Traditional Ordination Rite Continued

From the Pastor    Traditional Ordination Rite Continued

      Last weekend I wrote a little about priest ordinations (congratulations to the newly ordained Fathers Anthony Astrab, Ralph D’Elia and Joshua Hare!) and reproduced a small bit of the traditional Rite of Ordination (as seen fully at SanctaMissa.org). That section showed the bishop asking the congregation their opinion on the candidates for Holy Orders and his exhortation to the men about to be ordained. This week I want to show you a little bit more about the essential parts of the traditional Ordination Rite. It shows how the conferral of this particular sacrament, rather than either taking place outside of Mass (as is done with traditional marriages and confirmations) or being an interruption of the Mass (like a homily officially is), instead is fully incorporated into the Mass. It becomes an integral part of the Mass, or, perhaps, the Mass becomes an integral part of the Ordination Rite. The section of the Mass shown below follows the “laying on of hands” (which is the “matter” of the sacrament) as the Bishop prays over each man and then continues the Mass. This is the Preface of the Mass and, as you will see in the Ritual’s commentary notes in the brackets and in the headings, it is the “form” of the sacrament. (Each sacrament has its proper Matter, Form, and Intention, all of which are essential for validity.)

The Solemn Prayer and Form of the Sacrament
{This very beautiful prayer, also called the consecratory preface, is the actual form of the sacrament, and in early times the Roman rite for ordination had nothing more than a prayer or prayers of this kind, along with the imposition of hands. A theology of the sacrament could quite easily be constructed on this prayer. In brief, it asks for God's grace, for He is the source of all honors and dignities, as also of all growth and order. It states the principle that God's loving providence guides His rational creatures through stages of gradual progress and perfection. It points out how this principle operated in the Old Testament, in God's choosing Moses and the seventy elders to assist Him; and in the New, in Christ's choosing the apostles and their successors to carry out the ministry of His Church. Then follows a petition that the bishop may have helpers in the men being ordained, who will prove themselves to be elders in the best sense of the term. Lastly the Holy Spirit and His gifts are invoked on the candidates, that they be raised to the priesthood and be filled with the holiness which should characterize this office.}

The bishop continues with the consecratory preface:
It is indeed fitting and right, praiseworthy and salutary that we should always and everywhere give thanks to you, O holy Lord, almighty Father, everlasting God, the source of all honors and the dispenser of all dignities. Through you all things make progress and receive their permanence. In accord with your wise designs all rational creatures advance to a higher excellence. And in accord with this same principle the various grades of priests and the offices of levites, instituted for sacred functions, grew and developed. For after appointing chief priests to rule the people, you selected men of lesser degree and second rank to be their associates and their helpers. Thus in the desert you propagated Moses' spirit in the hearts of seventy judicious men, with whose help he was enabled to govern easily the countless multitude. Thus too you imbued Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron, with the abundant graces of their father, in order to assure a sufficient number of priests for the offering of saving sacrifices and the performance of the more common sacred rites. By the same providence, O Lord, you gave the apostles of your Son associate teachers of the faith, and by their help as preachers of a second rank the apostles made their voice heard to the ends of the earth. Therefore, we beg you, Lord, to support us in our weakness with similar helpers, for inasmuch as we are weaker, so much the more we stand in need of them.

The Essential Form
At this point the bishop interrupts the chant and recites the following words, which constitute the essential form of the sacrament:
Almighty Father, we pray that you bestow on these servants of yours the dignity of the priesthood. Renew in their hearts the spirit of holiness, so that they may be steadfast in this second degree of the priestly office received from you, O God, and by their own lives suggest a rule of life to others.

Here the bishop resumes the chant of the rest of the preface:
May they be prudent fellow-workers in our ministry. May they shine in all the virtues, so that they will be able to give a good account of the stewardship entrusted to them, and finally attain the reward of everlasting blessedness.



With prayers for your holiness,
Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka

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