After Deacon Matthew Millay is ordained a priest he’s looking forward to many years ministering in the Archdiocese of Louisville, where he says he has deep roots.
Archbishop Shelton J. Fabre will ordain Deacon Millay along with Deacons Kenneth Nauert, Michael Schultz, Van Tran and Yen Tran at 10 a.m. on the first day of June at St. Michael Church, 3705 Stone Lakes Drive.
“I’m looking forward to making my home here for the next several decades,” said Deacon Millay said during a recent interview. “I have deep roots here. It’s because of that rootedness that vocation can unfold … that I’m able to have great trust in the Lord, love of the priesthood and love of the church, and the inspiration to serve.”
Deacon Millay, who attended St. Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology for his priestly formation, said his ordination to the priesthood will fulfill a boyhood dream.
“A sense of being a priest became apparent to me early on. It’s something my parents and grandparents would have been aware of,” though there was never an expectation, he said.
He credits his parents, grandparents, a religious sister and several priests with nurturing his vocation.
As a child, Deacon Millay said, he would dress up in his grandfather’s robe and play Mass in the sunroom — the spot where his grandfather prayed daily. That’s where his vocation to the priesthood started coming into focus.
“I remember those mornings; I wanted to join him for coffee. The sunroom was the center of life. We all had experience of being loved in that place,” said Deacon Millay, adding that Harold Millay, his paternal grandfather, “embodied what it means to pray without ceasing. He was one of the priestly figures in my life.”
Deacon Millay, 28, is the second of four sons born to Harold and Kimberly Millay.
Growing up, his parents were devoted to the Mass, and that helped form his vocation, he said. Their faith was “constant, firm and stable,” he said. “That stability they provided gave me a sense of belonging and a sense of mission in the church. That mission became my vocation.”.
His vocation was nurtured along the way by “many good priests” as well as the Augustinian Sisters, Servants of Jesus and Mary.
The sisters served at his home parish, St. John the Apostle Church in Brandenburg, Ky., for decades and staffed St. John the Apostle School.
Augustinian Sister Lydia Falzon taught him in first grade and was present in his life into adulthood.
“They were such a stable presence in the life of our parish. Their witness is another layer of my inspiration,” he said. “Sister Lydia had a way of reading my soul. She helped me keep moving at times. She had a way of lifting me back up.”
As ordination draws closer, Deacon Millay said he is looking forward to celebrating Mass, hearing confessions and ministering to families, particularly baptizing children, he said.
Deacon Millay has been assigned to serve as associate pastor of Holy Spirit and St. Leonard churches. He said he is excited to return to Holy Spirit, where he served as a seminarian and as a deacon and that he’s looking forward to “sharing life, too, with St. Leonard.”
