Before his installation in Joliet, Bishop J. Peter Sartain celebrated one of his last Masses in Little Rock with the clergy and seminarians for the Diocese of Little Rock.
On June 13 about 50 priests, 75 deacons and their wives and a dozen seminarians gathered at Christ the King Church in Little Rock for Mass and a catered dinner. It is not often that Masses are celebrated where ministers one normally sees behind the altar are all sitting in pews during most of the liturgy.
“All of you have been some of my closest collaborators,” Bishop Sartain said at the beginning of the Mass. “I wanted to take one last time to be together as a family.”
During his homily, the bishop focused on the necessity of prayer and love in everyone’s ministry.
“Really what this is all about is ever more, every day, to be immersed more in the mystery of Christ,” he said.
To understand the mystery of Christ, the bishop said the clergy need to be centered in prayer and express love.
“They will always be the two gauges to the deeper immersion of Jesus. Do I pray? Do I love?” he said.
As ministers give themselves to the Lord each day, the bishop said, “Without even knowing it, he puts us to use. You develop a habit of prayer and love.”
Over the past six years, the bishop has ordained six men to the priesthood and 22 men to the permanent diaconate.
“I have been able to serve with you and to ordain lots of you to the priesthood and diaconate,” he said. “There are so many good servants of the Lord here.
“What a privilege it is serve with you. You have taught me many things. I could not think of a better place for the Lord to send me. Thanks today and thanks forever.”
At the beginning of Mass, Josh Stengel, a member of St. Anthony Church in Ratcliff, was admitted to candidacy for holy orders by Bishop Sartain. This is one of the steps necessary before ordination. Stengel is a seminarian for the Diocese of Little Rock and is preparing to begin his studies this fall at the North American College in Rome, the same place Bishop Sartain prepared for the priesthood in the 1970s.
