The excitement is building!!!
Before the academic year starts here in the Eternal City, one of our highlight events of the year happens: the Diaconate Ordination of our Fourth Theology class. Tomorrow, thirty-nine men f rom different dioceses around the United States, Canada and Australia will process into St. Peter’s Basilica to lay down their lives in service to Jesus Christ and His Church at the Altar of the Chair. One of those men is a diocesan brother ("db") of mine; Kevin Staley-Joyce. Please keep him and his classmates in your prayers tomorrow (Feast of St. Thérèse of Lisieux!) as they take on a new identity, being conformed to Christ the Servant. Tomorrow will be a day of many emotions (happiness, pride, and excitement being just a few!) not only for the ordinandi, but for almost 2500 people who have come to Rome to witness this event! It will also be very exciting for my class, because we will then be "on-deck" for our diaconate ordination in the fall of 2016. ...