Fr. Alan celebrates 50 years of ordination

Fr. Alan reached 50 years of priestly ordination on Aug. 15, the Feast of the Assumption.

Because it is a solemnity – in fact the titular feast of the Cistercian Order – the Abbot is usually the principal celebrant for the Feast of the Assumption. But Fr. Alan served as principal celebrant to mark the joyful occasion.

As Fr. Alan put it, there were initially “many hurdles” in his path to ordination.  When he entered the monastery as a lay brother in 1955, lay brothers were not allowed to become clerics. Also, while lay brothers were full members of the Cistercian Order, they had fewer canonical rights, and were not technically considered monks by Rome.

Providentially, those hurdles were overcome through the Decree of Unification in the 1960s, which united lay brothers and choir religious into one class of monks.

Please join us in saying a prayer of gratitude for Fr. Alan’s faithful and cheerful perseverance as a monk and priest. Ad multos annos!