Tag Archives: Ordination

“expectant Father” Solomon

2 Apr

Deacon Suleiman ordination 07

Yes, that is genuine. He is that prayerful and sincere.

We met “Deacon” Sleiman Hassan when we came to Beit Jala to prepare to celebrate Mass in Cremisan Valley. He had packed up everything we needed for Mass, led us to the spot where he set everything up for us, explained the significance of praying in this spot where we were, assisted me at the altar for the entire Mass, packed everything up and took us back to the parish church. He won our hearts, our admiration and our affection. He is a good-looking fellow, a prayerful man, a worthy representative of our Catholic Church and an engaging spokesperson for Annunciation parish and the Palestinian people of Beit Jala.

On March 19, 2013, the feast of St. Joseph (and his birthday), he was ordained a deacon during a Mass at Annunciation Church in Beit Jala.

lying prostrate during the Litany of Saints

Deacon Suleiman ordination 01

laying on of hands by the bishop

Deacon Suleiman ordination 04

vested in the liturgical robes of the deacon

Deacon Suleiman ordination 08

under the eyes of an admiring little girl

Deacon Suleiman ordination 06

Deacon Sleiman (Solomon) will be ordained a priest on June 20, 2013 (my birthday) at his parish church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in his home village of Fuheis, Jordan.

And I will be there. I am flying to the Middle East to be among the priests who will lay hands on his head during the ordination ceremony. What a treat and an honor it will be for me!

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It was I who chose you

14 May

“It was not you who chose me. It was I who chose you.”

This weekend’s Ordination and Mass of Thanksgiving is big for Father Marc Soellner and his family. But it is also big for the Catholic Church. And it is huge for our parish, for from one of our families, from our neighborhood, from our pews comes a priest. Another generation of Catholics will have Sunday Mass, because of the priest-gift that our parish gives to them.  

St. Andrew parish and Father Soellner have reason to be proud, but not boastful, unless we boast in the Lord. Sure, we can say that we sent Marc to the seminary and that he decided to be a priest, as long as we acknowledge that it is really God who chose him to be a priest. We are grateful that Marc has responded favorably to God’s will and plan. God had a good idea. We are pleased that Marc decided it was a good idea, too.

Knowing that we need priests in order to have Eucharist, we continue to pray that God will stir among our men a desire and the strength to be good and holy priests. The last time we had a First Mass here at the parish was when Father Ed Smith reverenced the altar in 1983, thirty years ago. Perhaps the next priest from St. Andrew is sitting among us in the pews at this very moment, God willing. 

 

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