Ordination

Mom and I went to the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart yesterday for ordination Mass. Our diocese ordained 17 men yesterday, one of whom we have known since he did a semester long placement at our parish 4 years ago. Fr. Bryan Page is a great guy, and Our Lady of the Lake in Verona is lucky to be getting him.

We went to his Thanksgiving Mass with the whole family last night at St. Francis in Hoboken. Now, Hoboken is the birthplace of baseball and Frank Sinatra. Ol' Blue Eyes was baptized at St. Francis, which was cool, but not the coolest thing about being at St. Francis last night.

Fr. Bryan's family was there (duh) and when he processed in beind all of his conclelebrants, They all got weepy. They were so proud of him. I have to say I choked up too. I can't rule out the role of my hormones in the crying, but I just imagined myself in maybe 25 years and perhaps I would be sitting in Mrs. Page's place as one of my sons said his first Mass and the misty eyes began.

At the end of Mass, before the final blessing, Fr. Bryan took a moment to give a gift to his mom. When a man is ordained, the bishop anoints his hands and binds them with a white cloth to demonstrate the man's ties to his local church and to God. Fr. Bryan presented this cloth (the name of which escapes me) to his mom saying that newly ordained priests give this to their mothers and that when it is the mother's turn to met her maker, she is buried with it wrapped around her hands. The story goes, that when she meets Our Lord, and He asks her, "What did you do for me in your life," she can show Jesus the cloth and say, "I gave you a priest."

That was the coolest thing about being at St. Francis last night.