Today I go before the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Texas for one final interview before my ordination to the priesthood. It has been a very, very, very long road. I first felt this call nine years ago – and now here I am, on the very cusp of fulfillment.
What have I learned in all this time? Well, I’ve learned how to be patient. Waiting 3285 days just for some dude to put hands on your head takes a lot of patience.
But I have also learned what it means to be dedicated. I don’t think I could have waited all nine years if this calling was made up.
But most of all, I’ve learned that my clock doesn’t run on the same time as God’s clock. God has watched me go through this process, go to college, leave for seminary, and now work here at St. Alban’s – all with this goal in mind. But I believe that God has always seen me as a priest, and these nine years have been about teaching me what it means to live into this vocation. For God, I was ordained to the priesthood when I first said “Here am I; send me!”
What happens ten days from now will just be a formality, a temporal and material affirmation of what is an eternal and spiritual truth.
the rev. jimmy abbott 