In gratitude for ‘a beautiful vocation’
Jubilee Mass commemorates priestly ordination milestones
CHARLOTTE — Priests celebrating milestone anniversaries were honored Aug. 1 with a Mass at St. Patrick Cathedral offered by Bishop Peter Jugis.
The Mass, held as part of the annual Priests’ Colloquium in Charlotte July 31-Aug 2, recognized priests marking their jubilee anniversaries of ordination of 25 years or more this year.
Honorees were Father Gabriel Meehan (60 years); Benedictine Father Francis Forster (55 years); Benedictine Father Arthur Pendleton (55 years); Father Louis Canino, OFM (50 years); and Father Michael Kottar (25 years).
Two other priests were also recognized at the Mass: Father Frank O’Rourke, pastor of St. Gabriel Church in Charlotte, and Father Richard Benonis, pastor of St. Margaret of Scotland Church in Maggie Valley. Both pastors recently announced they plan to retire this year.
In his homily, Bishop Jugis expressed his joy in offering prayers of thanksgiving and blessing upon his brother priests celebrating ordination anniversaries this year, as well as those beginning retirement.
“We pray in this Mass that God continues to shower and bestow His blessings upon all of them,” Bishop Jugis said.
Directing his comments to his fellow priests, he said, “The anniversary of a priesthood ordination is always celebrated with sentiments of gratitude to the Lord – gratitude for the opportunity to serve, for being called to serve, and gratitude for being called to enter so profoundly, so intimately into communion with Christ the High Priest to be a ministerial participant in His eternal, holy priesthood.”
Being a priest enables them to help people on the path to salvation, he said, “by offering them the sacraments, by offering them the Gospel teaching and by shepherding them with love and with courage as the Good Shepherd would.”
“Serving the salvation of our brothers and sisters, we all know, my brothers – and it is good to be reminded at a time like this – of the important work in which we are involved, that the most important work on the face of the earth is definitely the work of salvation. God has consecrated us for this most important work to which He has called us.”
The priesthood, he emphasized, is “a very beautiful vocation.”
“The faithful realize this,” he said. “That is why, as we have been hearing over the past year or more, that they demand holiness from their priests because they realize the beauty of the vocation and the intimacy and love of Christ that is present in that vocation.”
But jubilee anniversaries are not just a time to express gratitude, Bishop Jugis continued. They offer the opportunity for priests to “think back on the amazing journey that we have had with God over the years ... all beginning from that discernment that takes place in accepting a call to the priesthood.”
“Many times,” he continued, discernment “is initiated by something as simple as someone saying, ‘I think you have a vocation to the priesthood.’ And many times, that is the idea that gets planted and starts the wheels turning and the mind thinking. ‘Maybe someone sees something in me that I do not yet see.’ And that begins a process of discernment.
“Then in the months and the years that follow that initial offer – which ultimately is coming from God – reflecting on all of the events and circumstances in our lives, all of the people and places that have been placed in our lives, eventually working through all of that and seeing God’s hand at work in everything that has been happening to us to that point – eventually coming to the conviction that God indeed has chosen you for this vocation, that God indeed has chosen you.”
Bishop Jugis reflected on a line from the opening prayer for the jubilarian Mass: “O God, bless those whom You have chosen for the special ministry of sanctification.”
“God has chosen you, giving you the grace of totally dedicating yourself to God, giving you the grace of dedicating yourself totally to the service of His Church and His people, and giving you the grace of celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom.”
“That conviction,” he continued, “can only lead, and only led, to one response: ‘Here I am, Lord. I come to do your will.’”
Discernment of God’s will does not end at their ordination, he also noted. “Even through the years of one’s service, the experience of God’s special affection, that you have been chosen, continues to mature.
‘That special affection continues to sustain the vocation bringing us to events like this, anniversary events, to reflect back and look over the whole course and say, ‘God has been good. God is good. God has been very good to me.’”
— SueAnn Howell, senior reporter
