Fr. Charlie Fox
Published April 27, 2007

"Do this in memory of me." (Luke 22:19)

Just more than a year ago, in the midst of my last semester as a seminarian, I was also scrambling to make the necessary practical preparations for my ordination to the priesthood on June 3, 2006.

Among my more pleasant tasks was to design the customary holy card that would commemorate this great occasion. And so I selected for the front of the card a picture of the Sacred Heart stained glass window at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, taken by my friend Fr. Andrew Bloomfield. On the back of the card, I included my name and the date of my ordination, the fact that I was being ordained, "a priest of Jesus Christ for the Archdiocese of Detroit," a request that those who received the cards pray for priests, and the verse from Scripture quoted above.

I wanted to select a biblical verse that would capture the essence of the priesthood. The words of Jesus at the Last Supper, words that are also a part of the words of consecration at every Mass, do just that. "Do this in memory of me," expresses the major themes of the life God has chosen for his priests: the institution of the priesthood by Jesus Himself, the reality that in the Mass the priest acts in the Person of Christ, performing the actions of Jesus and not his own actions, and that Jesus really becomes present in the Eucharist, which is the "source and summit" of the lives of priests and of all the members of the Church.

It would be difficult to express the mixture of thoughts and emotions I was experiencing during those final days at Sacred Heart. In one sense, seminarians "live and breathe" the priesthood in their prayer, studies, pastoral experiences, and vicariously through the lives of their priest professors, spiritual directors, mentors and pastors. But in another sense, even after years of preparation, the seminarian is still embarking upon an entirely new adventure, an entirely new mission from God. No amount of preparation can replace the real and permanent change that takes place when a man is ordained a priest.

And so my first year as a priest has been very rich and very exciting thus far. I could never have predicted the wide variety of ways the Lord would use me to serve his people, or the critical urgency of the work priests are called upon to do. There is something about actually living the life of a priest that helps everything we learn in the seminary to really sink in!

At the time of my ordination, Cardinal Adam Maida gave me a dual assignment: serving as the associate pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Farmington and studying for a licentiate degree in the New Evangelization at Sacred Heart Major Seminary. Both of these assignments have been very challenging and deeply satisfying. And both remind me over and again that Jesus knew what He was doing when He established the Church in this way. There is something indescribably beautiful about the way in which Jesus makes himself present and active in the Church, and in the relationship of deep spiritual union — communion — we share as bishops, priests, deacons, religious and lay people. For those with the eyes of faith, it is easy to see this communion as a living reality in the midst of all that happens at parishes such as Our Lady of Sorrows, at the seminary and throughout the archdiocese.

Sadly, however, the strength of this relationship of communion and the carrying out of necessary priestly functions are threatened today by the shortage of men preparing for the priesthood. Each of the groups named above, including the ministerial priesthood, has a role to play, has a place in the Church that needs to be filled.

We need more priests! And so we need to encourage young men to commit themselves to prayerfully consider the priesthood, and to follow God’s will for them no matter what the cost. I will not say that the priesthood is easy. Even after a very short time as a priest, I can say with certainty that it is not. But the priesthood is incredibly rewarding, both in this life and, more importantly, in the life to come.

Fr. Charlie Fox is an associate pastor at Our Lady of Sorrows Parish, Farmington, and studying for a licentiate degree in the New Evangelization.