BOSTON -- As Father Mateus Martin lay prostrate on the floor before the altar of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross with his fellow ordinands for the priesthood, one thought went through his mind: "I am not worthy."

"I'm not worthy of anything (about) this, but the Lord has made me worthy of everything he wants to give to me," he told The Pilot after his ordination. "In other words, I don't deserve anything of it, but the Lord is so good to me that he has given me everything."

Father Martin grew up in Brazil with five siblings. He was raised Catholic but drifted from the faith as a young man. He rediscovered it after going on a local pilgrimage and hearing Pope Francis speak at World Youth Day 2013. He attended a Neocatechumenal Way meeting for men considering the priesthood, saw how happy the priests seemed, and thought to himself, "Why not?" He entered Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Chestnut Hill and began an almost 12-year journey that culminated on May 17, when he and five other men were ordained priests for the Archdiocese of Boston in a Mass celebrated by Archbishop Richard G. Henning at the cathedral.

"It feels awesome, first of all. And I'm very thankful to the Lord for my formators, for the archdiocese, and to my family, for my parents for raising me up," Father Martin said.

The other priests ordained that day were Father Vincenzo Caruso, also from Redemptoris Mater; Fathers Brian Daley, Peter Pham, and Joseph Nguyen from St. John's Seminary in Brighton; and Father Brian Delaney from Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary in Weston.

At the start of Mass, Archbishop Henning greeted the priests and their loved ones in their native languages of English, Portuguese, Italian, and Vietnamese.

Archbishop Henning said he received a message from Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley in Rome, expressing well wishes for the new priests.

The archbishop pointed out that Cardinal O'Malley was archbishop when the men were first called to the priesthood and was the one who provided for their formation. The archbishop called the new priests both a gift from God and a gift from the cardinal.

The Rite of Ordination began with the candidates being called before the archbishop and asked if they were ready and willing to enter the priesthood. They responded in the affirmative, and Archbishop Henning elected them for ordination. In response, the assembly, which filled the cathedral, responded with applause, showing their approval of the election.

"We will see you lay down in humility before God, to put to death in yourself, whatever is not of God," Archbishop Henning said in his homily. "And we will see you arise and anointed as his priests. And so we give you thanks for that gift of yourselves, that trust in the Lord, that great faith that has brought you to this moment."

The archbishop said the ordinands asked him to choose the readings for the Mass. He chose the famous passage of 1 Cor. 13, also known as "the hymn to love," which begins "Love is patient, love is kind."

Archbishop Henning said that, like St. Paul, the priests have been called by God to preach the Gospel. Also like St. Paul, the archbishop said, if they do not have love, they have nothing.

"I think this passage is just as meaningful for you at this moment as it was when Paul first proclaimed it to those folks back in Corinth so long ago," Archbishop Henning said.

Also included in the reading was the passage "When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things."

Archbishop Henning said that like St. Paul, the ordinands were once children who depended on others. Now, however, they are adults who others will depend upon as priests.

"That has been part of the goal or central purpose of these years that you have spent in formation, as Paul did in Damascus," he said, "so that you might come to this moment and lay down on this floor and stand up, not only as a priest, but as a dependable man, one to whom others may look and know that your faith is solid, that your witness will be true, and that your love will be of God without bound, and will be expressed to the Lord for his people with every element of your life."

For the Gospel reading, the archbishop chose the passage in John where Jesus instructs St. Peter to tend his sheep.

"The Lord is challenging him now to affirm his faith three times, and then the Lord depends upon Peter, and it gives him that call to do his own work for his own people," Archbishop Henning said. "I hope your hearts are pierced by that truth, because that same Lord Jesus is here with us today, and he will feed us at this altar."

The archbishop said that Jesus has entrusted the new priests to give themselves entirely to their mission.

"We join you in prayer to Almighty God," he said. "We rejoice in the gift that you are to us and to the church, and we will continue to pray for you. There are days ahead of you that will be difficult, but you are a dependable man, and we know that you will endure. You will be resilient. You will go back to that font that is divine love, and you will be certain that love fills your heart and flows from you to God forever and always."

After the homily, each of the candidates promised to follow Christ's example in the priesthood and follow the commands of his office. They also promised to obey Archbishop Henning and his successors. The assembly prayed the Litany of the Saints over the candidates as they lay prostrate before the altar, demonstrating their humility before God and willingness to serve him. Archbishop Henning then laid his hands on each of the priests, ordaining them. Following the archbishop, the scores of priests present at the Mass laid their hands upon the new priests, as well. The archbishop also prayed the Prayer of Consecration over them.

After the new priests were vested in the stole and chasuble, Archbishop Henning anointed their hands with sacred Chrism oil and presented them the paten and chalice, symbols of their eucharistic ministry.

Before joining the archbishop on the altar to concelebrate their first Mass, the archbishop and all of the priests present exchanged the Sign of Peace with the newly ordained.

"I cannot imagine my feeling right now. I'm very happy and blessed," Father Joseph Nguyen told The Pilot after Mass.

After Archbishop Henning gave the final blessing at the end of Mass, the newly-ordained priests blessed him and his auxiliary bishops. The new priests received rapturous applause as they recessed through the center aisle, then returned to the altar for photos with the archbishop and their overjoyed family and friends.

Thirty of Father Martin's loved ones came from Brazil to see his ordination, as well as 200 parishioners from Immaculate Conception in Marlborough, where he spent the past year as a transitional deacon.

"It feels very good," he said. "Because of them, I feel that I'm not alone. I always have company. They really became my brothers and sisters and my family."

He said his goal as a priest is to be close to God and look for holiness.

"Nothing else," he said.