Holy Things for the Holy: Offices, Fatherhood, and the Shared Vocation of the Faithful

Recorded in person during a seminary week at South Bound Brook, Fr. Anthony Perkins and Fr. Harry Linsenbigler reflect on two passages from In Every Church (p. 78) to clarify how Christ “fills” every ministry in the Church—from the faithful to readers, deacons, presbyters, and bishops—without making ordination a ladder of personal holiness. They challenge a common misreading (including selective appeals to Pseudo-Dionysius) that treats ecclesial rank as a holiness metric, instead, grounding the Church’s true unity in the liturgy’s confession that “One is holy” and in the equal reception of Christ in Holy Communion. Finally, they frame clerical fatherhood as a derivative grace rather than a personal possession, urging vigilance against pride and despondency, and calling parishes to a shared culture of mutual support so that every vocation—ordained or lay—can be exercised as service within the royal priesthood of the faithful.