On Saturday, February 8th, His Excellency Fabian Bruskewitz, Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, ordained seven men to the subdiaconate at the FSSP seminary of Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in Denton, Nebraska. Our thanks to the photography team at OLG for sharing these photos with us, and congratulations to the newly ordained - ad multos annos!
The ordinands process in carrying lit candles and the tunicles with which they will be vested during the ordination ceremony, and take their place in the choir.
The ordinands process in carrying lit candles and the tunicles with which they will be vested during the ordination ceremony, and take their place in the choir.
After the Collect of the Mass, the assistant priest reads the call to orders, and the ordinands come forth. The bishop reads to them a brief admonition on the duties of the order which they are about to receive, the text of which is fixed in the Pontifical.
The ordinands prostrate themselves for the Litany of the Saints.
Towards the end of the Litany, the bishop rises, receives his crook and miter, then turns to the ordinands, and sings the invocations, “That Thou may deign to bless 🜊 these chosen ones. - That Thou may deign to bless 🜊 and sancti🜊fy these chosen ones. - That Thou may deign bless 🜊, sancti🜊fy and conse🜊crate these chosen ones.”, making the sign of the Cross over them where I have put the 🜊 sign.
The ordinands return to kneeling before the bishop, who then delivers another, lengthier admonition in the form of a sermon, again, according to a fixed text in the Pontifical.
The traditio instrumentorum, by which the instruments proper to the exercise of the ordained ministry are given (more or less symbolically) by the bishop to the ordinands: first, of the chalice...
then a set of cruets, along with a tray and towel of the sort used at the washing of the priest’s fingers at Mass.
The ordinands are then vested with the amice, maniple and tunicle...
after which they receive the Epistle book. (It is a common custom for several of them to touch the book at once, as we see here.)
The Mass resumes as normal order, but one of the newly ordained subdeacons sings the Epistle instead of the subdeacon of the Mass.
The newly ordained subdeacons exchange the Kiss of Peace with the bishop.
At the end of the ordination, the bishop imposes upon them the reading of the nocturn of the following day, the beginning of the obligation to read the Divine Office, which traditionally started with the subdiaconate.
