Welcome to ConsiderPriesthood.com

…okay end of the academic year. Today we had the conferral of degrees upon four of our men at Mt Angel Seminary; Rev. Mr. Carlo Tejano in theology and from the College Seminary Clayton, Joshua, and Ryan. Yesterday our deacons from St Patrick’s were awarded their degrees also. I will post their names once I have a list.  Our heartfelt congratulations to our graduates and, please, let us all keep them in our prayers as the move on to the next step in their vocation.

–#1–

May has finally arrived and now begins the Ordination season. Whereas the Church has her official liturgical seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, and Ordinary time, Ordination season comes around graduation time and is one of the most joyful times in the Church. Beginning next weekend and continuing on into July, about 500 men in the United States will be ordained to the priesthood. Here is a look at many of us. This is from a report done by the USCCB. You can also find statistics on the breakdown of these new priests. It is an exciting time indeed. Pray for us!

–#2–

At the North American College, we recently took our class photo of 2013 that will be added to the photos stretching back to the first years of the College in the 1860′s.

–#3–

Meanwhile now I can officially announce that our Diocese of Sacramento will be ordaining eight men to the priesthood through the laying on of hands by His Excellency Jaime Soto on June 1st, 2013 at 10:30am at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. Deacons Jhay Galeon, Guillermo Ramirez, Guillermo Hernandez, Carlo Tejano, Ace Racela, Ronald Torres, Arnold Parungao, and I have all been called to Holy Orders! Please come and join us in prayer and celebration.

On May 31st at 7:00pm at St. Joseph’s in Auburn, CA there will be a prayer vigil with adoration and confession. You are most welcome at both events.

–#4–

And lastly, perhaps we have a model for our priesthood. This Friar is courageous.

AMDG

It’s Good Shepherd Sunday!! Pray for our priest, pray for vocations, pray for discerns and pray for your own vocation!

And pray that I can get in a grove of posting regularly! I am sorry its been so long, school is waaaaayyyyy crazy right now!

Since I wrote last lots of stuff has been going on.  On April 10 Bishop George Thomas of Helena Montana came to the seminary and installed the theology 1 seminarians in the ministry of Lector.  My class, theology 2, was installed into the ministry of acolyte. Aside from the normal liturgical functions there are other parts of the ministry to fulfill  and these milestones also serve to fuel our spiritual formation.  We are encouraged to interiorize the spirituality behind these ministries as we fulfill them in anticipation of priesthood. While these steps aren’t bound to ordination it does help us sense that we are getting near to the priesthood.

Monday I flew home for the first part of my C.P.E. orientation which I will be doing this summer at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. C.P.E. stands for Clinical Pastoral Education and is a program to help people gain experience in hospital ministry. It was a nice, but quick visit home and a good meeting. I honestly don’t see how so many business people can fly here and there for a one day meeting, while it was fun and even exciting, I was tired the next day!

This week flew by quickly which is a mixed blessing, finals are rapidly approaching as are the due dates of our term papers. In the midst of this is the excitement of ordinations. I am going to be the MC of Dcn. Colin Wen’s Mass of  Thanksgiving which has been a lot of fun planning, along with some other aspects of ordinations. We have 8 men to be ordained a record class for our diocese! Please keep them in your  prayers. I hope to post again soon with some pictures and even a few thoughts from the Holy Father from this Good Shepherd Sunday.