“Relying on the help of the Lord God and of our Savior Jesus Christ, we choose these men, our brothers, for the Order of the Priesthood.”

These words rang out through the Cathedral Basilica of St. Peter in Chains in Cincinnati this morning as nine men stood side by side before Archbishop Casey, their backs to hundreds in the congregation. These nine men, Nicholas Emmerling, Curtis Gross, Kraig Gruss, David Homoelle, Daniel Jasek, Benjamin Klare, Doug Moore, Benjamin Packer, and Jacob Schmiesing, lined up prepared to be ordained priests. Their expressions ranged from stoic to ecstatic as years of intentional discernment, study, and formation culminated. 

The day dawned cloudy; rain threatened to fall but held off just enough to allow the large procession to enter the cathedral from the outside of the church. Archbishop Casey preached from the center of the sanctuary.

“ Brothers, we ask you to hear the voice of Jesus today. As you are ordained priests, hear the Lord ask you, ‘Do you love me?’ Hear the Lord instruct you, ‘Feed my sheep.’ We pray today that you may live out your priestly call through the selfless gift of your whole being offered in service to the church to feed her people,” Archbishop Casey challenged the ordinands. 

During the Rite of Ordination, each man’s posture was one of humility, of submission. He vowed respect and obedience to his bishop in the Promise of the Elect.  

“Through our promises, we are giving our lives over to the Church to continue Jesus’ work in this community and to see just how much we can be a vehicle of God’s grace to God’s people,” Fr. Doug Moore explained.  

Next, the nine men laid face down, prostrate, praying.

“When we lie prostrate,” Fr. Emmerling explains, “at that time, it’s the whole Church interceding on our behalf with the saints in Heaven. It’s at that moment we need prayers the most so that when we get up, we’re ready to be Christ’s priests forever.”

Then the ordinands, one by one, knelt before Archbishop Casey, as the archbishop laid his hands on each ordinand’s head, effecting the passing on of an office.

“When the bishop lays his hands on our head is a very powerful moment in which he calls down the Holy Spirit upon each deacon to be ordained. And then after that, he will pray a prayer of ordination,” Fr. Jasek said.

Through this laying on of hands and the Prayer of Ordination, the priestly office was conferred on the candidate (The Roman Pontifical Ordination of a Bishop, of Priests, and of Deacons, 112). In the midst of that ancient prayer, each man became a priest, or Alter Christus, another Christ. 

The most tangible expression of this manifestation is when each new priest removes his diaconal stole and dons his priestly stole and chasuble. 

“Just as there’s an interior change,” Fr. Klare explained, “since we’re embodied beings, the church gives us the gift of a bodily change. The stole now switches to be over top of us so that we too can now become dispensers of God’s mercy and His justice.”

Similarly, the diaconal garment—the dalmatic—is removed and the chasuble takes its place. 

“As a deacon, once with our sleeves bound, we were servants of the bishop. Now we share a similar vestment to him, the chasuble, which he also wears, to show that our priesthood is connected fundamentally to his priesthood, and it is his priesthood which is connected to Christ, in which we all share,” said Fr. Klare.

Finally, before the newly ordained concelebrate Mass for the first time, the new priests’ hands are anointed. 

“Your hands are now consecrated specifically to hold the Body and Blood of our Lord as an ordinary minister of Holy Communion. So just because of that—the special things your hands are going to be doing from this point forward—they receive a special consecration or setting apart for that task,” said Fr. Gross.

Each part of the Rite of Ordination holds great significance, the appropriate initiation for the life of service ahead. 

You can find the newly ordained priests’ assignments here.