Stay Close to Him | 2026 Presbyteral Ordination Homily

Friends, in preparing for this year’s presbyteral ordinations in the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, I asked the Lord, “What should I tell these three young guys?” And like that, it came to me: “Well, you’ve been at it for forty years. What have you learned?” I distilled these forty years into four essential lessons—one for each decade of my ministry: Stay close to good mentors in the priesthood. Stay close to the poor. Stay close to the fire, by which I mean, your life of prayer. Stay close to your bishop. In all those ways—through mentors, prayer, the poor, and the bishop—what I’ve experienced over the course of these four decades has been Christ. So finally, my word to new priests is: Stay close to Christ! ——VIDEO LINKS——— The Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist:    • The Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharis...   The Glorious Mysteries:    • The Glorious Mysteries   A Declaration of Dependence on God | Rededicate 250 Reflection:    • A Declaration of Dependence on God | Reded...   ———WATCH——— Subscribe to this Channel: https://bit.ly/31LV1sn Word on Fire Institute Channel:    / @word-on-fire   Word on Fire en Español Channel:    / @wof-es   ———WORD ON FIRE——— Word on Fire: https://www.wordonfire.org/ Word on Fire Español: https://www.wordonfire.org/es/ FREE Daily Gospel Reflections (English or Español): https://dailycatholicgospel.com/ ———WORD ON FIRE INSTITUTE——— Join Bishop Barron and over 20,000 evangelists inside the Word on Fire Institute at https://wordonfire.institute ———SOCIAL MEDIA——— Bishop Barron Instagram: https://bit.ly/2Sn2XgD Bishop Barron Facebook: https://bit.ly/2Sltef5 Bishop Barron Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Hkz6yQ Word on Fire Instagram: https://bit.ly/39sGNyZ Word on Fire Facebook: https://bit.ly/2HmpPpW Word on Fire Twitter: https://bit.ly/2UKO49h Word on Fire en Español Instagram: https://bit.ly/38mqofD Word on Fire en Español Facebook: https://bit.ly/2SlthaL Word on Fire en Español Twitter: https://bit.ly/38n3VPt ———SUPPORT WORD ON FIRE——— Help Bishop Barron continue to produce videos like this: https://bit.ly/3QSvGpo Word on Fire Store: https://bookstore.wordonfire.org/