“Christ’s invitation to the priesthood is an invitation to a way of life that is athletic in its intensity and heroic in its form.”
– Bishop Robert Barron
Holy Orders is the sacrament through which the mission entrusted by Christ to his apostles continues to be exercised in the Church until the end of time: thus it is the sacrament of apostolic ministry. (CCC 1536)
Holy orders is a sacrament in the Catholic Church in which a man is ordained to the ministerial priesthood or consecrated as a bishop. It is one of the three sacraments of vocation, along with matrimony and religious life. In the Catholic Church, holy orders is the means by which the mission entrusted by Christ to his apostles continues to be exercised in the Church until the end of time. Through the sacrament of holy orders, men are ordained to the priesthood and are given the power to celebrate the sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist, and to act in the person of Christ as head of the Church. The sacrament of holy orders consists of three degrees: the diaconate, the priesthood, and the episcopacy. Each degree involves a public rite of ordination, in which the candidate is called by God and consecrated by the laying on of hands and the invocation of the Holy Spirit. Holy orders is a permanent, irrevocable commitment, and those who are ordained are expected to live a life of service to the Church and to the people of God.
For more information, please contact one of our parish priests and visit the Archdiocesan Vocations page.