Paschal Uche shares his journey to the ordination to the diaconate of former Oscott seminarian Dominic Nwaigwe

It took a long time to get there; 17 years to be precise. No that’s not our trip to Scotland but our Brother Dominic’s journey of formation to be a Deacon. Six of us travelled 9 hours in a minibus to the Highlands of Scotland to St Mary’s Inverness. On arrival, Dominic was evidently pleased to see us and visibly nervous about the events about to take place. The Church was filled with many religious, various families from the parish and a rather large and beautiful choir. In the Homily Bishop Hugh spoke about how the liturgy of an ordination mirrors the journey of life. There are times where we sit and wait in life, times where we stand and can walk with God, times where we kneel, times where we are brought to prayer by the situations in life and in Dominic’s case times where we prostrate as sign of complete surrender. His Homily was a fitting summary of the pilgrim journey towards ordination and the catechetical truth of the liturgy. Dominic kindly organised for us to eat at a local Indian restaurant where with great merriment we shared in his joy and sang the traditional ‘Ad Multos Annos’ before enjoying the fine cuisine on offer that night.