By the grace of God, one year ago, on August 4th, 2019, my husband (Fr David) was ordained to the Holy Priesthood by His Eminence Metropolian Joseph at our home parish in Costa Mesa, California. This year has flown by, and I realized that I never shared the stunning photos captured by Nick Mueller of the ordination, so I felt a blog post was long overdue!

Reflecting on that day, one year ago, I remember my experience like it was yesterday. Our lives up until this moment have been in preparation for this very day; with lots of prayer, discernment, advice and support.  I equate it to the anticipation of a wedding. Except this time it was a little different than our wedding day. It was like watching my husband marrying the church, as strange as that may sound. And I wanted nothing more in this whole world than to see him become who God created him to be, and who He called him to be. Our friends and family were there with us, sharing in our joy and anticipation. There’s something so special about having people from all walks of our life there with us - from our childhood through adulthood. Every happy greeting, tight squeeze, and warm hug added to our excitement. This was a new beginning for my husband, for us, and our lives would never be the same after that day. There was range of emotions: I felt a nervous energy, then fear, then peace, and lastly a radiant joy!

Now if you’ve never seen an Orthodox Ordination, I hope you get the chance one day! It’s a very moving and powerful service, full of meaningful prayers and imagery. To give a little context for the photos, during the ordination, the bishop proclaims the newly-ordained priest "Axios!" ("worthy") to which the people respond "Axios!" The bishop will hold up each item of the Priest's vestments and again say "Axios!" each time to which the congregation also responds "Axios!" and dresses the new priest.

Then is the consecration of the Eucharist, at which time the bishop places the body of Christ into the new priest's hands with the following admonition: Bishop: “Receive this Divine Trust, and guard it until the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, at which time He will demand It from you.“

I wrote down a few special memories from that day, moments I never want to forget, like:

• Bowing down before the icon of Christ and feeling the weight of responsibility before us and the fear of God.

• Watching my beloved become a priest, seeing him dressed in his new vestments, knowing full well he was always meant to wear them, although I never had pictured it until now.

• Hearing the people shouting “AXIOS! He is WORTHY!” and trying my best to say the words, but being so overcome with emotions, I could only mouth them.

• Standing in the front row with my children and God-children as they joyfully watched.

• Seeing Fr Wayne and Fr Michael, his Priest Sponsors, walking him around the altar 3 times. Seeing our spiritual father in particular, Father Wayne, who was barely recovered from his recent spinal surgery, walking him around so proudly with his walker.

• The look on my husband’s face - a face I’ve known and studied for 16 years- and seeing it filled with grace, sincerity and humility.

• Knowing time stood still for a moment when we embraced for the first time after the ordination and we both let out a sigh full of emotions we’d been holding in.

• Receiving communion from my newly ordained husband, and his eyes welling up with tears as he said my name, and watching my children partake of the precious blood and body of our Lord.

• Being mortified that Adelaide was grabbing the Metropolitan’s staff only to glance up and see him lovingly encouraging her to grab it.

• Embracing a friend afterwards who hugged me tightly and whispered “you were born for this very role”

• Hugging all our loved ones who were there to share in this momentous occasion with us

• The weeks following, and the special grace we experienced. Nothing could take away that bright joy we felt, and we savored it for as long as possible.

It was a day that changed our lives forever, and I’m so thankful to Nick Mueller for capturing these beautiful photos to remind us of this Holy and precious occasion! Axios, my love! May God grant you many many more years!

+ Kh Destinie

Photography: by Nick Mueller’s Photography

Priest Vestments: handmade by the very talented Krista West Orthodox Vestments

Location: Saint Barnabas Orthodox Church, Costa Mesa, CA