Bishop Barry C. Knestout will ordain Deacon Andrew Clark, Deacon Samuel Hill, and Deacon Matthew Kelly to the priesthood at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Richmond, on June 7 at 10:30 a.m. All are welcome to attend the Ordination Mass or to watch the livestream at richmonddiocese.org/livestream/. Please keep them in your prayers!
Eight years ago, on June 7, 2017, Deacon Matthew Kelly became a spiritual father for the first time. It was the day his goddaughter was baptized, and he became a godfather.
This year, on June 7, he will become a father for all of God’s people.
“It’s very beautiful that it will happen on that anniversary,” said Deacon Kelly.
The sacrament of baptism is one of the offices he was granted last year, May 18, 2024, when he was ordained a transitional deacon. Since then, he has baptized 10 people, including a niece. He also celebrated the funeral of his grandmother last fall.
“The rituals of our Church, our liturgy, are something that we all share deeply with God, something that connects us with God and with each other,” said Deacon Kelly. “It’s all the action of God who became man. Those liturgical meetings are very human moments, and that’s precisely how God comes so close to us.”
Deacon Kelly has a pleasant and sonorous singing voice, one that he cultivated by studying music at Christopher Newport University (CNU) and the University of Notre Dame. But after much discernment, he entered Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in 2018. In fact, it was while performing in Europe with the CNU Chamber Choir that he encountered the voice of God calling him to the priesthood.
During Mass at a European basilica, Deacon Kelly gave the Mass responses quietly in English, focusing closely on the sacrifice of the Mass, while the priest celebrated in Dutch. The experience, he said, “gave me an increased awareness of what was really happening, and that Jesus Christ was giving himself to me.”
Today, Deacon Kelly said that he sees how Jesus continues to love him through the people he meets, and he wants to offer his own love in return.
“Jesus has been so present to me, loving me through the people in our Church here in the Diocese of Richmond,” said Deacon Kelly. In response, he has chosen a motto for his ministry from the Second Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians 4:15: “Omnia enim propter vobis,” Latin for “Everything indeed is for you.”
“As I look forward to the day of my ordination, I have in mind all the faces and names of the people I’ve gotten to know as a seminarian, all of the people for whom God is ordaining a new priest,” he said.
“I think about the parish I’ll be sent to first – what a humble people to welcome a brand-new priest, who cares for them deeply but is still learning on the job,” Deacon Kelly added.
“In all my experiences as a seminarian, the parishioners have been so welcoming, so kind,” he continued.
He spent his pastoral year at Our Lady of Lourdes, Richmond, where he plans to celebrate Mass June 8, Pentecost Sunday, the day after his ordination. While at Our Lady of Lourdes, Deacon Kelly formed a special bond with the parish, particularly with the children at the school, many of whom joined the children’s choir he formed.
The Spanish community at Our Lady of Lourdes was also an influence on him. In seminary, he studied Greek, Latin, Italian, and Spanish, but became a fluent Spanish speaker thanks in part to Spanish-speaking parishioners who encouraged him.
“The people of the parish never treated me as if I were an outsider, or as if I were just in training,” said Deacon Kelly. “They let me connect with them, they invited me to share from the beginning, and they were patient with me as I was trying to learn.”
“To have an opportunity to learn a language for the sake of hearing testimonies of people who have come to know the living God, it is worth every effort,” he said.
On May 2, Deacon Kelly finished his final assignments at Mount St. Mary’s, completing what he called “26th grade.” He said that he will miss school, but that he hopes to continue learning as he begins his next, even bigger assignment.
“Ordination day is exciting, there’s no doubt about it, but this time also means leaving a community I’ve been a part of for the past seven years,” he said. “All of us are going to our various mission fields … The other night, we reflected on the fact that maybe the next time we’ll all be together is in heaven.”
That said, Deacon Kelly continued, “I’m excited to keep learning in new ways. I’m looking forward to the challenges of prayer and ministry, the opportunities to celebrate Mass, hear confessions, anoint people … and to experience the heart of Jesus, getting to know who he loves and how he loves them.”
Read about Deacon Andrew Clark.
Read about Deacon Samuel Hill.
Lee los perfiles de los tres diáconos en español.