On S. Martin's Day 1980 I was ordained to the priesthood by The Rt Rev'd John Hazlewood SSC, Bishop of Ballarat in Australia. This took place at S. Paul's, Bakery Hill, Ballarat. Below are some photographs of the Mass. The retreat conductor and preacher at the ordination was The Very Rev'd Robert Beal, who was then Dean of Newcastle (and subsequently Bishop of Wangaratta from 1985 to 1994). In his homily he gave us ordinands this challenge:
'It is your task, my brothers,
to beckon the world’s gaze to the crucifix,
and to point to those wounds
on the Body of the King of glory.
We gaze at the God-man,
and are confronted with the Truth
that will make men free.'
Thank you, family and friends, colleagues and parishioners (former and present!), for your support, encouragement, prayers, friendship and forgiveness!
I share with you today a text to which I return often:
'We do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord,
and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.
For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness,
who has shone in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels,
that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.'
(2 Corinthians 4:5-7)
1 comments:
Axios! May God grant you many more years.
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