THIS IS MY 50TH ANNIVERSARY....

Dear Kelly (left), Kim and Mike!

Did you know that this year my/our stars are in perfect alignment to celebrate a host of special anni-

veraries. And you guys know how mom and I love to celebrate!

As you well know, your beloved mother turned 70 a couple of weeks ago. Also, Mom and I will celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary in August. And...uh, remember when you were little guys and you'd sit and suck your thumbs and stare at the TV! ....well, this year is also the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street! How 'bout that! Then, there's also my 5oth anniversary this month. 50th of what?

Why! Ordination to the priesthood! Yep, June 19th, 1959, your "Uncle Joe" (Dimino) and I, along with 12 monastic, seminary classmates were ordained to the priesthood in the Passionist Monastic Congregation!

[For techie neophytes: To enlarge pics... left click each pic. To return to blog: left click arrow in upper left corner of screen.]

The setting: St. Michael's Passionist Monastery Church, Union City, NJ. June 19th, 1959. This pic was taken after our three hour ordination ceremony. We look drawn, tired and ever so serious on this "happiest day of our young lives"! (Joe, front row, second from right. I'm in the top row, 1st on the right, the guy with the tilted head.) Happy we were, indeed ...but the photographer told us to "get serious" and subdue our happy smiles on this most serious and solemn occasion! Having been trained in the virtue of monastic holy obedience for so many years...we obeyed!

St. Michael's was a beautiful old 19th century Passionist monastery. A spiritual powerhouse in the Union City, NJ community. Alas, like so many other Passionist monasteries in the USA, it is now defunct.
My monk's "cell" (no, kids, not my phone!... my monastery room!) was up on the 3rd floor, facing the rising sun...like... eastward ho. Since the monastery was situated on a high ridge overlooking Hoboken and the Jersey entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel, from my window I had an almost unobstructed view of the Hudson River and the Manhattan skyline!

What a view at night. I could look right down Manhattan's 42nd St. in the distance.....and wonder what the folks over in "sin city" were up to that night. But I never spent much time viewing Gotham at night. I needed sl-e-e-p! Part of our monastic community routine (about 60 of us monks at St. Michael's) entailed a communal gathering in the monastic chapel to chant Matins and Lauds from 2 till 3 A.M! Then, try to get back to sleep till 6 A.M. to begin another day. Sleep was at a premium! No time for much night-viewing of the city!

Yes, Kelly, Kim and Mike! I thought you'd get a good laugh out of this pic...it's me...your dear ol' dad....Lordy, I was so pious, so "other-worldly" 50 years ago!

No wonder! After 14 years preparation in the seminary/monastery

"boot camp", finally reaching the priesthood was like...waking up in heaven! Almost. It was more like climbing a very high mountain. I felt a great sense of accomplishment "Up there" I could feel the Presence of God all around me! Yet, as I stood up there alone and started scanning the horizons of life...I also felt a palpable sense of loneliness. A strange mix of emotions! Yes, I was now a priest. A glorious feeling. But that implied a lifetime of celibacy. For the rest of my life...no loving wife at my side. No children. No family of my own. Believe me....I had thought/prayed over all this during the previous 14 years. But now, the finality of it all really hit home. And it hit hard! I was only (let's see: 78 yrs. minus 50yrs.=28 yrs.) ...28 years old at the time.

Fourteen of us were ordained that memorable June day 50 years ago. Three are now deceased. Five are still active in the priesthood and the Passionist monastic lifestyle. And I sincerely congratulate each of them! The remaining six of us (over a number of years) requested and received from the Vatican a dispensation from celibacy with permission to contract a sacramental marriage.

The Second Vatican Council ushered in a new age in Catholic theology and discipline. The Vatican (Pope Paul VI) graciously granted our request for laicization and the marriage option...but with one overwhelming "caveat" that.... quote: "we must no longer say Mass or confect the Sacraments or ostensibly function as priests again". Off with the Roman collar....

"Tu es sacerdos in aeternum....thou are a priest forever". But if you should opt for marriage..."well, yes, you are still a priest....just don't formally function as a priest again". That was the deal from Rome....and we accepted it. Believe me...it was with heartfelt misgivings! But of course, there are many ways to function as a priest... to have ministry....apart from saying Mass and absolving in the confessional. Each of us who left the clerical life has found a form of priestly ministry in his own way. (Ah, but that would be material for another blog!) Life goes on! Even priestly life!

I was an only son, an only child. But my beloved mother and dad "gave me to God" ....at my request.... to enter the seminary....when I was only fourteen. Imagine! A decision like that at 14! That sounds so strange in today's world. One of my greatest joys that day (age 28) of ordination was to give them my first priestly blessing. From my grateful heart!

(Years later....they knew and so loved the 3 of you, their beautiful grandchildren!)

Ten years after ordination....and after a wonderful ministry preaching Missions and Retreats in the eastern U.S...and shortly after Vatican II in '65....options became available that never existed in former Church discipline. I made a request to my religious superior for a temporary 6-month "leave of absence". Then, respectfully put my Roman collar and religious habit "on hold". And with some trepidation, ventured out the monastery door (and it was an "adventure" alright!) into a very strange world to find a job and a place to live. All on my own! An exhilarating experience at age 37....to be on my own for the first time in my adult life! And to pray hard for God's guidance to make the right decision after my six months' "leave".

As fate would have it, five months into my six month leave of absence, life suddenly came at me very fast! Yeah, man! My friend, Tom Stephens, introduced me to his 29 year old sister, "Pepsi" Pat Stephens, who had left the convent only a few months earlier (notice her "halo"...or, is it just a fanciful projection of my own pervervid imagination?). One of the most charming and beautiful ex-nuns I had ever met. Check out the full story in a subsequent blog (below).

We were married in August of '69. Within five short years Pat and I (and the three of you, our beautiful kids), were a sprawling, bawling family of five living in Seaford, Long Island.

And now, "suddenly"...all that was 40 years ago and you guys, our "kids", are now in your mid-30's! That blows my mind!

Oh, by the way, the Vatican did grant both of us the necessary dispensations and blessed us with a sacramental marriage.

Hi! Kiddaroonies! That's (l-r) Kelly, Mike and Kim. If I remember correctly....this family pic was a special Sears discount photo op, 1977.

Kelly's wedding day in '04! Yeah, kids ....have a way of growing up so fast!

You're glorious!

It's true, these latter days Pat and I may be a little "worn around the edges" by life....ah, but it's been such a great, exciting, loving 40 years together! A life we never dreamt would be ours when we were "twenty-somethings" back in our monastery/convent days. (Well, I guess....we did daydream in the abstract a little, but that was years before we met!)

For these past forty years and what is yet to come.....

Thank you....Vatican II! Thank You... O Beautiful Providence of a Loving God! Yes! Amen!