Several years ago I went to a “pinning” ceremony for a nurse. The pinning ceremony is specifically NOT a graduation ceremony, if you go read about it. It is a special celebration of becoming a nurse and remembering nurses before you. Some websites claim that the pin tradition goes back to the Middle Ages. The ceremony also usually includes a lamp or candle sharing of some sort to remind people of Florence Nightingale. It was quite special.

Before I went I had no idea what was going to happen. I didn’t grow up around nurses. The whole ceremony struck me as a wonderful not-quite-secret ritual that gave all nurses a shared memory. This particular ceremony also featured several of the candidates carrying roses. I had a moment of panic when I saw this. Had I failed my person of interest by not getting her a flower? Actually, no. It turned out that the school gave the roses to those who had lost a relative while they were studying, and my girl’s grandmother had died. There was something really magical about that ceremony, and tradition.

Last weekend I went to the ordination of priests for the Diocese of Arlington. Just like seeing the roses, and then discovering that there was something else going on, I watched the candidates for priesthood be called up to stand before the bishop, and I saw something else going on. 

I’ve been to ordinations before. They are long, and full of wonderful and complex prayers and actions. I went to one that was done in the Old Latin style. It took four hours and I don’t remember having a program to follow along. I’m pretty sure that there wasn’t one because I kept wondering, near the end, if it actually was the end and then there would be another prayer. I also went to an Arlington Diocese ordination last year, but the church was full and I was too late to get a seat, even though I was there half an hour ahead of time.** I spent the entire two and a half hour ceremony standing in the back, behind ten rows of other people also standing, unable to see anything at all. 

This year, I had a seat near the front and could see. At the moment when the candidates for priesthood are called, they are still transitional deacons. They are called out of the congregation, stand up, and say, “Present!” And, this time, I saw that they were called by a man who was ordained this year as a deacon.  He will be ordained next year as a priest. 

That is, I watched a deacon call his brothers to the next step, and send them forward on the journey, that he himself hopes to make next year. It was awesome, in the old meaning of the word. I wasn’t expecting it. I’ve seen other ordinations and not paid any particular attention to the person who did the call. This time… absolutely glorious. And in the future I’ll know.

The rest of the ordination was lovely, but not a surprise. The new priest usually has a party for his friends and family in the evening. The next day, Sunday, he says his first Mass and has a reception at his home parish. In this particular case I went to all these events, and one more magical thing happened.

The new priest attended Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia and a bunch of his friends were at the evening party. (Basically half the seminarians from Arlington go to Mount Saint Mary’s in Emmitsburg, Maryland, and half to Philadelphia.) Well, the guys from Saint Charles got up near the end and sang a Latin song of joy to their old friend, the new priest. It is a song that they learned purely by singing at the seminary. The older priests who attended that seminary also got up and sang. 

There are traditions about when this song is sung at the seminary, usually to greet or honor special people. People learn it by hearing it. It doesn’t seem to be up on YouTube and the lyrics aren’t readily available. 

Here’s the thing. It’s unlikely to be sung next year for other new priests; it just happened that there was a critical mass of Saint Charles Alumni at this particular party. It was something I might never hear again. 

It was beautiful. 

A link to Bishop Burbidge’s homily, with some intercut pictures from the ordination. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvudkQ7Xu-4

**Just a note… In 2023 the ceremony was listed as starting at 11:00 a.m. and I was there at 10:30. However, this bishop believes that when the program says that Mass begins at 11:00 then he should be kissing the altar at 11:00. So if there is a procession of two hundred people including loads of priests, a few extra bishops, some nuns, and a ton of seminarians, including some seminarians from other dioceses, well, then, that procession had better start at 10:45. At least! So I wasn’t as early as I thought. 

The picture is from a window at the Saint Charles Borromeo seminary.