Diaconate Ordination in Sioux City IA

By the end of the Fall Semester, only two of our classmates had yet to be ordained to the Diaconate: Brent Lingle and Bao Vo, both of the Diocese of Sioux City IA. Their Ordination was scheduled for today, Friday, at six in the early evening at the Cathedral of the Epiphany in Sioux City. Only five members of our nineteen-strong Deacon Class were not able to make it. Those who were from neighboring dioceses and states drove up to Sioux City; the rest of us flew in to the airport in Omaha NE and then drove up to southwestern Iowa.

Deacon Chris and I were among those who flew in. We left the Bluegrass Airport in Lexington on Thursday afternoon and arrived at around 9:30 at night in Omaha. It was already late and we still had an hour-and-a-half drive left before we would arrive at our hotel in North Sioux City in South Dakota. In those wee hours of the night, I drove through three states to get to the Comfort Inn in North Sioux City where the rest of our classmates were staying. (This was one of those tristate areas; in this case, these three states converge: Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota.) But here was the blessing: the northern lights were dancing in the evening sky while I was driving up to South Dakota. Much of this area remains rustic; thus, no other lights—incandescent and fluorescent—distracted us from the glorious aurora borealis that was guiding our northern drive.

The northern lights reminded me last night of the great blessing that our two brother-deacons received this evening. I have seen all but one of my classmates (Br. Cyril, OSB of St. Joseph Abbey in Louisiana) get ordained yet each time I do not cease to be amazed by the immensity of the grace that we have received through the Sacrament of Orders. I pray that all of us will be reminded constantly of the utter simplicity of having been called by God and of the glorious gift of having been chosen to serve Him and His Church.

Diaconate Ordination in Glennonville MO

The entire Deacon Class (with the exception of Deacon Stern who stayed behind to preach the homily at the Sunday Eucharist at the St. Thomas Aquinas Chapel) braved the five hour road trip to southern Missouri so that we could all attend the Diaconate Ordination of our classmate, Joe Weidenbenner of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau. Five vehicles left Saint Meinrad at different times on Friday, hoping all the while that we would avoid the snowstorm that had ravaged a good part of the Midwest that day. The Ford van I was in arrived at around eight o’ clock Friday evening at the Holiday Inn in Poplar Bluff MO, but not before all six of us had a stopover in Sikeston to dine at the renowned Lambert’s Café, the “only home of throwed rolls.” Lambert’s was a great experience in southern dining, yet I wasn’t brave enough to catch any of the throwed rolls; I just asked my classmates to catch a couple for me.

After breakfast this morning, the class drove down to Joe’s hometown, Glennonville, for the Ordination. The liturgy was celebrated at his home parish, St. Teresa of Avila. His bishop, the Most Rev. John J. Leibrecht, DD, ordained him there, in the presence of his family and many friends. The whole crowd at the church gathered afterwards for the reception at the Knights of Columbus Hall where the picture on the right above of me and Deacons Clay and Weidenbenner was taken. (NB: Joe had to take off his clerics after getting icing on his coat and getting his collar all mixed up; that's why he's dressed up the way he is above.)

St. Nicholas Banquet

Tradition here at Saint Meinrad dictates that the Deacon Class hosts the St. Nicholas Banquet, a pre-Christmas party of sorts for the seminary community. This is the last big (that is, school-wide) formal party planned and hosted by the Deacon Class; it is usually our sort of thank you and good bye to the school, done—well—five months before we actually leave.

Last night, the Deacon Class hosted an ‘anticipated’ (anticipated by a week; the feast of St. Nicholas is not until Wednesday) St. Nick’s Banquet. Our theme was inspired by the movie Home Alone, which was particularly apt because the President-Rector is gone on sabbatical for the first semester.

As Class President, I asked Deacon Rick Nagel to serve as over-all chair of this Banquet. I helped mostly in the background; I was co-chair of the Decorations Committee and I also sang with the St. Nick’s mini-schola. For the décor, I decided on a red and green motif. Thus, the Christmas tree was decorated with mostly red balls, to specially highlight the table centerpiece that I designed (the lamp surrounded by a garland of pine accented by sprigs of holly). The schola sang spoofs of songs that we often hear on Friday liturgies and we also lead the whole crowd in singing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and “O Come All Ye Faithful.”

The celebration went exceedingly well. It started with Evening Prayer with Benediction at the St. Thomas Aquinas Chapel. We then had hors d’oeuvres and St. Nick’s gift-giving to the children at the Alumni Commons. It was then that we presented our St. Nick for the year, our very own Br. Cyril, OSB, with his red beard all whitened up for the occasion. Finally, we moved the crowd to the Newman Dining Room where we served French onion soup, the main course (mashed potatoes and carrots, and spiral cut glazed ham, or salmon for the vegetarians), and dessert (cookies and cheesecake). We interrupted the meal a couple of times with our very own Home Alone video. The video was a hit with its many hilarious moments. Hopefully, I can later post it on youtube and link it here.

To the right is the class photo of our Deacon Class, taken after the Banquet. We all wore the red Santa hats while serving in the celebration.