On Priesthood

On January 17, 2013 the Right Reverend Frank Lyons, Assistant Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh ordained me as a priest in Christ's One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

It was a reverent, Spirit infused liturgy. Following my ordination I immediately concelebrated the Holy Eucharist with Bishop Lyons.

Days before the ordination a spiritual father wrote me the following words:

You are being taken up into Christ's own ministry in a new way. All of our life is a being taken up into Christ's life, of course, but ordination is a sharing in Him in a new way for the sake of His Body and the world. All of our life is utterly dependent on God, and how much more so this form of service!

The recognition of this is sobering when I consider the great treasure that has been entrusted to me - the feeding and guidance of Christ's sheep, purchased unto salvation with his own blood. I entered the ordination service soberly, aware that I would leave that place with a great deal of responsibility laid upon me.

In preparation for the ordination I spent days reading, re-reading and meditating upon Saint John Chrysostom's "Six Books on the Priesthood." There he writes the following:

"The shepherd needs great wisdom and a thousand eyes, to examine the soul's condition from every angle. As there are plenty of people who are puffed up into arrogance and then fall into heedlessness of their own salvation because they cannot stand bitter medicine; so there are others who, because they do not pay a proportionate penalty for their sins, are misled into negligence and become far worse, and are led on to commit greater sins. The priest, therefore, must not overlook any of these considerations, but examine them all with care and apply all his remedies appropriately, for fear his care should be in vain...he needs, therefore, a heroic spirit, not to grow despondent or neglect the salvation of the wanderers, but to keep on thinking and saying: 'Peradventure God may give them the knowledge of the truth and they may be freed from the snare of the devil.'"

I also repeatedly read the following prayer which hangs over my office desk:

"The scope of our art is to provide the soul with wings, to rescue it from the world and give it to God and to watch over that which is in his image. To take it by the hand if it is in danger, to restore it if it is ruined. To make Christ dwell in the heart by the Spirit, and in short: to deify and bestow heavenly bliss upon one who belongs to the heavenly host."

~Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 2.22

As I reflected on the above quotations I began more and more to that my sharing in Christ's priesthood has less and less to do with programs, planning and administration (though there are certainly those things!) but that it has more to do with the love and healing of broken lives - touching those who need healing, teaching those who need wisdom, offering myself for the sake of others.

Another of my spiritual fathers, Father John Porter, preached at the ordination. In his sermon he noted that the world is deeply distraught, and filled with suffering and pain. He pointed to the fact that God has taken the needs of the world into his own hands and has provided the remedy with the giving of Jesus as the Savior of the world. He also pointed out that as a priest sharing in Christ's priesthood I have been given instruments of healing for the world around me. He spoke of the "handing over of instruments" that would take place later in the rite, when I would be handed a Bible and a chalice, representing the two aspects of my priestly ministry: to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Word and Sacrament, as the means by which our world can be healed by God's grace.

Above all the experience is humbling and makes me all the more aware of my dependence upon God, who in his mercy has begun a work in me and who has called me and will by his grace sustain me in this ministry.

Grace & Peace,

Father Micah+

O Lord Jesus Christ, enkindle the hearts of all thy priests with the fire of zealous love for Thee, that they may ever seek Thy glory; Give them strength that they may labor unceasingly in Thine earthly vineyard for the salvation of souls and the glory of Thine All Honorable and Majestic Name: of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

~Saint Gregory of Palamas