By John D. O'Brien, S.J.
Occasionally you have a day in which it seems the Lord is being extra abundant in his grace. This was one such day. Not necessarily a typical day in the life of a Jesuit scholastic, but nonetheless, one that I and several of my confreres enjoyed, and since it gives glory to God, allow me to share a bit about it.
The day began with the ordination of one of our colleagues, and it was one of the most beautiful S.J. ordinations I’ve attended. The choir came from a parish in the city where the ordinandus had been working as a deacon. They sang sacred music, including some polyphonic hymns that gave the Mass that holy feel in which it seemed heaven and earth were meeting – as indeed they were. When we sang the Veni Creator, requesting the descent of the Holy Spirit upon him in our midst, the faith of the people was particularly eloquent. Since the man of the hour was of Irish provenance, the choir added the simultaneously plaintive and uplifting sound of violin and uilleann pipes – rarely heard in our country – giving a sense of the depth and drama of human vocation in God’s great plan. An ordination, like a wedding, is a privileged foretaste of the heavenly banquet.
