It is with great sadness that 186 of us diocesan priests gathered in Christchurch learned this morning of the death of one of our brothers, Monsignor Pat Ward of the diocese of Auckland. Pat had arrived in Christchurch to take part in the Assembly, but was admitted to hospital just before the opening of our gathering.

In other posts you will read of the fraternity of the gathering, but Pat’s death focusses us on the reason for our meeting and the purpose of all priestly ministry. We are made by God and for God, and our hearts are restless until we are reunited with God.

Please join us in praying that Pat, a wise, good and holy priest, may share now in the fulness of life with Jesus Christ which he proclaimed by word and deed in his priestly ministry.

As we will pray in the Collect of Pat’s funeral Mass:

Grant, we pray, O Lord.
that the soul of Patrick your servant and Priest.
whom you honoured with sacred office
while he lived in this world,
may exult for ever in the glorious home of heaven.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Amen