NEW PRIESTS- CLOSE TO HOME

Chad is bottom of photo (Stephen Brashear photo)

This is a big week for the Archdiocese of Seattle. Tomorrow, the feast of the Visitation, is the blessing of our new bishop Daniel Mueggenborg (see Blog 4/9/17)) and on Saturday the ordination to the priesthood of four young men for our Archdiocese.

It is the second straight year  that we will have four new priests, as Archbishop J. Peter Sartain ordains Deacons Chad Green, Chris Hoiland, Jeffrey Moore and Colin Parrish.

“They’re an interesting mix of personalities,” said Father Bryan Dolejsi, director of vocations, with “a diversity of different gifts and backgrounds.”

But they have some important things in common.

“All four of them have had very powerful experiences of the risen Christ,” Father Dolejsi said. “All four of them, their motivation is to really love God and love God’s people.”

And “all four of them have a heart of service — they want to really give of themselves for God’s people and help the church grow.”

Chad has a master’s in civil engineering from Stanford University. He said  his favorite saint is Andre Bessette. “The rector of my residence hall at Notre Dame told us to remember that a future saint used to stay here in this building. That was Brother Andre,  from Montreal, who stayed there several times when he visited his Holy Cross brothers in Indiana in the early 1900s. Living there for three years made me feel a bond with Brother Andre, and I began to learn more about his life."

We feel we have a connection to at least one of these young men,  as last year Chad made a retreat with us and two of his fellow seminarians  (Mt. Angel Abbey, OR) before their ordination to the deaconate.  Bill & Nathan are from the archdiocese of San Diego and will be present to Chad’s ordination on Saturday. They will then come for a few days to our monastery before their own ordination to the priesthood on June 9th. 

We have had many seminarians come for retreats over the years but some remain on your heart, and these young men are at the top of the list. Their obvious love of Christ in the Eucharist and great devotion to His Mother touched all who met them.  We pray that they will continue to grow in this love, spreading it to all they minister to in their priestly lives.