Ordinations – Life on the Chrism Trail

Reflection for Vespers for Thursday of the Eighteenth Week of Ordinary Time

Oath of Fidelity for Candidates for Diaconate Ordination

August 7, 2025
St. Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas

Psalm 72
Psalm 72
Revelation 11:17-18; 12:10b-12a:3-4
1 Peter 1:22-23

Every time we pray vespers, we pray the Magnificat, the song of praise sung by Our Lady at the Visitation of her cousin Elizabeth. Her song is a song of hope in God’s triumphant intervention into human history, and it reveals her to be filled with God’s Grace, her trusting dependence and complete communion with God and calls us to our own reliance on His grace in our own vocations. Like so many other graces from God, we can take for granted the message of the Magnificat that we pray every day.

August 21, 2025

Homily for the Ordination of Permanent Deacons

Feast of Saint Dominic

August 8, 2025
St. Mark Catholic Church
Argyle, Texas

Jeremiah 1:4-9
Psalm 100:1b-2, 3,4, 5
Acts 6:1-7b
John 12:24-26

Today, the Church gathers us together to celebrate the ordination of these seven men, whom with the support and encouragement of their wives and families, have presented themselves and been called by the Church to serve as permanent deacons. We do so today on the Feast of Saint Dominic, founder of the Order of Preachers, who is honored and recognized by the Church as a saint who dedicated his entire life as a mendicant priest to charity and to preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ. He is certainly an example and friend for our new deacons who today are ordained as ministers of the Word, ministers of the Altar, and ministers of Charity.

August 9, 2025

Homily for the Priestly Ordination of Isaac Joseph McCracken

May 24, 2025
St. Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas

Numbers 11:11b-12, 14-17, 24-25
Psalm 111:1, 2, 3, 4
Acts 20:17-18a, 28-32, 36
John 12:24-26

In today’s second reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we hear Saint Paul’s farewell address to the local Church of Ephesus gathered together: Apostles, presbyters, and faithful. Saint Paul with a heart full of hope directly instructs the presbyters of Ephesus, “Keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you overseers, in which you tend the church of God that He acquired with His own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come among you, and they will not spare the flock. And from your own group men will come forth perverting the truth to draw the disciples away from them.”

May 24, 2025

Homily for the Ordination of Blake Ryan Thompson to the Transitional Diaconate

Solemnity of Saint Joseph, Husband of Mary

March 19, 2025
St. Maria Goretti Catholic Church
Arlington, Texas

Numbers 3:5-9
Psalm 23:1-3, 4, 5, 6
Acts 6:1-7b
Luke 2:41-52

Today is a joyful day in the life of the local Church of Fort Worth as we celebrate the ordination to the transitional diaconate of Blake Thompson who has persevered through discernment, study, ministry, and prayer for the last eight years to arrive at this point of firmly saying “yes” to Christ’s call to him to follow Him in giving himself entirely to Christ and to His Church. This evening our relative and friend, Blake Thompson, will solemnly promise to live a life imbued by celibate chastity in total dedication to the Kingdom of God as established by Christ and manifested through humble service to the People of God. He will promise to pray daily the Liturgy of the Hours with and for the People of God here and throughout the world. Finally, he will be ordained to give himself as a minister of charity and as a herald of the Gospel of Christ, to preach at liturgies, to preside at weddings and funerals, and to administer the sacrament of Baptism within the Church.

March 20, 2025

Homily for the Ordination of Permanent Deacons

Feast of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga

June 21, 2024
Vietnamese Martyrs Catholic Church
Arlington, Texas

Jeremiah 1:4-9
Psalm 100:1b-2, 3,4, 5
Acts 6:1-7b
John 12:24-26

Bishop Olson’s homily in English begins at paragraph 4.

En el Evangelio de esta Misa, Jesús nos dice, “Yo les aseguro que si el grano de trigo sembrado en la tierra, no muere, queda infecundo; pero si muere, producirá mucho fruto.” Estas palabras se revelan la primera característica del Sagrado ministerio del diaconado permanente: morir a una existencia de un grano singular en favor de florecer como un amigo de Cristo por servicio de la comunidad de la Iglesia y afuera de la Iglesia entre los débiles de la sociedad. Es más apropriado que nos unamos como la Iglesia local de Fort Worth para la ordenación de tres diáconos permanentes por servicio a la Iglesia en el espíritu de estas palabras sagradas de Jesucristo: “Él que se ama y si mismo, se pierde; él que se aborrece a si mismo en este mundo, se asegura para la vida eterna. Él que quiera servirme que me siga para que donde yo esté, también este mi servidor.”

Homily for Priestly Ordination of Rev. Benjamin Grothouse and Rev. Eric Flores

May 18, 2024
Saint Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas

Jeremiah 1:4-9
Psalm 116:12-13, 17-18
1 Timothy 4:12-16
Luke 10:1-9

Bishop Michael Olson’s homily in English begins at paragraph 3.

El evento real de la ordenación sacerdotal ocurre en silencio en la imposición de las manos. Es un gesto sencillo pero lleno de significado. Por medio de este gesto silencioso, una comunión ocurre entre el Señor y el que va a ser ordenado por medio del obispo, el presbiterado y toda la iglesia. Es decir que el Señor los agarra a ustedes; acepta su disponibilidad que acaban de expresar. Es como si esté diciendo, “Tú eres mío. Y tus caminos deben llegar a ser mis caminos. Esta comunión se expresa tan radicalmente que la persona de Cristo—su “Yo”—se identifica por medio de la persona del sacerdote: “Este es mi cuerpo.” “Yo te absuelvo de tus pecados.”

May 18, 2024

Homily for the Ordination of Isaac McCracken to the Transitional Diaconate

Solemnity of Saint Joseph, Husband of Mary

March 19, 2024
Saint Maria Goretti Catholic Church
Arlington, Texas

Numbers 3:5-9
Psalm 96:1-2a, 2b-3, 10
Romans 4:13, 16-18, 22
Matthew 1:1-16, 18-21, 24a

Today in her liturgy the Church offers us a respite from Lent in all its purple and penitence, in giving us this great solemnity of Saint Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary. On this day, the Gloria returns for one celebration until the Vigil of Easter and the triumphant color of white for the purity of the saints made so by Christ’s conquest of sin and death is returned for the moment as we celebrate this solemnity of Saint Joseph, Most Chaste Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Foster Father of Jesus, and Patron of the Universal Church. It is more than fitting that we celebrate the ordination to the diaconate of Isaac McCracken on this great solemnity of the Church’s calendar that we might enter more deeply into the mystery of the Church’s call to holiness.

March 21, 2024

Homily for Priestly Ordination

of Fr. Randolph Ed Hopkins, Fr. Brandon LeClair, and Fr. Austin Hoodenpyle

May 20, 2023
St. Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas

Numbers 11:11b-12, 14-17, 24-25 (English)
Psalm 116
1 Timothy 4:12-16 (Spanish)
John 10:11-16 (English)

“Do not neglect the gift you have, which was conferred on you through the prophetic word with the imposition of hands of the presbyterate.” This gesture of the imposition of hands enjoys a great deal of emphasis in the pastoral epistles of Saint Paul. We have just heard it proclaimed in Spanish in our second reading whereby Paul speaks to Timothy of this great gift that Timothy has received through the imposition of hands of the presbyterate. Paul will return to this focus when he writes to Timothy in the first chapter of his second epistle, “I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God: that you have through the imposition of my hands.”

May 20, 2023