On April 1, representatives from each parish in the diocese gathered at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe for the Mass of Chrism, after which they would take home to their parishes small containers of blessed oil to be used throughout the liturgical year.

The holy oils are closely tied with sacred rituals of the Church. The Oil of the Sick is used to anoint those who are ill; the Oil of Catechumens is for the anointing of those preparing for baptism; and the Sacred Chrism is used for the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, ordination, and the dedication of a church and altar.

The Mass also celebrated the ministry of priests, inviting all the priests gathered to renew the commitment they professed at their ordination.

"Are you resolved to unite yourselves more closely to Christ and to try to become more like him by joyfully sacrificing your own pleasure and ambition to bring his peace and love to your brothers and sisters?" Bishop Ronald Gilmore asked.

"I am," the priests responded.

Bishop Gilmore also asked the rest of those gathered — and all laity — to support the priests through prayer.

The Mass also celebrated the jubilees of five priests who, Bishop Gilmore said in his homily, "turned the substance of their lives over to Jesus of Nazareth, and have done so for 70, and for 65, and for 60, and for 50, and for 25 years. These five, and all our priests, spend their time literally making the Lord Jesus present out of the substance of their lives."

Bishop Gilmore said in his homily -- which he presented in English and Spanish -- that the Lord has "chosen real things to convey his message.

"He has chosen real things to give us his person. This is fitting because we are physical creatures, and we perceive and express spiritual realities through physical signs and symbols. This is fitting because we are social creatures, and we need signs and symbols to communicate with others, with persons around us and with God himself. He mixes and he merges the depths of himself with our real things so that the visible conveys the invisible. …

"Today, especially, we reflect on the real thing that is oil, the fluid substance that soothes and smooths, that warms and protects, that lubricates, that heals," Bishop Gilmore said. "We think of baptizing, of confirming, of anointing, and of priesting – all ways that oil gives us the divine through what it signifies."

In his homily, Bishop Gilmore also referred to the ministry of the priests.

"Today, especially, we reflect on the real thing that is the relation of priest and people," he said. "The one is meant to serve the other. The ministerial priesthood is meant to serve the priesthood of the faithful. And the priest does this in the way that Jesus did. He does this by inviting people into communion with Christ through communion with himself. He does this by calling diverse individuals into a communion of persons, by striving for communion with all that is in him."

Following Mass, a roast beef lunch was served in the Fellowship Hall. Bishop Forst and Father Tighe were unable to attend the celebration, but Bishop Gilmore honored them, and the other jubilarians, with kind praise.