Two events with enduring significance

By the time you receive this issue of the Dakota Catholic Action we should be celebrating as a Diocese several important events. However, there are two events, which I would like to write about because both will have an enduring significance for all of us for years to come.
 
Monday, May 23, Greg Luger was ordained to the Transitional Diaconate in his home Parish of Church of the Ascension in Bismarck. For any seminarian this sacred ordination is most important for him personally and for the local Church, his Diocese. In anticipation of his ordination, Greg has made the Church’s Profession of Faith and its Oath of Fidelity by which he publicly states that he believes all that the Catholic Church believes and that he will teach this faith and live this faith always in communion with the pope and college of bishops.
 
On the day of his ordination Greg becomes an incardinated cleric for the Diocese of Bismarck and, as such, he will have an assignment as an ordained deacon in which he will exercise his diaconal ministry. Finally, given the depth and intensity of his program of priestly formation, as well as the recommendations of those who are responsible to the Church for his priestly formation, the Church in the person of the Diocesan Bishop formally calls him to sacred ordination. Moreover, it is understood by the Church that if Greg is called to sacred ordination as a deacon, in another year he will be called by the bishop to sacred ordination as a priest of Jesus Christ.
 
I need to mention here that Greg’s classmate, Jordan Dosch, will also be ordained to the transitional diaconate at the end of September this year in Rome where he is receiving his priestly formation at the Pontifical North American College. Both of them will be ordained to the priesthood in 2017.
 
Tuesday, May 31, the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Reverend Mr. Doug Krebs will be ordained to the sacred priesthood at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit.  Among the many privileged responsibilities, which a bishop undertakes for the sake of the Church, in my opinion, there is no greater privilege and no weightier responsibility than conferring sacred ordination to the priesthood on any man. When a man is ordained a priest an indelible mark is etched on his soul for all eternity. While he ministers to you, God’s holy people, in his earthly life, he helps you and himself achieve the end for which God has created us all, heaven. 
 
So you see, God continues to bless our Diocese with men who are willing and ready to leave all for His sake and for His Church. Please pray for all of our seminarians and continue to pray that more young men will listen to the Lord’s call and accept His gift of a vocation to the priesthood.
 
Please pray for our priests, active and retired, and offer a special prayer of gratitude to the Lord for your parish’s priests. That is the priceless gift you can give to them.