We celebrate Vocation Awareness week from January 10 to 16, 2010. I believe that priests, deacons, and religious can help Catholics to become more aware of vocations when they share their story. With this hope, I share these reflections on my journey to priesthood.
In this Year of the Priest, I thank God for calling me to serve as a priest for nearly 40 years. I believe that I am the luckiest person on the face of God’s good earth.
On Christmas day in 1864, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow listened to Christmas bells ring out the good news of peace on earth. But he lacked the Christmas spirit of peace.
He was still suffering from the tragic death of his wife Fanny in 1861. And Charles, his son, had been wounded in our country’s bloody civil war, which he feared would kill or wound many more Americans.
I spent 20 Christmas Eves in jail. My first such Christmas Eve was in 1971. The Rock County Jail Chaplaincy Committee invited me to help to plan and participate in an ecumenical service at the jail in Janesville. I accepted.
But I waited nervously for Christmas Eve because I had no previous experience with prisoners.
Christmas Eve finally came and I drove anxiously to the Rock County Jail. The beautiful Christmas snowflakes that danced gracefully across my car’s windshield failed to calm the nervous butterflies in my stomach.
During October 1863, Fr. Samuel Mazzuchelli received a vision of Mary as he rode to Shullsburg with three Dominican Sisters for the sacrament of Confirmation.
He told Fr. John Kinsella, his confessor, “I have always been an admirer of beauty. But never have I seen anything that compared with the beauty of God’s mother.”
Robert Orben bought a baby turkey early in January. He fed it organic food to enable it to grow and become the plump, juicy main course of their Thanksgiving dinner.
His three children quickly made the turkey their pet. Like Mary’s little lamb, it followed them wherever they went.
November invites us to appreciate the beautiful teaching of the Communion of Saints.
The Communion of Saints (in Latin communio sanctorum) is the spiritual union of all members of the Church, living and dead, those on earth, in Heaven, and in Purgatory.
They are united in Christ by a love that is stronger than death. The Communion of Saints is mentioned in the Apostles Creed and is based upon First Corinthians 12. Members share a single “mystical body” with Christ as the head. Each member contributes to the good of all and shares in their welfare.
On All Saints Day we honor members of the Communion of Saints who are canonized and uncanonized saints. Canonization does not place a person in Heaven. It acknowledges that the person is already there. On All Saints Day, we also honor the countless uncanonized saints who are in Heaven. They inspire us to imitate them and live Christ-like lives.
A nursing home is a holy place. It is a sacred space because it is home for the aged and handicapped who need special love and care. They also need the gift of our visits. When we visit them, we show that we care about them.
A painting depicts a long line of people patiently waiting to be fed at a soup kitchen. Over the head of one of them is a halo. This person is Jesus. If we look carefully we may notice that Jesus is smiling. This painting reminds us that when we help someone in need, we help Jesus. We may even make him smile.
Gianna Jessen appreciates God’s precious gift of life more than most persons because she survived an abortion. A toxic saline solution was injected into the womb of her frightened 17-year-old mother in order to induce a chemical abortion intended to end Gianna’s life.
The abortion failed. Eighteen hours later, she was born. Gianna had severe injuries that led to cerebral palsy. But she was alive. A startled, compassionate nurse called an ambulance that sped her to a hospital. Since she weighed only two pounds, the hospital placed her in an incubator. Eventually Penny, the generous mother of 56 foster children, adopted her. Gianna credits Penny and Jesus with saving her life.
Doing God’s work includes serving as a Communion minister, usher, lector, serving on parish council, or other Church related activities. But our work can also be holy.
At the end of Mass, we are commissioned to “go in peace to love and to serve the Lord.” One way that we can love and serve God is through our work.
A priest asked a class of second graders, “How many of you want to go to Heaven?” Every little hand went up.
The priest responded, “How many of you want to be a saint?”
The children glanced at each other with puzzled looks. Most of them put their hands down.
“Well, boys and girls,” the priest said, “Since no one wants to be a saint, we have a problem. To get to Heaven, you must be saintly or Christ-like. So let me ask again, ‘How many of you want to be a saint?'”
Every hand quickly went up! The priest’s hand joined their hands.
