Priestly ordination

Congratulations to Father José Garza, who was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Brownsville on Saturday, June 14, at Holy Family Church in Brownsville. 

He will begin his priestly service at the parish of Saint Joseph the Worker in McAllen, Texas. 

The priesthood is a three-fold gift, manifesting the pattern of grace in the Church. It is first of all a gift from The Lord Jesus to the Church, a sign of his personal care for us, that the Eucharistic Mystery, and all that leads to it, and all that flows from it might be perpetuated in our midst. 

It is also a gift of a community of believers given to The Lord for his service. For the local Church offers this man to The Lord, and He, in the person of the bishop, accepts him, blesses and sanctifies him for his mission. It is The Lord who inspires this desire in the Church to offer the gift of one of her sons.

And, finally, it is a personal gift from the man who presents himself to The Lord through the Church, as he freely accepts the call of the Church to offer himself for the Glory of God and the salvation of the world. This interior desire to offer oneself in this way is also a grace inspired by The Lord, who gives a vocation to the priesthood so that a man might lose himself in service to the Kingdom of God, and thus, truly, find himself. 

And by this three-fold giving, the Church lives the "way of the gift", and is given the joy of a new priest. 

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