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.