This year, the priestly ordinations for the members of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter studying at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary will be held on May 27th, the Friday after the Ascension, at 10:00 AM. The ordinations will be at North American Martyrs Church in Lincoln, Nebraska, and the order will be conferred by His Excellency Archbishop Thomas Edward Gullickson.
We are grateful to His Excellency for his gracious assistance on this happy occasion as he ordains seven of our deacons to the sacred priesthood. We also offer our thanks to Father Connor, pastor of North American Martyrs, for allowing us the use of his parish for this event. All are welcome to attend the ceremony but the reception will be reserved for the friends and family of the ordinands only. Please pray for our deacons as we approach this time of Pentecost, that the Holy Ghost will fill them with His Gifts and Fruits, and help them to always be good and holy priests.
Stream available at: https://tinyurl.com/olgslivestream
The upcomingSaturday, April 2, 2022, we will be blessed to witness the ordination of four of our seminarians to the order of theDiaconate. The officiating celebrant will be His Excellency,Bishop James Conley, the Ordinary of the Diocese of Lincoln. We are grateful to His Excellency for assisting us. The ordination will take place in theChapel of Saints Peter and Paul at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in Denton, NE. Due to the small space, the event will only be open to the specifically invited family and friends of the ordinandi. Please pray for these men as they take this important step towards the sacred priesthood.
WE ARE PLEASED to announce that on Saturday, November 20th, 21 members of Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary will receive orders by His Excellency bishop Robert Finn in the seminary chapel of Saints Peter and Paul. In this special occasion, there are fourteen ordinandi to the Minor Orders of Porter, in which they will receive the office to summon Christians to prayer and guard God’s temple against intruders, and Lector, in which they will receive the duty to read sacred texts in the liturgy and catechize children and the uneducated.
Also, six ordinandi will receive the Orders of Exorcist and Acolyte, to purify themselves and God’s Church of all impurity, moreover, in receiving the order of acolyte, they thereby gain a nearer proximity to the Blessed Sacrament, closely collaborating with the ministry of the subdeacon. Acolytes are called to “cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Rom 13:12). They ought to “shine as lights in the world” (Phil 2:15) through holiness of life in imitation of their divine Savior..
Additionally, there will be one ordinand receiving the Major Order of the Diaconate. As the apostles ministered to Our Lord, so the Deacon ministers to the Bishop and his priests in their ministry of sanctifying souls and in the liturgy. The Diaconate impresses an eternal sacramental character upon the soul the and confers grace ex opere operato. He remains a Deacon both in this life and the life to come.
Due to the large size of the classes and the number of invited guests, both the ceremony and the reception are not open to the public.
There will be a live broadcast for all those unable to attend.
We are pleased to announce the ordinations of Rev. Mr. Elijah Mundattuchundayil to the priesthood and of Mr. Isaac Díaz Mendoza to the subdiaconate on Saturday, October 30th by His Excellency BishopFabian Bruskewitz at the Cathedral of the Risen Christ in Lincoln, Nebraska at 10:00am CDT.
The liturgical ceremony is open to the public, but the reception afterwards is for invited guests only.
There will be a live broadcast, links and more information will be posted to this page shortly.
We will keep you informed of the status of upcoming ceremonies the rest of this academic year. Please pray for the ordinandi.
About the SUBDIACONATE
“The office of the subdiaconate is to serve God and the Church in the Sacrifice of the altar and to assist the deacon. For this purpose Christ came on earth…Our Savior spent his life serving God and men… When the bishop consecrates a subdeacon…the ordaining prelate begs God to bless, sanctify and consecrate the ordinand. Holy Mother Church implores Him to constitute the subdeacon a tireless and watchful sentinel of the heavenly army.” — St. John Eudes
Due to the subdeacon’s immediate proximity to the Holy Sacri-fice, the subdiaconate is reckoned among the ‘sacred’ or ‘major’ orders of the Church’s sacred hierarchy. As such, the subdeacon has traditionally been bound to perpetual celibacy and to the daily recitation of the Divine Office. His sacred duties include serving the deacon at Mass; preparing the bread, wine and sacred vessels for the Holy Sacrifice; presenting the chalice and paten at the Offertory, and mixing water into the wine in prep-aration for the offering made by the priest. With the priest, he offers to God the solemn chanting of the Epistle at Mass, and afterwards is charged with the purification of the sacred linens. Carrying the crucifix (the ban-ner of Christ) in solemn procession is proper to a subdeacon as is the in-censation of the elevated Host and Chalice (as seen during a Requiem). Both of these functions are mentioned in Sacred Scriptures as the heaven-ly duties of the holy Archangel. Early Popes would also use subdeacons to convey important messages to distant prelates: another angelic duty in service of the Church.
About the PRIESTHOOD
DIVINE, says St. Cyril of Alexandria, “are the offices confided to priests.” The entire Church cannot give to God as much honor, nor obtain so many graces, as a single priest by celebrating a single Mass; for the greatest honor that the whole Church without priests could give to God would consist in offer-ing to him in sacrifice the lives of all men. By a single Mass, he gives greater honor to God than all the angels and saints, along with the Blessed Virgin Mary, have given or shall give to him; for their worship cannot be of infinite value, like that which the priest celebrating on the altar offers to God.
And God himself is obliged to abide by the judgment of his priests, and either not to pardon or to pardon, according as they refuse or give absolution, provided the penitent is capable of it. Were the Redeemer to descend into a church, and sit in a confessional to administer the sacrament of penance, and a priest to sit in another confessional, Jesus would say over each penitent, “Ego te absolvo,” the priest would likewise say over each of his penitents, “Ego te absolvo,” and the penitents of each would be equally absolved.
The priest must labor during his whole life, and with his whole strength, not to acquire riches, honors, and worldly goods, but to inspire all with the love of God. The business, then, of every priest is to attend, not to the things of the world, but to the things of God: He is ordained in the things that appertain to God. (Heb. 5:1) Hence St. Silvester ordained that for ecclesiastics the days of the week should be called Feriæ, or vacant or free days; and he says: “It is every day that the priest, free from earthly occupations, should occupy himself entirely with God.” By this he meant that we, who are ordained priests, should seek nothing but God and the salvation of souls. St. Antonine says that the meaning of “sacerdos” is “sacra docens”, one that teaches sacred things. And Honorius of Autun says that “presbyter” signifies “præbens iter”, one that shows the way.
This fall the seminarians were able to go on their annual “Ausflug” (German for “vacation”) to Colorado. They drove from the seminary to Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish in Littleton for the weekend. Many generous parishioners signed up to host a group of seminarians during their stay.
They arrived Friday night to settle in their homes. Saturday morning they celebrated a Solemn High Mass at Our Lady of Mount Carmel, had breakfast in the parish hall, and took off for a day hike in the Colorado foothills. The mountain they hiked had a peak of 13,000 feet. After the hike, some seminarians went to local sports games, while others were invited to parishioners’ houses for dinner. Sunday morning had a Solemn High Mass both at the parish and the local Carmel. The yearly parish picnic was held in the afternoon with games, food, and fun for both parishioners and seminarians. The seminarians had their last Mass in Colorado on Monday morning then headed back home to the seminary.
It was a memorable experience for everyone involved. The seminarians wish to thank all the generous parishioners who helped make this Ausflug happen this year, and they hope to come back next year for another trip!
On Saturday the 24th of October, the Feast of Saint Raphael the Archangel, eighteen men received their First Clerical Tonsure at the hands of His Excellency, Bishop Robert Finn, Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Kansas City – Saint Joseph.
The Fraternity expresses thanksgiving to God as well as to His Excellency for this gift to their newly incorporated members, who had been recently incorporated on the previous Sunday, October 18th, the Feast of Saint Luke. This year, the ceremony was live-streamed on livemass.net, as there was not an opportunity for many guests to come.
In the tonsure ceremony, the candidates receive for their first time the black roman cassock and the white surplice, as well as the privilege of sitting in choir with the rest of the tonsured clerics. Please pray for these men as they continue on their journey in pursuit of the sacred priesthood, that they may be faithful to the graces God gives them in this time.
