The Missionaries of God's Love

Vocation Weekends and Other Events

REFLECTION ON CANDIDACY

Ben Roberts was accepted into candidacy for Orders by Archbishop Carroll on 10th October at St. Benedicts Narrabundah. The ceremony took place in the context of a Celebration Sunday Mass of Disciples of Jesus Community. In this article Ben reflects on the significance of this step towards ordination to the priesthood. He hopes to be ordained next year.

In the Letter to the Galatians, St. Paul gives a brief biography dealing with the time after he was captivated by Jesus on the Damascus road. A retreat in Arabia was followed by life among the believers in Damascus, a visit to Peter in Jerusalem and then ministry in the regions of Syria and Silicia (Gal 1:18-21). Fourteen years passed. After all this time Paul went up to Jerusalem again to the home of the ‘pillars of the Church,’ Peter and John and James the brother of Jesus. There, after he laid out before them his methods, the wonderful fruit of his ministry and his vision for the preaching of good news to the nations, they ‘extended the right hand of fellowship’ to Paul and Barnabas to continue in their work.

In Paul’s story we can discern two inseparable threads. On the one hand, something intensely personal happened to him. No one else saw what took place between Jesus and Paul on the road to Damascus. He could never have put that experience fully into words, I’m sure. But he experienced himself as ‘grasped,’ as taken hold of by the Lord. ‘I press on to lay hold of the prize for which Christ Jesus laid hold of me (Phil 3:12).’ On the other hand, however, after years of testing and growth, he needed the approval of someone besides himself. The leaders of the church had to listen to his story and say, 'Yes. We recognize that God is at work in your life and we give you our blessing.’ What had been happening in Paul’s life was real, but it needed to be submitted to discernment and given the authority of the apostles.

On the tenth of October this year Archbishop Francis Carroll celebrated the Rite of Candidacy, accepting me as a candidate for ordination to the diaconate first and then priesthood. Without wanting to compare myself too closely with Paul, his story helps me to understand this event and to share it with readers of this newsletter. About fifteen years ago the Lord Jesus ‘grasped’ my life and named me as his. Like Paul’s early years, my life since has been a mixture of testing and retreat, of life in communities (Antioch, a prayer group, various parishes, Disciples of Jesus Covenant Community and the Missionaries of God's Love), and of doing my best to bring the gospel to the people I’ve met. When Father Francis, the successor of the apostles, received me as a candidate, he was ‘extending the hand of fellowship’ to me in a tentative way. I say ‘tentative’ because candidacy is not the last word. Unforeseen things happen. Nevertheless, what we celebrated on the tenth of October was my submitting all that God has worked in me to the discernment of Father Francis, and his saying that it seems to be the hand of the Lord. It is a real step: the first official recognition from the Church of the intensely personal word that Jesus has spoken to my life, and which has been nurtured by the MGL and recognized by MGL when I took final vows earlier this year. Barring those unforeseen things, the next step is ordination to the diaconate.

Please pray for me as I begin pastoral work in a parish in Canberra in December. May God's peace reign in your hearts.

Ben Roberts.

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