It is with great joy the Diocese saw the ordination to Diaconate of Rev Mark O’Farrell on Saturday 28th January in the Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity, Waterford. Mark will be ordained to the Priesthood later in the year. Please keep Mark in your prayers.
Here are some words taken from the homily by Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan:
“If we don’t kneel, we will think that we are great.” We have to kneel, friends, otherwise we will think that we are God. We have to remember that, because everything good we have comes from God.
He has given us the gift of His Church to lead all of mankind through this vale of tears, into wholeness, and beauty, and truth and goodness. He has come, in a word, to save us, and He has given us the gift of the priesthood and the diaconate as gifts from God to help us. We need priests, we need deacons.
He chooses us to show us that through our weakness He shows His greatness. We pray, and only human beings can pray, for wisdom, so fitting for the feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas today. His sister once asked him, “What must I do to be a saint?” And he shot back the answer, “You must want it.”
Today the bishop will ask you if you are resolved: Are you resolved to live a live of faith? Are you resolved to be a man of prayer? Are you resolved to conform your life to Christ?
The Gospel today says, “Blessed are the humble, for they shall be exalted.”
The word “deacon” comes from a greek word which means “service.” And the Catechism of the Catholic Church, in paragraph 1588 says, ‘The deacon is by a sacramental grace chosen to work along with priests and the bishop to live a life of service of the liturgy, the Gospel, and works of charity.’ And what better model than Christ? The Master Himself was servant.
And this is a message so contrary to what the world says. Today you are showing them that true love exists, one that is not self-centred, but God-centred. Because Jesus is the One who shows us all how to live: the Eucharistic Jesus, the one who pours out His life.
Your prayer, Mark, today, is, “Lord, here I am, I come to do your will.”
