About 230 parishioners turn up for the Archdiocese of Vancouver’s first-ever Ordinandi Dinner
The B.C. Catholic
BURNABY
Hundreds gathered at St. Helen’s Parish to thank God for providing four new priests.
“It’s a great grace that the Lord has bestowed upon us, as His people, that we are able to celebrate four priestly ordinations this year,” said Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, Feb. 4.
Within one school year, the Archdiocese of Vancouver will become four priests richer. Fathers Davide Lanzani and Larry Lynn were ordained Dec. 3. Deacons Lucio Choi and Mark McGuckin are likely to be ordained at Pentecost.
“It’s really a grand occasion to see so many people gathered for what, praise God, will be our first annual Ordinandi Dinner.”
The four had a chance to each share a bit of their testimonies.
“God called me to this priesthood on a summer evening, July 3, 2010, a few months after my wife passed away,” said Father Lynn, assistant pastor of St. Clare of Assisi Parish.
“I was on the beach in New Jersey. I had just come from Mass. I was speaking with my brothers and my sisters and two of my children. We were speaking about priests and the lack thereof. I wandered away from the conversation, walking in the water as the waves came in.”
While walking, Father Lynn felt God speak to him. “He said to me: ‘you want to be a priest.’ I thought that was the craziest thing I had heard.”
Father Lynn told a priest about it. He was encouraged to get a spiritual director and see where it led.
God “was calling me every step of the way,” he said. “Ever since I’ve been discerning for the priesthood, people have been praying for me…. The love people have for their priests is unbelievable. It is so beautiful. I am so blessed. I’ve been a priest for two months now and I can’t even describe it.”
Deacon Choi shared his amazement with the love of lay people for their priests.
After spending a summer serving at St. Joseph’s Parish in Langley, “I found a huge thank-you card sitting on my bed. Upon opening the card, and seeing how the card had no room to write, I simply broke into tears, so moved by their support and their love. I prayed to God: ‘Lord, I don’t deserve this much love from Your people.”
He found himself repeating these words after serving at St. Patrick’s and St. Anthony of Padua Parishes.
“Dear friends, did you know you have a vital role in our formation?” he said at the banquet. “When the world tells us we are fools, you remind us that we are God’s great tools.”
Father Lanzani called himself a “fruit” of community. “If the Christian community was not there, today I would not be a priest, being at service to the people, but living a life for myself.”
Deacon McGuckin also spoke about the importance of community rallying around its priests.
“What I’ve come to appreciate in the past few years is how the love of God has been communicated to me in so many varied ways,” he said.
“Community is so essential, so life-giving…. Without investing one’s time in building community, one is depriving himself or herself of so many wonderfully unpredictable gifts and lessons that others can offer, especially the gift of the concrete manifestation of God’s love. For this I am forever grateful.”
