‘Give them joy’
GRAHAM — Joyful prayer and song in both Spanish and English filled Blessed Sacrament Church April 25, when Atlanta Archbishop Gregory J. Hartmayer, OFM Conv., ordained his brother friar, Edgar Iván Varela, OFM Conv., to the priesthood.
“Go to the margins,” Archbishop Hartmayer told him. “You know what it is like to come from a family that crosses borders, that speaks two languages, that carries the faith from one world to another. Many of the people you serve will carry those same stories. Meet them there. Franciscan poverty is not only material; it is a poverty that creates space for others to encounter God.”
Principal concelebrants were Our Lady of the Angels Province’s Minister Provincial Father Michael Heine, OFM Conv.; Vicar Provincial Father Gary Johnson, OFM Conv.; Prefect of Formation
Father John Koziol, OFM Conv.; and Blessed Sacrament’s pastor, Father Vincent Rubino, OFM Conv. Deacon Michael Pray of the Diocese of Springfield served as deacon. Charlotte Bishop Michael Martin, OFM Conv., also belongs to Our Lady of the Angels Province.
Father Heine cited their order’s founder in his remarks.
“Ordained in the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi, whose 800th anniversary of his transitus into heaven we commemorate this year, Friar Edgar embraces a priesthood rooted in humility, fraternity, and joyful service, offering his life so that others may encounter the mercy and love of Christ,” said Father Heine.
The son of Maribel and Manuel Varela, Father Edgar was born in Phoenix. He has four siblings: Yessenia, Erica, Sergio and German, and several nieces and nephews. He was awarded a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from Loyola University in Chicago and earned Master of Divinity from The Catholic University of America. He served as a deacon at St. Stanislaus Basilica in Chicopee, Massachusetts.
“It is a great blessing for me to receive the ministry of priesthood,” Father Varela said. “I receive this gift, not just for myself, but considering that it is for the Church. Through this ministry, I hope to bring Christ’s presence, love and mercy to all, and most especially to the forgotten, the exiled and the outcast.
“Please pray for me as I begin this wonderful ministry as a Franciscan friar-priest. Let us together pray for more vocations to religious life and priesthood,” he said.
Archbishop Hartmayer concluded with some advice: “Be joyful. Francis sang. He laughed. He called the sun his brother and the moon his sister. The world already has enough grim religion.
Give them joy. The joy of the Resurrection. The joy of the Gospel. The joy of a man who has found the one thing necessary and given everything for it.”