Just yesterday “Deacon” Brendon Laroche became “Father” Brendon Laroche by way of the laying on of hands and the prayer of consecration at the Rite of Ordination celebrated by Bishop Barres here at the Cathedral.
Today Father Laroche will celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving and be the main celebrant for the first time. It is providential that he does so on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi).
Saint John Paul II once wrote, “There can be no Eucharist without the priesthood, just as there can be no priesthood without the Eucharist” (Gift and Mystery, pp.77-78). There is an essential and integral bond between priesthood and the Holy Eucharist. Priests are born from the Eucharist and they give birth to the Eucharist.
The great Pope John Paul succinctly summarizes the Church faith on this intimate connection when he writes, “The ordained ministry, which may never be reduced to its merely functional aspect since it belongs on the level of ‘being’, enables the priest to act in persona Christi and culminates in the moment when he consecrates the bread and wine, repeating the actions and words of Jesus during the Last Supper” (Letter to Priests for Holy Thursday, 2004, 2).
May Saint John Paul II intercede for Fr. Laroche and all priests.
In Christ,
Msgr. Baker
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