Thursday, May 31, 2012

A truly blessed weekend...

(Brendan)

By the grace of God, my youngest brother, Evan, was ordained to the holy priesthood by Archbishop John Nienstedt this past Saturday (May 26th) at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, MN! It was a truly blessed weekend and an almost incomprehensible grace for our family, and indeed for the whole Church. For the sake of documenting this wonderful event on our blog I wanted to make sure and post some pictures. A few of these are pictures I took, and a lot of them were taken by my sister who has a much better camera :-) Click any picture to enlarge.

Deacon Evan in prayer before the ordination mass.
Molly and me and the kids (minus Francis, who at 22 months wasn't going to make it through a 2 1/2 hour mass), seated with the rest of our family.
Evan processing in with the other men to be ordained priests.
Archbishop John Nienstedt
In prayer during the Litany of the Saints.

The laying on of hands
Our oldest, Clara (Evan's Goddaughter), was one of three to bring up the gifts.
Fr. Evan concelebrating his first mass
After the mass, Fr. Evan gives his priestly blessing to our parents.
We receive our Fr. Evan's blessing
An extended family picture
Later at the reception, Molly and I get a picture with Fr. Evan and our family. (We have another blessing on the way as well! Due at the end of August -- prayers always appreciated).
Fr. Evan's vestments, designed by my Dad with input from Evan and made by a very talented lady who makes priestly vestments in Coon Rapids, MN.
Fr. Evan's chalice
The next day is Fr. Evan's first mass of thanksgiving at the parish where we grew up, St. Rita's in Cottage Grove, MN. The Handmaids of the Heart of Jesus, a wonderful order of sisters from New Ulm, MN arrive for the mass to support Fr. Evan in prayer and with sung sacred music during the mass.
The consecration
Fr. Evan blesses our grandparents, who celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary the same week.
On Memorial Day we attended daily mass celebrated by Fr. Evan in the chapel of the Companions of Christ house near the St. Paul Seminary. Fr. Evan offered the mass for our Henry Blaise.
Fr. Evan was assigned by Archbishop Nienstedt to St. Stephen's parish in Anoka, MN, which is not far from where we live on the North side of the Twin Cities. We are very excited to attend mass on occasion at St. Stephen's when Fr. Evan is presiding, and have Evan over to our house for lots of visits!

2 comments:

Karla in MN said...

So nice to see another post from you. Congratulations both on the Ordination of your brother to the Catholi Priesthood, as well as the news of your newest blessing due in August. I am so happy for you and Molly. God bless you all, and I will continue prayers for Molly and Baby. Pax Christi!

John Curran said...

So good to see you posting again, and with such wonderful news. Congratulations to Father Evan, and to you and Molly.

It astonishes me how you are a painter, just because you decided to be!

My thoughts often turn to you and your lovely family, as I had such fun 'helping' with the design of your home.

I still eagerly await the building of the Chapel...

Best wishes,

John