Ordination rehersal; check!

Ordination retreats behind them, all the classes and seminars in the past, the signing of their oaths and pledges done, all that remains are the events of ordination week and the ordination itself.  The big events of ordination week are the rehersal and the prayer vigil the night before ordination.

Tonight was the rehersal.  All twenty men, with their wives were present in historic St. Louis Cathedral for this important walk through of the Mass and ordination rite.  Nothing was left to chance.  Every aspect of the Mass and the the actual rites were played out.  The candidates got to feel that which will happen to them Saturday; the pledging of obedience to the Archbishop, the laying on of hands, the receiving of the Book of the Gospels, the laying prostrate on the marble floor during the litany of Saints!  The men also practiced being Deacon as some will move to service at the altar during the liturgy of the Eucharist.  Others will be ministers of the cup.  Even the wives had to practice bringing up the gifts and receiving the handoff from their husbands of their new Book of the Gospels.

Now ordination rehersal is not without its pain points but I've never experienced this.  You see for my own rehersal, a freak December snow storm made the roads in my area impassable to New Orleans.  Yes, I missed my own ordination rehersal.  Somehow I made it through ordination and tonight, got to feel all the nuances of the rehersal.  I'm not just an interested bystander; I had to rehearse too.  This fine class of 2012 has asked me to proclaim the Gospel.  I am simply honored and humbled by this opportunity.  At least tonight I only had to rehearse the first and last lines of the Gospel.

For these twenty men and their wives, they now will gather again at the diaconate center, across the river from the Cathedral, and meet in an intimate prayer setting with their Archbishop.  They will prayerfully anticipate the grace of ordination in the Sacrament of Holy Orders to be bestowed the next morning.

Please keep these men, their wives and families, and all Permanent Deacons in your prayers.  May our 2012 brothers join the larger diaconate community in a life of serving and not being served in imitation of Christ the Servant!