The entrance procession included several acolytes - torch bearers, a crucifer, a thurifer - two deacons and two priests, all in matching vestments, as well as the Ordinary of the Ordinariate wearing his golden-colored mitre. The orders of clergy processed in to the lusty singing of Hosanna to the Living Lord.

As the final note sounded, Our Lady of Walsingham's deacon, the Rev. Mr. James Barnett, stepped forward, faced the Rt. Rev. Monsignor Jeffrey Steenson, and said, "Reverend Father in God, I present to you Fr. Charles Hough, who you as Ordinary have appointed to serve as the rector of this Principal Church of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, Our Lady of Walsingham, and here this day by your to be installed and admitted to the cure of souls in this parish."

Monsignor Steenson replied, "Dearly beloved in the Lord - In the Name of God and in the presence of this congregation, as the Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, I hereby institute our well-beloved in Christ, Fr. Charles Hough as rector of this Principal Church, and with all the parishioners of Our Lady of Walsingham, I welcome him to this sacred ministry ..."

The congregation exploded in applause.

When the applause died down and following a prayer the Monsignor asked the new rector if he would "steadfastly serve this parish, duly ministering God's Word and Sacraments, for the benefit of the faithful ..."

The new priest's first words as rector were, "I will, God being my helper."

Monsignor Steenson turned to the congregation and inquired of the parishioners if they would support Fr. Hough in his new ministry as a Catholic priest and their new rector.

"We will, with God's help," came the solid reply.

Then the Monsignor asked God, in prayer, if He would give Fr. Hough the grace needed to fulfill his ministry as a priest and rector as the dispenser of the Word and Sacraments at Our Lady of Walsingham so that in the end the priest and his people may come together into the heavenly Kingdom.

Following the pronouncing of the Ordinary's benediction upon him and his congregants, Fr. Hough ascended the altar of Our Lady of Walsingham for the first of many times as his rectorship stretches out before him at the Houston Anglican Use Catholic church.

Fr. Hough knelt and in a clear voice prayed for himself. He acknowledged his own unworthiness, while humbly accepting the honor of standing in the House of God and serving at His Altar. He pledged himself - his own body, soul and spirit with all their powers and faculties to the God and His service. He asked for strength for his priestly duties and for his life of prayer and for the gift of preaching.

Fr. Hough followed the prayer of new ministry found in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.

As the final "Amen" was uttered, Monsignor Steenson gave Fr. Hough one parting word of advice. "Remember, my brother Charles, always be a loving father, a gentle shepherd, and a wise teacher of your people, so that you lead them to Christ Who will strengthen all that you do."

Then the Monsignor, having completed his Ordinary task, faded into the background. Fr. Hough is now the rector and this is his first Catholic Mass.

The Mass continues without a hitch. The new Catholic priest is skilled and experienced. Having been an active Episcopal priest for four years he is familiar with the actions in the Service of Holy Communion. He was schooled at Nashotah House, he is well-trained in the Anglo-Catholic tradition and piety and movement around the altar.

Fr. Hough is one of six Episcopal priests from the ACNA Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth who followed their heads, hearts and souls into the Catholic Church. They realized that the unity of the universal church comes through obedience to the Bishop of Rome. So with a leap of faith they submitted realizing that this was their own personal step towards seeing Christ's priestly prayer of full Christian unity fulfilled.

Fr. Hough, his own dad, Charles Hough III; and four other former Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth priests, Christopher Stainbrook, Joshua Whitfield, Mark Cannaday, and Timothy Perkins, were ordained into the Catholic priesthood. They studied together as a group in the Ordinariate's online Saturday Seminary program which is designed to fill in the missing Catholic theological links in the Episcopal and Anglican priestly seminary training.

They were lead in their Catholic priestly formation by Monsignor Steenson, who also has strong ties to the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth. He was once an Episcopal priest, serving as rector at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in downtown Fort Worth, before moving on to the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande and eventually becoming its bishop.

It is at St. Andrew's that I first caught up with Fr. Steenson, then an Episcopal priest.

There are few ordained "Father & Son" deacons or priests in the Catholic Church. The first set I met were a father and his son who were permanent deacons in Louisiana. The Deacons Gainey - Wallace Senior and Junior - were ordained in the Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge about 30 years ago. They served together at Holy Ghost Catholic Church in Hammond.

Following the Gospel, Fr. Hough ascends the raised pulpit. He thanks Bishop Vann for ordaining him a Catholic priest and Monsignor Steenson for appointing and installing him as rector of the established and flourishing Houston church. Then he launches into his sermon using Jeremiah 3:15 as his text: "I will give you shepherds after my own heart."

Fr. Hough is now a shepherd poised with his congregation at a new beginning and a new chapter in the life of Our Lady of Walsingham.

"Who are we?" he queries. "We are, first and foremost, a people who are in communion, both spiritually and juridictionally, with St. Peter's successor, the Holy Pontiff, the Vicar of Christ.

"We are in communion with the universal Catholic Church throughout the world, and throughout time, with those who have and continue to profess that the one, holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church subsists in the Roman Catholic Church," he says fleshing out his thoughts.

"We are first and foremost Catholic, he emphasizes. "...followers of our Lord Jesus Christ and members of His Church."

He goes on to note that the Ordinariate has a particular patrimony to offer the Roman Church. It is a unique Anglican patrimony that joins with other various spiritual patrimonies and adds to the liturgical richness of the Catholic Church throughout the world.

"A patrimony that we offer up to the highest calling, the highest law of the Church: the salvation of souls," the new rector preaches. "Our mission is the salvation of souls - yours and mine and everyone outside of these doors."

He challenges his congregation to become a missional parish: "Let us use our rich patrimony, our blessed way of life together, to save the souls of many."

"I have been appointed as your shepherd and it is my full intention, from the outset of this new beginning, to strive everyday with every molecule of my body, to guide you to everlasting life, to save your soul and mine, as well as many souls from outside these doors that the Lord God wills," he explained. "You have shown me the way to Walsingham, now let me show you the way to heaven."

Fr. Hough first encountered Our Lady of Walsingham Church in the summer of 2009 when he travelled with some of his Arlington parishioners to the annual Anglican Use Society meeting. It was there that he first encountered the Anglican Use liturgy and the rich Anglican patrimony as lived out in the Catholic Church. He was smitten. The die was cast, little realizing that one-day, in the not-too-distant future, he would become Our Lady of Walsingham's first Ordinariate rector. When Fr. Hough first travelled to the Houston church Anglicanorum Coetibus had not yet been announced, it was still being hammered out behind closed Vatican doors.

Giving up his Episcopal parish and priesthood the young priest became a Catholic one year ago - June 2011 - during the Anglican Use Conference at St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Use Catholic Church in Arlington, Texas. Since then he has been on the Adult Religious Education staff of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Keller. It was at that same church he was ordained in last week.

Following the sermon the Mass continues in the familiar Anglican style until after the Sanctus. It is at this point that the Anglican Use Mass switches from the familiar Elizabethan English of the Book of Common Prayer and goes into modern English of the Roman Canon for the Preparation of Gifts. The switch can be a little disconcerting the first few times it is heard. But after a while the switch is barely noticeable, when the Prayer Book-style language returns for the Roman Rite Eucharist Prayer.

The Mass was concelebrated. Former Walsingham rector Fr. Bruce Noble, and Monsignor Steenson joined Fr Hough at the altar. It was a delight to again hear Fr. Noble's lilting Australian accent as he said his part of the Mass. Monsignor Steenson has now become a familiar voice. Our Lady of Walsingham is ultimately his cathedral parish and as time permitted, he filled in until Fr. Hough was ordained.

When Fr. Hough consecrated the elements for the first time as a Catholic priest, his understanding of the essence of the Eucharist was different. As an Episcopal priest, he was taught about the Real Presence of Christ in Holy Communion. How that Real Presence was accomplished is not delineated in Anglican theology. As a Catholic priest, the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist is understood to occur through Transubstantiation where the host and the wine become the very substance - the essence - of the Body and Blood of Jesus while maintaining the physical appearance, to the human senses, as ordinary bread and wine.

It's a mystery.

Fr. Hough has a fine singing voice, although I was surprised to hear a first baritone come from him. I thought, with his slight stature, he would be a tenor.

Following Communion and the Benediction the Te Deum was sung in joyful thanksgiving for Fr. Hough's ordination, appointment and installation as rector. The Te Duem was vocalized in the traditional four-part Anglican Chant as a thick cloud of fragrant incense wafted towards the ceiling.

Giving a nod to his alma mater, Fr. Hough chose as his recessional hymn Nashotah House's Seminary Hymn. I have heard the Nashotah song before when I covered the sesquicentennial and rededication of the Wisconsin seminary's Lady's Chapel of St. Mary the Virgin. Even as a Catholic priest, Charles Hough IV will always be a "Son-of-the-House".

Following the Mass, the new priest was feted at St. Jude Hall. There, dressed in a full cassock, the new priest was learning the names and faces of his new parishioners.

Fr. Hough, his wife and two sons moved into Our Lady of Walsingham's rectory in early June, thus giving himself a leg up on the parish and parishioners before he was installed as rector.

Our Lady of Walsingham was established as the second Anglican Use Parish in 1982. Through the years it has become one of the shining beacons in the Anglican Use patrimony. The 300-family parish was tapped as the Ordinariate's principal church in January.

Mary Ann Mueller is a journalist living in Texas. She is a regular contributor to VirtueOnline