Last night Brother John Joseph was ordained a priest forever in the line of Melchizedek by Archbishop Julian Porteous of Hobart at St Mary's Cathedral in Hobart in Tasmania. He stayed the night before at the Archbishop's House and the rest of us drove to Hobart on the day from our place in Dover.
Brother Gilbert did the first reading from Isaiah and Sister Joan a Josephite Sister did the second.
Brother Gilbert Joseph was thrilled that his sister Tamara who is not a Catholic and his cousin Caroline who became a Catholic in 2011 had come from Perth with Father Doug Harris the Moderator of the Apostles of Perpetual Adoration and Anne Biggs. The APA had been the community that the Little Eucharistic Brothers of Divine Will had been in judicially until 2021 when they became an Association of Christ's Faithful in their own right in Tasmania.
Brother
John Joseph's parents Edward and Renate, his grandmother Irene, his
sister Meghan and brothers Jacob (with his wife Abbey) and Jesse and
others were all from Perth. Our friend Raphael who was one of of the
servers whole family flew in from Sarawak a state in Malaysia for the
event. Raphael's house mate Simon Peter was also one of the servers and
sat with Brother Stephen. Thanks to him and all the servers including
Raphael, Simon Peter, John Moore, Tony and Nat Bradley among others.
Brother John Joseph now a priest being blessed by his parents Edward and Renate.
It was a beautiful location and the liturgy was magnificent and faithfully directed by Michael McKenna as Master of Ceremonies. The choir was brilliant. Brother Stephen Joseph was one of the servers. Many tears of joy were shed. It was very touching when Brother John Joseph's grandmother and sister presented him with a bouquet of flowers for him to lay on Our Lady's altar in order to dedicate his priesthood to her. This was followed by his parents Edward and Renate coming forward and laying hands on their son in prayer and then Brother giving his first priestly blessing to them. The tears flowed even more.
Brother
Gilbert sitting between Sister Joan Cowmeadow RSJ and Dave Nightingale
who is discerning a vocation with the Brothers. Anne Biggs and brother
Gilbert's cousin Caroline Miller (with the mantilla) sitting in front of
Brother Gilbert
It was so lovely to see all our friends there especially from the Huon Valley where we live. Brother John Joseph and brother Gilbert were thrilled to see their friends Tom and Emily Coffey who also came from Perth to attend. Thank you to all those who came and to all those who watched live online. Many of the Divine Will people were watching on line especially those from Jenny Troy's group in Perth and Henry and Marina's group in Queensland. And those from the Association of Hebrew Catholics from all over the world.
Brother Gilbert Joseph, Brother John Joseph and Brother Stephen Joseph are all enrolled Contemplatives of the Association of Hebrew Catholics who pray each day for the Association and the Hebrew Catholic apostolate as does their dear friend Dinah Moshe-Stokvish from Sandy Bay (who is soon to be enrolled in our community as an associate member) who it was lovely to see at the ordination with another associate member of our community Anne Ovari.
Brother Gilbert noticed Tania and Amy Kay who are also associate members of our community were there as well. Also lovely to have some of our Dover people there and especial thanks to our Dover parishioner Brett Warren who drove brother Stephen and Dave back to our place. We were especially pleased to see the Louise and Chris Burdick were there with Louise's mother Elizabeth who Brother Gilbert hadn't seen for ages. Also it was a thrill to have Joyce and David Cummings with us who have been so generous to us since we arrived in Tasmania in 2014 and they paid for brother John Joseph's chasuble to be made.
We appreciate your support and prayers. It was lovely to have so many priests present and we appreciate in a special way the presence of Father Michael Tate our Guardian Angel who Brother John Joseph calls his priestly grandfather much to Father's horror (haha), Father Warren Edwards our parish priest, Father Pius Noonan the Abbot or Prior of the Benedictine Monks with all the Benedictine Monks from Colebrook and Father Howard. Thanks to Samantha Males who is an Associate Member of our community for the lovely photos.
Brother
John Joseph now a priest blessing Raphael's family from Sarawak.
Brother John Joseph was very touched by them coming all the way from
Sarawak to attend his ordination.
Brother John Joseph blessing a young man Callum with Tony Bradley looking on who served at the Mass and is the husband of our dear friend Dr Rachel whose son Nat Bradley also served at the Mass.
For those who missed it you can still watch it on You tube. When I looked this Morning, almost 500 people had watched online.
On
Tuesday we had a lovely visit from Br John-Joseph's parents Edward and
Renate, grandmother Irene, family friends John, Judy and Cathy and his
brother Jesse who is in this photo surveying our hidden valley. They had
arrived from Perth and brought us a banquet to eat for lunch. We had a
great time and lots of laughs.
Brother Gilbert's sister Tamara, cousin Caroline, Father Doug and Anne Biggs all arrived from Perth on Wednesday afternoon. Father Doug rang Brother Gilbert from the car hire place and Tamara and Caroline rang him on their walk in which they walked to look for the Cathedral and ended up at the Salamanca market area but eventually found the Cathedral at about 9 pm. Father Doug very wisely stayed back at the hotel and didn't go on the walk, as he was probably exhausted after a day with Tamara and Caroline bossing each other around (they are hilarious). Caroline was very excited to be going to the ordination of Br John-Joseph. Brother Gilbert was looking forward to seeing them and rescuing Father Doug and bringing him to stay at our place after the ordination. The next day they drove to Colebrook to see the Benedictine monks place before coming to the ordination in the evening.
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