I’m Really Blessed in My Life as a Priest

Fr David Barnes with a post I really enjoyed felt blessed reading.

There’s a pretty good chance that I am the most blessed(not bless-ed) priest in the world.  I am given the privilege of being part of some extraordinary things.

This evening, at one of my two parishes (St. Margaret in Beverly Farms), I had the privilege of concelebrating Mass on the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  In the context of that Mass–offered by Fr. Scott Hurd, Vicar General of the Anglican Ordinariate in the United States and a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington, DC–my friend and brother in the Faith, Jurgen Liias was received into the Catholic Church and Confirmed.  The Mass was attended by Anglicans who have been the beneficiaries of Jurgen’s Anglican ministry and by Catholics from all over who packed the church in joyful celebration of Jurgen’s reception into the Catholic Church.

The church was hot as blazes!  The homily was beautiful, the music joyful, and the party afterwards was filled with Catholics and Anglicans who were joyful to be together.  Something amazing was happening in those moments together.

I’ve really been privileged as a priest.  That’s not to say that there haven’t been difficulties.  I’d have less to worry about perhaps if I won the Powerball.  But, it is so awesome to be in a position where I constantly feel as though God is doing–yet again–something new.  Anglican Ordinariate?  What?  Me?  And yet, not because of any creativity on my part but because all of the right people happened to be in the same place at the same time, God is doing something great among us.  Will there be growing pains?  Sure.  But God is doing something here among us.

It is difficult to put into words, but I am so blessed to be part of the growing Church.  Anglican Ordinariate, seminarians, converts, parishioners who are just so hungry to become educated in the Faith and grow in the Faith.  The party tonight was filled with people–both lifelong Catholics and new Catholics–who are hungry to evangelize and to deepen our friendship in the life of the Church.

One of the seminarians who is from one of my parishes said to me tonight how blessed he feels to be part of our parish.  As the pastor, it might seem like I should take that as a compliment.  And truth to be told, I kind of do.  But more so, I feel the same way he does.  How did this all happen to me?  How did I get so blessed to witness such amazing things?  The seminarians who came from this parish were not born here.  They all just somehow came here.  The young college students who were at the Mass and reception tonight were not born here.  They just somehow came here.  All of these Anglicans who showed up on the scene?  I didn’t hang a sign that said, “Anglicans Wanted.”  Pope Benedict invited them at the exact time that these folks started a church down the street from me.  The young and educated Catholics who started showing up here and who are hungering to live the Catholic life in its fullness?  How the heck did that happen?

Sound like bragging?  It isn’t.  It is like Jesus just wants something beautiful to happen and so he keeps blessing us.  It is not only here.  The other night, I was at a cookout at the seminary and as I drove home, I thought about the priests with whom I have had the privilege of becoming friends.  I’m surrounded by these awesome priests.  They love God and they love the Church.  I take a great pleasure in realizing that among my priestly friends, I am the least among them.  I’m surrounded by great priests.

Are we perfect?  Far from it.  But, do I think that the Lord is doing something extraordinary among us?  I’ve no doubt about that.  For every little act of obedience we make to the Lord and to the Church, Jesus does something extraordinary for us.  I’m surrounded by great lay people, seminarians, and priests.  We are so awesomely blessed!

I want to say a bunch of other stuff, but it will send like bragging.  But it isn’t! I mean it!  I am boasting only in Christ.  As the Gospel tonight said, “He has looked upon his lowly servant and from this day, all generations will call me blessed.”

The bottom line is that I’m very blessed to be a priest who has been given everything and then some.

Anglicans to Rome: (Fr) Jurgen Liias

Via the blog: Back of the World.

Jurgen Liias was a widely-respected Episcopalian/Anglican priest just north of Boston, who I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and interacting with briefly. This Wednesday, he’ll be received into the Catholic Church, as a part of the Apostolic Ordinariate. Check out his description of his journey home on his blog: http://jurgenliias.blogspot.com/

From the closing passage: “The unity of the church is not only an imperative for the internal life of God’s people but an essential dimension of her evangelical mission. There is no greater scandal and impediment to the conversion of the world to the love of Christ than her divisions. Pope Benedict established the Anglican Ordinariate both as a concrete instrument to begin to heal organically the divisions of the Reformation and as an essential strategy for the sake of “the new Evangelization.” Many have seen in this initiative a bold prophetic action. As an Anglican I have received it as a gracious invitation to reconciliation. I can find no valid faithful reason to decline.”

As a former-Anglican myself, and an unabashed fan of Anglican patrimony and the Apostolic Ordinariate, this is exciting news. Say a prayer for Fr. Liias and the parishioners coming home with him (I understand they number around 15-20).

UPDATE:  Salem News has more:

A longtime North Shore clergyman is in line to become one of the first Episcopal priests in the country to be ordained as a Roman Catholic priest.

The Rev. Jurgen Liias, who led Christ Church in Hamilton for 14 years before forming a breakaway Episcopal church in Danvers, has applied to the Vatican to be ordained into a new U.S. ordinariate created by Pope Benedict XVI on Jan. 1.

Liias said he will resign as an Episcopal priest and will be confirmed as a Catholic in a Mass on Wednesday at St. Margaret Church in Beverly Farms. If his application is approved by the Vatican, he will be ordained as a Catholic priest this fall.

Sitting inside St. Margaret’s on Friday, still wearing his Episcopal priest collar, Liias said, “I feel like this is what God wants me to do.”

Liias is among the first wave of Episcopal priests who have responded to Pope Benedict’s invitation to join the Catholic Church through the ordinariate, which is designed to allow Anglicans to become Catholic while retaining elements of their Anglican heritage. Church officials describe an ordinariate as a parish without geographic boundaries.

Liias said that about 20 members of his former church, Christ the Redeemer in Danvers, plan to convert to Catholicism. The group would like to form its own parish within the Catholic church, with Liias serving as their priest and services held at St. Margaret’s.

Liias said he would also seek permission from Cardinal Sean O’Malley to assist the Rev. David Barnes, the pastor at St. Mary’s in Beverly and administrator at St. Margaret’s, in saying Masses and hearing confessions. St. Margaret’s does not have its own priest.

Barnes said he could not comment on Liias’ ordination because it has not yet been approved but said he is excited to have him join the Catholic faith.

“He’s definitely a leader,” Barnes said. “He’s got a lot of spirit and a lot of creativity. He’s dedicated to the Scriptures and to the Lord and to the church. I’m sure where he goes, a lot will follow.”

Liias, 64, is married with two grown children and two grandchildren. Priests who join the ordinariate are allowed to remain married but must submit a written letter of support from their wives in their applications for ordination.

Liias’ wife, Gloria, a member of Christ the Redeemer, is not converting but is supportive of his decision, he said.

“We’ve been married for 42 years, and we’ve managed to make our marriage work with differences,” he said. “It’s important to model marriages that don’t depend on absolute uniformity.”

Liias has been an Episcopal priest for 40 years, but his ties to the religion go even deeper.

He was born in Germany in 1948, just after World War II. His father was an Estonian who was wounded during the war and conscripted into the German army during the Nazi occupation. His mother was separated from her family in East Germany.

His parents applied for emigration after the war, and his family, which now included his younger brother, moved to the United States and lived in a camp for displaced persons in western Massachusetts.

The family was eventually taken in by the priest of an Episcopal Church in Charlestown and lived in the church rectory for 10 years.

“That had a profound influence on me,” Liias said. “From the time I was a little boy, I wanted to be a priest.”

Liias served for 14 years as rector at Christ Church in Hamilton. Concerned about what he said was the Episcopal Church’s move away from “basic Christianity” with its support of abortion and homosexuality, he led the effort to form a breakaway church, Christ the Redeemer Anglican Church in Danvers.

“I found myself moving in a different direction ideologically,” he said. “I began to wonder if the Episcopal Church was the best home for me.”

Liias said he had thought about becoming Catholic ever since Pope John Paul II made a “pastoral provision” in 1980 allowing Episcopalians to join the Catholic Church.

When Pope Benedict renewed the effort this year with the establishment of the ordinariate, he said, “That, to me, was the final sign that this was the time to become a Catholic. I couldn’t say no to that invitation.”

 

Fr Jurgen Liias and the Anglican Ordinariate

Summary of today’s show: In January 2012, Pope Benedict XVI created an ordinariate for North America as a way to welcome former Anglicans, their priests, and their parishes into communion with the Catholic Church. On the North Shore of Massachusetts, a group of former Episcopalians is preparing to do just that with their priest, Fr. Jurgen Liias. Scot Landry talks with Fr. Liias and Fr. David Barnes, pastor of St. Mary Star of the Sea in Beverly, about Fr. Liias’ spiritual journey and what the new ordinariate means for resolving the rift in Christianity caused by the Protestant Reformation and Henry VIII.

Listen (mp3) here or download it here.

Fr Jurgen Liias has a blog here.