I’m not trying to argue someone into accepting the importance of celibacy for Catholic priests (I’ve already given my own personal perspective in a previous post); but if you want you want to have a summary of the meaning of celibacy in the life of the Catholic priest and deacon, as the Church understands it, there is no better place to look than the ordination rite for a ‘transitional’ deacon who is on the road to priesthood.
This image is from last year's ordinations, but Lorenzo (holding the book) was one of the three ordained this year!
Three of the seminarians from Allen Hall were ordained deacons at Westminster Cathedral on Saturday. The beautifully phrased words of their commitment to celibacy really struck me, and reminded me of what my own commitment (made fourteen years ago) is meant to mean in all its richness.
Here are the words the bishop uses:
By your own free choice you seek to enter the order of deacons. You shall exercise this ministry in the celibate state for celibacy is both a sign and a motive of pastoral charity, and a special source of spiritual fruitfulness in the world.
By living in this state with total dedication, moved by a sincere love for Christ the Lord, you are consecrated to him in a new and special way.
By this consecration you will adhere more easily to Christ with an undivided heart; you will be more freely at the service of God and mankind, and you will be more untrammeled in the ministry of Christian conversion and rebirth.
By your life and character you will give witness to your brothers and sisters in faith that God must be loved above all else, and that it is he whom you serve in others.
Therefore, I ask you:
In the presence of God and the Church, are you resolved, as a sign of your interior dedication to Christ, to remain celibate for the sake of the kingdom and in lifelong service to God and mankind?
The candidate replies: ‘I am.’ There is quite a lot contained in those two short words.
Bridges and Tangents 
Father Stephen is so right in the beauty of the words used by the Bishop in raising the seminarians to the diaconate. There is no ceremony in the Church so beautiful as ordination to the priesthood when a young man dedicates his whole Life to God. I will have the great joy of attending an ordination next week when I will once again be reminded of the profound commitment made to Christ by our priests.
Celibacy is a natural part of this commitment because a wife and family would not allow our great priests the time and dedication to become living witnesses to Christ. Where would we be without these dedicated souls?
That was a nice post. I have heard so many good things about the ordination rite. I hope to make it next year. The words spoken by the Bishop are truly beautiful. I also like this (similar) explanation that I found at the Catholic Education Resource Center (CERC) website…
“Christ revealed the true value and meaning of celibacy. Catholic priests from St. Paul to the present have imitated Him in their total gift of self to God and others as celibates. Although Christ raised marriage to the level of a sacrament that reveals the love and life of the Trinity, He was also a living witness to the life of the world to come. The celibate priesthood is for us a living witness to this life in which the unity and joy of marriage between a man and a woman is surpassed in the perfect, loving communion with God. Celibacy properly understood and lived frees a person to love and serve others as Christ did.”
This Mass was extraordinarily beautiful and moving. – The ordination itself, the music, Archbishop Vincent’s homily and the Mass itself.
I have continued to reflect on the post about cyberspace. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that my difficulty with interacting – say on blogs – is that I don’t feel that my first language is thought, and it’s not even my second or third language. As a true right brainer my first languages are prayer, music and feeling. I attempt to translate this way of experiencing life into thought, and I think that is part of my journey of integration. But I don’t find it easy and it is probably easy to be misunderstood.
So, to take the example of this post on celibacy. If I tried to best express my present human emotional experience of celibacy, it would simply have to be in song. I would sing Wagner’s Traume (Wesendonck Lieder) and Strauss’ Beim Schlafengehn (3rd of the 4 Last Songs). The words in these songs include such lines as, ‘Dreams, that in every hour, every day grow fairer, and with their heavenly message pass through my soul with blessings! Dreams, that, like celestial rays, penetrate my very soul.’ But I just can’t do it justice just with the words. It has to be sung. And these two songs are at the same time not far from the mysteries of death and night, (or the ‘dyings’ and ‘dark nights’ of sacrifice and love). But even at the end of singing them I still wouldn’t expect even close friends to know or understand what my celibacy means for me; what my receiving spousal journey of God penetrating my soul and my being, means for me.
I was interested today to have discovered a little more about Deacons:
“In the Roman Catholic Church, a transitional deacon is a celibate man who has been ordained a deacon and who intends to become a priest. Transitional deacons are usually ordained to the diaconate after they complete their third year at the theological seminary. For several centuries, all Roman Catholic deacons were in this transitional stage between layman and priest. The role of permanent deacon, usually a married man who is unable to remarry after ordination if his wife predeceases him, was revived after the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.
In the Old Catholic churches, whose formal existence stems from the First Vatican Council in 1870, a transitional deacon may generally be celibate, engaged in a relationship or married. In many groups within the Old Catholic church, men and women alike can be ordained into the diaconate, as well as both homosexual and heterosexual seminarians. Liturgically, the role of deacon is the same as the Roman Church, with some differences possibly being found in each group.”
Is this true?
I do not believe that being celibate makes one more easily adhere to Christ with an undivided heart. I Love my beloved but exceeding that Love I have an undivided heart for Christ. The Holy spirit can bestow Love of the heart regardless of celibacy, The most profound Love does not have to be of a sexual nature to be of the heart, but it can also be. Bestowed Love is not of human choosing. A heart is more divided by celibacy than not by it.
I do believe that celibacy is indeed a beautiful gift. But a gift that should be always freely and in privacy chosen. Like ‘going into ones room to pray, and not praying on the street corner’.
“By your life and character you will give witness to your brothers and sisters in faith that God must be loved above all else, and that it is he whom you serve in others.”
I am sure that this is True for me also, and not just in celibacy.
I would not expect for my deacon to suddenly become a better or more dedicated deacon because His wife had died and he no longer be married. But a better one because He knows the fullness of God bestowed Love beyond life and in the spirit.
Saint Aelred was one of three sons of Eilaf, priest of St Andrew’s at Hexham and himself a son of Eilaf, treasurer of Durham.[1] He was born in Hexham, Northumbria, in 1110.
Thanks be to God that the priest Eilaf was not celibate, else we would all have been deprived of his Godly and wonderful son, who’s life has been so great a witness in God’s kingdom.