On the Feast of St. Rita

Today was the feast of St. Rita and one of my brother-in-law's 6th Anniversary to the Priesthood! 

Happy Anniversary Father! 

Another one of my husband's brothers will celebrate the 2nd Anniversary of his ordination on May 30th, and yet another brother will celebrate his 4th Anniversary on June 3rd.  

Please remember them, and all priests, in your prayers! 

Daily Prayers for Priests

O Jesus, Eternal Priest, keep your priests within the shelter of Your Sacred Heart where none may touch them.  Keep unstained their anointed hands, which daily touch Your sacred Body.  Keep unsullied their lips, daily purpled with Your Precious blood.  Keep pure and unworldly their hearts, sealed with the sublime mark of the priesthood.  Let Your holy love surround them from the world's contagion. Bless their labors with abundant fruit and may the souls to whom they minister be their joy and consolation here and their everlasting crown hereafter. Amen.

Keep them, I pray Thee, Dearest Lord,  Keep them, for they are Thine.

Thy priests whose lives burn out before Thy consecrated shrine.

Keep them for they are in a world though from the world apart;

When earthly pleasures tempt, allure, shelter them in Thy Heart.

Keep them and comfort them in hours of loneliness and pain,

When all their life of sacrifice for souls seems but in vain.

Keep them, and remember Lord, they have no one but Thee,

Yet they have only human hearts with human frailty.

Keep them as spotless as the Host that daily they caress;

Their every thought and word and deed deign, Dearest Lord, to bless.  Amen.

O Jesus, I pray for your faithful and fervent priests; for your unfaithful and tepid priests; for your priests laboring at home, or abroad in distant mission fields; for your tempted priests; for your lonely and desolate priests; for your young priests; for your dying priests; for the souls of your priests in purgatory.  Above all, I recommend to you the priests dearest to me; the priest who baptized me; the priest who absolved me from my sins; the priests at whose masses I assisted and who gave me your Body and Blood in Holy Communion; the priest who taught and instructed me; all the priests to whom I am indebted in any other way.  O Jesus, keep them all close to your heart and bless them abundantly in time and eternity.  Amen.

Saint Rita, mystical Rose of every virtue, pray for us.

Happy Anniversary!

Today is my brother-in-law's first anniversary as a priest! The following video was made by a friend of ours using pictures from Father's ordination. I thought I would share it with you all today. Isn't it beautiful!?!

Happy Anniversary Father!!!

Shower of Photos 2009 :: Day 26

Father Carmelo and Snuggles

50 Years a Priest

On March 14, 2009 Fr. Carmelo Mifsud celebrated 50 years as a priest of God. Here is a short video tribute to his life. It was created by our friend Marc and presented last night, at the lovely Anniversary dinner we attended, in his honor:

Father Carmelo has been such an incredible blessing to our family. Just a few examples include: baptizing Rascal, baptizing a few of our Godchildren (including Benjamin and Madeleine), blessing our home, offering Mass at the cemetery each year on the feast of All Souls, and allowing Captain and Rascal to begin serving Mass and Benediction on Fridays when they turned just 5 years old. Not to mention that this has all taken place during his very active "retirement"! Thank you Father Carmelo, and may God reward you abundantly!

Prayer to the Sacred Heart for Priests

O JESUS, Eternal Priest, keep all Thy priests within the shelter of Thy Sacred Heart where none may harm them. Keep unstained their anointed hands which daily touch Thy Sacred Body. Keep unsullied their lips purpled with Thy Precious Blood. Keep pure and unearthly their hearts sealed with the sublime marks of Thy glorious priesthood. Let Thy holy love surround them and shield them from the world's contagion.

Bless their labors with abundant fruit, and may the souls to whom they have ministered be here below their joy and consolation and in Heaven their beautiful and everlasting crown. Amen.

The First Mass and First Holy Communion

On the morning of May 31st, the day following the Ordination, Father said his very First Mass and our oldest son made his First Confession, and received his First Holy Communion.

It all took place at the beautiful Carmel of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, in Valparaiso, Nebraska.

It was a very special day.

Here are some photos that were given to us by Father:

Isn't it such a beautiful chapel?!

The sermon was so inspiring!

The Consecration

First Holy Communions for two of Father's Godchildren.
They are also the oldest Grandson and Granddaughter in the family.

Communion for Family Members

Giving a Blessing after Mass

Brothers

Our oldest son, and First Communicant, who is growing up so fast!

We have been truly blessed!

First Blessings

After the Ordination, we headed to the basement of the Cathedral for the reception, to receive First Blessings, and with the right disposition, plenary indulgences, from the newly ordained priests.

Following the Bishop, or Cardinal in this case, that presided over the Ordination, the Priest's parents are usually the first to receive blessings.

After the blessing, it is a custom to kiss the hands of the priest since, "during ordination a new priest’s hands are anointed with chrism as a sign of consecration and of the change that has been effected in his soul. The custom of kissing his hands stems from a recognition of the fundamental change that has occurred and of the particular importance of the sign of the hands in priestly ministry. After ordination the priest uses his hands to hold the Eucharistic species during the consecration, to make the sign of the cross while absolving sins, to anoint the sick and dying, and on occasion to impart the sacrament of confirmation."

Following my hubby's parents, it was Captain's turn, along with the rest of the family.

My children LOVE getting all the Ordination Holy Cards from the priests to add to their collections at home:

Twinkle Toes also had such a great time getting to know her cousins... It is too bad we all live so far away from each other!

Shortly after our blessings we had to head back to the hotel. Snuggles wasn't feeling good, and I was in desperate need of a shower since I had been thrown up on twice by this point. (And I mean SOAKED!) Once on the steps of the Cathedral immediately following the ordination, and then again as we were waiting in line for a blessing from one of the other new priests. I was thankful that I wore black, even though I wasn't smelling very good by this point! :)

Nevertheless, we were able to get a quick photo before everyone changed to go over to the next reception at the McNeely home.

Look, I was still smiling, even though I smelled like puke! :) Nothing could put a damper on this most special day. Unfortunately, I was thrown up on yet again at dinner -- though this time I was prepared with an extra shirt in the car! After dinner (and a couple calls to my children's doctors office) we headed back to the hotel to get some rest and prepare for Father's First Mass, and Captain's First Confession and Communion the following morning.

Scenes from a Summer's Day

This past weekend we were invited to a BBQ on Saturday for a very special priest from Nigeria, who use to be the Associate Pastor at a local parish. Not only did we get to visit with Father, we got to spend some more time with some great friends.

Trina (on the right) is actually Twinkle Toes godmother and one of my best friends from my childhood. On the left is Trina's sweet mother, Faith holding Trina's youngest daughter.

We all had a great time.

On Sunday, we were able to attend Father's last Mass in the area, and visit with him a little bit more after Mass.

You will be missed Father Casimir!

The Ordination in Pictures

I had a few moments this morning, and thought I would upload a few of my favorite pictures from the Ordination Mass. Most of these were given to us by my brother-in-law, and a few were taken by my husband.

Deo Grátias!