Brisbane’s newest priests said they could feel the Holy Spirit at first Masses
“IT is real, it is real,” newly-ordained Brisbane priest Fr Michael My Van Tran said about his first time celebrating the Eucharist at St Mary’s Church, Ipswich, last Saturday.
He said when he called upon the Holy Spirit to come down upon the gifts of bread and wine, he could feel the Holy Spirit responding. “It’s just, ‘Wow’, there’s something I can feel that is so real here,” he said.
Ordained alongside him was Fr Bradley Davies, who said it was a profound spiritual experience celebrating the Mass for the first time too. Fr Davies celebrated his thanksgiving Mass at St John the Baptist, Enoggera, where he had grown up and where his parents had wed. “Offering the Eucharist is such a privilege and this is this going to be the first of many times I will do this for the people of God,” he said.
It has been a week since the two men were ordained by Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge at St Stephen’s Cathedral on the Feast of the Sacred Heart.
Fr Davies said it was overwhelming and beautiful to walk into a packed cathedral, to know everyone was there to celebrate their vocations, personally and for the archdiocese.
Holy moment: Fr Davies said it was a profoundly spiritual moment to receive the Laying on of Hands.
He said the highlight of the liturgy for him was the laying on of hands and the fraternal kiss. It made him feel connected to the long apostolic lineage, he said, “knowing that the priesthood is traced way back to the first priests, back to Peter and Paul essentially”. “It made me feel like we are part of something bigger than us.”
Fr Tran said the highlight for him was laying prostrate during the Litany of the Saints. “It was quite an emotional moment for me when I was lying down on the floor and everyone was praying over me,” he said. He was grateful for everyone who was able to come along to be part of the Mass, especially the strong turnout of the Vietnamese community.
Fr Tran would be returning to the cathedral for his first placement as a priest. “It’s going to be busy,” he said, “I’m looking forward to being there.” Fr Tran has flown to his home country of Vietnam, where he would celebrate Mass at the hospital bedside of his father, who is battling cancer. Speaking before his flight, Fr Tran said he was grateful that his father was able to see him as a priest and looked forward to ministering to him face-to-face. His hometown was also excited for his arrival, where they were expecting a turnout of more than 2000 people for his thanksgiving Mass. Fr Tran was the town’s first priest ordained in the last 100 years.
Ordination: The Church prays over the two new priests.
Fr Davies would be returning to minister as a priest at Cleveland parish, where he had served during his diaconate. “I’m looking forward to continuing to build on the relationships that I’ve made there,” he said. In the last week, he said he had also had the chance to celebrate the Sacrament of Penance. “It’s a privileged space to just be with people, as they bring their whole humanity to God,” he said, “Looking for God’s forgiveness, for God’s strength.”
In his homily, Archbishop Coleridge urged Fr Tran and Fr Davies to conform their lives to the mystery of the Lord’s Cross. “The newly-ordained are not just to celebrate liturgically the mystery of the Lord’s death and resurrection, they are to live it in their day to day life as priests,” he said. “They are to become the paschal mystery.” He said if this happened, there would be seen in them a “sense of gift, not entitlement; of service, not power; of self-sacrifice, not self glorification”. “They will get themselves out of the centre of their life and allow God to be the centre,” he said. “This is a painful process – a real crucifixion – but it must happen, if the heart of flesh, the Sacred Heart, is to replace the heart of stone that can never be pierced.” He said only if God becomes the centre of their life would they discover their true self. “It’s grace above all that we celebrate as we ordain these two men on the feast of the Sacred Heart,” he said. “As we do, we pray that you, Bradley and Michael, will, as priests, die to yourself, to your false self, and live to God, to your true self, which is hidden with Christ in God.” He said to gain access to “your true self, you will need to discover the piercing in the heart of Jesus and in your own heart, is a doorway that is both an exit and an entrance”. “Through the wound, the life of God flows out into the cosmos, and according to St John Chrysostom, it’s from the wound that the Church is born just as Eve came forth from the side of Adam. “But the piercing is also a doorway through which you will enter the life of God to take possession of your true self. “It’s the gate of paradise through which alone you will enter your true homeland, bringing with you, we pray, the host of others you will serve as priest through the years – all of them with a heart of flesh pierced just like yours, and just like Christ’s.”
