Vocations Testimony-A Parent's Perspective

St. Monica's Parish in Whitefish Bay hosted a special Vocations Mass and talks on Sunday, November 18th.  Fr. Luke Strand, the energetic director of vocations for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, said Mass, and then spoke briefly after Mass about his own vocation story and his work with the young people in the Archdiocese as vocations director.  His talk was followed by three beautiful Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary who shared their own personal call stories.  Finally, yours truly was asked to speak about a parent's perspective regarding my son, John, who is a college freshman at St. Joseph's College Seminary at Loyola University in Chicago which will be followed by four years at St. Francis de Sales Seminary in Milwaukee.  The text of my talk is below.

John, on the right, with Domenick, one of  his brother seminarians

When I tell people that my son is a seminarian, I am often met with mixed reactions.  The majority of people congratulate me and I can genuinely feel that they think it’s wonderful for a young man to give his life to God.  But sometimes, I get questions that are tinged with disdain, such as “You’re son wants to be a priest and you’re ok with that?”  By their reaction I get the feeling that they disapprove of my encouraging John to the priesthood.

Have you ever heard the saying “No priest, no Jesus?”  Who else can bring about the transformation of a simple piece of bread into the very Body of our Lord Jesus but the priest at the altar?  And who am I to prevent this from happening by trying to hold back the hand of God when he chooses a young man to service in the Church?  If my son is called to the priesthood, then I am also called to support and encourage him.

But, I don’t intend to make it seem as though giving your child to the church is a terribly difficult situation, because really, all of our children are destined to grow up and move away, aren’t they?  Letting go can be difficult for everyone, regardless of the vocational call that our children receive. 

I’ll never forget when my fourth son, Jack, was born.  A woman from church came to the hospital to give me communion and she commented, “You poor dear!  Four sons!  They are all going to grow up and leave you when they get married!”  Shocked at the negativity of a stranger during a moment of great joy in my life, I shot back, “Well, maybe they’ll all grow up to be priests and leave me anyway!”  And I think it was at that moment that I became more aware of the need to be open to God’s will, not only in my life, but also in the lives of my children.  They belong to God, after all, and He has graciously seen fit to share them with me for a little while, to entrust their upbringing to the greatly unskilled hands of my husband and I.  And so I never prayed for my children to be healthy, successful, smart, or happy.  My constant prayer for all of my children has been “Please God, make them holy.  Help them to know You and Your will for them and let them follow it.”  I’m not saying that I don’t want all of these other things for my children, but just that God’s will always has to be first, and then everything else will follow according to His plan.

And so I look back at my son John’s life up to this point with a careful eye to the will of God and I wonder about so many things...

 

When John was two years old I picked up a book on a sale rack at Kmart of all places, about the life of St. Paul. Despite the fact that it was written in a fairly dry fashion, this book became one of John’s favorites and he asked me to read it to him over and over again which I did, even though I would have rather read something entertaining like Dr. Suess’ Cat in the Hat.  Could it be that God was planting the seeds of his vocation even then?  Had I insisted on reading Dr. Suess instead of the life of St. Paul, would that have thwarted God’s plan in some small way?  

And when he was in the fifth grade and first began to talk about an interest in the priesthood, Paul and I listened and offered encouragement, happy that he had a deep interest in his faith. And we smiled on the sidelines as he became increasingly involved in the Church as an altar server, choir member, lector, member of the Respect Life Committee, Youth Committee and Vocations Committee, and as he spent more and more time at the seminary participating in every program that they offered for youth.  We could see that he had a fire burning brightly in his soul and he eagerly participated in every opportunity that came his way.  But what if we would have discouraged his involvement in so many church activities?  Would he have tried to stifle the voice of God that was speaking to him so clearly?  

When it was time for him to enter middle school and he insisted on being enrolled at our parish school rather than continue in the public schools, we were astonished at his bold request, but we allowed him to attend the Catholic School where he felt closest to God.  Had we insisted that he remain in public schools, would that have dampened his zeal for the Lord? 

I may never have the answers to those questions, but I do know that John was feeling the subtle tug of God for most of his life and he was making his love for his Catholic faith known to us and like any parent who loves their child, we tried to support his desires which stemmed from our own values, and to encourage them. 

After years of watching John grow ever more deeply into his faith and ever more involved in the church, the day to release him to God’s providence finally arrived.  We drove him to Chicago to begin his seminary career.   I am extremely proud of my son, despite any fears that I may have about how this long and difficult road will play out for him.  I don’t know if he or any of our seminarians will make it all the way through the eight arduous years of seminary life culminating in ordination to the priesthood, but I do know that they all have a much better chance of success with the support of our prayers behind them.  As a mother, all I can do is let go and trust that God has John exactly where He wants him and to thank God for allowing John to respond so beautifully to His call, and to continue to pray for him with all I’ve got.

And you can do the same thing for your children, as well as for the children of your friends and family members, that is, you can encourage them to listen to the voice of God speak to them and to respond in love.  How can you do this?

Pray for them!  Pray for the young people you know; encourage them whenever they show any interest in the Catholic faith.  And pray with them!  Lead them to holiness by your own example. Teach them to pray those prayers that have been passed down through the centuries as well as in their own words. Invite them to spend some time in silence before our Eucharistic Lord to hear God speak to their hearts. Take them to Mass, not just weekly, but can I be so bold as to suggest daily?  Try it for just one day a week.  See if you can’t make it work into your schedule and then watch how God works not only in the hearts of your children but in your heart as well.

In regards to encouraging and praying for an increase in vocations for all young people, I want to share a passage from one of my favorite authors, Caryll Houselander, from her book The Passion of the Infant Christ: 

"A young priest was celebrating his first Mass. In the front of the church his mother and his young brothers knelt. It was easy to know them by their likeness to him-a family of dark, golden-skinned boys, and the mother like them.

When the Mass was ended, and the new priest came back into the sanctuary for the blessing and the kissing of the consecrated hands, the family hesitated shyly, almost paralyzed by wonder and love; and before they could go first (as they should have done) to the altar rails, the crowd had pushed past them, strangers had taken their place. The faithful were flocking around their new shepherd, and his mother and his brothers had become part of the crowd, waiting their turn until the end.

For one moment the young priest looked over the bowed heads into his mother's eyes, and his face shone.

"My mother and my brethren are they who hear the word of God and do it."

Because the priesthood had made him the Christ of the people, he belonged to them; he was their kith and kin, their son and brother, their Christ, their priest at the altar.”

I like this passage because it clearly shows that every new priest who reaches his ordination day is a son to us all, a member of our own families.  Shouldn’t we all take an active part then, in helping to foster vocations to the priesthood and religious life, in giving all of our sons a helping hand to the priesthood?  We’re all responsible for the growth of our Church.  So, here’s a few ways that you can help:

The MonthlyPrayer Request for Priests is a website where you will find all of the priests of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee listed in alphabetical order and I ask that you pray for each priest on his specific day.  You will also find the priests names listed in the Milwaukee Catholic Herald.  Some parishes also list the priests in their bulletin and if your parish doesn’t list them, perhaps you could ask them to begin!

Rosesfor Our Lady is a lay apostolate that has been active in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee for over 30 years.  Our main purpose is to promote Marian and Eucharistic devotion.  We hold a monthly holy hour for vocations on the second Sunday of every month at St. Francis de Sales Seminary at 2 PM and everyone is welcome and encouraged to join us and to pray with us for an increase in holy vocations to the priesthood and religious life.  Our next holy hour will be on Sunday, December 9^th and we will be led in prayer by Bishop Don Hying, our spiritual advisor. 

Finally, if you’d like to add some practical work to your prayer, please sign up to volunteer to help the vocations office with mailings, phone calls and preparing food for special vocation office events.  If you sign up to help with the practical work, I will be contacting you from time to time to help with events as needed.  (Dear reader:  Send me an email if you're in the Milwaukee area and want to help with this!  I'll be happy to include you!)

I thank you for coming here today to this special Vocations Mass and for your interest in helping to promote and increase vocations to the priesthood and religious life in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and I particularly thank the vocations committee at St. Monica's for inviting me to share my story, my heart, with you.  May God richly reward you always and may He bring about the increase in vocations for which we pray!

For Christ in His Priest

My family and I had enjoyed a wonderful weekend with my son, John, who had come home from seminary college for a long and busy weekend filled with special events in the Church.  On Tuesday, the time had arrived to say good-bye, and my son Justin and I planned to drive him back to Chicago so he could resume his studies.  As a new Oblate of the Precious Blood, I thought it would be nice if we could pay a visit to the Priory of the Handmaids of the Precious Blood in Lake Villa, Illinois.  When I learned that the priory was only an hour-long drive from my home and wasn't too far outside of Chicago, I called to make arrangements for a visit on our way back to the seminary.

The drive to the seminary was beautiful as the route took us away from the busy city and super-fast freeways and toll-ways, through the scenic countryside, where the abundant trees were a mosaic of red, yellow and orange.  When we arrived at the Priory we found it to be a large piece of property with several buildings that had formerly been a farm, nestled beside several fields of corn.  The first building we saw had a sign on it that read "Chapel".  I parked the car near the back of the building and we went inside to offer prayers of thanksgiving for my recent Solemn Resolution of Love.

The Chapel

Upon entering the chapel foyer, I stopped to light a candle of gratitude.  To the right we saw a sliding glass door that led to the chapel.  Kneeling at the altar before the monstrance we saw one of the Handmaids who was deep in prayer.  I let out a little gasp of joy because the sight of this woman in prayer was exactly like the one that I had looked at many times on the internet when I would visit the Handmaids of the Precious Blood website.  I couldn't believe that I was actually in the presence of a real-live Handmaid of the Precious Blood after having only communicated through correspondence for the past year.

My sons and I knelt in the back row and I felt extremely honored to pray the prayer of the Lay Associate of the Priesthood and the Prayers for Priests and Those Destined for Priesthood that the Handmaids of the Precious Blood pray every day in the very same chapel.  Then I prayed for every priest and seminarian as well as those discerning a call to the priesthood whom I have carefully listed in my own prayer book.  I followed these prayers with a rosary and several other Marian prayers and then fell into silence in the presence of the Eucharistic Lord.  I was filled with joy!

When my sons and I left the chapel, we were greeted by a sister who welcomed us into the guest house and invited us to sit down and enjoy some coffee and bagels.  Sister kindly shared her own history with the Handmaids as well as the history of the priory.  We talked about Fr. Gerald Fitzgerald, sP, the founder of the order, and Fr. John Hardon, SJ, a long-time spiritual director for the order who initiated the Oblates back in the 1980's.   The Handmaids and I share a common friendship with Friar Paul Schneider, OFM Conv. who is also an Oblate of the Precious Blood.  Sister told me that she and the other Handmaids who live in the Priory in Illinois were granted permission to attend Friar Paul's ordination to the priesthood at the Basilica of St. Josephat in Milwaukee this coming May.  It will be a day of great joy!  She also talked with John about the friendship that the Handmaids share with Fr. Pawel, one of the staff members at St. Joseph College Seminary, who had asked the Handmaids to pray for the seminary on the occasion of the dedication of their new chapel and the consecration of the altar.  It was beginning to feel like a very small world and Sister already felt like an old friend.

She took us outside to show us the vegetable garden and all of the buildings on the grounds.  We stopped in the place where they sell honey as a means of earning income and Sister gave each of us a jar of the sweet treat as a congratulatory gift for becoming an Oblate.  They also earn money by selling hosts that are made elsewhere and are distributed through the Priory.

Before we left, Sister told us that we had to meet another Handmaid who used to work with the Oblate candidates by corresponding with them while they were in formation.  This sister was delightfully joyful and sweet.  I reached to shake her hand and she reached to hug me instead.  Then she exclaimed that it was a great joy for her to meet an Oblate in person.  She said that writing to Oblates was a somewhat "hidden" ministry because you rarely get to meet the people that you are writing to, so having the opportunity to stand face to face with an Oblate was a real treat.  I felt the same way about meeting her.  It was a beautiful moment that I will never forget!

I can't wait until another opportunity presents itself for me to pay another visit to the Handmaids of the Precious Blood Priory and to physically spend time on my knees with the women with whom and for whom I have been praying this past year and who, in return, have been praying for me and my family.

I am so overjoyed to be an Oblate of the Precious Blood!  It is a wonderful gift from God and a great benefit of being Catholic, to have the opportunity to move a little more deeply into prayer for the men who bring Christ to the world.  The spirit of the Handmaids of the Precious Blood is, "For Christ in His Priest".  I am grateful to live that spirit in my daily life through prayer and sacrifice for the men who give their lives to bring Christ to life for all of the faithful.

with the sisters

Cassocks and Collars

I'm so excited because in just five days my oldest son, John, will be coming home from St. Joseph's College Seminary in Chicago and will stay with us for four wonderful and activity-filled days!  It will be his first time home since he left at the end of August.  I am so grateful for email, facebook, skyping, and phone calls because it makes the pain of missing him a little easier to endure.  I am also grateful for the fabulous blog that he writes which allows me to keep up on the things that he holds closest to his heart.  Through his blog, which he recently renamed "Cassocks and Collars" from "Writings of a Boy Discerning God's Call", I have learned about how he has been adjusting to life at the seminary and about how deeply he holds to the truths of Catholic teaching as well as how committed he is to upholding those truths.  I was particularly moved by his post on the Eucharist and his letter to the president.   The words he shares are bold and enlightening and although he has only been a college seminarian for a little over a month, I am certain that his future in the Church will be very bright.

If you have never visited his blog before, I invite you to take a look at what he shares on "Cassocks and Collars" and offer him your support through words of encouragement and prayer.

St. Ignatius Church, Chicago

Rogers Park neighborhood

 In the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, just a few short blocks from Loyola University and St. Joseph's College Seminary, there is a magnificent church hidden away among the well-manicured lawns and red brick homes (which I believe are simply called "Bricks") of the quiet, shady residential area just off of bustling Sheridan Avenue.  St. Ignatius Church was built in 1906 and is a marvelously artistic and beautiful house of worship.

 Last November when my family made our first visit to Chicago, I was left with just a few minutes as we were leaving town to literally trip up the church steps and fall into the middle of a Spanish Mass.  I took a few quick glances at the gorgeous frescoes on the church ceiling from the back of the church before racing back down the church steps to my family who were waiting for me in the van so that we could return home.

St. Ignatius

ceiling fresco

stained glass window of the Presentation

Ever since that day I was determined to return and get a more in-depth view of the church, so last May when we made another visit to St. Joseph's College Seminary, my husband Paul and I took a  leisurely walk through the neighborhood and found that the church doors were open in the middle of a weekday.  We wandered in and caught the end of a tour given to school children.  During this brief visit I fell in love with St. Ignatius Church, and eagerly looked forward to my next visit.

Finally my opportunity arrived!  When we brought my son John down to St. Joseph's College Seminary to begin the fall semester, my family and I had some time to walk back to St. Ignatius Church.  The church doors were locked, so Fr. Matthew Widder, who had joined us on our trip to Chicago, suggested we check in the parish office to see if someone could let us in.  And someone could!  We met the pastoral assistant, Kathy Morris, who kindly offered to give us a personal tour of the church. Kathy explained that Milwaukee's Archbishop Jerome Listecki had been the pastor of St. Ignatius during some major renovations and she had many fond memories of him.  So she was especially glad to give us the tour based on our association with the Archbishop.

One of the things that I was eager to learn more about was a painting of the crucified Christ that was surrounded by silver medals hearts.  Kathy explained that St. Ignatius has a large Peruvian population and the painting is part of a Peruvian tradition called The Lord of the Miracles.   According to Peter Holderness at Medill Reports Chicago, "The original Lord of the Miracles is an icon painted by an African slave who was converted to Christianity by Spanish authority in Peru in the 16th century.

The mural depicts a dark-skinned Jesus on the cross, and is also known as Jesús Moreno.  When successive earthquakes destroyed Lima in the 17th and 18th centuries, the mural survived and a growing number of Spaniards and mestizos joined Afro-Peruvians in revering the image.

Lima’s citizens sought the icon’s protection from deadly earthquakes, and it became an intimate part of their daily lives, according to Paerregaard, who writes that a Peruvian immigrant in Europe explained, “El Señor always accompanies us, we just have to bring his image with us and take it to the streets wherever we are.”

There is a wonderful pictorial slide show of the 2007 Chicago procession of Peruvian-Americans from St Ignatius Church taking The Lord of the Miracles into the streets at this link.

Lord of the Miracles Procession in Lima, Peru

Another highlight of the church was a relief on the altar of Christ, the Blessed Mother and St. James.  Our guide wasn't sure why St. James was chosen to grace the altar at St. Ignatius but she did know that Archbishop Listecki had chosen this relief so it may be a good future topic of conversation with the Archbishop, trying to learn the secret of the relief's portrayal.  Last spring when Archbishop Listecki confirmed my son Justin, he spent a great deal of time questioning each confirmand about their choices of saint's names.  If any young man had chosen St. James for his confirmation name, the Archbishop was sure to ask him "Which St. James, the greater or the lesser?"  Now I will have to ask that same question of the Archbishop!

the altar at St. Ignatius

The great altar with its baldacchino was made to be a replica of the baldacchino at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.  It's hard to fathom the size of St. Peter's Basilica when I'm told that just the baldocchino in that church is three stories high!

By far the biggest surprise was a wonderful chapel hidden away behind the large church.  The Blessed Virgin Mary Queen of the Angels Chapel was no small chapel, but was as large as any other church!  Because this chapel sits beside the altar, the pews have an interesting feature like that found on old trains-the backs move so that the chapel can accommodate overflow crowds during Mass in the main church.

The Blessed Virgin Mary Queen of Angels Chapel

I really admired the painting of my favorite station of the cross, the sixth station, that was inside this chapel.  I wonder why St. Veronica was painted as an angel and who the two angels are beside her.

The Sixth Station, Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus

And of course, I just had to take a picture of the statue of one of my favorite saints, St. Margaret Mary, and right beside her, The Sacred Heart of Jesus.

I highly recommend a visit to St. Ignatius Church in Chicago, you are sure to be inspired by the beauty!  My next goal regarding this beautiful church will be stay and pray at Mass while there!

Pierced

^" When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord."  ~Luke 2:22-23

The time has finally come when, following the example of St Joseph and the Blessed Mother, Paul and I were called to make our own presentation of our first-born son to the Lord.  Early on Tuesday, August 21st, we packed up John's belongings and together with John's four siblings and our dear friend, and in our hearts, a sibling as well, Fr. Matthew Widder, we traveled from Milwaukee to Chicago to "present" John to the Lord for the beginning of his seminary career at St. Joseph's College Seminary at Loyola University, where he will prepare for the diocesan priesthood in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. 

John and his entourage

Our pilgrimage, as Fr. Matthew called it, began with daily Mass at our home parish.  Following Communion, Fr. Dave offered a special blessing for John as he begins his seminary career. Armed with the prayers of family and friends and the protection of a first-class relic of St. Pius X on his feast-day, a gift from my oldest sister Diann which she had received from our friend Fr Jim Kubicki, SJ, all eight of us climbed into our battered van, loaded with a few boxes of John's belongings, and we prayed the rosary as we began the two-hour drive to Chicago.  We were blessed with beautiful weather for the drive and move.

in his room with the relic of St. Pius X

When we got to Chicago we went out to lunch and then moved John into his room.  He didn't have very many belongings so it took about 15 minutes to get him settled.  With a few hours to spare before some scheduled meetings for the seminarians and families, we walked over to nearby St. Ignatius Church.  We were blessed to meet Kathy Morris, the pastoral associate, who kindly gave us a personal tour.  She was pleased to share the magnificence of St. Ignatius with pilgrims from Milwaukee since our Archbishop Listecki had been the pastor at St. Ignatius during some of the major renovations done to maintain it's beauty.  And it is so gorgeous!  I will be posting more about the tour in another post.

John and Fr. Matthew at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Shrine on the Loyola Campus

Then we walked along Lake Michigan and all around the campus.  We stopped at the Madonna del Strada Chapel for some silent prayer before returning to the seminary. After the welcoming meetings the families and seminarians joined each other for Mass in Our Lady of the Rosary Chapel.   We sat right by the stained glass window of the Presentation.   I was struck by the gospel passage from Matthew 19:23-30 that read:  "And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life."  It seemed very fitting to reflect upon these words on the day when Paul and I were "giving up" our son to service for the Lord and our son was also "giving up" so much of himself for the love of God.

Following Mass all of the seminarians and families enjoyed a fine dinner and before we left, Fr. Matthew blessed John and his room.   We all offered a tearful and emotional goodbye.  Everyone, including me, was surprised that I didn't completely break down in tears.  Maybe it's because we were all so chatty during the day and I didn't get a chance to think too much about how I was feeling.  But as we left John's room, I realized how quiet his life at the seminary will be compared to our noisy home life and I wondered if the silence will intensify feelings of loneliness in his heart.  When we finally left the seminary just as twilight was overcoming the city, John walked us to the gate and he leaned over it, watching us walk all the way down the street until we turned the corner and with a final wave he turned and walked back to the seminary.

"And a sword will pierce your very soul."  ~Luke 2:39

the new seminarian

  Please pray for John and for all of the seminarians at St. Joseph's College Seminary as they begin their studies this year.