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'You are the answer to Jesus' prayers'
Priests celebrate milestones with Mass, lunch
by Kristin Lukowski of The Michigan Catholic
Published May 28, 2010
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Kristin Lukowski | The Michigan Catholic
Priests celebrating milestone jubilees and their friends process in before a special Mass honoring their commitment to the priesthood. |
DETROIT — Priests celebrating milestone anniversaries — and their brother priests supporting them — gathered last Tuesday for a special Mass and luncheon honoring their commitment to the priesthood.
Archbishop Allen Vigneron was principal celebrant at the Mass. In his homily, Archbishop Vigneron said the word "jubilee" is appropriate for the day's celebration. "It is right that we should all be together, that this should be a common, a fraternal, giving thanks to God for your priesthood because the priesthood is common, is a fraternity," he said.
"We say thanks together because we live the priesthood together."
Those honored specially were priests celebrating 25th, 40th, 50th, and 60th anniversaries and beyond. Fr. James Meyer, celebrating 50 years in the priesthood, joked that he told his friends to come to this celebration, because he'll be too tired to travel for the one in another 50 years. Fr. Robert Wurm, one of Fr. Meyer's classmates, recalled his time at Sacred Heart Seminary while vesting for the special Mass.
"There's a good spirit in the Class of 1960," he said. "We had a good faculty that encouraged us to learn new ideas."
Being the last crop of priests to graduate before the Second Vatican Council, they had to use a lot of creativity in building up the modern Church, and the faculty knew their old stuff and could apply it to the new, he remembered.
Fr. Donald Archambault, celebrating his 40th anniversary, said his experience working with laypeople in the parishes all these years have been a blessing. "Celebrating my anniversary recalls all the wonderful people in the Archdiocese of Detroit I've had the privilege to be in contact with," the pastor of Corpus Christi Parish, Detroit, said.
Archbishop Vigneron said the ministry of the priesthood was something they've all received from the Lord. "This has been a gift, sometimes a gift that has been burdensome, but always a gift," he said.
He said priests could calculate their achievements based on the schools they built, or parking lots they repaired, or baptisms they performed, or marriages they witnesses — but no matter how many years, "witnessing the Gospel of God's grace — that's what we give thanks and praise for," he said. And although they might not have chosen to be brothers with each other, it was God's choice for them to share paths witnessing to the Gospel of grace.
He also said the years they mark are the fruit of the prayers of Jesus: "You are the answer to Jesus' prayers," he said. "We are here, we give thanks and praise to God because of the fruit the prayers of Jesus has borne in your eyes."
"Let us understand the praise and thanks we offer is the praise and thanks we offer together with the praise and thanks with Jesus," he said.
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