Father Linus Mary Martz stands before the altar at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception June 5 with six fellow ordinandi.The to-do list for Father Linus Mary Martz may have increased a bit since God led him to take the biggest step of his life and become a priest in the Order of Preachers, well known as the Dominicans. Just like many married people, he has had to change everything from e-mail names to Zoom identifications to switch out the abbreviation for Brother, his former title.
All those changes pale in comparison to the one Father Linus, a native of Hanover, experienced within himself and his role in the Catholic Church and the world at his ordination on June 5 in Washington, D.C. He calls the changes “beautiful, startling in certain ways, but also very peaceful and graced.”
“The bishop at my ordination, Archbishop Anthony Fisher (from the Archdiocese of Sydney, Australia), spoke very beautifully about the reality of that change which takes place in a man when he is ordained a priest,” said Father Linus.
“The change of the title from Brother to Father is symbolic of how as a priest, not by your own merits but by the grace of Jesus Christ and the grace of ordination, you receive a power to offer the holy Mass, and particularly as a Father, to hear confessions and to absolve from sins in the name of Jesus.”
Father Linus – a graduate of Delone Catholic High School in McSherrystown and the 110th alumnus of Christendom College in Virginia to become a priest – says he’s still unpacking the full impact of the day of ordination, but he feels the blessed gravity of being able to fulfill those blessed roles.
Faithful attend the Mass of Ordination to the Priesthood at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., where Father Linus Mary Martz was ordained June 5, along with six other Dominican priests.“Those first times that you actually speak the words of consecration along with your bishop, consecrate the Body and Blood of Christ, and offer your Mass for those whom I will serve as a priest in the future, that’s really something,” he said.
“You’ve practiced, you’ve said those words many times in practicing, but this time it’s real, and only faith is able to show you the difference there,” he added.
An experience with his roommate in his junior year at Christendom led to him entering the Dominican order through what he called a “cold call,” leading to a visit.
“I got to know who they were, what their mission is, what their purpose is, what their charism is. I gradually started to fall in love with the order,” he said.
“The mission of the Order of Preachers, the mission we received from our founder, St. Dominic, is preaching for the salvation of souls. That’s the kind of vision under which all of the men are united,” Father Linus said. “The world is hungry for Christ. There’s a kind of recognition of this need that we of ourselves cannot fulfill, but which God can fulfill, that’s part of what drives that desire to go preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”
Father Linus Mary Martz celebrates his first Mass on Pentecost Sunday at Our Lady, Queen of the Americas Parish in Washington.The second of seven children in a family with a long-devout mother and a father who converted to Catholicism, Father Linus, 28, recently returned to his childhood spiritual home of St. Joseph Parish in Hanover to offer Masses, stay at the rectory and serve in other ways at the parish that was his church home growing up.
Yet he admitted he couldn’t take in those moments of full-circle recognition when he celebrated Masses at his old parish, including his Thanksgiving Mass.
“You can give thanks to God for it before and after Mass, but you’re also up there not just as yourself, not just with your own history, but as a priest to offer this Mass,” he said.
“There’s a kind of focus and need to (recognize) I can’t dwell on that right now. I need to go to the Offertory. Right now, I need to preach this homily.”
That Mass of Thanksgiving allowed him the chance to honor the priestly examples within his life by inviting them to concelebrate.
“Particularly, it was beautiful to have so many priests. I think there were about eight priests,” he said.
“Many of these priests who I know were priests from the area who came to share in this Mass of Thanksgiving, giving thanks to God for the gift of the priesthood. That was really touching to me,” he said.
Father Linus’ next step sends him to Holy Innocents Parish in Pleasantville, New York, less than an hour from Manhattan. It has had a Dominican presence for about 100 years. He also says his role will include a chaplaincy at Pace University.
Father Linus Mary Martz, O.P., is a native of St. Joseph Parish in Hanover and a graduate of Delone Catholic High School in McSherrystown.He heads there with gratitude which he will continually express through the Eucharist, which directly translates to “Thanksgiving.”
“The only kind of adequate response to God is thanks and adoration, so uniting that intention to the celebration of Mass as a priest, to kind of put all of these things up there to thank God for all those who’ve been important in this process, all those who pray for me, and then to thank Him above all for His grace,” he says.
“It’s a beginning of ministry and service to the Church, of being able to bring Christ to people’s lives in new ways, and I just entrust those things to Him,” he said.
By Jay Sorgi, The Catholic Witness
(Jay Sorgi is a freelance reporter for The Catholic Witness. Ordination photos courtesy of Jeffrey Bruno, for the Dominican Friars Foundation; first Mass photo courtesy of Kevin Arévalo; headshot courtesy of George Goss.)
