching of the Gospel and the offering of the Eucharist.  By his priestly Ordination he receives the power to offer sacrifice (i.e. to celebrate the Eucharist/Mass), to forgive sins, to bless, to preach, to sanctify, and in a word to fulfil the non-reserved liturgical duties or priestly functions.

The Prayer of Consecration, asking God for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and gifts proper to the ministry, is recited by the bishop, which along with the Laying on of Hands, constitutes the essential act of the sacrament.  The Laying on of Hands is an ancient biblical gesture asking God to empower the candidates by the Holy Spirit and is a sign of the authority that has passed through the ages from the Apostles.

The newly ordained are then vested in the distinctive insignia of their order – that is for Deacons, the stole and dalmatic and for Priests, the stole and chasuable.  

Each level of ordination confers special graces, from the ability to preach, granted to deacons; to the ability to act in the person of Christ to offer the Mass, granted to priests; to a special grace of strength, granted to bishops, which allows him to teach and lead his flock, even to the point of dying as Christ did.

Let us keep not only Deacon Paul but all members of the clergy in our prayers at this very special time in our Diocese, that they may carry their burden lightly and help us to know the message of Christ.