Three Divine Word Missionaries, Anthony Li, Laurensius (Laurens) Woda and Michael Wu were ordained to the priesthood last week in a joyous celebration attended by their family, friends and SVD confreres.

In receiving the gift of priesthood, the three young men were also being made into gifts for the people they will serve, said ordaining prelate, Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane.

“Anthony, Laurens and Michael receive a gift certainly,” Archbishop Coleridge said. “But only in order that they may become a gift.

“The gift they receive this morning from God is a share in the priesthood of the only priest, Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. His priesthood is not something they possess; it possesses them.

“This possessing is the gift, and it never ceases to be anything but a gift, never a burden.”

Archbishop Coleridge said Anthony, Laurens and Michael would live their priesthood as a life of self-sacrificing love.

“A life of endless gratitude, filled with the joy of the Gospel, even in the dark and difficult times that will certainly come for these three men,” he said.

“The world and the Church need self-sacrificing, grateful, joyful priests who know that all is gift – not self-serving, ungrateful and joyless clerics who think that possession is everything and always put themselves at the centre, but priests who know what it is to listen and live, to stand firm in faith and to grow less so that the Lord may grow greater.

“May Anthony, Laurens and Michael become that kind of divine word to both the world and the Church, more and more through the years.”

SVD Provincial, Fr Henry Adler SVD said the ordination of three new missionary priests who have completed their formation in the AUS Province at Dorish Maru College was a joyous occasion.

“The whole Province celebrates with these three men today,” he said. “Throughout their formation we have come to know them and to witness their individual gifts and we now look forward to seeing them take up their missionary assignments and become good priests for the people they will serve.”

The three new priests will soon depart for their first mission assignments – Anthony to Costa Rica, Laurens to Indonesia, and Michael to Chile.

PHOTOS by Thien Nguyen SVD