I have lived in the Diocese of Dallas most of my life since coming to Holy Trinity Seminary as a junior in college in August 1976 when I was 20 years old. When I walked through the doors of the seminary, I knew that I wanted to stay, that I had to stay, that this was where I belonged. There was a part of me that did not want to be there, that wanted to get the idea of priesthood out of my system once and for all and go back home to Colorado, get married, have a family. Yet there was also something, or better, Someone, who beckoned to me to stay, and the Lord’s presence and His call have never gone away through all these years. He has been so good to me, a great consolation and source of strength, especially in the most difficult times.
In the generation before I arrived in Dallas, a foundation had been put in place for the seminary and for the University of Dallas because other people had said “yes” to a work God called them to do. Most notable among these was Bishop Thomas K. Gorman, the fourth bishop of Dallas. Others as well: the Sisters of St. Mary of Namur, who came to Bishop Gorman for assistance in beginning a college program for women, which led to the founding of the University of Dallas; Cistercians from Hungary fleeing Communism, who formed an essential part of the core of the original faculty of UD; a group of dedicated laymen and so many others whose “yes” to God took them in new and marvelous directions, who laid a foundation for these institutions that were such a gift for me and for so many others to receive.
I received over all these years so much from the “yeses” of other people: from the priests and people I encountered in my assignments at All Saints in Dallas; as chaplain at the University of Dallas; as the first pastor of St. Gabriel the Archangel in McKinney; and now for the last 17 years at the Diocesan Pastoral Center, serving as vicar for clergy, and then as auxiliary bishop and vicar general. I have felt continually consoled and challenged by the generosity of those around me: bishops, priests, deacons, religious, co-workers, colleagues, friends, all those who say yes to Jesus Christ, who pour out their lives in His service with little fanfare, little notice, just the next step and then the next and the next, consistently, day in and day out, too many times to count.
All I have experienced in the Diocese of Dallas was built on a foundation provided for me in my earlier years, before I arrived here. It came through the consistent “yes” of my parents, John and Marilean Kelly, who received me in February 1956, who brought me to be baptized at St. Mary’s in Alton, Iowa, 11 days later. They nurtured the life of faith in me by their example, by their steady “yes” to Jesus, by their devotion to Mary; parents who also poured out their lives in His service with little fanfare, little notice, just the next step and then the next and the next, consistently, day in and day out, too many times to count. All my life their example and love have been a source of great strength and joy, at the foundation of all that I have received from you in my years in Dallas, that has borne such great fruit in my own life among you all these years. It is a motive of deep gratitude.
It is humbling to be the recipient of such great generosity, such varied blessings from so many. I have been touched deeply by you, by your goodness and courage and beauty, also by your suffering. I have seen the face of Christ in your faces. All of this is a motive for saying “yes” to whatever God asks of me now, which includes this new path to Tyler: not only to say “yes” but to say that “yes” wholeheartedly, to give myself as fully as possible to this new work.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for all that you have given me. I will carry you with me always, so many names and faces marked by deep faith. I am confident that I will encounter the generosity of Christ in the names and faces of the priests and people of the Diocese of Tyler. I saw that clearly in my brief experience as a deacon there in 1981 when it was still part of the Diocese of Dallas. I know that we remain part of the same Body of Christ, recipients each in the measure given, of the richness of the life of Christ, of His great goodness and beauty and courage. Let us keep our eyes fixed on Him, surrounded as we are by such a great crowd of witnesses (Cf. Heb 12: 1-2), who accompany us, none more closely than our dear Mother Mary—the two dioceses have the same patroness under different titles: the Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Guadalupe.
At the time I was ordained a bishop in 2016, I wrote a brief reflection, a prayer, about being named auxiliary bishop of Dallas, trying to understand something of this new call. I found the reflection as I was beginning to clean out drawers and closets, sort through the accumulation of living in the same place for 17 years. Even though I wrote this 9 years ago, it reflects my sentiments now as I begin a new ministry as the fifth bishop of Tyler:
All is given — not just this new call, but everything. This is not my plan; it never was. You are God. You alone have mastery over life and death. You alone know what the fullness of time is, how it all comes together, how the light shines in the darkness, a darkness that does not overcome it. May I keep my eyes on You, on Your goodness and beauty. May I lay aside every encumbrance of sin that clings to me, every tendency to set aside Your grace, to minimize it or deny it because of fear or because of some need to protect myself. May I be accepting of Your grace, make a full response to it as Mary did, accept all the consequences of saying yes, allow my life to be altered and formed by this grace, in order to be a worthy servant of so beautiful a Lord, to persevere in the race ahead, keeping my eyes on You. Lord, I will trust in You.
You are a part of the same mystery, the same plan unfolding. You have affected my life deeply. Keep your eyes on Jesus with a heart full of gratitude, with humility, doing whatever work is given to you to do, just the next step and then the next and the next, consistently, day in and day out, too many times to count, all the way to the end. It will bear marvelous fruit. It has already for me. Thank you.
In Christ,
Most Reverend Gregory Kelly
Bishop of Tyler
Find more coverage of Bishop Gregory Kelly in the Feb. 28 print edition of The Texas Catholic.
