The Sacrament of Holy Orders: Serving God’s People, Building Community

By Leota Roesch

Purpose

Participants will understand the Sacrament of Holy Orders by looking at the life of St. John Vianney and the Rite of Ordination. This session is for high school youth.

Session at a Glance

7:00 p.m.Introductions and Opening Prayer

7:10 p.m.St. John Vianney—Patron of Parish Priests

7:25 p.m.Holy Orders

8:10 p.m.Closing Prayer

8:20 p.m.Announcements and Refreshments

8:30 p.m.Good Night!

Note to Leader: This session has a lot of content and will work well in 90 minutes if your group size is under 20. If your group size is larger, consider breaking it up into two or three sessions. This will allow more time for discussion among the participants.

Extend the Session: Interview the Pastor or Priest in Your Parish

Invite the pastor or another priest that the participants may be familiar with to come to the session for a “Ask the Pastor [or Priest]” session. You may want to invite him to bring pictures of his ordination that can be displayed on poster board or scanned and shown on a PowerPoint presentation. Beforehand, help the group develop questions to ask him. Ideas include:

Being Called

When did you “feel” called to be a priest? How did you respond to the call at first? Were there obstacles in answering the call? What were they? How did you deal with them?

Life as a Priest

What is the best thing about being a priest?

What’s the hardest thing you’ve encountered in your priesthood?

If you could share anything about being a priest, what would it be?

What gifts do you believes you have to serve the community and build the Kingdom of God? How do you use these gifts?

How can we support you in your priesthood?

Option: Assign the participants in groups of two or three to interview their pastor and other priests they know (using the above questions) and report back to the other participants what they have heard and what it means for them.

Note to Leader: You may wish to extend the invitation for the end of the time together so that participants can make reference to what they have already heard and learned as they conduct “the interview.” If the participants have interviewed a priest in pairs, they may also wish to share what they have learned at the end of the time together so that the participants can evaluate what they are told by what they have experienced in the session.

Materials Needed

• Newsprint and markers

• Nametags

• Materials for prayer setting

  • Small table covered with a nice cloth
  • Bible (use one that is of significant size and is not dirty or tattered)
  • Large candle
  • Cross or crucifix

• Handout 1, Opening Prayer, one for each participant

• Handout 2, Closing Prayer, one for each participant

• 3 x 5 index cards, or similar sized paper, for each participant

• Pen or pencil for each participant

Prepare in Advance

1. Set up the gathering space so it is conducive to dialogue and sharing: Suggestion: The cluster style is good for presentations with breakout groups. Clusters easily return to being a single group. Tables can be either round or rectangles.

2. Set up tables for refreshmentsand sign-in. Have one or two people at the sign-in table with a check-in sheet and name tags. Hospitality is important: As the facilitator, do not use the gathering time before the session begins to take care of last minute preparations Spend the time moving among the participants, greeting and speaking with them.

3. Prepare a prayer focus using the materials mentioned above.

4. Prepare a prayer leader/reader for the opening and closing prayers.

5. Read and become familiar with the story of St. John Vianney so that you can recount it with familiarity during the first part of the gathered session. The resource page provides a variety of sources for your preparation.

Session Outline

Introduction and Prayer (10 minutes)

Greet the participants warmly as they arrive and give everyone a nametag. If there are folks that are new, allow them to introduce themselves and receive a warm welcome to the evening. Introduce tonight’s session in these or similar words:

All of us are called to serve others; in that sense, the Sacrament of Holy Orders begins with Baptism, as do all the other sacraments. Holy Orders, along with the Sacrament of Matrimony (Marriage), are called “Sacraments at the Service of Communion and Mission.” Basically, this means that those men called to Holy Orders are called in a unique way to serve the People of God and to build up the Body of Christ. They are called to be servant leaders of their community.

For most of us, we understand Holy Orders as the sacrament by which one becomes a priest. But Holy Orders is plural because it names three sacramental orders: the Order of the Episcopate (bishops), the Order of Presbyters (priests), and the Order of Deacons.

Let us now begin our time together in prayer.

Note to Leader: Invite the participants to gather around (or focus on) the prayer set-up. Distribute Handout 1, Opening Prayer, and invite prayer leaders/readers forward. In order that the breaking open of the Word from the reading from Philippians proceeds smoothly, you may wish to lead this part rather than the youth prayer leaders.

St. John Vianney—Patron of Parish Priests: Model of Priesthood (15 minutes)

Invite participants to take several seconds to recall the word or phrase that struck them during the opening prayer from Philippians. Then ask the group to share the words or phrase that spoke to them of the qualities they would like to see in a priest. Write the words/phrases on the board or on newsprint as the participants say them out loud in the large group. Ask:

Have you ever wanted to do something so much but so many things come up that what you want to do never happens? Or that everyone around you says it can’t be done, or, if it can, you are not the one who can do it?

If there seems to be one or two participants who seem to want to share such a story about their own lives, allow it, but keep the sharingrelatively short.

I would like to share with you the story of a person, a priest, who overcame many challenges to achieve his heart’s goal. His name is John Vianney… and he is the patron of parish priests (and after whom many seminaries and houses of discernment are named).

Take time now to recount the story of St. John Vianney. Be sure to include the following points:

  1. John Vianneyalmost didn't become a priest at all.
  2. His father didn’t want to lose his help on the family farm, and agreed reluctantly to let him go to the seminary.
  3. However, he was drafted into Napoleon's army, and was mistakenly accused of deserting and had to hide for nearly two years.
  4. When he was finally able to return to school at a late age, he did not do well in his studies and failed the entrance exam for the seminary.
  5. When he was finally accepted into the seminary, he failed the final exams because he couldn't write well enough and became confused and tongue-tied in the oral exams.
  6. It took a special appeal to the Church of France to get permission to be ordained. The vicar general of the diocese supposedly asked, “Is he pious?”And the answer was that yes, he was very pious. “Ordain him,” the vicar general decided, “The grace of God will do the rest.”
  7. He was a simple, compassionate man, and humble.
  8. His assignment to Ars as Curé (pastor).
  9. Talk about his gift as a confessor and the large numbers of people who came to celebrate the Sacrament of Confession with him.
  10. Add those details of his life that illustrate the qualities that the participants pointed out from their breaking open the readings from Philippians.

“It is remarkable that a poor village boy, who couldn’t pass his exams in the seminary, later became a universal symbol of the Church’s clergy. John Vianney reminds us that the true love of Christ can powerfully manifest itself through guileless prayer and service.” (Greg Heffernan)

As you listened to the story of St. John Vianney, what impressed you most about his life?

What qualities that you’ve named already as being important in the life of a priest did you discover in John Vianney’s own story?How did he use his gifts in serving the people of Ars and so many others?

Let us look more closely now at the Sacrament of Holy Orders, remembering the model of priesthood that we have seen in St. John Vianney.

Holy Orders (45 minutes)

Step 1: (5 minutes)Sacraments in General

As Catholics, we have seven sacraments: baptism, confirmation, reconciliation, Eucharist, holy orders, marriage, and anointing of the sick. All of the sacraments are “human activities”—washing, anointing, absolving, eating and drinking, laying on of hands, etc.—and they all become ways and means of encountering Christ—adefinition of a sacrament.An encounter with Christ is only possible because of the gift of faith which comes to us in baptism—the initial sacrament of our faith.

Another important thing about celebrating the sacraments is to remember that all the sacraments are actions of the community—of us—of the entire Church—and are never JUST for the individual being ordained, or baptized or confirmed, or absolved, etc. Sacraments are necessary for the life of the community, the Church, and for completing the mission of Christ.

Step 2:(15 minutes)Sacrament of Service – Holy Orders

Listen to this from the Ordination Rite for Priests:

“It is true that God has made his entire people a royal priesthood in Christ. But our High Priest, Jesus Christ, also chose some of his followers to carry out publicly in the Church the priestly ministry in his name on behalf of mankind. He was sent by the Father, and he in turn sent the apostles into the world; and through their successor, the bishops, he continues his work as Teacher, Priest, and Shepherd. Priests are co-workers of the order of bishops. They are joined to the bishops in the priestly office and are called to serve God's people.”

We see two things in this suggested homily by a bishop to someone who is about to be ordained to the priesthood.

  • All of God’s people are a “royal priesthood” —we are all called to serve God’s people. The fundamental “order” of the church is the order of all the faithful, all of us who are baptized.
  • God calls some men to be especially public in their service of the People of God. Those men who are to be ordained are to be leaders through service—just as we hear Christ say in the Gospel of Matthew (20:28), “I come to serve and not to be served.” We come to understand this statement of Christ’s even better after he washes his apostles’ feet at the Last Supper which we read about in John’s Gospel.

The Church teaches that ordination is directed towards the salvation of others and to build up the people of God. In living their baptismal charism, deacons, priests, and bishops serve the whole order— the community—of the faithful.

Ask the participants how they have experienced the leadership of service from priests they have known. List their responses on a board or on newsprint. Comment on any that might require further explanation or need to be emphasized.

Step 3: (25 minutes)The Meaning of Holy Orders

In the early church no one could be ordained who wasn’t “attached” to a community —to a parish. The church today, following the teaching of Vatican Council II, teaches that those men who are ordained know that their ministry is deeply bound to the people they are called to serve. No one is ordained for the sake of his own personal salvation or holiness.

“The ministerial priesthood is at the service of the common priesthood of the faithful. For when the priest celebrates the Eucharist and administers the sacraments, he leads the faithful to an awareness of their own particular sharing in the priesthood of Christ.” Letter of His Holiness John Paul II to Priests For Holy Thursday 1996

One important way to understand the meaning of the Sacrament of Holy Orders is to look at the name of the sacrament itself— “Holy Orders”. A man who is ordained enters an “order.” As early as the 3rd century, the church adapted this word from the government in the Roman Empire and used and still uses it to refer to the groups of people set aside for a particular ministry. Ordination isn’t about giving or getting “power” but about entering an order of ministry, of service.

The Rite of Ordination for each of the particular orders gives us insight into the basic meaning for each of the orders.

  1. A new bishop is ordained by at least three other ordaining bishops. All the ordained bishops present lay hands on the man to be ordained bishop.
  2. Similarly, all the priests present at the ordination of a priest impose hands on him after the bishop ordains him.
  3. When a deacon is ordained, all the deacons present share the sign of peace with the new deacon after his ordination by the bishop as a sign of their welcoming him into their order.

In each of these rites, it is clear that these men are entering a group of others like them who share the same ministry in the church. Holy Orders is not a sacrament that is “received”; rather, in the sacrament, the ordained join a particular group of people who are recognized by the Church as being called to serve in a particular ministry. A new bishop is told, “Never forget that you are joined to the College of Bishops.” Ordination isn’t about what it “permits” the ordained to “do”, but it is about the place of the ordinand within the community of the faithful. Any power that is exercised by ordained clergy flows from the role of that order in serving God’s people. Servant leadership is for the community—not for the one exercising it.

Holy Orders in the church is a sacrament that provides a way of “ordering” the community of the faithful. Holy Orders creates a relationship between the ordained and us—the Church. All three Orders create a permanent relationship between these men and the community—hence, like baptism and confirmation, Orders confers an indelible mark/character on the person ordained.

Remember that we said sacraments are encounters with Christ, so the ministers in each of the Orders also serve as sacraments because they make Christ visible to us through and in their ministries, and they also “proclaim the nature of the church.” (Lawrence Mick)

  • If all of us are called by Baptism to be servants of others, then some of us should be ordained as deacons to be reminders or “icons” of the Servant who is Christ among us.
  • If all of us are called to holiness by virtue of our Baptism, then some of us should be ordained as priests to be living witnesses of that holiness through their dedication to the sacramental ministry, especially the Eucharist.
  • If all of us are called by Baptism to be leaders in the global community, then some of us should be ordained as bishops to be witnesses and icons of Christ who is King.

The Sacrament of Holy Orders creates three Orders of the ordained who lead the community by being living symbols of service in our midst. They remind us all of our responsibility to fulfill the mission of Christ through the building up of the community through service; to be, as someone has said, “to be the hands and feet of Christ in the (21st) century.”

Have any of you ever been to an ordination of a bishop, a priest, or a deacon? What do you remember most about the celebration? Did you hear or see anything in the celebration of the sacrament that gave you an insight into the ministry of the man who was ordained? What was that?

Allow time for some sharing to take place.

Let us take a look now at each of the orders in turn.

Bishop

The Greek word that we translate as “bishop” is episkopos which means “overseer” —supervisor. A bishop is ordained to guide the work of the church, to govern the community, to coordinate the ministries of the Body of Christ. The ordination rite for a bishop asks that God pour out the Spirit of governance on him. He is to shepherd the flock that God gives to him and he is also to assign ministries among the community. As we said before, he also becomes part of the world-wide College of Bishops, sharing with them the care of the universal church.

  1. A bishop’s crozier (a shepherd’s staff) is a symbol of his role as pastor of his flock.
  2. His mitre (the pointed hat) is another symbol of his ministry. The bishop is the chief teacher/catechist of his diocese, and the mitre is a symbol of his teaching authority.

If the bishop symbolizes for us unity in the church and if his leadership is a symbol for us of how we are to lead, how can we lead in the church as “servant” instead of as someone concerned only with power?