'Practice What You Teach'

. . . being one of the admonitions given to deacons at their ordination. The newly ordained is presented with a Book of the Gospels and told:

Receive the Gospel of Christ,
whose herald you have become.
Believe what you read,
teach what you believe,
and practice what you teach.

The PNAC turned out in force on Saint Francis' Feast Day for the ordination of 21 deacons. As the program said, the ordination was held at the Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican. Always nice to know what that place is called--

We had 10 bishops there, with Archbishop Foley presiding, who among other things is the 'Pro-Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem'. ("Does he ride horses?" a friend asked me after the Mass.) The hundreds of priests were too many to count, many coming from the States, as well as the many family and friends here for the occasion. We were at the Altar of the Holy Spirit, underneath the famous alabaster window and the large hovering chair, suspended on a cloud cascading from the window, reaffirming that the authority of Peter is a grace from heaven, rather than a human construct.

We had a big reception afterwards up the hill on the Gianicolo--in the main courtyard of the college. I ran into a friend I hadn't seen in ten years, from undergrad! Hope had gone to volunteer in Belize for two years after we both graduated in 1997. She's studying Marriage and Family at the John Paul Institute--good to see her again.