Video Transcript

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

For nearly 17 years, I have been blessed to serve the diverse and vibrant communities that make up the Diocese of Phoenix. We have 94 parishes and 23 missions serving more than a million Catholics throughout central and northwest Arizona. Maricopa County is one of the fastest growing regions in the nation!

As more and more people are moving to our State, our need for priests continues to grow. I am deeply grateful to God for each priest who already serves here, especially for the way they witness to Jesus as loving fathers and wise teachers of the Gospel.

This coming Saturday, I will have the privilege of ordaining four more men to the priesthood – Thanks be to God!

At the Mass of Ordination, these brothers in Christ, will receive the grace to celebrate the mysteries of Christ, especially the Holy Eucharist and other Sacraments. They will become co-workers of Bishop Nevares and me, caring for the Lord’s flock. The various rituals and prayers of the Ordination ceremony are rich in meaning and history. I invite you and your loved ones to watch the livestream on Saturday at 10 a.m.

Now, I would like to introduce you to the four deacons whom I shall ordain. After their ordination on Saturday, we shall call them: Father Glenn, Father Penkalski, Father Terrill, and Father Wetzel. I praise God for the way that each of them has embraced God’s call and I thank their families and friends for supporting them with their love and prayers. As you watch the following, please keep these four men in prayer.

[Nathaniel Glenn]

Our Lord called me to be a priest ever since I was young. Really, my parents say, as early as I could talk, I would talk about being a priest. But for me I remember it really beginning intentionally about when I was 11.

We’ll just skip straight to the spoilers here: I’m kind of a nerd. I know you can’t tell from this jock-like, very street-smart exterior that I’m kind of a nerdy guy. I just started reading books when I was 11. Books of apologetics, books about our faith… And I remember being so blown away – like, wow, this stuff really actually makes sense! Like, there’s a reason behind what we do and why we do it and why we believe in all that stuff!

And, yeah, that never really stopped. I’ve just kept reading enen now. I mean, right now you’re sitting on my bookcase. I can’t show you, but I’ve got a bunch of books. I love to read and learn about our faith. I love to read literature and that kind of stuff.

So our Lord knows each of us. He knows me pretty darn well. If he was gonna get me into the priesthood, I would have to kind of read my way. And I did. It began with the head, but – of course, right – it’s going to move head to the heart.

When I was in high school, I just had some really great experiences. I was at St. Mary’s High School, which was a great place to be for me. I was active in the LifeTeen group at a nearby parish. I was also serving at my home parish, Corpus Christi. I was lectoring, I was serving as an Extraordinary Minister [of Holy Communion], and I just found that as I was not only thinking about our faith, but living it out and loving others and serving others and being with others and sharing our faith.

I just knew! I knew that I was being called to the priesthood, to discern in seminary. And once I finished high school at St. Mary’s, just – yep, I knew it’s time to apply.

So I entered seminary right after high school. Nine years later, here we are! It’s been a wile ride. I’m excited jut to be a priest here in the Diocese of Phoenix!

[Gabriel Terrill]

The Lord called me at a pretty young age. I think I might have been 5 or 6, and at the time I was really interested in being maybe an astronaut or a cowboy. And, of course, I wanted to be a priest. And, over time, I discovered this crippling fear of outer space – this idea of being out in the middle of the void…

And then I realized cowboys weren’t like they are in the movies: hunting down bad guys and bringing them in for rewards. That was the Wild West. So that went away.

The only thing that stuck with me was this desire to be a priest, and it just never went away!

Over time, after discovering more about my faith, receiving the sacraments, and really discovering this relationship with Christ, this desire inside me to be a priest, to bring the sacraments to people, to bring Christ to people and to serve the Lord in the Sacrifice of the Mass, just stuck with me and grew more and more over time.

So, finally, in high school I decided to apply in my senior year, and I was accepted into the Diocese of Phoenix as a seminarian. I’ve been in seminary these past eight years, and thanks be to God, I couldn’t be happier!

[Estevan Wetzel]

The Lord called me to the priesthood in a gradual way. After a Steubenville [Youth] Conference, I heard Jesus say for the first time, “Estevan, you are not a face in the crowd. I love you, and I’m calling you to be a saint.” Up to this moment, I had never heard a call to holiness that we all had.

And so, from there, I joined youth group at Most Holy Trinity Parish. I got more involved in my faith at St. Mary’s High school, where it reached a point that my senior year of high school, I entered a discernment retreat. And there, when they were talking about applying to seminary, I got this cringing, gnawing feeling that I should apply.

I went home and prayed about it. I received this peace, joy, and excitement, and I knew I should apply to seminary. I called the vocations director.

And so, I entered seminary right after high school! This is my ninth year.

[Kevin Penkalski]

When I was little, the priesthood was already on my heart. I had been altar serving. I had been doing one of the most beautiful things that a little boy can do, which is be up at the altar. When I was going through my faith life, though, I didn’t receive a lot of catechesis.

I didn’t know our Lord’s great mercy when it came to confession and when it came to the Eucharist. From sixth grade ’til about sophomore year, I never went to confession. When I finally decided to go, because there was a certain sin that was weighing on my heart, I actually broke through and followed the Lord’s call to enter the confessional, and I confessed my sins. The first thing that the priest said to me was, “My son, welcome home.” Now, for a 16-year-old boy, I didn’t know how to process that, but I knew that our Lord’s mercy was real.

When I was 18, the other half of this conversion story, if you will, I experienced the Lord in the Eucharist for the first time in my life. And it was at that point that I knew that our Lord was reaching into my heart. And then he was saying, “Kevin, I died for you. I’m giving my life over into you. I want you to be in relationship with me.”

And that’s how the priesthood really started to find this home in my heart, because I desired people to know the great love and the great mercy that our Lord has for you and for me.

It’s a great joy to be able to administer these sacraments to the faithful. So that’s how the Lord began my faith journey and began my call into the priesthood.

[Bishop Olmsted]

Thank you, Deacon Nathaniel, Deacon Kevin, Deacon Gabe, and Deacon Estevan. Know that we are praying for you as we also pray for all our priests, deacons, and seminarians; and we ask the Lord Jesus to bless us with many more laborers for His Vineyard.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Diocese of Phoenix, pray for us.

Jesus, we trust in You.

And may Almighty God bless you, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.