Over Father’s Day weekend I had the extraordinary opportunity of celebrating the ordination of a close friend’s son. Marie and I have been friends since college in Ohio. We both moved to New York City for work, became roommates, married firemen, and moved to Northern Westchester/Putnam Counties. We both have had busy, messy lives, but have stayed friends and watched each other’s families grow up. Her son, Kieran, went to Jesuit high school and college and felt called to the priesthood. Marie kept me updated on his eleven years of Jesuit formation and invited me to his ordination on Saturday at St. Ignatius Loyola Church on Park Avenue, officiated by Cardinal Dolan and Bishop Colacicco, and his first Mass on Sunday at St. Francis Xavier on Sixteenth Street in Manhattan.

The significance of men being ordained into the priesthood on Father’s Day weekend was not lost. Kieran was beaming as he confidently vowed with his four Jesuit brothers to dedicate his life to Jesus Christ in service to his Christian people and to accept the divine fatherly role that all priests hold. About halfway through the rites, the candidates laid prostrate in the aisle while the Church on earth invoked the aid of the Church in heaven by singing a litany of dozens of saints. As choir and congregation together sang, “St. Peter, pray for us; St. Cecilia, pray for us; St. Teresa of Calcutta, pray for us… All you holy men and women pray for us…” we felt the profound timelessness of the Church and a unity with the Communion of Saints who, although unseen, are poised ready to help and guide us.

Equally powerful was watching more than one hundred priests process up the side aisles to the sanctuary to join the bishops in laying their prayerful hands on the heads of the kneeling candidates. Religious and laypeople in unison accompanied their silent prayer with the traditional Latin chant, “Veni Sancte Spiritus” (Come Holy Spirit).

I witnessed Apostolic Succession at St. Ignatius on Saturday. From St. Peter and the Apostles to our bishops to our young priests, we see how authority is passed down through the Catholic Church. A degree in theology is useful, but without the hands of the men ordained before, the man I have known since he was an infant would not have had the authority to change bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ at his first Mass on Sunday.

Scripture: Read John 20:21-23. What stands out?

Call to Action: You don’t need an invitation to attend an ordination. Treat yourself to the experience next year.