News

New priest for the diocese

Published on 22 July 2012

Congratulations to Fr Joe Gee, ordained priest at St John's Cathedral on Saturday 21st July. Bishop Brain ordained Fr Gee, who studied at the English College in Rome. Joe was surrounded by friends, family and many priests of the diocese in a wonderful celebration of faith.

The Bishop spoke of the service of the priest as shepherd, called to feed the Church by the word and grace of God.

These are the main points of the Bishop's homily:

Joe, in the prayer of consecration I will pray for you that "you may be faithful to the ministry you receive from the Lord God" and then, also, that you will "be to others a model of right conduct".

The ministry you receive
The call to ministry has echoed throughout history: God has called people to himself, the Creator of all, Light from Light, Giver of life: three Persons in one God.

You have already received from God in the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist: the gifts of the common vocation of all Christians which is "to be one in Christ as he is one with the Father" to become a holy person.

Now today, you are being given a ministry which is not directed essentially towards your own holiness but is "directed towards the salvation of others".

And if this ministry "also contributes to your personal salvation it is through the service to others that it does so" (CCC 1534).

The ministry that you are about to receive is one to build up the People of God, "to feed the Church by the word and grace of God" (Lumen gentium 11/12) – and you will assert your willing intention to do just this in the examination that follows.

So I ask all here present to join me in the request to God that Joe will be "faithful to the ministry he receives".

"Be to others a model of right conduct"
"For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For it is the God who said, 'let light shine out of darkness' who has enlightened hearts with the knowledge of God's glory – the glory on the face of Christ" (2 Cor 4,5).

"Model your life on the mystery of Christ's cross" (Ordination Rite). Not always the place we would want to start, but it is the place that we have to come to if we want to proceed to Heaven. That is why as priest, your primary service is to gather the People of God around the Cross of the altar on which Christ gave his life for us all: the Servant King.

And we can take confidence that Christ is always with us, as he has been with all those whom he chooses and calls. "Look! My servant whom I have chosen ... I will send my Spirit upon him" (Is 42,1).

Dear Family of God in the Diocese of Salford, let us pray for Joe Gee, that he will be a good and faithful servant of the Lord: let us pray for each other that we too will be faithful to the Lord Jesus, so that together we will join in the prayer at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer of the Mass, today and always, that declares Christ crucified as our salvation:

Through him and with him and in him, O God almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit All glory and honour is yours, for ever and ever.

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