A tender moment at St. Elizabeth Parish in Tecumseh, Michigan, is touching viewers far beyond the church walls after a video showed newly ordained Diocese of Lansing priest Fr. Joshua Bauer honoring the two people who first nurtured his call to the priesthood: his parents, Kim and Eric.
During his first Mass at his home parish, Fr. Bauer presented his mother with a manutergium—the cloth used to wipe the sacred chrism from the new priest’s hands after the bishop anointed them at ordination. Then, turning to his father, he gave him the stole he wore while hearing his first Confession.
The memorable exchange reflects a Catholic tradition that recognizes the profound role parents can play in a priest’s vocation.
“Mom and Dad, I can’t thank you enough,” Fr. Bauer said in the viral video.
Addressing his mother, he explained the significance of the cloth in his hands.
“It’s tradition that when a priest is ordained, the manutergium [goes] to his mom,” he said. “It’s the cloth which soaked up all the sacred chrism the bishop poured on my hands when I was ordained.”
Holding out the cloth, Fr. Bauer told his mother why the tradition carries such emotional and spiritual weight.
“This is for you, that when you die, it be buried with you,” he said. “And that, when you stand before God, you can show Him that you offered Him your son as a priest.”
The tradition is often described as a symbolic acknowledgment of a mother’s role in raising and encouraging her son through the long, often uncertain journey toward the altar. The cloth is not simply a keepsake from ordination day; it is a visible reminder of the sacred moment a son’s hands were consecrated for priestly ministry.
Then Fr. Bauer turned to his father.
“Dad,” he said, pausing as emotion filled the room. “It is tradition that the father get the stole in which the priest heard his first Confession.”
The stole, worn by a priest as a sign of his sacramental ministry, carries its own meaning. It was the stole Fr. Bauer wore when he first heard Confession—a sacrament centered on mercy, reconciliation and the forgiveness of sins.
“So that when you stand before God,” Fr. Bauer told his father, “you can also show Him that you gave Him your son as a priest.”
With that, he simply said: “Thank you.”
A Vocation Nurtured in Community
The viral video has resonated because it captures something larger than one family’s celebration. Priesthood may culminate in an ordination ceremony, but a vocation is often formed over years: in family prayer, parish life, encouragement, sacrifice, friendship and the steady support of people who help a young person listen for God’s call.
As the video’s caption notes, “A man does not walk the journey to priesthood alone; it takes a village to nurture that call.”
The video closes on a simple but powerful truth: a priest gives his life in service to God and the Church, but those closest to him have also given something of themselves along the way.