Over the last week, we have celebrated some amazing events in the life of the Church and our parish! We witnessed the ordination of four men to the priesthood on June 22nd, two of whom were seminarians from Holy Trinity: Fr. James Ladd and Fr. Justin Echevarria. Fr. James celebrated his first Mass with us last Sunday at our 11:15am Mass and Fr. Justin celebrated Mass with us last Thursday at our 8:15am daily Mass. We’ll have photos from both of those Masses printed in next weekend’s bulletin. Congratulations to all of our newly ordained priests!

Priestly ordination and a priest’s first Mass are two of my “must haves” (or “must attends”) for Catholics. They’re included in my informal list of events and places every Catholic should experience. Some of them are specific to the Archdiocese of Portland and some are national or international locales. Take a look at my list below:

My Catholic Bucket List to Attend / Visit

  1. Priestly Ordination

  2. First Mass of a priest

  3. Confirmation Mass

  4. Rite of Election

  5. Palm Sunday

  6. Holy Thursday Mass

  7. Good Friday Service

  8. Easter Vigil Mass

  9. Easter Sunday Mass

  10. Christmas Eve or Day Mass

  11. Dedication of a New Church

  12. Initial or Final Profession of a person into a religious community

  13. Vespers with one our religious communities

  14. Mass at our Cathedral, St. Mary’s

  15. The Grotto

  16. Mount Angel Abbey

  17. Our Lady of Peace Retreat Center

  18. Our Lady of Guadalupe Abbey

  19. Vatican City & St. Peter’s Basilica

  20. ??? What might you add here?

Which one(s) can you check off? Which one(s) do you greatly desire to do? Did I miss any? Feel free to email me about what you think should be added! I’m sure we can all benefit from taking the time to explore the depth of history and spirituality of our local and global expressions of our Faith.