By Gretchen Keiser, Staff Writer

ATLANTA--During Holy Week the vast majority of priests who serve in the Archdiocese of Atlanta gather to renew their commitment to priesthood.

The April 11 Chrism Mass, celebrated by Archbishop John F. Donoghue, drew approximately 125 priest to the Cathedral of Christ the King from all quadrants of North Georgia. This includes both diocesan clergy and members of the religious orders who staff parishes and missions, such as LaSalette priest, Glenmary, Conventual Franciscans and Redemptorists.

During the Eucharist the priest massed around the altar, filling the sanctuary to capacity. Earlier in the liturgy, led by Archbishop Donoghue, they renewed their commitment to priestly service, publicly resolving to grow in personal holiness and likeness to Jesus Christ, and to selfless ministerial service to others in imitation of Christ, who humbly washed his apostles’ feet.

The priesthood is human and individual, the archbishop said. It involved a personal “yes” to Christ, and that surrender “involved great personal risk.”

“For just as we are men like other men, we will be led to the test. But unlike other men, we bear the weighty responsibility, with God’s power behind us, to remain absolutely faithful to what is good and true; faithful in our poverty, faithful in our chastity, and faithful in our obedience.”

God’s chosen servant in the Old Testament, King David, exhibited both greatness and human frailty, but as Christ fulfilled the new covenant he also spoke to his apostles of the means to remain faithful, the archbishop noted in his homily. In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells his disciple, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, who will stay with you forever. He is the Spirit, who reveals the truth about God...you know him, because he remains with you and will be in you.”

It is the strength of the Holy Spirit, revealed in the accumulated wisdom of the Church, in the lives of saintly followers of Christ and their good works, and in corporate actions of the Church, the archbishop said, which sustains faithfulness to the priestly calling.

“I would suggest, as we prepare to renew our vows of priestly service, that we also renew our belief in the strength of the Holy Spirit, through the wisdom of the Church, to guide and guard our lives, and to reinforce within us the priestly disciplines of poverty, chastity and obedience,” the archbishop concluded.

Afterward three priests of the archdiocese ordained in the last two years reflected upon their personal experience.

Father Joseph Chalous, serving at St. Joseph’s Parish, Athens, since his ordination in June 1994 was at his first Chrism Mass as a priest. He appreciated the “sense of my promises” in company with the other priest. This is especially meaningful to those who, because of assignment in parishes outside the immediate Atlanta area, infrequently come to the Cathedral in the normal course of their ministry during the year, he said.

While his first months of priesthood unfolded in Athens, Father Chaloux said, he has been impressed by “the tremendous support I’ve received from the laity. The tremendous love and encouragement has nourished me.” St. Joseph’s School in Athens, with its 350 students, has brought him great joy in ministry, he said.

The shift from seminary studies to parish life has been profound, said Father Dan Toof, serving at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish, Alpharetta since ordination in December, 1994. “Nobody asks me matters of ecclesiology, or eschatology, of Christology,” he said quietly. “What they ask me is quite different.”

Learning to minister effectively in a parish “takes discernment, and takes time,” Father Toof said. He is sustained by his “friendship with Christ and with my brother priests.”

“I’m not the best friend to (Christ), but he is the best friend to me. I really feel lucky to have him so close.”

Father Toof also finds support and companionship at the St. Thomas Aquinas rectory with pastor Father Albert Jowdy and parochial vicar Father Selvaraj Balappa. “They are great guys. It’s good for me.”

Ordained in 1993, Father Patrick Kingery was at his second Chrism Mass, looking ahead to a shift in priestly ministry. He will assume his first pastorate in June, moving from the Cathedral in Atlanta to St. Bernadette’s Parish in Cedartown.

“It is humbling and I feel honored,” Father Kingery said. “It is primarily because I was a bilingual priest.”

Attracted during seminary studies in Florida to Spanish, Father Kingery learned the language, enjoyed his language studies and then spent two years working in a bilingual immigration capacity at Catholic Social Services in Atlanta.

At the Cathedral he has been in charge of a growing Hispanic ministry. “I’m looking forward to having a mix of English-speaking and Spanish-speaking parishioners and bringing them together,” Father Kingery said.

I’m looking forward to the intimacy of a small parish.”