Go forth and be God’s hands
Year for Priests closes as diocese ordains three men
Ann Pierceall
Catholic Herald correspondent
SUPERIOR - Fr. Aaron Kalmon felt he had come full circle during his June 6 ordination at Cathedral of Christ the King in Superior.
That moment came while he and two other newly ordained men, Fr. Eugene Murphy and Deacon Christopher Kemp, distributed Communion to several hundred witnesses at the ordination Mass.
There, near the end of the long line of celebrants, was Shirley Olson, Kalmon’s second grade teacher from Holy Rosary Catholic School in Medford, and the person to whom Kalmon first announced his intentions to be a priest.
Kalmon said when he saw her step forth to receive the body of Christ, he thought, ’That’s where it all started.”
“There was a sense of coming full circle. It was such a blessing,” he said.
Kalmon, Murphy and Kemp all came to find their vocations from different paths. Kalmon, 28, the youngest of the three, entered the seminary in his early 20s.
“It was just slowly coming back and really just finding myself in Christ,” he said. Kalmon said it was halfway through seminary, during a retreat, that his full turning point to the priesthood came. He had been sitting with the blessed sacrament praying, and imagining himself first married with a family, and then he envisioned himself celebrating Mass.
“In prayer I saw Jesus holding me. Not only was it joy-filled, it was peace-filled. That’s when I knew it was for me,” he said.
Gene Murphy, 64, began his journey to priesthood after a marriage, raising a family and a career in financial services. Slightly more reserved than Kalmon, Murphy retains similar joy and commitment to his vocation. He said seven years ago circumstances “conspired” to bring him to his ordination.
“This is what God wanted. I leapt at the opportunity. I’ve thrown myself into it, thinking God would say at some point ‘Just kidding!’” said Murphy, “He never did.”
Now, Murphy says he looks forward most to “really completely giving myself in service to God’s people.”
“That’s a cliché, but I can feel the words,” he said.
Following his ordination, Murphy’s son, Bryan, beamed with the pride similar to that of a pleased parent.
“It’s fantastic. I know it’s something he’s wanted to do for a long time. He’s going to be great at it,” he said. For Bryan, watching his father receive his vestments and then give communion as a priest was a singular moment.
“I was just very proud. It was one of those role reversal days,” he said.
Rita Creuzer, of St. Croix Falls, received one of Fr Murphy’s first priestly blessings. She said the man she has come to know through various church events will be “marvelous” in his new role as a priest.
“He has his work cut out for him because your priests are spread so thin. But he’s up to the challenge,” Creuzer said.
Deacon Chris Kemp’s call came in 1993, after his step-brother committed suicide.
A quiet, shy individual, Kemp said he was out to buy groceries for his grieving family when the Spooner man saw a message scribbled in chalk onto the St. Paul sidewalk. It said first, “I love you.” Then, “Jesus loves you.” The next line haunted him. He was quickly angered when he read the profanity towards God on the third line and was determined to remove the etching. At that moment his coffee tumbled from his hand, splashing all over the profanity, and Kemp was able to wash it away.
“I knew at that time I was being called,” said Kemp. He soon returned to the church, but it would be 11 years before he committed to the priesthood. After the deaths of his mother and brother in 2004, while reading Scripture, he and came across the passage in Genesis in which Moses uses his staff to sweeten the water.
“I saw that as a sign I should take my life and help others,” he said.
The past six years have been a lot of work for a man with no previous college experience.
“I’ve grown in a lot of ways,” he said. For Kemp, Sunday’s perfect moment came when Bishop Peter Christensen placed his hands on him in prayer. Kemp says he plans to take the bishop’s ordination message to heart: Let your will go, and let God in.
Throughout Christensen’s homily, the theme remained. . He told the three men to model their lives after the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and to “reflect often on your calling,” noting it was not they who chose God, but God who chose them.
“You will be called to do things beyond what you think is within your ability or your strength or your courage. There will be times of loneliness. Our Lord offers us his purpose, his strength, his courage,” Bishop Christensen said, encouraging the men to “step across the threshold of your wills in faith. Prayerfully surrender your will at those moments and you will see the Lord work amazing miracles as a result.”
For Shirley Olson, standing face to face with the young man who was once her student, waiting to receive the body of Christ, was a joyful moment.
“It’s like an honor to be able to receive it from him. It was very, very emotional, knowing how far he’d come,” she said.
Kalmon has been assigned to the Bayfield-Washburn-Red Cliff cluster of parishes, while Murphy will minister at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Hudson. Kemp will serve one year in the diaconate before being ordained as a priest.
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