Bishop Kemme accepts seminarians as candidates for Holy Orders

Bishop Carl A. Kemme reflected on the role of parents of seminarians, the future priests of the Diocese of Wichita, in his homily Friday, July 26 at a Mass celebrating the Rite of Admission to Candidacy for Holy Orders.

Speaking on the memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, the traditional names of the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the bishop introduced seminarians Thomas Elliott and Colby McKee, announcing that they, “having successfully completed their college formation are to be admitted as official candidates for the priesthood.”

Nothing is known about Saints Joachim and Anne, Bishop Kemme said in his homily, that there are no biblical references about them and no historical documents about them, but that a pious tradition regarding them goes back as far as the second century.

A loving home for our Blessed Mother

“Our powers of deduction, based on the often quoted truth that apples don’t fall far from the tree, gives us the assurance of the contribution they must surely have made in providing the kind of home and family life for Mary to make her complete yes to God’s will,” he said. 

Their home was surely a place of deep Jewish life, the bishop said, with frequent participation in the synagogue, daily praying of the psalms, trips to Jerusalem for temple worship, and the keeping of all the Jewish feasts and customs.

“Theirs was surely a home of prayer and reflection, all of which assisted the young girl Mary to hear the Lord speak to her heart and to be so attuned that when Gabriel visited her and announced to her, her vocation, she did not hesitate for a moment, but gave her complete and unsullied ‘fiat.’ ‘Let it be done to me as you have said.’”

We’ll have to wait until we get to heaven

How much of that was dependent on Anne, her mother, and Joachim, her father, Bishop Kemme added, is something we will have to wait until heaven to know fully.

“So, too, our parents, the parents of our seminarians and our future priests are also called to provide a home and a family, which provides the foundation upon which a vocation can be heard, responded to, discerned, and accepted,” Bishop Kemme said. 

“Admittedly, this happens more effortlessly in some families than in others. Sometimes, it happens, we must confess, in spite of our families, but for the most part, the parents and extended family play a significant and positive part, just as Joachim and Anne must certainly have done, and for that, we give God our thanks.”

That doesn’t mean the seminarians’ discernment is complete, the bishop said, because that must continue.

Bishop: Continue to discern

“We are all called to discern, but now the church admits them to a new reality, the period of more intense preparation so that in slightly less than four years, if they receive the positive recommendation of those responsible for their formation and if the Spirit leads them, they will petition me or my successor for Sacred Orders.”

He told the seminarians that the next four years would pass quickly and that they had much to do. 
“I therefore urge you to use this time wisely and prudently and not waste any of it on idleness or indifference,” Bishop Kemme said. “Instead, pray harder than ever before, begin to think as the church thinks, study hard, and, develop the skills you will need to preach, to teach, to counsel, to lead the people in authentic prayer and worship, to be a good confessor. Begin to live as priests even now.  Don’t wait until then for that would not be a good use of this special time of formation and preparation.”

Bishop Kemme said he would ask the two men if they are resolved to complete their preparation and to finish what they are willing to start to impress upon them the need for determination and serious attentiveness.

A need for priests with zeal for Jesus

“I will further ask them if they are resolved to form their mind and heart to faithfully serve Christ the Lord and his Body the Church. This is so important that their formation be both of mind and of heart, for we need priests with well-formed minds and intellect and hearts aflame with ardent love and zeal for Christ and his mission, a mission unlike any other that may one day be entrusted to them.”

The bishop said he was grateful for their willingness to enter into the more formal period of preparation. “I am grateful to their parents, family members, pastors, fellow parishioners, and friends who are supporting them now and in the future along this challenging path. 

“May the Blessed Virgin Mary and her holy parents, help you, dear sons, with their shining witness and their unfailing intercessory prayers. Blessed Mary, ever Virgin, St. Joachim and St Anne, pray for us.”