ordination

Earlier today, I was honored to be able to join in the celebration of the ordination of seven new priests for the Archdiocese of St. Louis. I was asked by the class to photograph their special event, and as I have done for many years, I gladly accepted and used the occasion to rent some new photography gear—this year I supplemented my Nikon D750 and F-mount lenses with a:

• Nikon Z6 mirrorless camera
• Nikon 35mm f/1.8 S lens (Z-mount)
• Sigma 135mm f/1.8 Art lens (F-mount)

This was also the first year I kept my two workhorse zoom lenses (24-70 2.8 and 70-200 2.8) in the bag, and shot exclusively with prime lenses. I've often considered doing this, but only recently realized there was a good prime between 105mm and 200mm that I could rely on for the shots where the Archbishop interacts with the ordinands, for example, the Laying on of Hands:

This year's Transitional Deacon Ordination Mass took place last Saturday, May 4 (May the 4th be with you! And with your spirit.).

I was privileged to be able to take photos for this year's transitional deacons, even more so since I will be unable to attend the Priesthood Ordination Mass this year (due to my attendance at DrupalCon Portland), and was happy to see many of my seminarian friends become deacons—one step closer to their journey towards the priesthood.

You can view the entire set of photos on Flickr: 2013 Transitional Deacon Ordination.

I noticed this video yesterday, featuring a nasally rendition of Call Me Maybe by the Women's Ordination Conference (not worth a link):

Quotables:

• "Excommunication, I'm still glowing."
• "[I] don't listen to St. Paul."
• "We want our Church back."

Notably, comments were disabled sometime this morning, after over 300 comments were posted yesterday witfully deriding the lunacy of the video (additionally, the negative ratings were beating positive ratings 2:1). I guess the Women's Ordination Conference can dish it out, but can't take the heat.

The video mentions St. Thérèse of Lisieux, and says that like her "I need to give this a whirl." Looking at the WOC's website, I found the following:

I've posted all the photos I took at this year's Mass of Priestly Ordination at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis on Flickr:

Congratulations to all five men who were ordained; we'll be praying for you!

A shout-out to another one of my friends / former classmates, Rev. Syring, from the Diocese of Omaha (Nebraska). He will be an amazing priest, and I was privileged to be able to photograph his first Mass as a priest:

Please pray for our priests!