It was a celebration of great joy! Many friends and members of the Salesian family gathered at St Margaret Mary Church in North Brunswick on 4th December to join the Tanti family for the diaconate ordination of their son, Martin.

Br Martin Tanti was ordained a deacon by Bishop Tim Costelloe. About thirty Salesian priests  including the provincial, Fr Frank Moloney, concelebrated the ordination Mass. There were a number of Salesian Sisters and many co-operators present at this joyous occasion.

One of the elements which helps us best to understand ourselves as human beings and which modern thinking has underlined especially in the twentieth century is the historical nature of human life. Not only are we living in history but we are progressively constructing ourselves through it in a process which only ends with death. This would seem to be so obvious that we often take it for granted. One consequence among others is the way we take life as formation and, therefore, as an ongoing process; we can never say we are satisfied (‘fully made’), nor remain immobile like stones. Taking seriously the fact that the Son of God wanted to share our life, it means then believing that he too lived this period of historical existence throughout the course of his whole human life.