- Feb 5, 2002
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Tony and Gez had seen it all — and lost it all — in their individual journeys of addiction, recovery and conversion.
After four years of prayer, study and discernment, they were at last found worthy. On Nov. 15, at St. Robert Bellarmine Co-Cathedral in Freehold, New Jersey, the Diocese of Trenton raised nine men to the sacred order of the permanent diaconate.
Celebrating the Mass and conferring the Sacrament of Holy Orders was Bishop David O’Connell. “We come here today for a holy purpose,” proclaimed Bishop O’Connell, “to ordain these nine men who are your husbands, fathers, relatives and friends to the order of deacon.”
Beaming in the corner of the packed church was a particular dad in his clerics, Tony Ford. The 80-year-old deacon from St. Mary’s Parish in Middlewich, Cheshire, England, sat with his wife of nearly 60 years, Mary. Together with their children and grandchildren, they’d made the trip to the United States for the ordination of their 59-year-old son, Gerard “Gez” Ford, a pastoral associate at St. David the King Parish in West Windsor, New Jersey.
Tony and Gez had seen it all — and lost it all — in their individual journeys of addiction, recovery and conversion. For a time, they’d lost each other. In the Lord’s perfect knowledge of the hearts of fathers and sons, God healed them on separate paths, turning their hearts back to him.
No one was more surprised at the God of surprises than Tony. “The Lord is so good, so clever and so wonderful,” said Tony. “Gez is the same age I was when I was ordained.” In astonishment, he added, “My family had fallen apart. It was lost. It was rubbish. Look what God can do with rubbish.”
Continued below.
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After four years of prayer, study and discernment, they were at last found worthy. On Nov. 15, at St. Robert Bellarmine Co-Cathedral in Freehold, New Jersey, the Diocese of Trenton raised nine men to the sacred order of the permanent diaconate.
Celebrating the Mass and conferring the Sacrament of Holy Orders was Bishop David O’Connell. “We come here today for a holy purpose,” proclaimed Bishop O’Connell, “to ordain these nine men who are your husbands, fathers, relatives and friends to the order of deacon.”
Beaming in the corner of the packed church was a particular dad in his clerics, Tony Ford. The 80-year-old deacon from St. Mary’s Parish in Middlewich, Cheshire, England, sat with his wife of nearly 60 years, Mary. Together with their children and grandchildren, they’d made the trip to the United States for the ordination of their 59-year-old son, Gerard “Gez” Ford, a pastoral associate at St. David the King Parish in West Windsor, New Jersey.
Tony and Gez had seen it all — and lost it all — in their individual journeys of addiction, recovery and conversion. For a time, they’d lost each other. In the Lord’s perfect knowledge of the hearts of fathers and sons, God healed them on separate paths, turning their hearts back to him.
No one was more surprised at the God of surprises than Tony. “The Lord is so good, so clever and so wonderful,” said Tony. “Gez is the same age I was when I was ordained.” In astonishment, he added, “My family had fallen apart. It was lost. It was rubbish. Look what God can do with rubbish.”
He Makes All Things New
Continued below.
A Father and Son’s Journey from Addiction to the Altar
Tony and Gez had seen it all — and lost it all — in their individual journeys of addiction, recovery and conversion.
