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Vocation Prayer

       As far back as I can remember I have always wanted to be a priest.  When I left home to go to the minor seminary in Donaldson, Indiana when I was almost fourteen years old, I really did not know the difference between a religious and a diocesan priest.  However, when my pastor asked if I wanted to go to the diocesan seminary, I said I wanted to go to Donaldson, because, thanks to our vocation recruiter, Father George Pinger, S.C.J., I knew guys who were going to Donaldson and didn’t know anyone going to the diocesan place.  So although I may have gotten with the SCJs by accident, I have come to a deep appreciation of the charism of Father Dehon which he passed on to the SCJs.

       I feel convinced that Father Dehon took the core of the gospel and made it the focus of the spirituality of the community he founded.  For me to be an SCJ is to unite myself with Jesus in his offering to God, to be at God’s disposition ready to do or accept what God asks of me so that people may know the tremendous love God has for us.  And as SCJs we are asked, called to be present especially to those who have the hardest time believing in the love God has for them because of the circumstances of their lives—as Father Dehon put it: “ministry to the lowly and the humble, the workers and the poor.”

     Since I completed my own initial formation my life has been given over to the education and formation of others who are called to ministry or to the religious life.  I had earned a degree in Sacred Scripture and so I taught that subject at our seminary in Hales Corners, but I soon realized that my real love is companioning others on their spiritual journey.  For some twenty years I was involved in the formation of SCJ seminarians and candidates from other communities and dioceses.  Then I was asked to be involved in the SCJ formation programs.  I did that until I was called to serve as provincial for six years and then returned to formation work.

     In the ministry that I am and have been involved in what brings me the greatest joy is being with people in such powerful and significant moments of their lives.  I feel so blessed to be trusted with what people hold most precious.  I think of the lines of the poet W.B.Yeats:  “Walk carefully because I have opened up my life to you and you are treading on my dreams.”  

       It is a privilege for me to listen to others speak of the God they have come to know and to speak with them about what God means for me.  As I said my ministry has been almost entirely dedicated to working with others who are preparing to be involved in ministry themselves.  I can understand the desire of many to be involved more with the folks “out there”.  I have done that and continue to do so, but in a very limited way.  The major part of my ministry is taken up with helping those who will themselves touch the lives of people that I will never know.  But I feel that in a mysterious way my ministry is extended through those with whom I journey and through them I touch the lives of the people they serve.  

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