Little Daniel Reilly was in first grade when, over three thousand miles away, a group of folks just like yourselves got together in a church basement in Seattle and became the first Serra Club. Like yourselves, they were moved by a love for the Priesthood which God had already planted in that little boy’s heart.
And today, as we gather for our annual meeting with Bishop McManus, our common love for the Priesthood is tangible in our love for him and the two decades he has devoted to us as a successor to the Apostles, recruiting priests, forming, ordaining and assigning priests that they might be stewards of Christ’s mysteries for us.
And while our hearts are tinged with sadness at the death of that little boy who grew up to be the Bishop of Worcester, we are blessed by his example, as well. For, above all, Daniel Patrick Reilly wanted to be a good priest.
Especially to my brother seminarians here present I recommendtThe stories we will all tell about him in the coming days, for they help each one of us to meditate on who a Priest of Jesus Christ is called to be.
But let me tell just one, which I have heard Bishop Reilly tell innumerable times (sometimes in evolving versions), of a young priest who came to him, not exactly excited about his new assignment. So Bishop Reilly sat him in the passage seat of his great big Buick and drove him to the parish boundaries, where he excitedly pointed to all the houses along the street. “Just imagine,” he said with unbounded excitement, “just imagine…God has chosen you to be a father to all these people. To celebrate Mass for them, and forgive their sins and baptize their babies and marry their kids and bury their parents! What more exciting work could there ever be?”
To my brother seminarians here present and to each of you, I say: that’s the kind of priest you want to be!
Ecce sacerdos magnus,
qui in diebus suis placuit Deo.
Behold the great Priest,
who in his days pleased God.
