Glasgow Archdiocese has had a number of special celebrations this year. The latest was a celebratory Mass for the Jubilees of Ordination of a number of priests in the Archdiocese, held at St. Mary’s Pro-Cathedral. Those celebrating this special occasion in their priesthood were:-
Golden Jubilee
Mgr. Pat Osborne, Fr. John Muldoon, Fr. Edward Higgins,Fr. Terence Friel, Fr. Sabatino Tedeschi
Ruby Jubilee
Fr. Peter Murphy, Fr. John Ward, Fr. Peter Clinton
Silver Jubilee
Mgr. Peter Smith, Fr. Charles McElwee, Fr. John Hughes, Fr. Joseph McAuley, Fr. John Casey
Archbishop Conti led the celebration as Principal Celebrant. Before the Mass began, Dr. Noel Donnelly played some reflective harp music and the St. Mungo Singers sang the joyful Quinn/Bach motet “Praise the King” and Wesley’s “Lead me Lord”. The Mass itself began with the very appropriate “Lord, you have come to the seashore”.
The readings of the Liturgy of the Word reflected the vocation of the priesthood (Isaiah 61:1-3; Ephesians 4:1-7.11-13 and Matthew 28:16-20). The responsorial psalm was Francis Duffy’s setting of Psalm 95 (Go into the World) sung by Johanna O’Connor.
In his homily, Archbishop Conti reflected that we all have our share of grace. For priests, their particular grace is a very precious gift, to comply with the command of Christ (in the Gospel reading) to go and teach all nations. Referring to the Jubilarians, he noted that their years of service to the Church amounted to almost half a millennium and we owed them a debt of gratitude for this.
