1st Mass pics...

Thursday, June 21, 2007

As promised, I want to post the pics from my 1st Mass. I celebrated my 1st Mass at Sacred Heart Church in Ottawa on the afternoon of May 27th. These pics were taken by my sister as were the ordination pics from the last post. Again, I'll give you a short description of each pic. To see the full-size images, simply click on the picture.

This first picture to the left is of Deacon Ralph proclaiming the Gospel. Deacon Ralph is the permanent deacon of Cathedral Basilica in St. Louis. He came specifically for my ordination, serving as one of the deacons for the Mass, and as my deacon for the 1st Mass. I was very blessed to have Deacon Ralph here for the weekend.

This picture to the right is of Fr. Steven Beseau. Fr. Steve was pastor of Sacred Heart, my home parish, when I decided to enter seminary. He helped me to discern my calling, gave me great spiritual direction and guided me through the application process. I asked him to be my homilist for the Mass and his homily was outstanding. Again, I was very blessed to have Fr. Steve at my Mass.

In this next picture, I am praying the Preface with my brother priests gathered around the altar with me. This picture is a lead-in for the next picture, which is during the actual consecration. I have just pronounced the words of consecration and am raising the chalice with the Precious Blood. This was a very powerful moment for me. Through the power of the Holy Spirit and by my pronouncing the words of consecration the simple wine in the chalice became the True Blood of Christ!!!

This last picture is my favorite. It is at the conclusion of Mass as we are all preparing to process out. All the priests are in a single row genuflecting at the foot of the sanctuary. A very cool picture that Froggy did a good job of taking.

Well, those are the pictures of interest for my 1st Mass. I am still awaiting the professional pictures from my ordination, but Froggy's pictures are the only pictures taken for the 1st Mass. There are a dozen more 1st Mass pics, but I simply chose a few that I thought were special.

I will be in St. Louis this weekend celebrating a Mass at the parish in which I taught religious education last year and at the Cathedral. I am bringing my computer with me, so there is a good chance that I'll blog at least once this weekend. Until next time...God bless.