Video of Justin Meyer's Speech at Debra Meyer's Ordination as a Roman Catholic Woman Priest

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdVkR7Uq9IE&feature=youtu.be

Justin Meyers' Speech in support of Debra Meyers' Ordination into the Catholic Priesthood

May 25th, 2013

My mother Debra is an incredible women, she's an established author and exceedingly educated scholar, a caring and loving mother and wife, a friend, a mentor, a minister, and a rock of limitless wisdom and guidance to so many. 

She is an extraordinarily strong woman and has always had an unwavering ironclad commitment to fairness and equality, for doing the right thing, treating people the right way, and simply being a good person every single day. 

But if I were to describe her as one thing above all else, it would undoubtedly be selfless. My mother is the most selfless human being I have ever met in my entire life -- almost to a baffling degree. My mother will sacrifice her money, time, comfort and anything else it takes to save someone, help someone, make someone’s life just a little bit better.  She's literally done this her entire life.  My mother has spent every day of her existence serving the needs of others--as a sister, a mom, an Aunt, a teacher, a minister, a volunteer, and as an endlessly charitable individual. 

The most fascinating thing about my mothers selfless commitment to others is that at numerous times throughout her life, starting at a very young age she has been harmed and hurt by people who were suppose to love her, care for her, and protect her. And yet she has never let these betrayals change her for the worse, she has grown from them, risen up from them, and become a better person from them. She has never, not even once let these wrong doings corrupt her soul or deter her from god’s path. Instead she's used these experiences to make her self better at loving others, caring for others, and to protect others from these types of things happening to them. 

As the second oldest of 7 she spent her childhood as the primary caregiver for most of her brothers and sisters.  Later she was only in her 20's when she began fostering orphans. A few years after that my sister Courtney and I were born and shortly after that my cousin Jess. And my mom spent every day putting her children and her nieces FIRST, sacrificing decades of her life, her own needs, happiness, and wants to give us the best childhood she possibly could. 

Once her paternal duties had been fulfilled and my sister and I grew up and went off to college, when most people would have seized the opportunity to find personal enjoyment, she instead chose a different path. She chose to start a difficult journey a journey to fulfill her destiny, to do what she was put here on this earth to do-- to use her incredible intelligence and education, her talents, her skills, her lovingness, her compassion, and her eternal selflessness to serve God.

 My mothers work spans the spectrum from simple acts of kindness like always buying extra food at the grocery store to make sure she never goes empty handed to the food collection at church on Sundays to the monumental crusade of helping and sometimes even saving young impoverished single mothers and their children. 

My mother’s heart and soul is kind and pure, in 27 years I have never seen a single ounce of hate, prejudice, injustice, or cruelty, not one time, not for one single second.  She is all-inclusive, all loving, all caring, and all protecting of those who need it.  

I'd like to share a brief story with you before I finish I think it is very telling of the type of individual my mother is. A few years ago at the end of college I hadn't been to her house for Thanksgiving for quite some time. My father lives in Florida and normally I go to his house for Thanksgiving and my Mothers for Christmas, but this particular year I decided to go to my moms for thanksgiving. On thanksgiving morning I woke up and came upstairs to find tables and chairs everywhere; the dining room table extended to its max and surrounded with as many chairs as you could fit, fold out tables over taking her office the hallway. The house was set for dozens of people. Puzzled, as we have no family per say in Ohio, I asked my mom who was coming over? And she proceeded to say well we have about 5 or 6 people from church who have no where to go for thanksgiving, and our neighbors don't have any family to go to, and neither do their friends, and their friends kids don't have anywhere to go and this guys cousin and someone else's niece and even the guy who mows our lawn has no where to go tonight. So they're all coming here. This is the type of person my mother is, always caring for others, always concerned for others, always inviting others into her home, her heart, and her arms in order to make their lives just a little bit better.

I can not imagine a Person, Man or Women, who is more qualified both in their accomplishments, in their heart and in their soul to enter the priesthood. There is no question in my mind that my mother’s entire life has been training for this moment and for what lies ahead. 

It is such an honor to be here, and I am so proud of you mom, I love you so much and I'm so glad that you have finally found your way to your true calling. Mom I want to commend you, and all of you here today for that matter for what you are doing, for standing up for what you believe in, for having the will to fight back against an injustice and the strength to see it through. What you are doing here today is a historic moment, not just today but what this organization has been doing for some time it's historic. 

This is how you change the world, it starts with small groups of people in small rooms fighting for what they believe in, for what they know to be right, a group of people who aren't afraid to stand up and be the change they seek in this world.  One day, maybe in a few years maybe in a 100, but one day people will look back on this room, and the others like it and they will say this is where it started, this is how it happened, these were the pioneers, these were the Women who corrected this injustice, these were the ones who laid the path for what is sure to be a long line of Women Catholic Priests. It’s not always easy to make this type of change, but when you are on the right side of history, history will eventually be on your side.