May 28, 2016
PORTLAND---“It’s absolutely amazing!”
Father Matthew Gregory said it is difficult to express what it feels like to be a newly ordained priest of the Diocese of Portland.
“Words can’t explain how filled I am with joy and happiness. It’s absolutely wonderful. It’s absolutely wonderful.”
Gregory, a native of South Portland, was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Robert P. Deeley on Saturday, May 28, at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland (17 pictures below, additional pictures available at www.facebook.com/PortlandDiocese ).
“God has led you here; He has created you for this moment,” said Bishop Deeley. “You will now serve Jesus Christ the Teacher, Priest, and Shepherd in his ministry which is to make his own Body, the Church, grow into a community, the people of God.”
During the ordination Mass, Gregory affirmed his willingness to become a priest, resolving, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to discharge without fail the office of priesthood; to exercise the ministry of the word worthily and wisely; to celebrate faithfully and reverently the mysteries of Christ, especially the sacrifice of the Eucharist and the sacrament of reconciliation; to pray without ceasing for God’s mercy upon his people; and to consecrate himself to God for the salvation of all.
Gregory then knelt and promised respect and obedience to the bishop and his successors.
“When I placed my hands into the bishop’s and again professed obedience to him, it took me back to Jesus in the Garden where he gave his life and his will to God, the Father. That, I think, was the most beautiful moment today,” said Father Gregory.
In a sign of humility, Gregory then laid prostrate while the Litany of Saints was sung, the entire congregation joining together in praying for the Holy Spirit to send his gifts upon Gregory.
The laying on of hands and the ordination prayer, the most solemn parts of the ordination rite, followed. The bishop laid hands on Gregory in silent prayer, and all the priests present did the same. The bishop then asked the Lord “to grant us this helper that we need to exercise the priesthood that comes from the Apostles.  Grant, we pray, Almighty Father, to this, your servant, the dignity of the priesthood; renew deep within him the Spirit of holiness; may he henceforth possess this office, which comes from you.”
“The prayer of ordination is obviously powerful. There was a point in there when you felt something. I mean, honestly, I felt just the Spirit come upon me. It was beautiful,” said Father Gregory.
Newly ordained, Father Gregory was then vested with the stole and chasuble, symbols of the priesthood, by Father Bob Vaillancourt, who served as director of the Office of Vocations when Gregory entered the seminary.
“He took me under his wing and really showed me what it means to be a priest and a holy priest,” said Father Gregory about Father Vaillancourt. “Something he always said, ‘You know, Matt, we don’t need good priests. We don’t need great priests. We need holy priests.’ And that’s what I strive to be. That’s the bar I set for myself. That is what Jesus is calling us to, to be holy priests."
The bishop anointed Gregory’s hands, after which Gregory’s parents brought a chalice and paten to the bishop, which he presented to Father Gregory, saying to him, "Understand what you do, imitate what you celebrate, and conform your life to the mystery of the Lord’s cross.”
The bishop and Father Gregory’s brother priests each then welcomed him to the presbyterate with the fraternal kiss of peace, after which Father Gregory joined the bishop and his fellow priests in celebrating the Eucharist.
“To participate as a priest in the sacrifice of the Mass today, you can’t put words to it. You can’t. It’s literally out of this world,” Father Gregory said afterwards. “And to be there with my brother priests who I’ve journeyed with so long, guys in the seminary who were there, it was truly a special moment.”
At the end of the Mass, Father Gregory offered his first blessings as a priest. He blessed the bishop at the end of Mass and, at a reception afterwards, blessed religious sisters, deacons, family members, and all who joined him for the celebration.
“I just am overwhelmed that God would choose my son, even though I think he is perfect, to be a priest,” said Debbie Gregory, Father Gregory’s mother. “I’m just blessed. I’m just so blessed.”
“It’s unbelievable first of all. Matt’s always been different. He’s always been a kind and giving and just a wonderful person,” said his father, Michael. “I couldn’t be prouder. He’s deserved it. He’s waited for it, and he’s so ready for it.”
Michael Gregory said when his son was just nine-years-old, he wrote down on a piece of paper that one day Matthew would become a priest, but it took Father Gregory a bit longer to discover his vocation.
He first pursued two other passions, snowboarding and flying planes. After high school, he headed to Lake Tahoe with the intent of either starting a snowboard company or running a ski resort.  After deciding that wasn’t for him, he went to Florida where he attended flight school, earned his commercial pilot license and flight instructor rating, and got a job training people to be pilots. Eventually, he returned to Maine where he began working with young adults with cognitive disabilities.
Although he had been raised in a strong Catholic household and had a deep devotion to the Blessed Mother, Father Gregory said he, nonetheless, started to push his faith aside and stopped regularly attending Sunday Mass.
He said, although he was having fun with friends, his knew his life was heading in the wrong direction, and he came to realize that what was missing was God.  He turned to the Blessed Mother, picking up rosary beads that had been collecting dust on a shelf and asking her to help him to again have a relationship with her Son. Always having a strong belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, Gregory did not believe he could return to Mass and receive Communion without first going to confession.  He said it was like a weight being lifted off his shoulders.
A new job at an experiential marketing firm gave him the flexibility to attend daily Mass. He also spent time in Eucharistic adoration, and he began to hear God’s call to the priesthood. He entered St. Mary’s Seminary & University in Baltimore in 2010 and then transferred to Pope Saint John XXIII National Seminary in Weston, Massachusetts (then Blessed Saint John XXIII).
Now a priest, Father Gregory said he is looking forward to bringing to others the same gift of mercy he received. 
“Something I strongly desire is to share the love and mercy of God,” he said.
He said it is providential that his ordination occurred during the Jubilee of Mercy, something the bishop acknowledged in his homily.
“I know that it is important for you that you are being ordained in this Year of Mercy that Pope Francis proclaimed. You, like Peter, have experienced the mercy of Jesus and look forward to being its minister in the Church,” the bishop said. “It is said that ‘mercy is the form love takes when it encounters misery.’ There will be many opportunities for you to touch the misery of the human condition with the love that Jesus seeks to bring into the world. There will, in other words, be many opportunities for you to be, in Jesus’ name, the face of the Father’s mercy.”
The bishop also counseled Father Gregory to rely on the intercession of Mary, the Mother of Clergy, Mother of Mercy, something Father Gregory said he always done and will continue to do.  He said he doesn’t believe he would be where he is today without her help.  It is why, when his ordination Mass ended, his first thought was to thank her.
“When the procession ended, the first thing I did was kneel in front of the statue of Our Lady and give her thanks because without her I wouldn’t be here. Finally, I’m her priest son, and it’s such a joy,” he said. “I can’t thank our Blessed Mother enough.  She gave the yes that brought Christ, that brought the priesthood, that brought salvation so that we can be with him forever in heaven. So, I don’t think I can ever stop thanking our Blessed Mother.”
Approximately 300 people attended the ordination Mass.  The choir included 13 members from, Father Gregory’s home parish, Saint John and Holy Cross in South Portland, including Sally Page, the choir director, who sang ‘Ave Maria,’ during the Mass. 
Another touching moment during the Mass was the singing of a psalm by Father James Martel, who is retired from active ministry.  Father Martel, who knows Father Gregory, asked to sing because he wanted to give Father Gregory the gift of music as an ordination present.
Father Gregory will celebrate his first Mass at the Church of the Holy Cross on Sunday, May 29, at 9:30 a.m. All are invited to attend.
“Tomorrow is the first Mass being the main celebrant, wow. I don’t know,” he said. “I think, for the first time, to take a piece of bread in my hands and to pray the words of consecration, and to elevate it, and then to gaze upon it, and it is the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ, what greater gift is there than that, especially on the Feast of Corpus Christi.”