Joy of Christmas

Christmas has come and gone, but a family in Bismarck will remember the Midnight Mass broadcast around the world from St. Peter`s Basilica in Rome for years to come. That`s because there was a family tie to the service.

For the past two years Bismarck native Joshua Ehli has been studying at the North American Pontifical College in Rome, studying to become a priest. And this past Christmas Ehli was selected to take part in one of the biggest Christmas celebration in the world.

Jeff and Ramona Ehli received a pretty amazing gift this past Christmas.

Ramona recalls, “I felt it was the best Christmas gift I could have ever gotten to date.”

“He actually left for Rome about a year ago so that`s the first time we`ve seen him,” says Jeff.

Their son, Joshua wasn`t at home, but instead he was on television. Reading at midnight mass.

Joshua says, “I had the great privileged and honor to do the second reading. Which was a letter to Saint Paul. And he spent some time here and I can walk in his footsteps and thank him for his wise words. I was able to do that reading.”

With English speaking students just minutes away from the Basilica, Bishops often ask for help with the monumental celebration.

“They call or send a letter and say can you send a reader so we put in our names and the rest is done by lottery. So between the staff here and our prayers and God we put our names in if we`d like to read and by God`s providence I was chosen on this occasion.”

And reading at the largest televised mass from St. Peter`s doesn`t come without a touch of nerves.

“There was a bit of anxiety proceeding the reading once I entered the sanctuary we were seated behind the altar and upon entering it wasn`t about seven hundred million people. I was speaking to those at home. Or that I was entering into word. A peacefulness came over, even though the Holy Father was twenty feet from me.”

Ehli has a few years left at the seminary in Rome. He hopes to return to Bismarck once he is ordained.

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